Talk Title: Investigating Rock Anchorage Failure at a major road cut in Wales
Speaker Bio: Sergio Solera is a Technical Director and Practice Leader – Geotechnics, with Mott MacDonald in their Cambridge office. He has responsibility for the geotechnical design of water engineering structures and flood protection embankments. A Chartered Civil Engineer and Fellow of the ICE specialising in geotechnical engineering, he has more than 40 years’ experience in the geotechnical design and construction of roads, bridges, water engineering infrastructures, and building structures. He is the principal geotechnical designer for Boston Barrier and has led the geotechnical design for several wastewater sewage works including Davyhulme in Manchester and Ganol in North Wales amongst others. He previously worked with Arup and Hyder Consulting during which time he was engaged with various road schemes including the A55 in Anglesey, including the A5 Glyn Bends.
Talk Abstract:
In May 2006, the Glyn Bends section of the A5 trunk road in North Wales near Corwen was closed to traffic because there was concern regarding the stability of a very steep rock cutting supported by anchorages. Many of the original anchorages installed only 6 years before were at risk of failure due to corrosion because of as installed details. Following road closure, it was necessary to re-engineer the cutting by re-grading the north face to a safe angle that did not require anchorage support, and re-anchoraging of the south face. The road was reopened to traffic in July 2007.
This presentation discusses the findings of the investigation of the failures of the original anchorages and the re-engineering of the cutting. The solution adopted was the one with the lowest level of risk, in terms of cost, programme and safety issues.