Premier Rail

Leeds Station

Leeds Station
Written by Roma Publications

Leeds Station Southern Entrance

Leeds Station

A brand new entrance has opened at Leeds Station, creating better access to one of the UK’s busiest stations. The new entrance, known as the Leeds Station Southern Entrance (LSSE) is situated across from the River Aire and has been designed to last the test of time.

The LSSE encompass a concourse deck over the River Aire within a visually striking enclosed building. Built by Carillion Rail for clients Network Rail and West Yorkshire Combined Authority, the addition of open link span bridges provide direct stepped access from this concourse to the east and west banks of the river.

In order to form the concrete foundations of the structure, specialist contractor Martello Piling sunk steel tubes into the river bed in front of the bridge bases with 360m³ of Hanson concrete containing Sika PilePak inserted into these tubes. Ideal for difficult piling conditions, the Sika PilePak was used to ensure consistency and workability of the concrete over a prolonged amount of time, to avoid any concrete problems at any one pile position.

Stephen Armfield, Product Development Manager at Sika, commented:

“The environmental extremes of having to place concrete into a river were particularly challenging on this project. Requiring high quality concrete and specialist kit including special pumps as well as commercial divers ensured the critical path of these foundations was a success.”

Pre-cast sections of concrete were then used to create the sides and ‘nose’ of the structure, protecting the brick bases. 152m³ of Hanson concrete containing Sika UCS Pak, a specialist underwater admixture, was then placed in the centre of the structure. The structure was filled up with fresh concrete between the pre-cast segments, which forced any remaining water out.

Utilised for the production of underwater concrete and meeting the requirements of BS 8443, Sika UCS Pak prevents the wash out of the cement paste and increases the cohesion of the concrete. Sika UCS Pak is packaged in water soluble bags to enable ease of addition on site.

The use of Sika Admixtures in the underwater concrete foundations ensured the success of one of the most critical elements of the infrastructure developments, and allowed the LSSE to open on schedule in January 2016.

Sika Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sika AG, a global company based in Switzerland specialising in the manufacture and supply of chemical based products for construction and industry. A global-leader in its field with subsidiaries in over 80 countries, 16,000 employees, and annual sales of CHF 4.8 billion (£3.3bn), Sika is dedicated to delivering quality, service, safety and consideration to the environment.

 

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Roma Publications