Monday 18 August 2014

River Training Solutions to Protect Important Public Works

Engineers are always focusing on how to protect the public works from getting damaged due to natural disasters like flood, storm, etc. With the advent of new techniques and ideas, the engineers are quite successful in this mission. Various river training solutions have contributed to the improvement of drainage system, flood embankments, bank protection works, and many other areas.

What is river training?

River training solutions are being widely used by civil engineers to change the beds and banks of rivers in order to meet some human purposes ranging from controlling floods and preventing erosion to enhancing water supply and forming shipping channels.

Many civil engineering companies are providing basic support work to prevent future damage and safeguard essential public works like water pipes, sewage plants, reservoirs and roads. Gabions and reno mattresses have always been used as premium products in the best river training structures such as sills, groynes, energy dissipation basins, sills and weirs. All these important installations require strong, long lasting, low risk and reliable solutions.

The advancement of Science and Technology has given birth to geosynthetic materials and biodegradable geomats. These components when applied in different spheres of river training, fetched remarkable results. These erosion protection or turf reinforcement products are now being widely used since they offer cost effective protection against lower energy flows.

The professionals working for such projects are highly skilled and trained in technical analysis which include the following:
  • Analysis of river flood discharges and water levels for long period
  • Detection of location by evaluating the depths during low flows
  • Calculating silting and dredging requirement
  • Morphological survey to understand river behavior

For all the above studies and analysis, technically advanced devices are used by the dedicated team of professionals. The aim of engineers is to estimate the problem, deal with it and offer technically and economically viable solutions. Search online to find out the top companies that offer such solutions.

Friday 11 July 2014

What are river training structures?

River training structures are man made structures designed and constructed in a river reach to modify the hydraulic flow and sediment response of a river. Some examples of man made river training structures are dikes, chevrons, bend way weirs, and bank revetments. Two main components of the river training structures that are mostly used:

Gabions:

Gabions are rectangular wire mesh baskets filled with rock at the project site to form flexible, permeable, monolithic structures such as retaining walls for commercial, industrial and road projects. When gabions are filled with stone they become large, flexible building blocks from which a broad range of structures can be built. Gabions are also used for erosion control, bank stabilization, channel linings, and weirs.

Advanatages of gabion structures are as follows:

  • Monolithic and flexible structures
  • Tolerates differential settlement
  • Uniform wire coating for extra durability
  • Permeable structures
  • Pre-assembled units for fast installation and higher quality
  • No specialized labor required for installation
  • Soil bioengineering

Reno Mattresses:

Reno Mattresses, are gabion type structures manufactured with double twist mesh with more planar area and relatively small in thickness. The blending of Reno Mattress structures into the environment is rapid and pleasing. The voids in the rock fill become progressively filled with silt, promoting vegetation growth which is essential to the preservation and maintenance of the ecological balance of the surrounding environment.

A mattress shaped version of the gabion used mainly for erosion control when the retaining properties of box gabions are not required .Their strength lies in their double twisted hexagonal steel wire mesh which is reinforced by selvedges of heavier wire running along the edges

The base section is divided into compartments to restrict the movement of stone and strengthen the structure

  • The lid is supplied as a separate panel
  • The wire will not unravel even when cut
  • Easily assembled, requiring no specialized labor and using nearby rock for fill
  • Free drainage and 30-35% voids allow vegetation to grow