London Gateway Port, on the site of the former Shell Haven refinery on the north bank of the Thames, is the UK's newest container port and includes Europe's largest logistics park. As part of the construction, it was necessary to raise the ground immediately behind an old sheet pile flood wall to accommodate a new access road. The sheet piles were not able to carry the additional lateral loading that would be imposed by conventional filling behind the wall and settlements of the underlying 10m of very soft alluvium would have significantly exceeded the client's requirements. Tyre bales were used as lightweight fill to reduce the embankment loading bom vertically and laterally. The paper outlines the optioneering exercise that resulted in the selection of tyre bales as a cost effective, sustainable solution. It also describes the design undertaken by URS on behalf of Laing O'Rourke, the main contractor. It describes the analysis of each phase of the excavation and construction to ensure short and long term stability while restricting post construction settlements to within tolerable limits and ensuring that the floodwall would not be overstressed at any stage. Finally some observations particular to construction using tyre bales and the behaviour of this light weight embankment are made.
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