Engineering support for the UK’s largest mine infilling project

URS provided testing, validation and advice to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) for the Northwich Mines project, the UK’s largest mine infilling project.

Northwich lies at the union of the rivers Weaver and Dane and is the most northerly of the ‘wich’ or salt extraction towns in Cheshire, United Kingdom. Beneath the Northwich town centre remained four abandoned salt mines, which caused a planning moratorium on development.

The HCA, England’s national housing and regeneration delivery agency, funded a project to remedy the impact of the four salt mines.

URS helped the client-group, the HCA and local authorities, and the design-and-build contractor to understand the technical issues related to grouting operations, testing of infill material and post-completion validation. 

This project presented a tremendous engineering challenge and the specialist advice on grouting and investigatory methods provided by URS assisted the HCA to understand the technical aspects.

The advice also helped inform the decision-making process for further project funding as well as validating the completed stabilisation work. The verification process was important for HCA to demonstrate that their investment had unlocked the regeneration potential of Northwich town centre and kick-started its major redevelopment.

Completion of this groundbreaking and award-winning stabilisation project in 2008 enabled a planning moratorium on the town centre to be lifted. This facilitated a major urban regeneration initiative, releasing £300 million of private sector investment, with the creation of 1000 new, high-quality residential units and 2000 jobs.