Contractors working on a flagship restoration project in Leicester City Centre have found a new way to support an historical building. Alfred McAlpine are currently working on the ‘Magazine Gateway’, a circa 1440 medieval gateway added to Leicester Casle.

They manually installed 2.5 metre lengths of full pan pile into pre-dug workings around the monument, to protect the foundations of the building whilst they worked on the water systems.

Once the piling had been installed it was covered with a plastic membrane for added protection, before trenches were backfilled, leaving the piling permanently in position.

Mark Sims of HL Plastics said: “We’re delighted that Alfred McAlpine decided to use Plastic Piling from HL Plastics in such a significant construction project; and we’re very pleased that the contractors have found yet another use for the product.”

He added: “Contractors specify Plastic Piling from HL Plastics because it’s more cost effective than steel, it doesn’t rot or rust, it’s resistant to chemicals, it can be easily cut – making it easier to handle and install in tight spaces or difficult to access areas; and once installed its maintenance free.”

With extensive knowledge and experience in the manufacture of Plastic Piling, HL Plastics can supply products in a variety of lengths, all of which are manufactured and distributed direct from their UK factory. The extensive range of piling products can be used across a number of different applications, dependent on strength, ease of installation and type of appearance required.

Typical uses of Plastic Piling from HL Plastics include riverbank, stream, pond, lake and reservoir bank retention and restoration, fishing lake and fish farm bank reinforcements, blocking of ditches in peat bogs and other nature reserve situations, general bank retention, trench sheeting, permanent shuttering, highway applications, and non-piling applications including soil boxes, railway ballast retention and compost containers.