Renovation and the Home

LECA® LWA can be used in all elements of construction from foundations to chimney fill.

Civils & Infrastructure

Leca® LWA is used extensively as a lightweight aggregate for civil engineering and structural applications, such as Rail, Highways and Bridges.

Water Management and Reducing Gas Emissions

Leca LWA can be used to manage the rainwater from a catchment. Water interacts with Leca LWA in a way that allows the material to provide water detention.

Retaining Wall

Retaining Wall Overview

Leca ® Lightweight Aggregate (LWA) is a natural, unique and sustainable lightweight clay aggregate. Leca® LWA has remarkable properties which ensure its versatility for use in a vast number of structural and geotechnical applications.

When used against retaining walls, Leca® LWA will reduce the weight acting on the rear of the structure by at least 75%, in comparison to traditional fill materials. This reduction in weight can avoid potential sliding, overturning, slip and tilting or bearing failures and enables savings by increasing spacing between buttressing walls and reducing structural dimensions. The bulk weight of the wall can also be reduced and more cost efficient, attractive materials can be used in place of costly, unattractive structural concrete.

Minimise Differential Settlement

The ‘pull out’ resistance of LECA® Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate makes it an ideal solution for reinforced soil retaining walls and bridge design. Particularly when constructed over weak sub-soils or voids, this method has been proven to cut overall construction costs considerably. LECA® Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate is used extensively to reduce vertical loading.

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More than 70 years developing innovative projects

Using Leca® LWA will minimise the differential settlement between piled bridge abutments and the embankment fill. As it is a free draining material, Leca® LWA has the added advantage of eliminating the need for rear wall block drainage.

The ‘pull out’ resistance of Leca® LWA makes it an ideal solution for reinforced soil retaining walls. Particularly when constructed over weak sub-soils or voids, this method has been proven to cut overall construction costs considerably.

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The Application of Leca® LWA within Retaining wall

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Optimising Supporting Structures

As a fill material, LECA® Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate can effectively decrease the earth pressure. Due to its lightness the vertical earth pressure impacting the structure is up to 75% lower that induced by the natural rock fill. Lower earth pressure enables optimized dimensioning of supporting structures; and therefore application of LECA® Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate as backfill in these circumstances is usually a cost-efficient solution.