#Product Trends
Innovation in lightweight backfill
The Nidaplast RA: the draining and resistant solution
The project : Create a road access for a new shopping center.
Located at the junction of two major French motorways (A63 - Bayonne / Spain and A64 - Bayonne / Toulouse), a new commercial space of regional scope was to be established on a land of more than 12 hectares. Composed of the Swedish giant Ikea, a Carrefour hypermarket and more than 80 shops, this center plans to welcome more than 8 million visitors each year.
It is in this context that a road should be created. Flooding was a problem because the site was in a particularly marshy area and close to the Adour, the river of the Aquitaine basin.
Particular attention was therefore paid to the choice of materials for the construction of this new road.
The solution : A perfectly draining honeycomb structure.
The French group of Public Works GUINTOLI, in charge of road works, installed the Nidaplast RA blocks with alveolar structures instead of the traditional embankment to achieve access to the commercial activities area.
780 m3 of Nidaplast RA blocks were installed in the lower part of the embankment in order to avoid a subsidence of the soil, making it possible to reduce the load applied to the highly compressible soil frequently undergoing groundwater rising.
The honeycomb structure is particularly well suited to the problems associated with drainage and wetland installation.
Thanks to its high vacuum rate (95%), the alveolar structure allows the vertical drainage of the water. The Nidaplast RA blocks are a simple, fast and economical solution to implement. Their bulk density of 32 to 44 kg / m3 is 50 times less than that of conventional fill.
A product adapted to different fields of application
The applications of lightweight fill are not limited to road embankments.
It is applied as a bridge abutment, as a retaining wall to remove most of the stresses caused by the earth's thrust. It avoids landslides on unstable slopes. It also limits the vertical and lateral forces exerted on a structure ...
In landscape applications, the lightweight fill is used to create spaces, for example on concrete slabs, creating light and draining volumes (it was the case for the development of the new "Jardin des Halles" in Paris)
