M6 Extention - Carlisle to Guardsmill

Carillion Piling was awarded the contract to improve and extend the M6 by upgrading the A47 and building a bridge crossing the River Esk and a viaduct over West Coast Main Line. The A47 passes through a large bog at the point where it crosses the railway.

Carillion Piling was awarded the contract to provide piles to support a new bridge over the West Coast main railway line at Guardsmill in Cumbria. This new bridge is to enable the road to be up-graded from the A74 to the M6. Carillion Piling constructed 144 piles of 1500mm diameter and 1150 of 510mm diameter. These piles were to provide foundations for the new bridge over the Main West Coast railway lines where the road and railway both pass through a bog.

Piling work had to be arranged so that flow of both road and rail traffic could continue safely while piling was in progress. All of the piles were constructed using non vibratory techniques due to the close proximity of the rail tracks on unstable ground. Carillion Piling introduced two significant innovations to this project to permit safe working of the piling rigs adjacent to the railway.

The first innovation was a specially design and constructed concrete beams to anchor the piling rigs and prevent them overturning in the event of a piling platform failure, the other was the introduction of sectional flight auger piles using the Bauer MG20 machines to construct embankment support piles close to the rail lines.

Client: Highways Agency
Piling rigs used: Bauer MG20, Mait HR180,
Casagrande B220
Contract value: £4.5m