Dealing with Damaged Marine Pilings?

From port and terminals to piers and jetties to bridges and offshore wind farms, marine pilings provide essential deep-foundation support for all sorts of coastal and open-water applications. They’re also subjected to a variety of stresses and wear, which can compromise the structural integrity and reduce the functional lifespan of the infrastructure they underpin.

Protection (and repair) of such pilings is thus of paramount importance. With HYDROTEX fabric-formed concrete, you’ve got a versatile, easy-to-install, and long-lasting solution for this very purpose. And it’s completely customizable!

The Importance of Protecting Marine Pilings

Marine pilings are exposed to damaging and possibly destructive forces in their saltwater setting. Obviously the material—steel, concrete, timber, composite—matters in terms of the kind and magnitude of degradation to a given pile type.

From natural corrosion and rust to (in the case of wooden structures) the burrowing of shipworms, there’s a lot of natural wear-and-tear potentially at work on marine pilings.

And then there’s the relentless threat of marine scour resulting from waves, currents, tidal action, and prop and thruster disturbances from vessels and tugs. Scour holes can quickly undermine the stability of a marine pilings, changing the magnitude of hydrodynamic loading it’s subjected to and even threatening it with collapse or breakage.

Along with improper installation and erodible foundation material, leaving marine pilings unprotected from such forces can be a significant cause of enhanced wear and fatigue and lead to costly repairs or replacements.

HYDROTEX Fabric-Formed Concrete: The Perfect Solution for Marine Piling Scour Protection & Repairs

Many widely used solutions for marine-piling protection leave a lot to be desired. Prefabricated concrete armor stone, mats, or rip rap tend to be costly to transport and install, and don’t always conform satisfactorily to structures and subgrades. Imprecisely placed armor may provide insufficient protection or even enhance or introduce forms of scour, erosion, and wear.

By contrast, HYDROTEX fabric formed concrete provides a cost-effective, low-hassle, and long-lasting solution for protecting and repairing marine pilings and their foundations. Whether shoring up a degraded pile foundation or protecting against future scour, our cast-in-place fabriforms are appropriate in a huge variety of different coastal and offshore applications.

Arranged precisely in situ before being pumped with fine aggregate concrete, HYDROTEX fabric formwork products can be ordered to custom dimensions and are highly compact to transport, resulting in lower freight costs. Additionally, our Articulating Block mats can be pre-pumped with concrete then lifted-and-placed.  Our HYDROTEX fabric-formed concrete also typically requires less manpower, freight, laydown area, and heavy machinery to install, and can be easily implemented in challenging conditions such as low head clearance, restricted access, or unorthodox settings.

HYDROTEX Products Ideal for Marine Piling Repair & Protection

With HYDROTEX Concrete Pile Jackets and Pile Guards, you’re not restricted to standard dimensions: These fabric-formed solutions can be ordered to exact length and diameter per the specifications for the protection and repair of steel, concrete, or timber piles.

Other customizable HYDROTEX products that can be incorporated into deep-foundation protection include HYDROTEX Articulating Block Mats, Grout Bags, and Subsea Formworks.

Economical to transport and install and offering durable, low-maintenance, long-term protection, HYDROTEX fabric-formed Pile Guards and other products offer a superior alternative for armoring and repairing marine pilings. The Synthetex team is there for you every step of the way, from advising on the ideal HYDROTEX product in the first place and counseling contractors to providing on-site technical assistance during the installation process.

Get in Touch With Synthetex to Protect Marine Pilings With HYDROTEX Pile Jackets & Sleeves

You can learn more about how HYDROTEX can protect marine pilings and other underwater infrastructure on our Case Studies page.We’re also, of course, happy to provide consultations and project budget estimates at any point. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Synthetex team over the website or by calling 1-800-253-0561 or 770-399-5051.