The key to leaning wall success
Retaining walls are common on industrial sites but a warehouse distribution centre in Minto, NSW, features a 5.4 metre high leaning wall - the first lean back retaining wall of this scale in Australia.
When presented with a development site surrounded by steep boundaries, Australand Holdings sought the engineering expertise of Boral and Reinforced Soil Technologies, along with the knowledge and years of experience of the retaining wall contractors, UCBC, to develop a solution.
The large development site sloped steeply, necessitating substantial retaining walls on the eastern and western boundaries. On the eastern side, the slope’s characteristics suited construction of a vertical wall however, the western boundary presented a different set of challenges.
Initially, a criblock wall was considered due to the close proximity of the warehouse to the adjoining property. The leanback of the criblock wall would maximise the allowable space when compared with a conventional vertical retaining wall however, this system did not provide the desired aesthetic qualities or a clean maintenance free closed face.
Ease and speed of construction made the Boral Keystone leaning wall system the preferred solution.
Using geogrid soil reinforcement wrapped around clean rock fill, and attached to the Keystone blocks using the patented fibreglass connecting pins, the finished wall stands at 5.4m high at its highest point and 379 metres long.
A total of 1,000 square metres of Boral Natural coloured Keystone Split Face blocks were used to create this attractive solution, which allowed existing vegetation in the adjoining property to remain untouched by reducing the excavated area behind the wall and maximising access behind the building where space was limited, thereby making full use of the site.
According to the project manager, Michael Kouknas, Australand Holdings were pleased with the finished wall and considered it a more cost effective and attractive alternative to the system originally considered.
19-Dec-2007