Levees / Dikes

Water is the world’s most important resource and there is an urgent need to address the worldwide requirements to rehabilitate, improve and build new structures dedicated to contain, divert, distribute and preserve water. This is even more important in relation to the recorded cyclical major rain and conversely drought induced events, and ocean related coastal impact.

Dikes and levee systems are a vital part of modern flood risk management. Many of our cities would be uninhabitable without them and many industrial areas are counting on the protection provided by the surrounding manmade dikes and levee systems.

It is estimated that there are several hundred thousands of kilometers of levee systems in Europe and approx. 120,000 miles in USA alone.

The maintenance of these structures in both normal and flood conditions is a major task for flood management authorities (public and private). Existing  structures are maintained, improved or rehabilitated and new ones are built.

Yet in many places there is a resistance of taking full advantage of the experience developed in other countries and the application of all the existing techniques to reduce/eliminate the risk of seepage/piping or to improve the soil conditions below and around the waters structures.

Seepage, piping, erosion, liquefaction and  overtopping through floods or waves typically lead to considerable damage to the system. With cutoff walls this will be prevented or significantly mitigated.

The main factors affecting the selection of a cut-off are:

• Depth of the pervious strata
• Working area and project logistic limitations
• Geological characteristics of the in-situ materials to    be excavated including treatment for potential liquefaction.
• Man-made obstructions
• Existing structures to undertreat and to connect with the cut-off wall

BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH, together with its subsidiaries has over 25 years of experience in designing and executing cut-off and soil consolidations for both new and rehabilitation project for dikes and levee systems. Our core competencies include different types of technologies:

• Mixed-in-Place (MIP)
• Deep Soil Mixing (DSM) (with single and multiple augers)
• Cutter-Soil-Mixing (CSM)
• Single-Phase Cut-off Wall
• Double-Phase Cut-off Wall
• Soil Bentonite and Soil cement Bentonite Slurry Wall (or slurry trench)
• Secant Pile Wall (SPW)
• Grout Curtain
• Jet Grouting

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