CASE STUDY

Port of West St. Mary Steel Sheet Pile Bulkhead Improvements

About 145 ft of corroded steel sheet pile bulkhead was protected with 42 SPiRe® FRP panels as part of a bulkhead improvement package that also added a new concrete cap beam and driven timber piles.

PRODUCT: SPIRE®
APPLICATION: BULKHEAD
INDUSTRY: PORTS & MARINE

GET A SEAWALL REPAIR CONSULTATION ALL PROJECTS

Installed SPiRe FRP panels along the steel sheet pile bulkhead at the Port of West St. Mary, with timber piles in front

42 SPiRe® FRP panels installed

of bulkhead improved: ~145 ft
SPiRe® panels: 42
panel size: 7 ft x ~4 ft
panels made at QuakeWrap: Tucson

Project Details

OWNER: Port of West St. Mary, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana
STRUCTURE: Steel sheet pile bulkhead, approximately 145 ft
QUAKEWRAP® SYSTEM: SPiRe® (Sheet Pile Repair) FRP panel system
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: FRP Construction LLC, Tucson, Arizona
DIVING SUBCONTRACTOR: InDepth Diving, Corpus Christi, Texas
PANELS: 42 flat SPiRe® panels, 7 ft high x about 4 ft wide

PROJECT VIDEO

Port of West St. Mary Bulkhead Repair

Plays from YouTube

01 · THE CHALLENGE

Halt Corrosion on a Working Bulkhead

The port needed a long-term way to halt corrosion of its existing steel sheet piles. SPiRe® was selected as part of an overall bulkhead improvement package that used FRP as the long-term protection.

The package also included surface preparation of the original piles, removal of rotting timber originally installed as protective bumpers, and a new concrete cap beam along the length of the repaired bulkhead.

Corroded steel sheet pile bulkhead at the Port of West St. Mary before repair, with reinforcing cages hung in the pans

02 · THE SOLUTION

Custom SPiRe® Panels With GFRP Rebar

Flat SPiRe® FRP panels were manufactured at the QuakeWrap facility in Tucson, Arizona, and installed above the mudline with stainless steel J-bolts, fiberglass rebar, non-shrink grout and custom plugs at the bottom of the panels.