A120 Trunk Road | Stansted Airport, Essex

May 2018

Engineers for a major trunk road project specified Leca® LWA lighweight aggregate to meet construction challenges and speed up progress. By using the versatile lightweight expanded clay granules, Balfour Beatty was able to reduce the amount of piling needed for bridges and to substantially cut the loading on three large diameter drains carrying surface water from Stansted Airport.

Working on behalf of Essex County Council to designs by WS Atkins Consultants Limited, Balfour Beatty was able to reduce earth pressure on the bridge and a 9 metre embankment by some 75%, when compared with traditional fill materials (Class 1 or 6N). Leca® LWA was used to backfill abutments of a bridge carrying the new 15-mile A120 trunk road from Stansted to Braintree with around 1,000m³ completed in just two days, using only one small excavator to spread and compact the fill.

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