Member Article

North East now home to Europe's largest reinforced earth wall structure

Europe’s largest reinforced earth wall structure can be found right here in the North East, following the completion of a large-scale project at Fisher Street, Newcastle.

Lumsden and Carroll, the civil engineering arm of construction company Esh Group, oversaw a £2.7m reinforced earth wall build, spanning 200m, as part of Newcastle City Council’s regeneration work at Fisher Street on Walker Riverside.

Reinforced earth walls are used to stabilise slopes, and are constructed using steel “nails” which are drilled and grouted into a natural soil slope.

The technique is used where construction of a slope must take place from top to bottom, rather than from the ground up, allowing the slope to remain stable whilst reducing ground levels in front.

The works at Walker Riverside have created a large new development area, 10 metres below the previous site at Quay level.

Lumsden and Carroll was supported by fellow North East firm Komatsu, an excavator manufacturer which operates a factory at Birtley. The business supplied its Komatsu LC210i Intelligent Excavator and provided training and technical support in the initial work stages.

Steve Conn, construction director at Lumsden and Carroll, said the process behind the Fisher Street works was carefully planned, designed and implemented using technology.

He explained: “Lumsden and Carroll has been able to meet the client’s objectives within budget and timescales. It is a credit to the whole team that worked on it.

“We incorporated some sustainability measures into our work at Fisher Street – including disposal of waste at a nearby site, which slashed transport emissions; and the use of a Komatsu intelligent control system that saved 313 hours of digging time and further contributed to our summit 2020 emissions target as well as improving wildlife habitats around the periphery of the site.”