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The Thirlmere aqueduct was constructed over 110 years ago to provide water from the Lake District (in
the north-west of England) to the city of Manchester some 60 miles (100 km) away. The aqueduct remains,
to this day, a key piece of infrastructure in the distribution of raw water in the north-west of England.
A short section of the aqueduct was identified as being in poor condition during routine inspections
by the owner. Subsequent investigations attributed the conduit damage to the movement of unstable
ground over the conduit. Bachy Soletanche Ltd was subsequently appointed to carry out the design
and construction of the slope stabilisation works and to undertake repairs inside the damaged
conduit. The works were undertaken on an existing slope which, in places stands at a gradient of up
to 40 to the horizontal. Strict limitations on plant and equipment were imposed by the client (United
Utilities) to ensure that slope and conduit loading and associated vibrations were kept to an absolute
minimum during construction. An intensive instrumentation system was installed to monitor surface
movements, ground movements at depth, conduit movement and strains across existing planes of
weaknesses within the conduit. The solution comprised the installation of spaced piles up-slope and
down-slope of the conduit. Restrictions were imposed on the minimum stand-off distance between
the outside face of the conduit and the piling works so targeted permeation grouting was undertaken
to improve the connection between the conduit and the down-slope piles. The presence of existing
sub conduit groundwater flows was suspected and the permeation grouting was focused in areas to
minimize disruption to the groundwater regime.
The paper presents the basis of the design and highlights the combined construction and instrumentation
methods adopted to minimise damage to this valuable asset.
INTRODUCTION
The Thirlmere Aqueduct supplies water
from the Lake District to Manchester. It was
constructed in the 19th century and consists
of single line tunnel, conduit sections and large
diameter cast iron and steel pipe sections. Pipe
siphons convey the aqueduct across numerous
valleys, Hill (1896).
Nab Scar conduit is a 50m (164 ft) length
of aqueduct conduit linking two aqueduct
rock tunnels. It is situated on a steep hillside
above Rydal Village, north of Ambleside. A
photograph taken during the construction of
a rock tunnel portal in the area of Nab Scar is
shown in Fig. 1 and view of the existing Nab
Scar hillside is shown in Fig. 2.
The purpose of the project was to stabilise the
conduit section of the Thirlmere Aqueduct at
Nab Scar and to undertake internal concrete
repairs during a 4-week Outage period during
the autumn of 2009.
HISTORY
Approximately 3m
of weathered rock
2170mm
Approximately 5m of backfilled
tunnel waste rock
2170mm
Approximately 3m
of weathered rock
Volcanic Tuff rock
GROUND CONDITIONS
The ground conditions comprised a variable
thickness of Made Ground of up to 5m
thickness over completely weathered rock (up
to 3m (10 ft) thickness) over moderately strong
Volcanic Tuff. See Fig. 5.
RESTRICTIONS
SELECTED SOLUTION
REQUIREMENTS
175mOD
Low flow
cement grout
170mOD
Grout injection
pipes and
permeation
grout zone
165mOD
Rock
postulated
'infinite' slope
failure plane
160mOD
3m
155mOD
6.5m
rock
socket
varies
150mOD
40
6.5m
40
3m
145mOD
0m
10m
20m
30m
2.5m
40m
50m
Slope stability
sat
w
unit weight of water
angle of friction
cohesion
c
depth to slip surface, z
depth to groundwater surface, zw
slope length, l
Restoring force parallel to slope, H
For, F =
w
unit weight of water
angle of friction
cohesion
c
depth to slip surface, z
depth to groundwater surface, zw
20 kN/m
3
10 kN/m
45
34
0
2.5
1
kPa
m
m
45
2.5
m = (z-zw)/z
0.6
m = fraction from 0 to 1 (=1 for ground water at slope surface)
F=
1.04
kPa
m
m
m
kN per m
0.785 radians
0.593 radians
[FIG. 10] Finite slope equation re-written to include slope restoring force term
where:
sat
45
34
0
2.5
1
38
250
m = (z-zw)/z
0.6
m = fraction from 0 to 1 (=1 for ground water at slope surface)
The factor of safety, F, against translation slip failure is given by the equation below for an
infinite slope with seepage parallel to ground surface and where ground water is not at
the surface of slope
F = [c/(sat.z.sin.cos)]+[(sat-w.m)/sat].[tan/tan]
20 kN/m
3
10 kN/m
Compression C
Tension T
Lateral H
[TABLE 1] Comparison of structural frame and elastic continuum model for 2m spacing (500kN slope
resistance)
Tension pile
force
Compression pile
force
Calculated
resultant lateral
deflection
Individual pile
bending moment
/ & shear force
541kN
628kN
10mm
Not available
531kN
635kN
11.1mm
27kNm / 20kN
Analysis ref
Value
10.5mm
Compression
422 kN in each
vertical pile
Tension
623 kN in each
raking pile
Lateral
18 kN in all piles
663 kNm
1.5
8.7
Pile cap
A pile cap design was undertaken to ensure
that the piles are adequately anchored into
the pile cap and that the piles cap can resist
the calculated moments. The resulting pile cap
detail is shown in Fig. 12.
[TABLE 4] Summary of peak pile forces and moments to be resisted (based on up-slope pile frames only
which are the most critical case).
Analysis mechanism
Tension pile
force
Compression pile
force
Pile
cap moment*
541kN
628kN
531kN
635kN
27kNm / 20kN
784kNm
623kN
422kN
25kNm / 18kN
663kNm
8.7kNm / 23kN
* the pile cap moment is fixing moment calculated by the Piglet program to ensure zero rotation at the head of the
piles in the fixed head condition.
DFI JOURNAL Vol. 5 No. 1 June 2011 [35]
Instrumentation database
170mOD
Key
175mOD
Hillside surface
monitoring point
Automated
surveying total
station
Vertical in place
inclinometer
150mOD
Ground surface
contour
165mOD
Buried conduit
Rock
Outcrop
155mOD
160mOD
Strain gauges
attached inside the
conduit across
exisitng cracks
External conduit
monitoring point
150mOD
145mOD
1900
spurious data
gauge knocked
inside conduit
1400
reference gauge
away from works
900
400
-100
-600
-1100
17.3.10 19.4.10
-1600
18.6.10
20.8.10
15.10.10
-2100
15.12.10
25.2.11
gauge SG3
-2600
19/09/09
20/11/09
21/01/10
24/03/10
25/05/10
26/07/10
26/09/10
27/11/10
28/01/11
Date
Start on site
completion of
down slope piles
& perm. grouting
completion of up
slope piles
automatic monitoring
[FIG. 16] Post site works survey results for points fixed to the
roof of the conduit and extended above ground level
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to our client, United Utilities for
letting us undertake this work for them and
subsequently allowing us to share the results
with the wider community by allowing us to
publish our work. Thanks to United Utilities
engineer, MWH, for working closely with us
during the works, and thanks to the dedicated
site team who completed this challenging
project in this challenging environment. Specific
mention goes to Ruth Webster, Andy Tucker,
Paul Doyle and Graham Cassidy.
REFERENCES
1. Carder, D. R. and Temporal, J. (2000). TRL
Report 466. A review of the use of spaced
piles to stabilise embankments and cutting
slopes.
2. Elson, W.K. (1984). Design of laterally-loaded
piles, CIRIA Report 103
3. Gallagher, E., Kitchen, R., Eddleston, M. and
Kavanagh, P. (2009). United Utilities Water
plc, Thirlmere Aqueduct, Nab Scar Conduit
Geotechnical Summary Report June 2009.
Unpublished document.