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Reducing construction time and costs

Foundations shape the world around us, supporting heavy vertical loads to hold up buildings, or resisting high lateral forces to prevent the land or the sea from encroaching into our habitat. They may be permanent, such as the abutment for a bridge, or temporary, such as a cofferdam to facilitate deep excavations.

Foundation solutions made of steel offer advantages to reduce both construction time and costs:

• Speed of installation and extraction
• Minimising excavation and disposal volumes
• Reducing excavation time
• Reusability of temporary sheet-piling solutions
• Protection of people or structures during construction work

Water-related applications

Water poses special problems for retaining structures. Apart from static and operational loads, the corrosion and erosion effects of water need to be managed. Steel sheet piling has proven to be an exceptional performer in waterfront structures such as quay walls, berthing areas, wharves and breakwaters but also in water-management applications such as river embankments or flood protection.

Infrastructure network

By retaining the earth outside a construction site, steel sheet piles accelerate the extension of a nation's  infrastructure network – its highways, bridges, railways, tunnels and canals.

Underground car parks

The Projects business has developed a revolutionary solution for underground car parks and similar subterranean structures. Underground foundations face specific design and construction constraints that, traditionally, have made them so expensive that they are only considered when all else has failed. Through the innovative use of steel sheet piling as the permanent foundation wall, Projects is completely changing the economics of underground construction. By eliminating the need to construct a permanent wall, both the cost and speed of construction are improved.

Power plants

Temporary cofferdams are constructed in power plants to facilitate deep excavations, for example to build settling basins, water treatment areas, pumping stations or storage tanks.

Environmental protection

The flow-restricting qualities of sheet piles mean that they are not just useful for water-retaining cofferdams, but can also be used to manage the movement of ground water or to counteract subsidence of the ground. Similarly, steel sheet piling can provide coastal protection to withstand tidal erosion or even storm surges which can threaten a shoreline development.

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