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Kirks Bluff Road
provides access to several home sites on the May River in the town of
Bluffton, SC. A bulkhead was needed along the large tidal drainage
easement ditch that follows alongside Kirks Bluff Road to prevent
excessive scour and erosion which threatened to undermine the roadbed -
thus leading to collapse.
JGT planned and
designed the new bulkhead at Kirks Bluff Road as a design-build project
partnered with Santee Marine Construction, Inc. of Sumter, SC.
JGT chose to use a
tied-back aluminum sheet pile bulkhead design. Aluminum was chosen
for its long-term corrosion resistance, low maintenance, structural
capacity, and cost effectiveness when compared to other materials such as
steel or vinyl sheet piling.
The high exposed height
of the new bulkhead required that it be supported by a wale beam system
with tie-rods and earth anchors. Earth anchors were driven into the
embankment and tie-rods were used to connect the earth anchors to the wale
beam system to properly support the new bulkhead. The wale beam was
located at 5 ft. down from the top of the bulkhead and 1 inch diameter
stainless steel tie-rods were used at 4 ft. on center.
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