Page 300 - 2018 DIGITAL BROCHURE

Hurst Brook

The Hurst Brook which carries water from the Pennine hills passes through Glossop town centre.

During the construction of the Town Hall, in the 18th Century, it was decided to Culvert a length of the river to
extend the market place and provide a space for parking. The Culvert was constructed using masonry sidewalls
with a brick arch crown section. The structure was then backfilled.

Subsequent to this a sewage pipe was placed in the river channel with manhole connections in two places along
the culvert length. During a recent storm one of these manholes, in the centre of the culvert, became dislodged
bringing with it a section of the masonry sidewall. This instability lead to an area of the car park being fenced off
and a requirement for a repair to the culvert lining.

 Pollution of the watercourse
 Problems with access
 Lack of details of the existing structure
 Changes to the river flow
 Risk of further collapse

High Peak Council asked Derby City Council Water Management Engineers to prepare a scheme for the reme-
dial works. The final solution was a team effort involving input from the following parties:
 Whitehouse Construction, as Facility
Managers and Main Contractor Special-
ist Engineering Services Contracting
Division, as specialist Sub-Contractor
 Natural Cement Distribution, as spe-
cialist material supplier.

 The use of natural material avoiding the
use of potentially harmful construction
chemicals
 The use of bagged materials, which
could be easily stored on site and
transported to the job site

The key features included:

A brief description of the method was as follows. SES formed a project team involving John Shone as Project Engi-
neer and Colin Cook as Site Manager. Access was made to the culvert by forming a ramp at the downstream end.
Bunds were also formed in the river channels.A temporary island was formed adjacent to the damaged section
using stone filled IBC bags. The dry shotcrete machine was placed onto this island and bagged NATCEM 430F
transported to the site in dump trucks. The blockwork was removed from the top working downwards. As each
section was removed the area was secured with a layer of NATCEM 430F. This material contains Bekaert Dramix
30.5 steel fibres at the rate of 30kgs per cubic metre.

This provided initial primary support to the lining above and prevented any unravelling of the loose fill behind.
On completion the secondary lining was sprayed back to the original tunnel profile.
The work was safely completed and the car park fully re-opened ready for the Christmas Market.