To prevent damaging water seepage, 2,230 linear feet of ShoreGuard???(R)???AE???? 850 sheet pilings from Crane Materials International was recently installed along a canal that bordered the building site for an office complex and parking garage in Villahermosa, Mexico. The company's proprietary PileClaw•, drove the 20-foot and 32-foot pilings through compacted fill and geogrids.

Due to numerous lagoons, marshes and wetlands, water pervades the area around Villahermosa, Mexico, which lies just southwest of the Yucatan Peninsula. Due to Mexico's booming oil industry, new development also pervades the area. And sometimes the two conflict.

Such was the case recently when a proposed office complex and parking garage structure faced the challenge of restraining a canal that ran the length of the property. Seepage from the canal would damage the integrity of the development.

A cutoff wall of steel sheet piles was planned to prevent this type of damage. A few months in however, the project's developers, Tabasco Casa SA de CV, decided to build the wall with ShoreGuard???(R)???AE???? 850 sheet pilings from Crane Materials International, a manufacturer of synthetic and composite piling solutions.

One of the biggest reasons for the change was the maneuverability of the preferred pilings.

"(That) was crucial, because the installation site was pinned between a building structure and the canal," said Arq. Ernesto Alamilla, general manager of Tabasco Casa SA de CV.

The product was installed along the entire edge of the canal using a total of 2,230 linear feet. In addition to increased maneuverability, the installation of these pilings reduced estimated project costs by over 30 percent.

Before construction, the land was also elevated three meters with an engineered fill, and reinforced with heavy-duty geogrids. The PileClaw• mandrel was used to install the 20-foot and 32-foot pilings through the compacted fill and geogrids.

"The PileClaw reduced driving episode time from 30 minutes to an unbelievable two and a half minutes," said Matt Hasseler, CMI's Latin America regional sales manager.

The project began in June, and is scheduled to be completed soon.