This was a rehabilitation project where sections of a 100-year-old structure, the Elan Valley Aqueduct (EVA), needed to be replaced. The EVA is an extremely crucial resource as it supplies water to Birmingham and its adjacent areas. There was a need to refurbish and modernize the aqueduct so that it could be preserved for the future. For this, a 1.8 km-long, 3.0 m-diameter, wide conduit with a tunnel was to be constructed. The requirement was to construct a bypass conduit, a horizontal working platform that supported the construction traffic, a 1000-ton crane, and a 150-ton TBM.

The solution consisted of a reinforced soil wall using StrataGrid™ SGU 120 and SGU 60, and site-won cohesive material as part of the cut-and-fill balance of the project.

On top of the reinforced soil wall, we constructed a fortified working platform with selected granular material that was 970 mm thick and fitted with biaxial geogrid to distribute the load better.

The use of StrataGrid™ was cost-efficient compared to the conventional method of constructing the wall, all while being completely environmentally friendly.