Barrett Byrd Associates

An Anglo-French team has produced an innovative design for the widening of the M1 in the East Midlands. Stuart Shepherd reports.

The 23km of the M1 in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire is well known for its congestion, especially during peak hours. Notice to Proceed on widening to four lanes in each direction with an autumn start on site is anticipated though, with design and planning under way to provide extra capacity.

This section of M1 – from Junction 25 where it passes the A52 up to Junction 28 at the A38 near South Normanton – represents the Highway Agency’s (HA) longest widening scheme so far. It also represents initial work of the longer, overall Junctions 21-30 improvement scheme, which entered the HA’s Targeted Programme of Improvements in 2004. The central section in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire is under way first by virtue of its already wide cross section, a fact that allows for all the widening to be accommodated inside the existing land take.

Development plans for the £340M Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) scheme are being handled by MVM – a consortium of Morgan Est, Sir Robert McAlpine and French contractor Vinci, with Gifford-WSP as designer. The contract was awarded in January this year, by which time the team had already spent considerable time putting its Anglo-French bid together. And since January, MVM has been working on its designs in detail and gaining approvals for elements of its bid proposals.

“We have put significant resources and commitment into solutions that reflect the value the HA places on the customer and road user,” says MVM project manager David Welsh. “This has included capturing significant French innovation and methodology, used extensively on the continent but not yet seen widely in the UK, to keep traffic moving and reduce impact on the environment.”

For the first time within a motorway widening project there will be no contraflow. Another feature, novel if not unique, will be the complete separation of road traffic from construction traffic and access to the verge works. A European system of moveable concrete barrier is also being given serious consideration.

“With total separation of road user and site vehicles, and no access from the running lanes it allows us to run motorway traffic adjacent to our works at 50mph,” says Welsh. “This offers a significant benefit in terms of congestion, as schemes in the UK generally run at 40mph.”

Some aspects of MVM’s innovative temporary traffic management system represent departures from standard, but the design team is benefiting from a single delivery team approach led by the Highways Agency’s Tony Turton. In line with the principles of ECI, ideas coming through the supply chain and from key partners and stakeholders are being considered at the earliest possible stage.

“Long approval times pose a risk to the programme, so it has been very important to us, to liaise with the HA’s Safety, Standards and Research team quickly,” says Gifford-WSP design manager Steve Madge. “They have been kept fully informed of design developments and innovations, such as the movable concrete barrier, and their early buy-in has been very rewarding.”

An American mobile barrier system similar to that being proposed for the M1 scheme has already been seen on the UK road network. The new European system has needed testing to comply with collision loads and deflection criteria before gaining approval.

Better protection is not the only advantage this innovation offers, as MVM engineering manager Bruno Thet, observes: “The barrier can be transferred from one lane to another at a speed of up to six mph. This is particularly useful for night working when you can promptly take away a running lane, while just as quickly return it in time for the morning peak period. As the equipment lifts hinge linked blocks rather than dragging them, this causes no damage to the carriageway.”

Running the project on-line – within the existing land take – has done away with the necessity of a Public Enquiry. What it also means is that, almost exceptional for an ECI scheme, the project has no conventional phase 1A as such. This presents its own challenges and takes a steep learning curve into phase 1B.

Furthermore it demands some smart engineering to meet with demands for up to 23km of retaining walls and geotechnical work – all to the requirements of the environmental statement – in each direction.

“There are just a few slopes where we can regrade to the top of the bank,” says Madge. “In the main, we are fixed to using retaining walls. Learning from our French colleagues, we are incorporating pre cast solutions to minimise interference to road users.’

Time and cost savings are driving much if not all of the innovation between junctions 25 and 28. A series of pavement tests have already been planned by MVM and Gifford-WSP to identify where sections of the existing hard-shoulder can be retained and over laid rather than excavated and recycled. The French EME2 specification for base and binder courses, still new to the UK market but reflecting changes in pavement design standards, is also to be incorporated into the widening. Time for earthworks could be reduced by up to 30% using Vinci’s Elarex – a mobile hopper and conveyor belt on the body of an excavator, that also houses rollers for a synthetic geotextile membrane – to lay the road’s foundation.

For the underbridges to be widened, the initial illustrative design inherited by WSP-Gifford included demolition of all existing wing walls, lengthening the abutments and reconstructing new wing walls. But by cropping into the top of the existing wing walls and sitting new beams of variable length on the cropped wing walls, MVM will reduce the amount and the duration of the works.

A strong drive for ‘design for maintenance’ has also been given further impetus by this year’s new CDM regulations, says Madge. Solutions have been developed to eliminate potential for future risks, wherever possible, or minimise them where not.

“Stakeholders such as the HA’s East Midlands Managing Agent Contractor, AMScott, have been brought into the integrated project team,’ says Madge. “Understanding their requirements has enabled us to make changes accordingly and offer bespoke solutions. These include switching from central reservation to verge lighting on two sections between junctions 25 and 27 – a response that suits both the maintenance workforce and the road user.”

French engineering and technology has brought much in terms of innovation to this phase of the M1 widening scheme. “But,” says Thet, “I consider the collaborative approach here in the UK and the focus on an overriding objective – the progress of the project – extremely good. And there are many incentives in the ECI process for both contractor and designer to find effective solutions.”

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