Galería de Control de Erosión Flexamat

The City Engineer needed to rehab and stabilize an eroded section of Heath Creek behind a medical facility. The eroding banks were encroaching on the parking lot of the medical facility. The erosion had become so severe that the parking lot was at risk of falling into the Heath Creek. The site was originally designed with eight tiers of gabion baskets stacked on top of each other with passive and active tieback anchors to stabilize the streambank. The engineer's cost estimates were nearly $800,000 and this amount exceeded the City's budget. The City Engineer sought a permanent solution that was within the City's budget. The engineer developed a solution that incorporated vegetated armoring. In order to reduce the slope ratio from a 1:1 to a 1.5:1, the engineer incorporated a Scourlok toe wall. To armor the 1.5:1 slope above the toe wall, the engineer specified Flexamat Plus. Flexamat Plus is a concrete erosion mat that allows vegetation growth to establish within the armor. The concrete mat is packaged in roll, making installing the material simple and efficient. The solution was 1/3rd the initial cost estimates for the gabion wall and was a solution the City could afford. Along with saving the City considerable funds, the streambank was stabilized with a more environmentally friendly solution. More information is available at Flexamat.com.

Installation included specific cuts of 16'x31' Flexamat 10NW with grid extension, and 175 Gripple percussion anchors. The Chattahoochee River flows between Alabama and Georgia and eventually down into the tributary of Apalachicola.

Un banco de arroyo detrás de una estación de bombeo está blindado con rollos Flexamat Plus de 10' x 35' que incluyen extensiones. Las extensiones constan de una geomalla y un contrapiso que se extiende desde la estera en el lado aguas arriba de la estera. La instalación comienza en el extremo aguas abajo del proyecto. Los tapetes posteriores se instalan superponiendo las extensiones de los tapetes adyacentes aguas abajo. Aunque este sitio tenía un acceso extremadamente estrecho, los rollos Flexamat Plus se instalaron rápidamente. Esta ribera fue blindada en menos de un día de trabajo. Durante la primera temporada de crecimiento, la vegetación pronto prosperará dentro de la armadura Flexamat Plus. Flexamat.com

A streambank behind a pump station is armored with Flexamat Plus 10' x 35' rolls that included extensions. The extensions consists of geogrid and the underlayment extending from the matting on the upstream side of the mat. Installation begins on the downstream end of the project. Subsequent mats are installed by overlapping the adjacent downstream mat's extensions. Although this site had extremely tight access, the Flexamat Plus rolls were quickly installed. This streambank was armored in less than one work day. Within the first growing season, vegetation will soon be thriving within the Flexamat Plus armor. Flexamat.com

This video shows how to quickly remove the lifting straps from a roll of Flexamat erosion control matting. More info available at Flexamat.com

Situated along the banks of the Ohio River is a nuclear power components manufacturer with a barge dock to facilitate the transportation of large components and heavy metals. For security, woody vegetation was not allowed on riverbank slopes adjacent to the barge facility. Over time, the riverbank had eroded, creating steep slopes, greater than 1:1. The existing soil onsite was a sandy silt material that was very erosive. This portion of the river experienced frequent flooding that had expedited slope erosion in the past. The eroded riverbank slopes were graded to uniform slopes, ranging from 2:1 to 3:1. Regulatory permitting for the project required that an armoring system provide a natural cover, rip rap was not permitted to be used. Flexamat® Plus, a vegetated concrete erosion control mat, was selected by the design engineer to protect the riverbank slopes from erosion while allowing grass growth. One of the regulatory agencies involved on the project was the State Department of Natural Resources. The DNR was impressed that wildlife, including deer, could safely walk over the concrete mat. Approximately 200,000 square feet of Flexamat® Plus were installed on the riverbank. Within a week of the concrete mat installation, the Ohio River flooded. The newly armored riverbank was submerged for two weeks. After the flood waters receded, the slope maintained its integrity. Within the first growing season, grasses established within the tied concrete block mat system.

18 rolls of 15.5'x62' installed in two days (17,298 SF)

A transformation was needed for a former coal mine, county dump site and impaired state water body. A multimillion-dollar project was started in 2013 for a 178-acre fishing hole in the Midwest that was plagued by erosion from unregulated urban runoff and invasive species. To begin the transformation, the lake needed to be dredged and drained. The lake was constructed in 1965 out of a former coal mine and county dump. Since its construction, sediment from tributaries that feed the lake, along with sediment from shoreline erosion clouded the water and accumulated on the lakebed. The lake lost hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of potential volume due to shoreline erosion. In 1967, the lake's deepest point as 28 feet, according to the state DNR. Sediment reduced the maximum water depth to 21 feet by 2003, an equivalent of 317,035 cubic meters of water. Once the lake was made shallow by the increased sediment load from erosion, problems soon developed. The lake had poor water quality and suffered from large blue-green algae blooms, high bacteria concentrations and low oxygen levels. It was on the state's impaired waters list for years. No longer could people safely fish, swim or kayak in it's waters. Crews dredged 678,000 cubic feet of silt from the lake bottom - the equivalent of 20,545 dump trucks. They also removed more than 500 tires and a pickup truck that had been stolen in 1994 before being dumped into the lake. After the dredging, the lake was drained for lakebed restoration and shoreline stabilization The lakebed restoration was required due to site's past as the county's last operating coal mining site and it had large swaths of leftover waste. Crews neutralized the waste by adding lime to the surface, acting as a buffer for new soil on the lake bottom. The new lake bed helped improve algae problems created by river runoff that was high in nutrients, especially phosphorous, which clung to sediment. Over 20,000 feet of shoreline was rehabilitated, almost 4 miles! A vegetated armor was sought for the shoreline stabilization to improve water quality by reducing sediment loading into the lake. It was also important to increase recreational uses, such as fishing kayaking. The DNR planned to do controlled burns for vegetation management. For these reasons, the flame resistant Flexamat® Plus-FR was specified for the shoreline armor. 8' wide rolls were used for the vegetated shoreline armor. After nearly two decades of planning and six years of construction work, the lake was open again for swimming, kayaking and fishing. People enjoying these recreational activities are able to safely enter & exit the water, and fish over the vegetated shoreline armor. Now game fish such as bluegill, walleye, bass, catfish and crappie thrive in the waters that were once polluted. The now beautiful lake is surrounded by a 12-foot wide, 10-kilmeter recreation path. After the lake improvements, the park now attracts more than 1.5 million visitors a year!