Hazard Protection Solutions
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Keeping us safe with steel sheet piling solutions. Steel sheet piles help safeguard communities from natural disasters.
Dykes and flood protection barriers made of steel sheet piles are among the most efficient ways to protect against flooding and rising sea levels. Requiring minimal equipment, they can be easily installed, even in remote locations, with certified quality anywhere in the world. Dixeran® on-site declutching detectors ensure the integrity of the installation.
Flood Protection
Sheet pile walls can be used in a variety of ways for flood defence systems.
Possible applications include:
- When used as new protection structures, sheet piles can ensure: Watertightness, protection from dryness (weep holes), support, earth stabilization.
- For existing embankments, sheet piles provide increased strength.
- They are suitable for use in high seismic areas due to the intrinsic properties of steel (ductility, flexibility, and lighter structures with lower inertia).
- When space is limited (e.g., in ports or urban areas), sheet piles can form cantilever floodwalls.
- They are cost-effective, with a high speed of installation, immediate start, and short preparation period.
- Suitable for urban areas: vibratory sheet pile drivers cause less disturbance during installation (silent press equipment).
With a sheet pile wall, not only can an embankment be made watertight, but it can also be modified to hold back a larger design flood without requiring a greater footprint. This can be achieved by designing the sheet pile wall to project the requisite height above the crest.
When space is limited, such as in ports or urban areas, sheet pile walls can form freestanding floodwalls (small footprint), replacing flood embankments (large footprint).
Riverbank protection & dykes
Steel sheet pile walls can be used in various ways for riverbank protection and dykes. For new embankments, they ensure watertightness, support, and stabilisation. They are also used to strengthen existing embankments and can serve as a cut-off wall.
The required watertightness of sheet pile cut-offs is often achieved through the natural deposition of soil in the interlocks or with an additional sealing system.
For stability, sheet pile walls can be designed to mechanically reinforce the bank. Their flexibility is highly useful, as they accommodate potential soil displacement while maintaining full resistance.
Lastly, sheet pile walls can also protect buildings from subsidence. In this case, the sheet pile wall is driven outside the embankment, usually along the toe of the embankment.
