CASE STUDY

––––––––––––––––––––––––– Roe Upgrade to

Perth, WA, Australia

Reinforced Earth® TerraHex and

TerraTilt® Abutment walls, precast

capping units and parapets

Owner: Main Roads WA

Consultants: AECOM

Contractor: McConnell Dowell

Construction: May 2016 - Apr 2017

Background The Reinforced Earth Company Main Roads has (RECO) was awarded the design and progressively developed Roe supply of the two abutment wall Highway over more than 15 years extensions, including segmental as part of ’s strategic freight panel, full height return walls and network. These upgrades and precast capping units and parapets. widening works have eased The total Reinforced Earth® wall area congestion and encouraged free- equals 1,204sqm. flowing traffic at a "pinch-point" close to and Tonkin The Reinforced Earth® walls were Highway . More than built to a maximum height of 8.9m 52,000 vehicles, including 6,000 sloping down to 2m at the lowest heavy vehicles use this section of point. road daily. The project upgraded a two-kilometre section of Roe Highway from Tonkin Highway to Challenges Orrong Road. - Match the existing competitors’ wall features with segmental panels and make the finish Works included: continue to the full height - Widening the existing road with section as well. additional lanes in each direction - Confined space to fit the soil - Installing a new bridge over the reinforcement while maintaining freight railway near Sheffield the existing road traffic flowing. Road Main: Abutment 1 showing the old and new - Providing a new off-road shared - A 500T crane was required to bridges as well as the joint between segmental path for cyclists and and full height panels at the corner setup on top of the MSE wall Above first picture: Existing wall to be pedestrians with additional loads of 122kPa extended on the north side Above second picture: Precast parapets at RECO precast yard Project benefits will include:

- Improved traffic times

- Improved road safety

- Better cycling and pedestrian

options

- Landscaping and vegetation

works

Above on the left: Reinforced Earth® TerraTilt® walls with hexagonal pattern Above on the right: Extension under construction. Our sister company GFWA has also been involved in the temporary construction works.

Solutions Special Features Project specifications RECO needed to write project The new MSE walls were all cast –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– specific procedures to comply with: with panels that match the exposed Systems TerraHex and TerraTilt® Project Management Professional aggregate finish and hexagonal precast capping units and parapets Certification; Technical pattern found on the original –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Specifications; Inspection and Test segmental panels. Finish Hexagonal features with Plans and Precast Manuals. exposed aggregates The precasting was completed at the –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– RECO precast facility located in Conclusion Structures 2 Reinforced Earth® Landsdale, Perth. Twelve heavy By increasing the number of lanes Bridge abutments duty segmental TerraHex moulds in each direction and improving –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– and two full height TerraTilt® moulds merge points, traffic flow has Area 1,204 sqm (total) were used for the project. MRWA improved, leading to safer journeys –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– specifies that concrete temperatures for commuters, residents and the Max. Height 8.9 m during casting must remain under freight industry. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 32°C and that ambient air Design load 20kPa temperature cannot exceed 38°C. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– To achieve this, ice was added to the Design life 100 years concrete mix to ensure that this –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– requirement was met.

Significant design checks were carried out to ensure the capacity of the MSE walls was adequate for the additional short-term crane loads imposed while installing the bridge beams.

Above: Reinforced Earth ® Abutment walls with precast capping units

Reinforced Earth Pty Limited Reinforced Earth Limited Level 4, 20 George Street PO Box 72 734 Hornsby NSW 2077 Australia Papakura Auckland New Zealand Ph +61 2 9910 9910 Ph +64 9 236 3385 Fax +61 2 9910 9999 Fax +64 9 236 3385 www.reco.com.au www.reco.com.au