Civil engineers save thousands on Gratham southern relief road : Lincolnshire County Council’s highways civil engineers will save £75,000 on the cost of building Grantham’s long-awaited £80 million southern relief road by reusing spoil from the site to increase the height of the road.

For the first stage of the project’ the construction of a roundabout off the B1174 and an extension of Tollemache Road, over 110,000 tonnes of soil and rubble is needed to increase the height of the road and roundabouts. That’s approximately double the weight of the Titanic.

Following materials and site analysis, civil engineers working on the project announced that 28,000 tonnes of this material is suitable for use and could be transported from the site of the second stage of the project’ building a roundabout to the west of the A1. The savings have been welcomed by the council’s portfolio holder for Highways, Cllr Richard Davies.

Cllr Davies, said: “Building roads is a long, complicated and expensive process ‘and this one is no different. Every road is unique and has its own challenges. I am glad that we are able to make a significant saving in this case by using this flexible approach. We have also been able to make a time saving after archaeology work was completed in less than half the time allocated. With winter ahead of us it is more important than ever to get as much of the work completed before bad weather sets in so that we can remain on schedule and complete this much-needed road as soon as possible.”

Molly McKenzie, Institution of Civil engineers Regional Director added “Infrastructure and roads in particular, are vital to society and our quality of life depends on them functioning effectively. Civil Engineers are trained to find the most sustainable and economic solutions to issues such as those presented by the Grantham Southern Relief Road. It is excellent news that careful consideration of the project has enabled these significant cost savings and environmental benefits to be made.”

To allow this process to happen, an extension has been granted to Fitzgerald Civil Engineering’s contract to allow the removal of material from the phase two section. This will also avoid the need to dispose of excess rubble and soil resulting in the second phase in even more savings. The programme is now ahead of schedule meaning that the majority of this earth-moving work will be completed within the next three weeks.

It is expected the full road, linking to the A52, will be in use by 2019. The scheme is expected to cost around £80million in total.

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