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Enquire: www.dcep.co.uk Tel: 01630 673000 Fax: 01630 673247 Email: dce@directcontact.demon.co.uk Post: use the Enquiry Sheet Gabions. The Stone Age Future


CPD Specifier takes a look at Gabions and how their strength and simplicity have helped them become a familiar sight throughout the country


This bold, hard landscape scheme at Brunel University, West London, uses a sweeping terrace of Gabion units filled with blue Welsh Slate


For over a hundred years, Gabions have been a feature of the UK’s industrial landscape. These simple, stone filled wire baskets have been used by civil engineers and contractors to stabilise vulnerable embankments, build retaining structures, line fast flowing watercourses and prevent coastal erosion.


Gabions are a familiar sight on our road network where their simplicity, durability and speed of construction have made them the default material where carriageway widening is required and embankments need to be cut back to accommodate additional traffic lanes, overhead gantries and so on.


Their physical mass and open, free draining composition gives them enormous structural strength and resistance to hydrostatic (water) pressures.


From an aesthetic perspective, their use of usually locally sourced fill material - typically off-cuts of quarried stone or slate, make Gabions a natural choice in areas of environmental sensitivity.


Gabions originated in Italy and were invented by the parent company of Oxford based geotechnical specialists Maccaferri. In colloquial Italian, Maccaferri literally translates as ‘worker of iron’ and directly relates the company to its wire-working heritage. Maccaferri has held the original patent since the 1890’s and is the World’s biggest producer.


Today’s Maccaferri Gabion is a rectangular qire mesh box, nominally 2.0m x 1.0m x 1.0m, made from double twisted hexagonal mesh of steel wire. A simple design which has stood the test of time and which has changed relatively little over the years. They are also BBA Roads and Bridges Certified with a recommended design life of at least 120 years.


These mesh boxes are delivered to site flat-packed, where they are assem- bled and filled with stone. Their modular nature means that they can be used


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in a wide range of applications and configurations and the woven units can also be easily altered on site and shaped to suit project requirements.


For architectural applications such as cladding and free standing structures, a more rigid, heavy-gauge, welded wire mesh is typically specified.


Despite more than 100 years of familiarity with the Gabion, it is encouraging to see that new and highly original uses are still being found for this simple, functional, ecologically sound and visually appealing product.


At Brunel University in West London, a bold, hard landscape scheme for the Eastern Gateway building incorporates Gabion walls around a seating and short-term car parking area. The sweeping terrace of Gabion units, filled with blue Welsh Slate, creates a stunning transition from the upper, parking/ seating area, to one of the University’s access roads some 2.0m below.


A very high level of detail finish was achieved with carefully mitred corners and tight radii, which show off the subtle graining of the slate infill to good effect. A face area of over 400sqm of Gabions was specified by designers, Architeknik and built by Maccaferri Construction, Maccaferri’s specialist installation subsidiary.


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