A successful project to reinstate and improve a key section of road in South Gloucestershire, in which Forterra’s Bison Precast was heavily involved, has won an award for its efficiency, community engagement and value for money.
The work on the B4058, between the village of Horsley and the town of Nailsworth, which took place between July and December last year, has been named Best UK Project with a Geotechnical Value of up to £1m, as part of the Ground Engineering Awards 2018.
The project, which was delivered by Graham Construction, Amey Consulting and Forterra’s Bison Precast, on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council, was to repair a landslip that had reduced the road to a single lane of traffic. The new road, which opened in December, has been designed to prevent future landslips taking place, thanks to a unique drainage system.
The awards brought together 750 clients, contractors, designers and geotechnical experts for an evening of celebration at the Hilton Park Lane in London. The judges awarded the Horsley Hill project because it gave “a robust solution with good collaboration throughout,” with “exemplary community engagement”, and, “excellent value for money.”
Mark Sheppard, Major Projects Manager for Bison Precast, said, “Time was of the essence for this project, as we wanted to cause minimal disruption to local people, for whom this route is vital. To that end we ensured there were no imperfections which might delay work on site.”
Motorists had to take a detour of 11 miles to get from Nailsworth to Horsley while the works took place.
Robert Nesbitt, Contracts Manager for Graham Construction, said, “This was a team effort, and we put in a lot of work to make sure it went according to plan. I came up with a method of laying precast concrete units on a rail system, with grouting underneath, to secure them in place and ensure once they were set down, they didn’t need to be moved again.
“Amey designed the final system based on this idea, and Forterra manufactured the concrete precast units to the exact specifications. At peak performance, we managed to lay 40 precast units on site in just one day, because the system we’d planned together worked so well in practice.”
Claire Smith, editor of Ground Engineering, commented: “The GE Awards is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and every year the industry has demonstrated that however tight the budget and competitive the market, it can still deliver award-winning innovation, technical expertise and value engineering – and this year is no exception.”