Highways England Hydraulic Piling Rigs for Quieter Roadworks

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People living near a major Highways England roads project have benefitted from new quieter roadworks as hydraulic piling equipment was used to force steel sheets into the ground rather than using the traditional impact method which pounds the structures down. The neighbour-friendly rig has been used on a stretch of the busy A500 in Staffordshire which is being widened to help improve people’s journeys. The £17.5 million upgrade will widen the road in Stoke-on-Trent from two lanes to three in both directions between Porthill (A5271) and Wolstanton (A527). As part of that work, a permanent metal retaining wall had to be put in place in the ground to support the embankment and help make way for the new shared pedestrian and cycle path along the A500 northbound. Around 600 sheets of retaining wall were installed with the strong but silent hydraulic rig over 10 weeks. This stretch of ground alongside the A500 is softer which enabled use of the hydraulic equipment rather than the traditional ‘hammering’ method. With some properties only 50m away from the works at the closest point, the only noise residents should have heard was that of the generator which is minimal. It is hoped that the technique will now be used across more Highways England projects, although this is dictated by ground conditions.