Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
(OP)
Does anyone have experience with repairing gabion walls that have rusted and failed at the bottom? We have many sites throughout the St. Louis area where the bottoms of the baskets have rusted and opened, even with the coated baskets, because the coating gets knicked during construction or by gravel flowing along the stream, then the road salt takes care of the rest. In some places, the rocks have washed out and now the upper baskets are "hanging", but have not failed. In these locations, we were hoping to repair the toes, but with something other than gabion wire, since it will likely fail again. One idea was to form a concrete toe with a flowable fill, but not sure if that would be permittable or if it would have enough compressive strength to hold the weight from above.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Any help is greatly appreciated!





RE: Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
I don't know the solution, but I do know Maccaferri seem to be the preeminent manufacturer of gabion baskets. You might contact their experts to see what solutions are available.
I worked with a helpful representative from Maccaferri named Steve Hoff at 972-436-2974 on a gabion project I had. He could probably answer your question or put you in touch with someone.
Keep us posted on your solution, I would be curious to know what you do.
RE: Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
We did talk with one Maccaferri rep who was not so helpful. According to him this "never happens", but maybe a different rep would help.
I appreciate the contact info and I'll keep you posted!
RE: Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
RE: Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.
WWW.amlinereast.com
RE: Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
If grouting is permitted, it may still require environmental monitoring to ensure the the water ph level does not exceed local requirments and kill fish in the area.
Intrusion Prepakt /marineconcrete.com
RE: Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
We were theorizing that we could isolate the area with sandbags or something less permeable and pump out the water until the grout cures. As you can see, there is not much base flow. The problem would be if there was an unanticipated rain event.
Is there anyone in the St. Louis area or Midwest US who does the prepakt concrete?
Any other thoughts besides grout/concrete?
Thanks again!
RE: Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
There is a few alternative ways to do this type of work.
I would advise doing a few area perhaps 18" wide to begin and form water stops and then grout the larger areas between. If the water flow is high then you have to slow it down by minimising void spaces to do this you can vibrate in pea gravel which will give the grout more ability to bind the mass together. In one project an underground river 80 ft down where we wanted to stop the flow/ We started with 6" rock dropped through drill shafts and then went to 2" rock and finally pea gravel.There is also some special chemical additives that expand and block voids.
Intrusion Prepakt /marineconcrete.com
RE: Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
We have successfully repaired gabion walls with similar problems using thin gabion unit as facing or formwork and placing grout or concrete in behind.
You should contact the Maccaferri technical office in Williamsport, MD for this type of problem. The area offices are usually sales people, not engineers.
RE: Gabion wall repair - toe reinforcement
Intrusion Prepakt /marineconcrete.com