Project Description
Norfolk County Council, working in collaboration with South Norfolk District Council, Norfolk Homes Ltd and Norfolk Land Ltd, are delivering a long-awaited bypass to the town of Long Stratton that will cut congestion and help support the local economy.
The new A140 bypass is a single carriageway road that provides a new junction at Church Lane to the north and extends from this junction on the east side of Long Stratton in a southerly direction for approximately 3.9km, where it re-joins the existing A140 just south of Oakside farm.
The Challenge
The new bypass embankments require a stable drainage layer to speed up consolidation of the fill material. A traditional starter layer consists of a thick (up to 600mm) granular layer of 6C stone with geotextiles placed on either side.
The Solution
ABG had the opportunity to quote at tender stage and proposed the value engineered Fildrain 7DD/ST170 geocomposite alternative, a central drainage core with a geotextile bonded to both sides. The 7DD product is a double sided core to channel water from above and below.
Working with the sub-contractor Mick George (who were already familiar with ABG’s solutions from previous projects) the Fildrain solution was proposed and accepted following a number of technical support meetings with the main contractor Octavius Infrastructure.
The lightweight Fildrain geocomposite is supplied in rolls up to 4.4m wide, offering rapid coverage rates and significant delivery savings. One delivery of Fildrain is the equivalent to approximately 100 x 6C stone deliveries and the specification of the all-in-one geocomposite starter layer greatly reduces vehicle movements, carbon emissions and local congestion as a result.
The ABG Service
Fildrain drainage composite is BBA approved for starter layer specifications on major trunk roads beneath embankments of up to 12m in height.
