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Bypass with 39 bridges

Project information

Project name

N300 Nuth – Simpelveld

Location

Buitenring Parkstad Limburg, NL

Principal

Provincie Limburg

Design

HUESKER and a local engineer

Contractor

Combinatie BPL-Beton & BPL-Wegen

Construction time

January 2014 – July 2019

Project details

Project description and challenge

The road infrastructure in Parkstad Limburg is chaotic and not well linked. The new ring road is built as a regional ring road. It will reduce traveling times and decrease the amount of traffic on secondary roads and residential streets. Thus, leading to a significant reduction in traffic in the adjacent villages and, in the process, contributing to improved environmental protection. The outer ring road should improve accessibility for local and regional traffic as well as for inter-regional traffic. Access to the east side of Parkstad Limburg will be easier and safer. The 39 bridges, viaducts and noise barriers are spread over the 26 km long route. The bridge abutments are mainly founded on piles or on a natural foundation, using a geogrid reinforced bearing layer or wall. One structure, called the Eygelshoven Railway viaduct, was constructed during a railway decommissioning period of over 100 hours. The connecting embankments have been built with reinforced soil.

Solution

Due to the clayey conditions, the soil was very unpredictable when undrained, so parts of the supporting soil layer were replaced with sand to cope with critical constructions. In addition, a non-standard soil type called stol (a type of mixed granular material) was used. The results of the batch tests were analysed for their applicability in the evaluated earthworks, and immobilization (contaminated soil bound with cement) was also used, which led to the use of MPT grids due to the high pH>9 content. The viaducts were founded on piles driven through the proven soil structure using pilot borings. For the construction of an overhanging noise barrier, a challenging design was executed for a 5 m high reinforced soil wall with a slope of 10:1. Due to the lack of space in the road profile, slope nailing was selected to keep the slope stable during excavation. The minimum anchor length and anchor forces to be supported were determined based on internal stability. The anchor grid was determined based on the slope height and geogrid width. These assumptions were passed on to the claw anchor supplier who, in combination with the normative soil parameters, translated them into effective anchor lengths.

Benefits

- Noise reduction

- Improvement of environmental protection

- Shorter travel times

- Reduce traffic volume