Water management

Retaining walls, barriers and tunnels

Water management involves building sustainable structures to channel, harvest and control water. Reinforced Earth® retaining wall structures are combined with proper backfill materials and conduits to ensure water confinement and adequate backfill drainage performance, particularly when the structure is subjected to turbulent flow, rapid draw down and other variations in water levels.

Our engineers’ choices for retaining walls extend to the TechWall™ counterfort wall and the T-Wall® modular wall, both of which can be constructed in hydraulic environments. Terre Armée’s reinforced soil slope solutions are ideal for stabilized earthen berms and levee embankments.

Water control barrier solutions are also addressed with Hydrotex® formed concrete mattresses, TerraDyke™ geotextile tubes which mitigate damage caused by flash floods, moderate wave attacks and run-ups. These solutions are constructed with soil in-filled, semi-rigid polymeric crates and geosynthetic bags to prevent waterfront induced erosion.

For cut-and-cover water conveyance, engineers call upon TechSpan® precast concrete arch tunnels for channeling water.

Reservoirs, ponds and lagoons

Nowadays there is ever-growing trends to give attention to management and conservation of our potable water resources. It is only logical that Terre Armée’s engineered earth structures are installed throughout our landscapes to create means to capture, conserve and distribute water.

Whether required by small towns or large cities, or for industrial operations to secure and manage their water needs, Reinforced Earth® is regularly used to build this infrastructure. Our experience spans from building to expansive lake-sized open reservoirs like the Los Vaqueros municipal project in California, or to building industrial desalination ponds like the Trekkopje mine project in Namibia.