Sheet Pile Wall - Aesthetic Facing Options

[Chewi00]

I have a cantilevered sheetpile wall along a fresh-water inland river. The client has asked if there are any aesthetically pleasing facing options to improve the look along the river in conjunction with a park that is being proposed. What are my options here? The only thing I have come up with short of building another wall in front of it is tack-welding a steel lattice on the wall in order to shotcrete it.

 

[eric1037]

Depending on the preference of the owner, simply painting the sheet piling can look nice. I have seen some pretty nice geometric designs or even murals.

 

[Grouser]

If not too high a wall, trailing vines/plants planted at the top would partially cover and "naturalize" the sheet piling.

 

[PEinc]

You could drive some vertical timber piles in front of the wall and attach some timber wales and cap beam. This would look structural but really just partially cover the steel sheet piling. This will cost money but if the owner is so worried about aesthetics, he'll have to pay a premium for the initial construction and also pay for extra maintenance in the coming years.

 

[Mudman57]

I've seen a timber cladding detail roughly as follows:

Short sections of 152 x 152 x 19mm steel angle welded to piles vertically at 900mm centres, with 150 x 150 vertical timbers (full cantilever height) bolted onto each side of the angle. Then 50 x 150, 2.4m long planks are slotted in behind (10-15mm gap between planks), to completely cover the sheet piles. The voids behind can be filled with 20-40mm clean stone to provide a habitat for invertebrates!

This detail was approved by the Environment Agency in the UK for a river project.

 

[Boonie]

MSE blocks can be easily attached to the sheet pile. We have used modular blocks to veneer sheet piles as well as H piles in detention ponds.

 

[Chewi00]

Thank you everyone for your input.....very helpfull.