Sheet Pile Application: Floodwalls

Sheet pile is useful in the construction of both floodwalls and seawalls. Its role in these walls helps prevent damage to land areas and properties as a result of storm surge and flooding. Storm surge is caused by offshore winds that propel water upward against the coast when barometric pressure decreases. Seawalls help mitigate potential issues caused by storm surges. Flood walls are vertical barriers that are built to contain water in rivers or waterways that are prone to overflowing during heavy rain. They are an alternative to levees and dikes, and they are often cheaper and less time-consuming to construct.

In the cases of both seawalls and floodwalls, steel sheet pile is used to create the barriers that ultimately contain water from reaching areas where it could cause damage. Sheet pile is almost entirely impermeable and is an ideal material to use to build these walls. Sheet piles are often the main materials used in the construction of seawalls and floodwalls, unless concrete is used as well. The walls can be built of sheet piles entirely, though. If a wall needs to be particularly tall or if the scour needs to be deep, sheet piles can be attached to a secondary wall for support.

APPLICATIONS

Floodwalls made of sheet piles may be constructed around important facilities such as power plants, wastewater treatment plants, refineries, and other public utility compounds. Floodwalls around these facilities help prevent damage to them due to major storms and flooding so that the public does not have to do without utilities when they are needed most. Floodwalls to protect these facilities are often built to be able to contain at least 15 feet of water. If there is weak soil in the area, piles can be battered and placed on the interior of the wall for additional support, or a double wall can be used for added strength.

DOUBLE AND GRAVITY WALLS

Double walls are fairly simple to build. They make use of sheet piles to serve as a cutoff wall, which can reduce the amount of water that leaks beneath the wall. Double walls are often made using Z piles and have filled interiors. A double wall is commonly connected with a tie rod. An alternative to a double wall is a gravity wall. A gravity wall is composed of flat sheets of diaphragm or circular cells. Sheet piles used to build a gravity wall are often shorter than those used to build other types of walls. Gravity walls do not require any time of anchoring and are ideal for shallow, rocky ground areas.

T-WALLS

T-walls are a type of flood wall that is constructed of both reinforced concrete and steel sheet piles. This type of wall is popular in areas where extensive flood protection is needed, like New Orleans. The reinforced concrete serves as the primary material used to create the wall, and the steel sheet piles serve as a cut-off for the wall at its base. The sheet piles help prevent seepage beneath the wall. T-walls are particularly effective at applying loadings to deeper soil strata and being resilient in the event of overtopping. L-walls are an alternative to T-walls and another popular flood wall type. They differ from T-walls due to the fact that they use steel sheet piles to replace the reinforced concrete on the side of the wall that faces potential flooding.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As you can probably tell, sheet piles are essential to floodwalls and seawalls. Even if additional materials like reinforced concrete are required to build a wall, sheet piles are frequently necessary to the formation of cut-off walls to protect from seepage.

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