Safer access at Wembley
Ticketholders for the Olympic football matches at Wembley Stadium will have safer access thanks to a new slip-resistant surface to the entry ramps. RonaDeck Resin Bonded Surfacing was chosen to provide a hard wearing and slip-resistant surfacing to the tarmac ramps that lead into the stadium at five levels, ensuring that crowds can enter safely even in the wettest of weather. Entech Services has applied Ronadeck with medium grade Guyanan bauxite slip-resistant aggregate to the existing macadam on 4,500m2 of ramps.
www.hard-landscaping.ronacrete.co.uk/
Burning rubber on the road
Breedon Aggregates has come up with an alternative to landfill for discarded car tyres, by incorporating its recycled rubber in a new high-strength asphalt. Working with Transport Scotland, the firm has completed the first UK trial of the material on a short stretch of one of Scotland’s busiest roads, the A90 between Perth and Dundee.
Unlike previous attempts at using rubber in asphalt, which typically involves melting the rubber completely before mixing it with stone and bitumen, the new technology, licensed by Breedon Aggregates from Danish company Genan, incorporates
rubber particles directly into the binding agent, which can be achieved at lower temperatures with lower emissions and therefore significant environmental benefits.
A “grip test” on the resurfaced road has confirmed the asphalt’s viability.
http://www.breedonaggregates.com/
New piling technique in Bolton
Ground improvement specialist Vibro Menard, working with contractor Costain, has trialled a new piling technique on the ground improvement works for the Manchester Waste PFI building in Bolton. The contract used Controlled Modulus Columns, or CMCs, which have never been used before in the UK. The columns are installed using a special auger that displaces the soils laterally, with virtually no vibration or spoil. CMCs are used to improve the soil’s characteristics in weak ground and to reduce imposed settlements caused by the structure.
Making Chernobyl safe
An internationally-funded project to transform the contaminated nuclear reactor site at Chernobyl, Ukraine, into an ecologically safe zone will involve construction of a vast airtight protective shelter.
The 29,000t arched metal structure will span 257m over the destroyed reactor block and the old concrete sarcophagus. Working under main contractor Novarka, a consortium of the French contractors Vinci and Bouygues, steel specialist Kalzip will construct the shelter’s stainless steel interior and exterior envelope.
The structure is designed to withstand tornado class 3 wind suction forces. Delivery of materials and machines for onsite production has already begun and the covering is due to be completed by 2015.
New footbridge spans A35
Raymond Brown Construction has lifted a new footbridge over the A35 Christchurch Bypass, Dorset, into place. Manufactured by Nusteel Structures, the bridge is a 34.3m single-span deck supported on twin steel columns located approximately 3m to the west of the existing bridge.
The ramp layouts were influenced by the need to replace the existing stepped ramps with a continuous sloped ramp to comply with Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) requirements. The £1m project is part of the Dorset Highways Term Services contract.
Upskilling for the nuclear programme
CITB-ConstructionSkills is calling on its partners in the construction industry to support its initiative to upskill the UK construction workforce for the forthcoming nuclear build programme, launched with £2m of funding in May this year.
The fund will be spread across 11 sub-sectors, and will help towards harmonising the various nuclear skills cards, health and safety training and management and supervisory training. The National Construction College at Bircham Newton
will take a key role in the project.
The fund is being set up in conjunction with the Nuclear Energy Skills Alliance (NESA), a partnership between skills partners and the government committed to ensuring the supply chain is ready for the tasks ahead.
Investigation is all in hand
Engineering geophysics specialist Fugro Aperio has recently adopted the Palm Antenna from Geophysical Survey Systems Inc (GSSI) as part of its non-destructive investigation services for highways, railways, buildings and structures.
The Palm is a portable ground-penetrating radar system designed to access tight spaces that would be impossible with conventional antennae.
The unit’s small size has opened up new survey possibilities, explains Simon Brightwell, head of structures at Fugro Aperio. “Our survey teams are able to connect it to a telescopic pole, which allows them to reach higher levels without the need for costly scaffolding towers or powered access platforms,” he says.
Fugro Aperio has used the Palm Antenna to inspect high-rise buildings, bridges and roads. The unit’s 40cm depth range and sensitivity make it suitable for pinpointing post-tensioned cables in office block floors before cutting through to create new service ducts — an important job as cutting a cable can weaken a floor or result in an explosive release of tension.
Operators can observe and react to data in the field, but Brightwell says a more detailed picture is possible when the data is processed on a computer in the office.
