FINNINGLEY AND ROSSINGTON REGENERATION ROUTE SCHEME (FARRRS)

The Finningley and Rossington Regeneration Route Scheme (FARRRS) was carried out by Doncaster Council in a £32million project to provide a highway from the M18 at junction 3 to the Robin Hood Airport with additional links into Rossington and Finningley villages and the new iPort inland freight terminal.

Mott MacDonald, global engineering and development consultants, prepared the overall project concept for Doncaster Council and it quickly became clear that this was one of the biggest civil engineering projects in the region.

The original design proposed use of expanded polystyrene to deliver a low weight of high volume infill against the abutments but the limited experience of this design, coupled with the evident limited capacity of supply, forced the developers to seek a suitable, proven and available alternative. LECA® LWA was the product of choice to meet these exacting technical and construction criteria.

A total of 26,000m³ of LECA® LWA was brought to site in bulk, walking floor trucks. No tippers are allowed on Carillion sites to maintain high safety standards. “The delivery system worked perfectly,” reports Mr Gray. “We had the fullest co-operation from LECA® UK on timings, stock and deliveries. The drivers did their best to stock pile the LECA® LWA as close to the point of application as possible so we could minimise site handling. Moving the LECA® LWA with ADT dumpers and then placing it and tracking in down proved a smooth operation. We had to put it down in 450mm layers to link in with the Tensar grid system which hooks the grid mesh into the wall blocks which meant eight truck loads per layer which was 60 meters in length.”

FACTS

Amount of material: 26,000m3 Leca (10-20mm) LWA

Interesting Fact: The original design proposed use of expanded polystyrene to deliver a low weight of high volume infill against the abutments but the limited experience of this design, coupled with the evident limited capacity of supply, forced the developers to seek a suitable, proven and available alternative.

Delivery Method: 4-Wheel Tippers

Main Contractor: Mott MacDonald

Overview of Project

“Leca® LWA played a key part in this construction project,” says Mike Widdicks, Carillion’s Project Manager. “A project of this size and complexity requires close co-ordination between the main contractor, the designers, the supply chain and Network Rail. There was concern on the cost, the supply and risks of the initial product specification but the Leca® LWA material enabled us to maintain the original envelop of the bridge design, saving time delays for the whole project.”

Dave Finn, one of Carillion’s site team who lives locally, is proud of his work on the project. “My kids believe I’ve built the new bridges single handed of course! But in years to come I’ll look back on this job with pride. This Leca® LWA is very good indeed and really easy to handle. Nothing else would give you 450mm layers as fast as this.”