The developer needed to build both acoustic and retaining walls for the subdivisions of a master planned community in Southwest Sydney. As a provider of complete turnkey packages, the developer wanted to install walls that would be aesthetically pleasing and look just as good in reality as in their marketing materials. The acoustic performance of the wall was also critical, given that the residential community is situated on a traffic-heavy main road.
In order to save money and space, the developer turned to the GuardianWall provided by ModularWalls to create a single structure that fulfils both acoustic and retaining wall functions. The creation of separate acoustic and retaining walls would have incurred far higher building costs for the developer. They would have also consumed a far greater amount of land, which translates into significant losses in terms of squandered property space.
The benefits of combining acoustic and retaining walls
The developers of the residential community managed to avoid this problem and save money on multiple fronts via the adoption of a single seamless wall design. The finished wall runs for a distance of 280 lineal metres, and ranges in height from 2.2 to 4.4 metres.
It uses the TerraFirmX panels to incorporate retaining functions into an acoustic noise wall solution, enabling it to withstand a load of 5 kPa active soil pressure and 10 kPa vertical surcharge loading. The enhanced sound insulation afforded by the AcoustiMax panel ensures that residents of the master planned community will remain undisturbed by rising traffic levels on the Northern Road. In addition to saving on construction land space and costs, the seamless integrated wall design also provided the developer with a clean, aesthetically desirable appearance.
ModularWalls’ retaining solutions stylishly integrate the retaining wall and fence or boundary wall in one seamless design, providing a consistent and visually appealing outcome. Additionally, the walls can be used as stand-alone retaining solutions, providing an easy-to-install and eye-pleasing retaining wall alternative to traditional brick walls. View more examples of our retaining walls in our gallery.