CROSS VALLEY LINK SCHEME - MOUNTAIN ASH

LECA LWA was recently specified for the multi million pound Cross Valley Link scheme, which was an aspirational project for the local community and the respective council in Wales. Funded by the RCT Investment Program and supported through a grant scheme from the Welsh Government. The aim of the project was to significantly improve traffic flows in Mountain Ash and the Cynon Valley. Recently completed to the public in the Summer of 2020, a new road link was built from Cwm Cynon Industrial Estate to Misken Road, overcoming the obstacle of the historic River Cynon and Aberdare Cardiff Railway line. 

A new 60m bridge was constructed on extraordinarily difficult ground conditions, which in turn links the A4059, across Cynon Valley to the B4275 on the facing side of the river. This ambitious project demonstrated extraordinary structural engineering expertise from the designers and contractors. This achievement has created a traffic easing solution for thousands of road users throughout the whole region – providing significant ease to traffic during the peak hours of travel.

This project began in the summer of 2018, where proceeding engineering requirements were executed including carriageway improvements at Cardiff Road, road widening projects, retaining wall development and general capacity improvements.

Over 2,700m3 of LECA LWA was installed for this project, where ground remediation issues were faced and a lightweight and robust solution was required to provide a fill for a delicate embankment which faced serious groundwork issues.

The groundwork engineers required a solution which was a technically proven solution, which offered a specific shearing resistance within set parameters and specific level of compaction to support the works to take place with the bridge development. This offered stability for local residents, where the major works and bridge development was to be constructed.

The use of LECA LWA thanks to its lightweight properties did not impose any issues on a potentially fragile region of the bridge development, where roads were moved and re-designed to accommodate the new innovative development. Due to its proximity to the river, this posed potential and significant groundwork issues for the local area (See Image). 

Delivered on walking floors over the summer of 2019, LECA LWA was delivered directly to site, from our stock pile in Garston.