Sheet Piling UK is involved in a project to strengthen the sea defences in a village in north Wales.
The marine piling project at Old Colwyn will create a new rock barrier, fishing platform and improved access to the beach over existing shore protection structures.
The project is managed by the Bay of Colwyn town council and is funded through the Welsh Government’s Resilient Roads Fund. Alun Griffiths Contractors is the main contractor and Sheet Piling is the subcontractor.
The work is vital to protect the Victorian sea wall from the impacts of rough seas and high tides.
To do this Sheet Piling installed a new rock barrier with 40,000t of rock from quarries in north Wales.
To create the fishing platform at Splash Point by the Old Colwyn Arches it installed ten raking piles and four vertical piles. All were tubular marine piles that measured 22.5m long, 610mm in diameter, with a wall thickness of 25mm.
Each of the piles had to be installed on the existing beach which meant that the subcontractor had to work around tide times and devise a bespoke installation approach.
This method of pile installation which was modified from a conventional land-based piling trestle method was able to deliver sufficient stability and capacity to support the tubular marine piles.
The trestle was fitted with a rotating swivel guide, to accommodate the raking piles, and was lifted into each pile position using a 300t crawler crane, positioned on the existing promenade.
Piles were then driven using a PVE 38M vibratory hammer and then, during a final drive to level, by a BSP CX85 impact hammer.
The team gained access to the beach via a tracked mobile elevated work platform that was supported by the promenade-based crawler crane.
Sheet Piling has also installed a series of sheet piles that form the basis of new access steps which lead from the promenade to the beach and traverse the rocky groynes.
These steps are being installed in two locations and have been formed using Arcelor Mittal AZ 28-700 sheet piles. The team had to use a pre-augering technique to loosen the ground around the piles because of the presence of stiff clay in the area. It achieved this with an excavator piling rig with a Movax side-grip hammer.
A pre-cast concrete decorative effect will be positioned over both the steps and some new wall sections along the front. This will have a special textured surface that helps promote marine wildlife habitats.
The marine piling project will protect important local infrastructure from coastal erosion such as the main sewer for Old Colwyn, the A55 and railway bridges.
Sheet Piling UK’s managing director Andrew Cotton said: “It is essential to protect Victorian promenades and infrastructure in many of the UK’s traditional seaside resorts, to ensure that their benefits can be enjoyed by future generations.
“We are delighted to be able to use our sheet piling expertise within a project doing just that and are pleased to know we are creating new leisure opportunities for those wishing to fully enjoy the Colwyn stretch of coastline.”
The marine piling works were carried out by the sheet piling specialist during May and June 2022.
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Tagged with: coastal defences sea defences sheet piles sheet piling Sheet Piling (UK) Welsh government
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