17/07/2000

Green Terramesh® offers stability for grass banking surrounding main entrance to Rheged, the UK’s largest grass covered building Green Terramesh® from Maccaferri Ltd, specialists in retaining structures, sopel reinforcement and erosion protection, has been used to reinforce steep grassy banks surrounding the main entrance to the Rheged visitor centre in the Lake District. Located just outside Penrith the building has been designed and built on environmental principles to minimise impact on the landscape.

Opening this Summer, in time for the school holidays, Rheged is Cumbria – the Lake District’s newest, largest and most innovative visitor attraction. Built into the side of a hill, the exterior of the building blends into the local landscape. To create the effect of an entrance carved out of the landscape, the natural rock and stone entrance has been surrounded by a steep grassy bank.

Providing soil reinforcement which would blend with the surrounding upland environment and also stabilise the steep banking presented a challenge, as Nigel Perry from consultants, AL Daines and Partners, admits:

“We were looking for a geogrid which would support vegetation and be able to accommodate a variation in slope of between 45o – 55o, a natural feature of upland areas. Maccaferri’s Green Terramesh® gave us the design flexibility we needed. Aesthetic considerations were equally important. Green Terramesh® is rigid, giving a smooth, natural looking slope with no bulges or ‘bolsters’ to damage the illusion of a naturally formed hill.”

The order, valued at approximately £28,000, was handled through Maccaferri’s regional office in the North. Regional Director, Tom Edwards and Sales Engineer, Allan Rice established a close working relationship with consultant, Nigel Perry, and Matthew Brannan from the main contractors, Cumbrian Industrials Limited, making a number of site visits and advising on technical issues.

Green Terramesh® units are formed from a single sheet of hexagonal, double-twist woven steel mesh. When installed, it is formed into three sections, a horizontal soil reinforcement section, a facing section and a horizontal return top section. Triangular support brackets provide added rigidity and allow easy installation of the grid. These may be customised to match the precise angle of the slope to be reinforced, in the case of Rheged; this varied between 45° and 55°.

In addition, the facing section may be supplied with an additional non-woven geotextile or Biomac® biodegradable coir blanket woven into the mesh during manufacture to assist the establishment of vegetation. For the Rheged project, where environmental considerations were paramount, Maccaferri’s bio-engineer, Hugh Ellis, worked closely with Cheltenham Landscape Design Faculty of Environmental Landscaping. Site meetings were held to agree a soil specification and to finalise the grass seed mix for hydro seeding.

Installing Green Terramesh® is quick and easy, a bonus for the contractor, as Matthew Brannan, Site Manager for Cumbrian Industrials Limited acknowledges. “The bracing triangle makes accurate installation of each Green Terramesh® unit simple. Linking units together presented no problems either. We used the special Spenax pneumatic lacing tool provided by Maccaferri to dispense the rings designed to lace the units together.”

An all-weather, all year round visitor attraction, Rheged is a £15 million development, making it one of the largest attractions ever to open in Cumbria. Named after the ancient Celtic Kingdom, Rheged will be the largest grass covered building in Britain and has been specially designed to resemble a Lakeland hill.

Rheged’s centrepiece is the first all British large format film, shown on a cinema screen bigger than six double decker buses, which takes visitors on a dramatic journey back in time to reveal 2000 years of Cumbria’s history, mystery and magic. Built on five spectacular levels, the Rheged Discovery Centre will also include a Cumbrian showcase of rather special shops and restaurants combining local delicacies with the panoramic views.

Owned by Westmorland Motorway Services Ltd, Rheged is funded by a partnership between Westmorland Motorway Services, English Partnerships, The European Regional Development Fund, the North West Regional Development Agency and Cumbria County Council.

The UK subsidiary of an Italian-based engineering company, Maccaferri Ltd specialises in gabions, geotextiles, geogrids and geomats. In addition to a full range of products for retaining structures, slope reinforcement and erosion protection, the company offers an in-house design and consulting service.

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