A recent soil mixed road project by Deep Soil Mixing Ltd has won the Environmental and Sustainability Award at the Institute of Highways Engineers Mercia Brand Awards. The project was carried out for contractor Kier Living and consulting engineers Patrick Parsons Ltd.

The award was presented to the multi-disciplinary consulting engineers Patrick Parsons Ltd for the deep soil mixing works below the adoptable highway at Harrowby Road, Bilston.

The site was being redevelop by Kier Living to provide residential properties. However, the landfilled made ground below a section of the road was of such poor quality that CBR values (CBR = California bearing ratio, a test for the mechanical strength of the natural ground) were almost non-existent. Therefore, the local Highways Authority and Severn Trent would not adopt roads due to the low ground quality.

Patrick Parsons Ltd and Deep Soil Mixing Ltd provided a suitable ground improvement method using DSM’s double rotational mixing head to soil mix the ground as well as improving the waste classification of excess materials post treatment.

By mechanically mixing the existing soil with a cementitious binder, the new geotechnically modified material provides greater ground stability the area can be used for residential properties. Additionally, this method also proved to be much more sustainable and environmental friendly than the previously planned method of removing the low quality ground and replacing it with imported granular fill. Besides that, it also had the advantage of being quicker a more cost effective.

Colin Critchlow, Director at Deep Soil Mixing Ltd, comments: “We are very proud that the Harrowby Road project has won the IHE Mercia Award for environmental and sustainability project of the year. That is the ethos of what Deep Soil Mixing Ltd and the solutions we offer is all about, environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions.”