Stabilisation of Combe Down stone mines, Somerset, UK

Abstract

Two centuries of mining Bath limestone in Somerset, UK left a huge underground void just beneath the village of Combe Down. As its thousands of rock pillars degenerated, a growing collapse risk led to one of the country's largest local government civil engineering projects of the past decade. This paper explains how Bath and North East Somerset Council worked closely with the local community to develop a solution which involved carefully pumping over 600 000 m3 of foamed concrete into the mine with minimal social and environmental impact. The project also set several new good-practice benchmarks for public-sector construction.