Rehabilitation of Historical Murney Tower Counterscarp Wall, Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario
May to November, 1996

Murney Tower, built in 1846, is one of four historic Martello Towers in Kingston. The tower is surrounded by a moat supported by a counterscarp wall. Grouting was employed to remediate the existing, long-term degradation of the wall mortar and the fill behind the wall.

ECO assisted Public Works Canada with the design and supervision of a permeation grouting program, the objectives of which were to:

  • stabilize the wall and loose backfill behind the wall,
  • restore the condition of the pervious, deteriorated mortar,
  • cut off seepage through the structure and reduce frost damage.

Regular and microfine cement based grouts were used in the project to install a grout curtain surrounding the tower. Both real time monitoring and application of the Amenability Theory were employed to properly engineer the project.

At present, the wall and fill behind it are stable and show no evidence of heaving, shifting, or seepage.