The brief

Danaher & Walsh were appointed by Via East Midlands to carry out repair works to an ancient wall with historic significance. A 10m section of the existing retaining wall had collapsed onto the adjacent carriageway and forced a full road closure of Chilwell Lane, affectionately named “Devil’s Bend”.

Our solutions

Together with the team at Via East Midlands, a solution and sequence of works was developed to carry out, not only the repair, but additional strengthening to the structure to prevent recurrence in the future. It was critical that these works were carried out quickly due to the impact on the existing highway network the road closure was having.

Outcomes

Working closely with the local conservation officer, suitable replacement stone was sourced and procured and a mortar mix design developed to allow the repairs to site sympathetically with the remaining structure.

After clearing the area of collapsed stone and brickwork the wall was demolished back to the underlying bedrock and the spoil to the rear of the wall excavated to allow the installation a steel reinforced supporting structure. The supporting reinforced concrete structure had to be constructed in tandem with the stonework to prevent overloading of the newly installed stonework.

The wall rebuild started with the herringbone sandstone section at the bottom of the wall followed by the reclaimed red brickwork and triangular coping unit, ensuring it was in-keeping with the rest of the wall from a conservation point of view.

Drainage was also installed to the rear of the wall to drain the retained spoil to the rear of the wall, reducing the pressure on the wall for the future.