The 12th November 2020 will go down in Phi Group folklore as the day the largest ever single project undertaken by Phi Group was complete. The A465 Heads of the Valley Section 2 Gilwern to Brynmawr, working for Costain has been an incredible project, and one which we are incredibly proud to be involved with.
The A465, near Abergavenny, has been home to our Works Manager Jamie Knill for over 3 years, admittedly with some breaks in between which he wasn’t keen on, so it was only fitting that he placed the last spade full of top soil into the front face of our Textomur system.
The last structure to be completed was RW14, which is over 950m long and with a face area of over 10,000m2.
In total we have designed, supplied and installed over 24,250m² of retaining walls, the majority of which are supporting the new dual carriageway, and are using our Textomur reinforced soil system. The construction of these reinforced soil slopes involved the placement and compaction of 300,000 tonnes of fill material, over half-million square metres of Paragrid (enough to cover 120 football pitches) delivered by our valued supply chain partner Maccaferri. The site team ranged in size from between 5-50 Phi Group operatives, depending on the number of walls we were building. We were supported in these efforts by Ivor Thomas Plant Hire who supplied plant in the form of 20 tonnes excavators and ADTs.
Thanks to all our site personnel for all their efforts to complete 24 walls, through a wettest summer, snowiest winter, driest summer, and finally completing it through the Covid-19 pandemic.
