Sheet Piling UK Helps Restore Pontefract Park Life

The UK’s leading sheet piling installation specialist, Sheet Piling (UK) Limited, has recently completed sheet piling works that have helped protect a historic and present-day resource in Pontefract, much-loved by the local community.

The project, in Pontefract Park, centred on the installation of permanent sheet piles, to address the impacts of a failing wall, which was rotating into the lake.  

The park is linked to both the Pontefract racecourse, which has held races since as early as 1648, and the lake in question.  The latter was reclassified as a reservoir a few years ago and that reclassification caused a delay to necessary repairs to unsafe damaged lake banks.  These have been reducing enjoyment of a leisure facility enjoyed by everyone from Parkrun enthusiasts to families reliant on wheelchairs or pushchairs for outdoor time.  

In fact, circuits of the Pontefract Park Lake Reservoir have become part of the programme of activities of cyclists and strollers alike, so it was imperative the lake banks be better supported.  

However, with Pontefract racecourse surrounding the lake, the scheduling of works, and their swift completion before the racing calendar commenced, was also a factor in this project.

Sheet Piling UK rose to the challenge of completing its part of the schedule of works, through both early and close liaison with contractor Eric Wright Civil Engineering Limited and by calling upon its immense stock of sheet piles stored in the UK, both for permanent and temporary usage.  By suggesting an alternative suitable sheet pile section to that originally specified, any programme delay in obtaining stock was removed.

Swiftly accessing stock allowed Sheet Piling UK to start to construct three separate sheet pile walls with the minimum of delay.  Two were formed from 6.5-metre-long pairs of ESZ18 Emirates Steel (Emsteel) sheet piles, with 131 pairs used in total to create a new structure in front of the failing piles.   Shear studs were also installed to the rear face of the ESZ18 piles.

This then enabled the gap between the new and old structures to be backfilled with concrete, with the new piles tied back into the concrete used for a new footpath, constructed around the lake’s perimeter.  

The third sheet pile permanent retaining wall required was constructed using 59 trench sheets, with 7Te of sheet piles used for this purpose.

With limited access around the lake’s perimeter and shallow bedrock ground conditions, in which layers of mudstone and siltstone prevailed, sheet pile installation was handled by a Kobelco SK350 excavator piling rig with c/w Movax SG75 side-grip vibratory hammer.  Vibratory installation of the piles preceded percussive driving with a DH25 impact hammer. 

“Thanks to the instant availability of suitable sheet piles drawn from Sheet Piling UK’s stockholding, there was no delay in allowing the community to once again fully enjoy the park,” says Sheet Piling (UK) Limited’s managing director, Andrew Cotton.  “Those who frequent the park, such as the Friends of Pontefract Park, should now be able to do so knowing this lake wall safety enhancement is in place.”

More information about Sheet Piling UK can be found at www.sheetpilinguk.com or by calling 01772 794141.

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Editors notes

Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd is the UK's leading national sheet piling contractor and sheet pile installation specialist, with over 25 years' experience of handling a wide variety of land and marine-based projects. It supplies both permanent and temporary sheet pile solutions and has a fleet of cutting-edge equipment, including its unique and specially commissioned long-reach telescopic leader rigs, which have a reach 3m further than any other rig.