The AIL team has been busy in recent months installing our MSE Retaining Wall System in a key part of a major Highway 104 upgrade project in Nova Scotia — the long-awaited Antigonish Bypass. As the first structure tendered, the Beech Hill Road grade separation structure is a high-visibility site.
Meeting structural and aesthetic demands with ease
Aesthetic considerations were expressed early in the design, leading to the choice of the Precast Panel Wall System with Ashlar Stone finish on the panels. This system uses precast panels with galvanized steel wire mats to reinforce a retained soil mass. Technically sound and well-proven, the system is composed of alternating layers of soil reinforcement and select backfill to create an extremely stable reinforced structure that is easily adaptable to meet the structural and aesthetic demands of today’s infrastructure projects.
With the first panel shipment in early October 2009, the overpass abutments progressed steadily through the fall. Prior to Christmas, the contractor placed the last panels for the season, which included the full front faces of both east and west abutments and substantial sections of the skewed wing walls (up to grade) to permit winter site work for the bridge structures themselves.
