Leicester City Council

Leicester City Council

We were contacted by Leicester City Council’s Highways Division about a design they had, for a riverside retaining wall on the River Sour, opposite the national Space Centre. The proposal was to construct an earth retaining wall approximately 125m long by 1m high to replace an existing brick wall that had failed using steels and timber sleepers.

We used these products

We used 1m high modular retaining wall units for this project. By using 6m long sections of precast units we were able to reduce the installation and construction time from a week, to just one day.

Modular Retaining Walls

The modular retaining walls, have the most comprehensive range of wall sizes available in the UK; heights range from 500mm to 6m and lengths of 1m to 6m. They also have exceptional concrete strength and finish.

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Advantages of Precast

We worked with the Highways Division from Leicester City Council, to develop their initial in-situ concrete retaining wall design. The objective was to find a quicker and more cost-effective solution using precast concrete. After looking at various options, the preferred product for constructing the new retaining wall was the precast modular retaining wall units.

Using 6m long modular retaining wall units, we would be able to reduce the installation duration from a week, to one day. The overall cost of the modular units is also cheaper than other precast retaining wall options. In total, 125m of retaining wall units were supplied and installed, this included some modified units which were cast to specific lengths and had toes cut to form curves in the wall. The returns at the end of the walls were also constructed using the precast units. The units were laid onto a Type 1 foundation with sand/cement blinding layer, no additional fixing was required. The vertical joints between the units were sealed with Sika Pro3 to provide a clean finish.