FOYLE COLLEGE AND EBRINGTON PRIMARY SCHOOL AND NURSERY

Former Clooney Army Base in Derry / Londonderry, Northern Ireland was to become a new education campus for Foyle College and Ebrington Primary School and Nursery. Heron Brothers were the successful contractor and appointed Maccaferri to design and supply the retaining walls required on site. A total of 6 retaining walls were required across the 38-acre site and when complete the site would house school buildings and teacher accommodation along with sports pitches. The retaining walls were needed in order to overcome differences in levels of up to 5m and would reach a length of up to 195m.

The chosen solution for this site was the MacWall Vertica 4° Segmental Block Retaining Wall System. ParaGrid geogrid was used as the reinforcement behind the wall. Both the MacWall Vertica block and ParaGrid geogrid reinforcement have BBA certification and therefore a design life of 120 years. MacWall Vertica 4° blocks have an “Anticlimb” nature and therefore were ideal for use within this education campus. The versatility of the system also made it a desirable solution to the requirements on site. It was proposed that drainage components and pipes were to be located in and around the walls. By using lean-mix concrete backfill in combination with the ParaGrid reinforcement, all these elements could be facilitated and any need for relocation was removed.