04/01/2007

More than £20,000 has been saved in landfill, transportation and raw material costs during the first construction phase of the flageship Wespark Business Park at the Shannon Free Zone  in the West of Ireland, thanks to the use of sophisticated segmental retaining wall technology.

The BBA-certified MacWall Vertica system was selected by London-based architects, Bamber & Reddan on behalf of project developer and contractor, Brian O'Connell Ltd.

The system has enabled the use of 2,000 tonnes of site won material as backfill for a series of seven metre high retaining walls - totalling 450sq metres - which form the boundaries to Wes Park's main car park and entrance roads. The structures were designed by Engineers and Maccaferri, in consultation with Belfast-based geotechnical consultancy, Geoman.

Key to the project's success was the need to ensure that the site won fill had enough granular content to comply with the design requirements. Once this was established, it was essential to make certain that it did not get saurated or remoulded during construction, as this would have affeted the wall's performance. Although more geogrid was required to achieve this, it was still a cheaper option than importing exclusively granular backfill.

Project manager, Pat Byrne of Brian O'Connell Ltd estimates the approach adopted by Maccaferri Ltd saved £7,500 by avoiding the need for importing suitable compactable backfill. A further £12,500 was saved in landfill charges by reusing site materials instead of dumping them.

"From this point of view alone, it was a very successful project by any standards - and there were other cost savings as well. Using traditional construction methods would have required 200 lorries to transport material to and from the site which would have caused congestion on local roads. The additional transport hire and fuel charges would also have bee significant," adds Pat.

Westpark's contractor and developer, Brian O'Connell of Brian O'Connell Ltd is delighted with the results.

"Using the MacWall walling system has proved a big success. Aside from the economies involved, from an aesthetic point of view we've achieved a very natural look which was a vitally important aspect of the original design brief for this world class development".

"The results have more than repaid our confidence in MacWall Systems which pioneered segmental retaining wall systems in Ireland through local manufacturer Acheson & Glover Group, who is the only manufacturer on the island of Ireland to have obtained the appropriate BBA approvals".

"MacWall Vertica is a very effient system and we'll be looking to use it in future phases of Westpark's development," adds Brian.