Menard Oceania Announces Completion of Milestone Ground Improvement Works for Woolgoolga to Ballina - Pacific Highway Upgrade
26 June 2018
Menard Oceania: Leading design and construction
geotechnical specialist Menard Oceania has announced completion of the
largest Controlled Modulus Column (CMC) rigid inclusion application seen
to date on the
Pacific Highway upgrade. Menard’s
ground improvement work
focused on the $4.36 billion
Woolgoolga to Ballina section of the
Pacific Highway covering the ‘Pimlico to Teven’, ‘Harwood Bridge’, and
‘Bridge B04 & Bridge B08’ stages.
Working on behalf of
Roads and Maritime Services
NSW (RMS) and main contractors
Georgiou (Pimlico/Teven),
Acciona
-
Ferrovial JV (Harwood), and
AFS Bachy Soletanche (B04 & B08), Menard was
engaged to deliver ground improvement works in the form of construct
only CMC packages. The project remit was to control differential
settlement between the pre-loaded area in the away zone (residual 200mm
settlement) and the rigid abutment (50mm residual settlement) for each
project. The nature of the ‘Harwood’ project meant that embankment
loading was also needed for the control of lateral forces and additional
reinforced CMCs were needed.
Menard’s approach to the project has been to apply its advanced and
innovative ground improvement technique, Controlled Modulus Columns
(CMC). The ‘Pimlico to Teven’ section of the project comprised 34,500lm
of CMCs, at a maximum depth of 24 metres. The ‘Harwood Bridge’ section
comprised 22,000lm of CMCs, at a NSW record of up to 33.4m in depth.
These CMCs were also successfully reinforced to full depth in areas to
address embankment loading issues. The final stage ‘Bridge B04 & Bridge
B08’ comprised 4,400lm of CMCs, at a maximum depth of 12.5m.
Josh Ryan, Area Manager, Pacifico (Acciona, Ferrovial Joint Venture) has
commented that, “Menard has been a trusted partner throughout the
duration of this stage of the Pacific Highway upgrade and we’ve valued
their expertise on the Harwood Bridge ground improvement works. They
have a deep knowledge of working on large scale infrastructure projects
and helped deliver a smart solution that was cost effective, sustainable
and ensured we could plan and build with confidence. Their site team
lead by David and Patrice successfully completed the works on time and
in a professional and reliable manner.”
The CMC process used by Menard involves reinforcing the soil,
effectively increasing the global ground modulus through installation of
rigid inclusions. CMCs are formed by rotary drilling techniques using an
auger designed to displace the soil laterally during penetration. The
technique is suited to high surface loading conditions and strict
settlement criteria in applications like bridge approach embankments
over compressible clays, fills, sands or organic soils.
“CMC rigid inclusions are ideal when dealing with sites with soft
compressible clays and silts, like the Pimlico to Teven and Harwood
Bridge,” said Philippe Vincent, Managing Director, Menard Oceania. “The
completion of this project is a significant milestone for us, the
largest CMC application installed on the Pacific Highway so far and
another example of Menard’s focus to deliver smart solutions for our
clients that are completed on time and on budget.”
This latest RMS ground improvement project was completed in March 2018
and takes Menard’s total RMS CMC related projects to more than 12,
totalling 240,000lm of CMCs.
--ENDS--
Source: Menard Oceania - www.menardoceania.com.au
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