Project Description
The Melton Mowbray Distributor Road is a new 7.1km bypass to the North and East of the town of Melton Mowbray. The road is being built to relieve congestion through the town and provide housing and development opportunities in the area. As part of the scheme, extensive new cycling and walking routes are also being provided.
The Challenge
Sections of the road are being built onto embankments which require a drainage layer beneath them to remove water from the underlying soils. The specified starter layer for numerous embankments required a 500mm thick 6C drainage stone with a separation/filtration geotextile layer both above and below. Concerns over the environmental impact of importing the required 8,829 tonnes of stone via 444 trucks led Galliford Try to seek a value engineering solution to reduce time, cost and carbon emissions.
The Solution
In collaboration with Burdens, Galliford Try explored alternative solutions. Burdens proposed using ABG’s BBA approved Fildrain geocomposite drainage layer with a 7mm cuspated HDPE core. The Fildrain 7DHD product completely replaces the need for the traditional 6C fill and separate geotextiles.
The innovative double sided core provides multi-directional flow and delivers significant savings in time, cost, and carbon emissions. Fildrain also offers significant carbon savings of 66% compared to the traditional stone. This is as a result of saving hundreds of stone deliveries from a quarry 19 miles away when compared to a much smaller number of Fildrain deliveries.
