CASE STUDY
‘TechAbutment®’ for elevated road at
BACKGROUND
Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd.
(MIAL), a joint venture between the
GVK and Airports Authority of India,
was awarded the mandate of
modernizing and upgrading Mumbai’s
Chhatrapati Shivaji International
Airport (CSIA) in February 2006.
MIAL appointed Larsen and Toubro
(L&T) for construction of this
prestigious project along with the
Sahar Elevated Access Road.
RECo India who has the experience of
working with largest number of
airports in India, was entrusted by L&T
as a specialized system provider for
construction of Terre Armee
(Reinforced Earth®) retaining walls in
the approaches of the elevated roads.
The Ramp – 3, down ramp towards M.
V. road was also under Reinforced
Earth India’s scope, this ramp was
crossing a 2 lane road leading to GVK
project office and adjoining locality.
There was no alternative route
available for this road. So a vehicular
underpass structure was proposed
within Ramp-3. However, considering
the accessibility issues the underpass
structure could not be constructed
with conventional cast-in-place
method. The road has to be kept open
to traffic 24x7.
Since RECo India was already present
in the project, they proposed to build
the underpass using Terre Armee® as
True Abutments (TechAbutment®).
where the slab is directly supported on
Terre Armee abutments. The proposal
Terminal-2, Mumbai International
Airport, India
Facia type: TerraClass®
Owner: Mumbai International
Airport Ltd.
Designer: Reinforced Earth India
Pvt. Ltd.
Contractor: Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
Construction: Dec -2012 - Nov 2013
was evaluated by its merit by L&T and
MIAL before it was accepted by both.
SOLUTION
In the detailed design process, RECo
India used the in-house technical
®
know-how to design the Terre Armee
®
TechAbutment using High Adherence
Galvanized Steel Strips as soil
reinforcement. Design was carried out
as per BS 8006-1995. Loading
considered were as per IRC (Indian
Road Congress) – 6 guidelines. Seismic
design was done based on French M.V. Road End View –A2
standards AFNOR NF-P 94-220.
Well graded fill material having angle
o
of internal friction (Ф)> 32 and unit
weight of soil (ϒ) = 21 kN/m and
3
seismic zone – III as per IS 1893 (Part-
I) were used.
CHALLENGE
In December 2012 the work was taken
up on M.V. road end – A2 side.
However, due to shifting of some
underground city utility at this portion,
the work was delayed and this ramp
was completed in June 2013. The
existing top 3.0m founding soil was M.V. Road End View-A1
unsuitable, which was replaced (2.0m
below pad level) with stone soling and
aggregates with stone dust by L&T. It
was done as a ground improvement
measure.
Post the monsoon, the work was
resumed on A1 side in Oct. 2013, like
A2 side ramp, ground improvement
 Engineering Drawings

measures were taken up on this OUTCOME PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS

ramp as well. The panel erection and
backfilling for this ramp were very  TechAbutment® is an economical ®
and time saving alternative to Structure TechAbutment
complex operations as there were
four walls forming box and conventional in-situ abutment ®
System TerraClass
movement of machinery for panel structures.
erection and backfilling was R.C.C. (1.5m x 1.5m x
extremely difficult due to limited  TechAbutment® structures offer Panel Type 0.18m)
excellent ride quality as compared
space available. Hence, it was
to conventional structures with Area 335.00m²
decided to install the panels with
rigid abutments and one end of
single crane from LHS and all the
approach slab resting on Max. Height 6.00m
compaction equipment were kept
embankment.
inside the ramp. The backfill material Design life 100 years
was delivered inside using buckets
attached to crane. The backfill  TechAbutment® structures offer
proposed on A1 side ramp was reduced foundation costs HA® Hot-dip
crushed stone which required compared to conventional Soil Reinforcement Galvanized Steel
relatively less compaction efforts. structures. Strips
The entire work was completed in
the month of November 2013.

SPECIAL FEATURES AND

ADVANTAGES

TechAbutment® allows construction

of approach ramps and the
underpass supports at the same time.
Thus, it optimizes the construction
time substantially and due to
reduction in consumption of
Concrete and Rebar quantity the
overall cost of the underpass
structure is also reduced.