Earthworks

Demolition

Stabilisation

Transport

Plant Sales

Training

Type: Earthworks

Radlett Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) – Blockade Possession

In 2024, we were contracted by Volker Fitzpatrick Ltd. to undertake the bulk earthworks over a five day Christmas possession period to facilitate the installation of an underbridge structure beneath the Midland Main Line between London St Pancras and Bedford. Our dedicated operations team worked around the clock to ensure minimal downtime during the Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) project. Supporting the transition from road to rail and contributing to the UK’s journey toward net zero.

All works were handed over to a high standard, in line with the specification and ahead of contract programme.

East Midlands Gateway

The East Midlands Gateway development is located on farmland between Lockington and East Midlands Airport. This prestigious project is a significant investment for the area, providing a distribution hub to link rail, road and air transport. The works were programmed over a 3-year period, of which we are halfway through. Following the demolition of the farm buildings, there was a substantial clearance of trees and hedges. Topsoil stripping commenced after this, following a sequence to reduce water run-off. Half of the earthworks filling is incorporated in a significant screening bund for the benefit of Lockington’s residents. This houses the surplus topsoil and lesser-grade subsoils.

Our engineering team established a base station to provide line and level control for our Trimble guided plant, our engineering team, as well as Winvic’s surveyors. Due to the vast size of the site, the base was connected to the internet to provide corrections through IBSS as well as radio. The cut and fill operation then commenced, in accordance with Hydrock’s specifications. All of the geotechnical testing is managed and coordinated by our engineering team. The A453 junction and access road were completed first in preparation for Winvic’s ground workers. As well as this, a substantial compound was established to serve the 3 years. After the first year, we had managed to surpass the programmed cut and fill quantity.

With the completion of the first enabling plateaus between the spine road and the airport, build contracts have also been awarded to Winvic for Plots 1,2,3 and 4. We are undertaking the earthworks and stabilisation works for these four distribution centres.

Gateway 45 Leeds

Gateway 45 is the largest distribution scheme in Leeds which will address the long-standing shortage of prime logistics units in the region. The site benefits from Leeds City Council’s newest park and ride transport hub, providing immediate connectivity to the city’s available workforce.

Prior to the completion of the distribution hub the site was a former water treatment works consisting of various concrete tanks and chambers which were required to be broken out, processed and re-engineered to suitable formation levels

Baytree, Nuneaton

This development was completed to provide Rhenus, a logistics specialist, with a new 1 million square foot development consisting of 2 sustainable logistics warehouses in the West Midlands, just 5 miles away from Junction 3 of the M6. The initial ground investigations completed identified a significant amount of rock within the site, which meant that we had to mobilise large 75 tonne excavators within our fleet on site in order to excavate the material as efficiently as possible.

We then had to mobilise one of our experienced crushing teams to process the material into a suitable size to be reused on-site as fill material. This negated having to dispose of the rock off-site and allowed us to utilise the material on-site once processed. Furthermore; through the use of cement stabilisation, we provided our client with a value-engineered cost saving.

By adopting this process we managed to reduce the amount of aggregates that were imported for use as sub-base and significantly reduced the environmental impact that the project had, which helped the project to achieve a BREEAM outstanding rating.

IMP, Peddimore

Peddimore is a major industrial development in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, with approximately 2.6 million square feet of warehouse space available once completed.

The total area of the site is around 195 acres, which needed to be cut and filled to achieve the desired levels for future use and development. During the peak season on-site, we were able to excavate circa 50,000m3 per week which enabled us to progress quickly and hand over areas to our client to enable the next stage of planned works to commence.

We utilised some of the largest machinery available to us, including our CAT 637K Scrapers, new additions to our fleet in the summer of 2021. These scrapers were the perfect tool for the job at Peddimore which consisted of a large area with overhead cables spanning through the site.

Northampton Gateway

Following on from the site clearance works at the end of 2020 the bulk enabling works on SEGRO Logistics Park Northampton (SLPN) commenced in March 2021. The bulk earthworks consisted of circa 4.1 million cubic meters being excavated from maximum depths of 15 meters and placed as engineered fill to plateaus for distribution units as well as landscape bunds surrounding the project with as much as 18 meters of engineered fill being placed behind mechanically stabilised earth walls.

Along with the major development of SLPN, Collins was involved in the delivery of upgrading J15 of the M1. This involved the earthworks and capping to slips roads, gyratory system and widening of the A45 & A508.

In the second year of the development, works commenced on the construction of Roade Bypass which has been in the pipeline since 1988. The new 2.5km carriageway will start at the north of Northampton Road A508 and run to the west of Roade village tying into the A508 to the south at Stratford Road.

During peak weeks earthworks outputs achieved up to 120,000 m3 of engineered fill each week.

Long Itchington – North Portal

We were first approached by Balfour Beatty Vinci to construct the first major portal excavation at Long Itchington Wood commencing in May 2020. The works involved a mass portal excavation to a depth in excess of 15m, stripping and segregating layers of upper and lower subsoil to adhere to HS2 farm pack criteria & installation of 12 soil nailing/anchoring platforms to reinforce the main portal face.

Following a successful completion of the North Portal we later transitioned onto the South Portal and Bromford East Portal works. These portals involved construction of the diaphragm wall piling platforms to enable the D-Wall portal construction. On these portals Collins proposed a stabilised solution rather than previously intended traditional build ups. Our proposal drastically, reduced the importation of granular sub-base by over 60%, negated the need for geogrid installation and considerably improved the programme of works from 26 to 18 weeks.