Challenge
A busy retail park, built on a 3-6m deep landfill, had severe settlement across its 5,576m² car park and service areas, creating H&S risks. Traditional excavation was "inconceivable."
Solution
Geobear injected geopolymer resin at depths of 1m-2m to compact the unstable landfill material. A separate operation lifted a settled dock leveller by 150mm back to level.
Total area stabilised
Lift on the dock leveller
Project completion time
Parking bays restricted at a time
Woodfields Retail Park in Bury, a busy site with major stores like Tesco, was suffering from severe undulations. The access road, car park, and service areas, constructed in the 1990s on a former landfill tip, were all affected.
Settlement caused widespread "ponding" and created significant health and safety concerns, especially in the service yard.
Ground investigations confirmed the site was built on 3m-6m of "historical, random deep landfill." This non-homogenous and poorly compacted sub-base was causing non-linear settlement under load. The service yard dock levellers were unusable, and defective drainage lines were contributing to the problem.
The traditional solution—excavating the existing construction, replacing the deep fill, and re-surfacing—was "inconceivable" as it would shut down the busy retail park.
Geobear delivered a 5,576m² ground improvement solution with minimal disruption. For the car park and entrance roundabout, geopolymer resin was injected in a 1m horizontal grid pattern. The injection depth was predominantly 1m (to treat to 1.5m) but extended to 2m in weaker areas over the deep landfill to ensure compaction.
For the service yard, a different geopolymer material was used to lift a settled dock leveller. Injecting at 1m centres and monitoring with lasers, the unit was precisely raised by 150mm back to its datum level.
The entire large-scale project was completed in just seven weeks. The key benefit was the minimal disruption; treated areas were handed back immediately.
At any given time, only 6-12 parking bays were restricted, allowing the retail park to remain fully operational and shoppers to be "barely impacted." The success of the ground improvement was verified by the client using CBR testing.
Don't let unstable ground or settlement disrupt your business. Get a fast, non-disruptive solution.
