myGeobrugg
Initial situation
The Gobbins Cliff Path was created by an Irish railway engineer called Berkeley Deane Wise and was designed and built as a tourist attraction for the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway Company. The path was first opened to the public in 1902 and provides breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape, including up to 60 metres high basalt cliffs above, the Irish Sea to the east and a host of engineering achievements, cave systems and wildlife that call the cliffs home.
Following several stages of closure and reopening during its history due to economic changes and damage to structures, plans were announced in 2011 to reopen The Gobbins. A series of 15 new bridges and six new galley structures were constructed between 2014-15 before a reopening via guided tour in 2015.
As The Gobbins is exposured to the Irish Sea to the east it is under regular threat of weathering in particular storm damage; the blocky nature of the basalt cliffs above meant that in certain areas along the path, rockfall became a health and safety risk that needed mitigating without compromising the natural beauty of the cliffs.
Description
Red Rock Geoscience acted as a designer on behalf of the council to undertake a cliff stabilisation and rockfall analysis of the one-mile-long path. Following a detailed investigation and cliff inspection, a solution of localised areas of meshing and rock bolting along with a series of catch fences was decided on to mitigate and reduce the risk to the path below.
The remediation works also included large-scale scaling of the cliffs above to remove loose material which may pose a rockfall risk in the future, these scaling works and inspections are now carried out annually on the basalt cliffs.
The rockfall barrier used across the site was the Geobrugg RXE-500-LA.
Vertical Technology was the contractor responsible for installing the remediation measures with bespoke airbags required over footbridges to ensure structures were protected during scaling works.
Throughout the design and installation process, Geobrugg worked with both Red Rock Geoscience and Vertical Technology to ensure the rockfall barrier designed and installed met the requirements on site.
Customer
Engineering
Contractor
Protected object
Touristic infrastructure
Corrosion protection
Galvanized
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