New River Bridge Hoddesdon
Weeford
The A5 Weeford to Fazeley scheme involved the construction of a new dual carriageway to replace the then existing single carriageway reducing congestion and improving journey time and safety. Bridleway and cycle/pedestrian crossing facilities over the A38 were provided near Blackbrook Farm.
Reinforced Earth Company (RECo) was asked to undertake the specialist design of the Reinforced Earth bridge abutments for Parsons Brinckerhoff, the Highways Agency’s Lead Designer for the project. RECo designed the bridge abutment and retaining wall to carry a footbridge providing a crossing for equestrian and pedestrian use over the existing A38.
The abutments were constructed using selected granular fill with galvanized steel soil reinforcement. The walls were faced with precast concrete facing panels featuring a broken rib pattern. In addition to designing and supplying materials for the project RECo provided on-site construction training to enable the Main Contractor to construct the structure using their own team.
Hertfordshire County Council needed a new bridge structure to cross New River on the only route into Hoddesdon Business Park. Located close of the site is a pumping station, it was important that the finish on the new structure was sympathetic to the appearance of this listed building. RECo designed and manufactured bespoke coloured walls panels with a brickwork pattern and texture similar to the pumping station. The versatility of RECo’s systems allow many different wall finishes to be created at little extra cost. The wall was built using PVA EcoStrap soil reinforcing strips which consist of discrete channels of closely packed high tenacity polyvinyl alcohol fibres encased in a polyethylene sheet, EcoStrap reinforcing strips are not affected by the pH, sulphate or chloride levels in the backfill material making it the perfect solution for using site won or reclaimed materials, as a result the contractor was able to make use of recycled concrete as backfill material.
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