Robroyston Link Road

Robroyston, Scotland

Tensar worked with the entire project team to develop an alternative solution for building a link road embankment over very weak ground in Glasgow. 

Benefits

  • £0.5m saved compared with a deep soil mixing solution
  • 1,500m2 of cellular mattress installed by hand, per week
  • Reducing differential settlementof the embankment
Client's Challenge

A new road linking Robroyston railway station with the M80 and a major residential scheme had to cross very weak ground, including large peat pockets, and a solution was needed to reduce differential settlement of the embankment. Piling would have been prohibitively expensive and deep soil mixing is time-consuming and complex, with the risk of contaminating nearby water courses and groundwater.

Tensar Solution

Tensar provided an alternative, indemnified design forthe 580m long embankment, using its TensarTech Stratum cellular foundation mattress system. The 1.3m thick mattress comprised a TriAx geogrid base with uniaxial geogrid walls, creating cells that were filledwith compacted recycled demolition material (equivalentto Type 6F2). This created a stiff raft foundation, improving stability, increasing bearing capacity and reducing differential settlement. It also acted as a drainage layer.