Reinforced Earth is delivering innovative precast concrete and reinforced earth retaining wall solutions designed and manufactured with local communities and the environment in mind.
Known for its expertise in geotechnical engineering solutions such as precast, rockfall nets and barriers, geosynthetics and reinforced soils structures, Reinforced Earth is also mindful to deliver work that enhances communities and places.
Riccardo Musella, Reinforced Earth Managing Director, says a lot of Reinforced Earth’s projects go a long way towards creating new spaces for communities.
Design that Uplifts and Inspires
One such example is its work on the Drysdale Bypass in Victoria. The completed six-kilometre bypass between Jetty Road and Whitcombes Road is helping to reduce congestion and increase safety on the Bellarine Peninsula. Reinforced Earth was tasked with providing full height precast concrete walls panels and working with the contractor to deliver a retaining wall face for a pedestrian underpass that was interesting and thought-provoking for the young community.
After extensive community feedback and consultation, local school students played a crucial role in the final design, by choosing the inspirational words now etched into the wall.
The uplifting words cast into the walls, include “believe and achieve”, “dream”, “inspire”, “be yourself”, “smile”, and “be the difference”, and were chosen by students from St Thomas Primary School, St Ignatius College and Bellarine Secondary College.
Musella says it’s projects such as this that ensure that transport infrastructure is not just functional but also visually appealing, while providing an opportunity to establish a strong sense of place and community ownership.
Artistic Precast Panels with Cultural Significance
At Geelong’s Barwon Heads, Reinforced Earth designed and supplied 811 TerraPlus® precast concrete wall facing panels, totalling 2905 m2. Each precast wall panel was enhanced with a bespoke architectural design in rich ochre coloured concrete. The designs and colour reflect the lands and rich cultural heritage of the surrounding Wadawurrung Country. The design, using just two liners rotated to create four different patterns, integrates art into infrastructure, while honouring local Traditional Owners. The panels, featuring vertically broken boomerang flanks, were designed by the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (WTOAC) and finished in an earthy tone reflecting the region’s soils.
Another notable project was Reinforced Earth’s works on the Mitchell Freeway Extension with Main Roads WA, specifically the Butler Boulevard underpass. Local Aboriginal artists Nathan Corunna and Darren Hutchens painted murals over the top of Reinforced Earth’s precast structural culvert. These murals depicted the lakes and swamps in the boodja (land) between Yanchep and Joondalup in Western Australia. This mural is known as Booladarlung Bidi (Pelican tracks).
Such engagement is a big focus of Reinforced Earth’s projects, as Musella explains.
“We have solutions that deal with the mitigation of noise, that aim to not deter from the natural environment and also limit the carbon footprint,” he says. “Our solutions have been developed to cater for geotechnical constraints and we can customise our designs and solutions to respond to what the community desires.
“A big focus of ours is also maximising space for the local community. We’ve had projects where we’ve looked at changing the route to enable the provision of more public space. It’s a really good feeling to be able to drive past one of our projects and know we contributed.”
Creating Public Spaces
The award-winning Ovingham Level Crossing Removal Project in Adelaide, South Australia, is a premier example of how infrastructure can provide new safe and visually appealing public spaces for local communities. The project was the first infrastructure project in Australia to use Reinforced Earth’s TechWall™ system, the precast concrete retaining wall supports the new bridge, while the versatile facing panels were customised with an architectural finish, and also provided a backdrop for the installation of vibrant local artworks.
Reinforced Earth also prioritises the use of local material suppliers wherever possible. Musella says there’s a detectable sense of pride each time the team completes a community-focused project.
“We feel as though we are an integral part of the community. After all, about 90 per cent of the work that we do is done for the community,” he says.
“It’s not just building a bridge or a retaining wall, it’s about designing our projects in a way that can benefit not only local people, but also local wildlife. We know how to design our project to be as sustainable and community friendly as possible.”
To find out more about our Reinforced Earth geotechnical and precast solutions, offices and regional manufacturing sites contact your local Reinforced Earth Australia office.
Discover more about Reinforced Earth’s precast solutions (RECO Precast).
This excerpt is based on an article that was originally published in an article in the September 2024 edition of Road & Infrastructure magazine. To read the magazine, click here.
