Newhaven Eastside Port Access Road
The Eastside Port Access Road at Newhaven, conceived in the late 1990’s, was part of the Ouse Valley Wetlands scheme, both providing a cut-off to this new wildlife area and an approximate new 1km of ‘A’ graded trunk road across barren farmland. This will eventually lead to a bridge and a new port area for Newhaven. The site presented particularly challenging ground conditions with a mixture of marine shingles and soft alluvial mud where the meandering river has changed course over the years, before it was hardened up in its present position.
The Port Access Road required tidal ground water to be dealt with and very low ground bearing pressures for the various structures required for the road. A bridge structure over an extension to the main wetlands feeder stream needed to be built on especially widened spread footings with lightweight fill to reduce pressures. The initial scheme was designed to British Standards but with construction starting in 2012, required redesign to Eurocode standard.