Crofton Diving recently served as a subcontractor repairing a steel sheet pile bulkhead at an industrial plant located on a commercial waterway. The total length of the bulkhead was 926 feet and the waterline levels ranged from 4 to 14 feet. The original bulkhead construction consisted of PZ-35 or Frodingham 4N steel sheet piles. Lewis Myers (Superintendent) and crew began their efforts with an underwater investigation to identify any obstructions that would prevent the new sheet pile repair system from being installed. The existing sheet pile bulkhead would be repaired using the SPiRe® system, which consists of engineered panels made with fiber reinforced products (FRP). This stay-in-place chemical resistant system will protect the commercial waterway from chemical leaks from the industrial plant’s containment area or retention pond. A sample system was constructed and tested at the QuakeWrap Inc. headquarters first, and again at Crofton’s facility in Portsmouth to calculate productivity rates and to be sure that it met specifications. David Mrowiec, P.E., principal engineer shared that “as a result of the field mock ups, we were able to collaborate with our client to develop an innovative custom diver tooling which increased production by about 150 feet while maintaining a high level of safety.” Read full article in PileBuck Magazine here.
Watch this video to learn more about the SPiRe system.
