The team is currently on site preparing to install a secant wall to form the launch chamber from which a specialist mining contractor will sink the intermediate shaft. The secant wall, consisting of 44 rotary bored piles with a diameter of 1200mm, will be drilled to a depth of 20m.
Following the completion of the wall, Bachy Soletanche’s geotechnics division will construct a grout curtain to help facilitate the excavation of the intermediate shaft. The low permeable barrier, commencing 15m below the ground level, will be installed to a depth of 160m, forming a ‘dry shaft’ below the secant wall.
Currently under construction near Whitby, the state-of-the-art underground mine will target the extraction of polyhalite, a unique type of potash and a multi-nutrient fertilizer, which will be transported on a conveyor belt along a 23-mile tunnel to Teesside for processing and shipping.
