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SockFix grouted anchors secure sluice wall

Client:	Environment Agency
Location:	South Ferriby, Lincolnshire
Structural Engineers:	J N Bentley
Approved Installer:	Peter Cox Ltd
Reference No:	CS199

The South Ferriby Sluice is part of a lock located where the New River Ancholme joins the Humber Estuary. Over 150 years old and protected as a Scheduled Monument, it is constructed from block stone.

Its side wall, which separates the sluice from the Humber, was showing signs of outward displacement of blocks suspected of being caused by the continual pressure of the estuary’s tidal actions.

Engineers required a reliable cost-effective solution that would stabilise the wall and prevent any further movement of the stone bocks.

The Helifix Solution

A repair scheme was devised, using Helifix grout-filled sock anchors, SockFix, with their concealed installation techniques. With restricted access, due to the tidal movement, installation had to be undertaken from special pontoons.

â— To secure the displaced stone blocks 15 x 2m long SockFix anchors were installed both vertically and horizontally into the backup blocks.

â— Clearance holes were diamond-drilled vertically down through the displaced row of stone blocks and into the stonework beneath. The SockFix anchors were then inserted into the pre-drilled holes before being carefully inflated with SockFix cementitious grout. Under a consistent pressure flow the anchors fill, expanding into the holes, filling any small voids and allowing the grout to seep through the sock mesh forming a chemical bond with the stone work.

â— Part of the retained diamond-drilled stone cores were bonded back into the holes after installation of the anchors to create an almost invisible repair.

Once the concealed repairs were completed the sluice wall, with protected status, was left fully secured but visibly unaltered. The works caused minimal disruption and all repairs were efficiently completed in just two weeks.