Client: Balfour Beatty Skanska Joint Venture
Value of contract: £25 million
In 2005 the Balfour Beatty Skanska Joint Venture asked McArdle Contracts Ltd to provide expertise and experience in motorway reconstruction earthworks for the M1 Junctions 6a-10 scheme.
The objectives were to add an extra lane to both carriageways along the 17-kilometre section and to fully redesign and reconstruct the sub-standard Junctions 8, 9 and 10.
From very early in the planning and design stages we provided advice on earthworks volumes and strategy. The earthworks package that our team completed included:
- Early contractor involvement to quantify cut/fill volumes and provide advice on construction strategy
- 1.6 million cubic metres of bulk earthworks moved by a combination of articulated dump truck and road lorry on one of the country’s busiest sections of motorway
- Formation of landscape and environmental features, including resoiling and grass seeding to all soft surfaces
- Recycling of site won and locally sourced demolition material to provide over 800,000 tonnes of capping, sub-base and structural backfill
- Placement of over 500,000 square metres of capping and sub-base
- Excavation and lining of 13 balancing ponds
- Formation of pile platforms and foundations for VCB and surface water channel in the verges and central reserve
- Structural backfill to 46 bridge abutments including forming back of wall drainage
