RamWall – TWoodseaves canal cutting stabilisation

PROJECT: Woodseaves canal cutting stabilisation
OWNER: Canal and Rivers Trust
DESIGNER: OTB Engineering Ltd.
CONTRACTOR: Kier May Gurney
PURPOSE: Retaining walls supporting an unstable cutting slope adjacent to the
canal towpath
RAMWALL TYPE: 8m diameter 200mm x 200mm galvanised RAMWALL mesh plus 5mm
diameter, 50mm x 50mm galvanised facing mesh, 25mm rebar spikes
RAMWALL FILL: Railway ballast
DATE: 2013/14

Woodseaves Cutting (also known as Tyrley
Cutting) is a 2.7km long and up to about 21.3m
deep, mostly straight, steep-sided cutting on
Thomas Telford’s Shropshire Union Canal
located approximately 2.5km south of Market
Drayton.
The cutting, which was completed in 1832, is
set within a rural landscape, with open arable
fields on both sides of the cutting and was
excavated through rocks of Carboniferous
Upper Coal Measures and Triassic Sherwood
Sandstone. The cutting itself is steep sided
and generally heavily wooded.

Slope failures severely hampered excavation of
the cutting and continuing minor failures at the toe
of the western slope gradually encroached onto
the towpath, reducing its width. In addition, a
significant failure occurred in January 2011 in the
eastern slope of the cutting which partially
blocked the canal.
The slope stabilisation works were carried out
within a 650m section of the cutting between High
Bridge and Cheswardine Road Bridge.
Five RAMWALLS totalling 240 metres in length
and up to 2 metres in height were required to
secure the toe of the unstable sections of the
cutting slope alongside the existing towpath.
Design was undertaken using a standard slope
stability software package.
Access for construction was limited to the
towpath and barges were used for transportation
of the bulk materials onto and off site.