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Technical Services
Worthing Borough Council
Portland House
Worthing
West Sussex
BN11 1HS - 01903 221069
- pfm@worthing.gov.uk
In early 2006 Worthing Borough Council had a plastic sheet piled wall installed within the shingle beach along a 500m section from the south end of George V Avenue to opposite the east end of Alinora Crescent.
This defence protects the residential and proposed development areas located immediately behind the beach from flooding by seawater seepage through the shingle bank.
The wall is made up of Geoflex patented vinyl sheet piling, between 4.0m and 5.0m in length, installed approximately 800mm below the beach surface. On completion the piling was buried and the beach returned to its previous condition.
The piles were placed in pairs, vibrated into position using a 25 tonne excavator equipped with a specialist piling rig and a 2 tonne vibrating pile hammer. Each pair of piles was placed in a steel backing plate which, once correctly aligned and plumbed, was then vibrated into the beach. Once the piles reached the required depth the backing plate was withdrawn ready to receive the next pair of piles, leaving the previous pair in place. Each pile is connected to the previous and following piles by a clutch connection running the full length of each sheet. The piles penetrate the shingle beach material and project into the underlying Head Deposits creating an impermeable storm-water barrier.
The scheme was designed by Card Geotechnics, a specialist geotechnical and geo-environmental consultancy with expertise in geotechnical design and analysis, and installed by Cofra UK, a specialist geotechnical contractor with experience in the fields of accelerated soils consolidation and dewatering, piling, sheet piling, and installation of hydraulic and gas barriers.
The scheme had significant advantages over more traditional steel piling since, in a coastal environment such as this, corrosion within the design life is effectively zero. Also, speedy installation was possible using relatively light-weight equipment to minimise any disturbance. This solution was both cost effective and based on sustainable engineering principles.
Works were completed by mid March 2006.
Card Geotechnics
1 Pickford Street
Aldershot
Hampshire
GUI1 1TY
Web:
www.cardgeotechnics.co.uk
Cofra (UK) Ltd
PO Box 154
Cranleigh
Surrey
GU6 8ZR
Web:
www.cofra.com
The following short movie clip shows a pile being put in place by the excavator. You may be required to download Quicktime to view it.
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