Norwich North Recycling Centre
Norwich North Recycling Centre was built as part of a £2.75 investment to encourage the local population to be more sustainable and provide modern facilities to meet ongoing growth. The recycling centre is part of a multi-million-pound programme of investment to improve recycling centres across the county and is now the largest in Norfolk. However, before this vision was made a reality, there were challenges to overcome. After starting the project, further inspection of the ground conditions proved that they were worse than the initial reports had suggested. This was due to the project starting at the end of a wet winter, resulting in a delayed earthworks programme, and the planned in-situ stabilisation becoming impractical. The project team called us in to help, and with our aid, these challenges were overcome. Given that it was a recycling centre being built, we knew sustainability was a priority and proceeded to look for a solution that would minimise wastage, deliveries to the site, and the overall carbon footprint of the project. 
We recommended a combination of the E’GRID 3030 and the E’GRID 4040L biaxial geogrids, as well as the MultiTrack1000 Nonwoven Geotextile. This gave enough ground strength for multiple heavy goods vehicle shipments to come and go without damage or degradation. Quentin Brogdale, Resident Engineer for highways, transport and waste at Norfolk County Council, said: “Wrekin’s approach was positive, promptly assessing the prevailing ground conditions and developing a performance specification for a new foundation beneath the reinforced concrete slab for operational areas. “The design was met quickly with approvals from our laboratory engineers and even amid supply shortages the required materials were delivered to the site without issue. Especially appreciated was the on-site guidance and support that proved useful on numerous occasions. David Fisher, commercial & technical manager (geosynthetic division) at Wrekin said: “We were very pleased to be asked to come and work on this important East Anglian project and are glad we provided a solution that helped the council get back on track to meet the project’s tight schedule deadlines. "Our products have a range of benefits and capabilities that allow all but the most difficult problems during construction to have an easy solution. Often it is just a case of looking at the issue and matching the right specification to fix it." |
