A marina development has a 600m long access canal for light boats to access housing. It’s located near the beaches of Dibba Harbour, on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates.
To form the canal, soil is excavated to a 6m depth. The canal banks are then retained by Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) quay walls. The required service life of the MSE quay walls is 75 years.
Mateenbar™ the perfect fit for marine projects
Alternative material proposals were initially considered, but rejected for the quay walls. These included black steel reinforced pre-cast concrete panels (reduced durability) and mass concrete panels (increased cost). Glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) rebar, Mateenbar was selected as it provides excellent whole-of-life savings even in highly corrosive and saline environments.
This upmarket housing project also gained the aesthetics benefit of no rust marks or concrete breakages caused by concrete spalling.
The numbers
Earthwork Excavation: 108,000m3
Concrete: 2,200m3
Mateenbar™: 15t
Geo Textiles: 180,000m2
Rock Materials: 9,000m3
Gravel: 1,440m3
Paving Blocks: 4,320m2
Design Life: 100 years
Taking a long term approach
To achieve the service life requirement, the consultant decided on Mateenbar™, to reinforce over two thousand, 220mm thick pre-cast decorative quay wall panels. The total solution gives a design life of over 100 years. An added advantage, is the reduced concrete cover requirements when using Mateenbar™.
