Structural Earth Pressure (adjacent water)

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When constructing quays, the soft ground conditions often call for the use of lighter fills to guard against slides or deformation that can damage structures and a number of solid berth structures have been built in recent years using Leca® LWA.

It can be used to an advantage in many quay designs such as sheet pile, sheet pile cell and caisson structures and is also used as fill replacement in solid berth structures when quayside waters are dredged to greater depths.

0-4mm Leca® LWA not only has a very low unit weight, it also has minimal buoyancy, making it particularly suitable for filling directly into water.


Quay Construction

By depositing the aggregate directly into place from a boat equipped with its own offloading gear, exceptionally fast progress can be made with 250-300 cubic metres per hour quite achievable.

1. The light weight of Leca® LWA can ensure the stability of a quay even when ground conditions under the sea floor are poor.

2. Leca® LWA has been used to water depths of 12 metres during quay construction.

Cross Section

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Environmentally Friendly

With deep compaction layers and speed of installation when using Leca® LWA de-watering is kept to a minimum and the void filled in a faction of the time compared to using traditional fills.  By depositing the aggregate directly into place from a boat equipped with its own offloading gear, exceptionally fast progress can be made with 250-300 cubic metres per hour quite achievable.

The additional advantage on this location is one of an environmental nature. Leca® LWA is a completely natual product, is an inert and stable material with no risk of leachate seepage in to the surrounding waterway.

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