Gabions are wire fabric containers, uniformly partitioned of variable size, interconnected with other similar containers and filled with stone at the site of use to form flexible, permeable, monolithic structures such as retaining walls, sea walls, channel linings, revetments and weirs for earth retention.Gabions are cages, cylinders, or boxes filled with soil or sand that are used in civil engineering, road building and military application.
Gabion structures yield to earth movement but maintain full efficiency. They are quite unlike rigid or sem-rigid structures which may suffer catastrophic failure when even slight changes occur in their foundations. Highly permeable, the gabion structures act as self draining units which "bleed" off ground waters, relieving hydrostatic heads. Interstitial spaces in the rock fill dissipate the energy of flood currents and wave action. Efficiency in gabion structures, rather than decreasing with age, actually increases.
Heavily zinc galvanised wire
As above plus heavy duty PVC coating
Galmac (galfan) coated with a 95%Zinc + 5% Aluminium Mischmetal Alloy
As above plusheavy duty PVC coating
Advantages of Gabion :
* Permeability of the front face, ensuring drainage of backfill and no hydrostatic pressures behind the wall
* Flexibility, ensures the woven mesh gabions accommodate different settlements unlike rigid systems, for example, welded mesh cages
* Monolithic and flexible structures
* Tolerates differential settlement
* Uniform wire coating for extra durability
* Permeable structures
* One of the most economical retaining systems on the market
* Incorporation as required of vegetation throughout the structure
* Soil erosion is an ever present problem and gabions have proved to be a lasting solution around the world. The lasting appeal of gabions lies in their inherent flexibility.
* The most common civil engineering use of gabions is to stabilize shorelines or slopes against erosion. Other uses include temporary floodwalls, to filter silt from runoff, for small or temporary/permanent dams.
* In civil engineering a gabion wall is a retaining wall made of rectangular containers baskets fabricated of heavily galvanized wire, which are filled with stone and stacked on one another, usually in tiers that step back with the slope rather than vertically.