KSP is a simple, radical innovation that revolutionises 120 years of sheet piling practice. It uses sheet piles more efficiently to yield typical steel savings of 35% to 40% in standard cantilever walls, whilst guaranteeing dramatic productivity, environmental and sustainability benefits.
Many sheet pile walls are sized for driveability, using heavier sections than required structurally for the wall. KSP harnesses the surplus structural capacity by 'thinking laterally' to use pairs of Z section piles as "kings" with lighter, shorter Z piles or "intermediates" spanning horizontally between them. For further details, including options for water cut-offs, see the Technical page.
To date KSP has delivered:
To use KSP on your project, see Guidance to Users updated 15 July 2021 & new Permit to Use.
November 2024: Installation of KSP walls is currently well advanced or completed on the M25 Junction 10 Upgrade and on motorways across the Southern and Midlands sections of the National Highways network as part of the Smart Motorway Alliance programme. KSP also helped make valuable savings on major temporary works on parts of Balfour Beatty Vinci’s Midlands section of HS2.
May 2023: KSP walls are due to start shortly for slope stabilisation on both rail and highway applications, taking advantage of the important benefit that KSP facilitates groundwater flow.
2022: Saw completion of further KSP walls on the M1, M45 and M56 motorways.
31 August 2021: Correct Link to Technical Guidance Download reinstated (inadvertently re-directed in website upgrade of 28 July 2021).
July 2021: Installation of the last KSP wall on M4 Junctions 3 – 12 Smart Motorway marked completion of many kilometres of Smart Motorway KSP walls across the Highways England network. KSP walls are currently being designed for further schemes under the Smart Motorway Alliance programme.