Engineers building Spalding Western Relief Road share how they have solved challenges posed by 'blancmange' Fenland ground conditions

Engineers have been tasked with the job of transforming ‘blancmange’ into something solid which can take heavy traffic for the new Spalding Western Relief Road.

After nearly nine months of work, the project is now starting to take shape with the new roundabout on Pinchbeck Road.

Lincolnshire County Council and South Holland District Council are working on the scheme to build a road to link Spalding Road, Pinchbeck, with Littleworth Drove, Deeping St Nicholas.

The team is currently working on the northern section of the road which runs from Spalding Road along the Vernatt’s Drain and parallel with Wygate Park.

This section will also include a 400-500m embankment over the railway line and the construction of a new pedestrian bridge to link Blue Gowt Lane and Wygate Park.

Principal engineer Adam Round has outlined the challenges posed by the fenland soils when building the embankment.

He said: “The ground conditions are pretty dire. We have done a lot of engineering to test the ground and the capacity. It is like working with blancmange.

“The roundabout was fairly normal construction and the bridge structure is fairly typical.

“The weird bit is the embankment. That has taken more engineering.”

This has taken more than just slapping a bit of surfacing on the ground, the team has had to pile drive more than 16,000 metal poles into the ground.

Last week construction workers were laying concrete to surround the piles and ensuring it was laid at precise levels.

This work is taking place on both sides of the railway line and a Network Rail has a guard on one side to allow the construction team over.

Later, steel cages will be placed on top of the piles and this will be filled with concrete to create the embankment.

Then a textile membrane, being imported from Portugal, will be laid.

This section of the road will also have an attenuation pond to collect rainwater along with swales for the wildlife.

Adam, who also outlined that about 50 people are working on the site, said: “It is an iceberg job with more going on under the ground.”

While construction work had started in January, planning for the project has been running for sometime..

The whole project is expected to cost £108 million with Homes England providing £12million was secured in 2017. The northern section is estimated at £48million.

Head of highways infrastructure Sam Edwards said that the preliminary works to ensure the cost effectiveness of the project. He said: “It is important to know what you are going into and not be surprised.”

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