8
FIELD OBSERVATIONS
Conditions of PVC sheet piles in actual installations were assessed by site visits to the shores
of New Jersey and Louisiana. During these visits, attention was paid to the nature of installation,
age, and any visible damage to the PVC sheets (cracks etc.) or to the installation (excessive
deformation). Where possible, nearby steel sheet pile installations were also visited, and the age
and corrosion levels were compared with those of PVC sheet pile of the same age. In some
instances, a simple test was performed to assess the brittleness by impacting the sheet pile surface
with a staple gun, which produced an impact energy of 0.2 ft-lb.
The majority of installations visited were waterfront properties where the function of the
shore pile is to protect the shore from erosion. In some instances the sheet pile wall was raised
above the ground level to protect the area behind from high wave and storm water flooding. The
following gives the highlights of the some of the observations.
Figure 49 shows a vinyl sheet pile wall installed by the New Orleans District of the Corps of
Engineers (Wright, 2003). This PVC sheet wall was installed 34 ft above ground in 1998 and
has survived three hurricanes, George, Elly and Isidore (Wright, 2003). The design has served the
purpose of containing the storm floodwater from the distant lake (see the inset in the middle).
Accidental damage by a grass mower to the wall where it was barely a foot above the ground can
be seen in the right side of the figure. A staple gun impact did not produce any crack on the
surface, indicating that the material was not embrittled by the exposure since installation.
250 ft
20 ft piles
3-4 ft
stickout
Figure 49. Vinyl sheet pile installed by the New Orleans District.
Figures 5055 show a number of sheet piling bulkhead installations of ages varying from 6
months to 10 years. These installations have shown very few signs of degradation. In some cases
the only change noticed was that of color. Staple impact tests did not produce any cracks. Even
the 10-year-old sheet piles, which still had the date of manufacture imprinted on it (Fig. 55), did
not show any signs of cracks, blemishes, or degradation.
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