Ikea, Newcourt Way

Main contractor McLaughlin & Harvey Construction Ltd awarded Aarsleff Ground Engineering the contract to supply and install the soil nailed wall to support the construction of a new IKEA store in Exeter, just off Newcourt Way near Sandy Park.

Soil nailing has the benefit of a top down construction method and therefore was deemed to be the smartest solution to allow the development to progress without significant loss of usable land.

The land, which has a total of 115,882.00sq metre area, is bound to the South by a residential construction site and current residential development.

To provide a level platform on which to construct the new IKEA store, Aarsleff cut into an existing slope 424m long and 9.8m high. Testing was carried

out in advance of the main works to include the install and test of 6No test nails between 5m and 8m long.

Aarsleff installed 1081no 32mm hollow self-drilling soil nails with a sacrificial drill bit to a 70° slope made up of Dawlish Sandstone, faced with a structural steel mesh cladded with a facing mesh and filled with a graded hardwearing local stone. The nails were installed with Aarsleff’s own Klemm 806 drill rig.