16.8.2004
The floods in July 1997 in the Czech Republic, then in August 2002, and this year’s floods in Eastern Slovakia damaged innumerable number of houses and structures and water eroded banks of many rivers. One of the ways to reinforce the riverbeds and at least partially reduce the risk of the flood is to reconstruct the original embankments or to build new embankments.
The most important elements of these embankments are sheet piles – the most interesting type of section steel. VÍTKOVICE STEEL is one of the companies who make such products and each year the company produces and sells sheet piles worth more than quarter billion crowns.
„Sheet piles are very durable, so they are well suitable for bank reinforcement and for regulation of river channels, for regulation of navigation channels, weirs, and bottom drops on mountain stretches of rivers, and also for foundations of structures in various types of soils. Sheet piles are indispensable for construction or reconstruction of navigation chambers, piers, ports, bridges and hydraulic power stations; they prevent erosion and they are resistant against side pressure, “ explained Bohumil Lerch, the head of the Sections Rolling Mill in VÍTKOVICE STEEL.
This summer the company supplied several hundreds tons of sheet piles for the current reconstruction of embankment on the Vltava river in České Budějovice. Sheet piles from VÍTKOVICE STEEL were used some time ago to reinforce the several kilometers long dam of the Rožmberk pond. One of the biggest projects is the reconstruction of embankment in Kralupy nad Vltavou which commenced in August 2004. The embankment was damaged during the flood in August 2002 and now it is made of sheet piles from VÍTKOVICE STEEL. The project has been implemented presently by one of the largest clients buying sheet piles from VÍTKOVICE STEEL, i.e. Zakládání staveb Praha, who implemented also the reconstruction of the Janáček embankment in Prague, where it was necessary to create a coffer made of sheet piles. The reconstruction of the Janáček embankment was carried out at the end of 2003 and at the beginning of 2004. Sheet piles from VÍTKOVICE STEEL are used also in Slovakia. Last year we supplied some 1 000 tons of sheet piles IIIn to Doprastav, a.s. from Bratislava for the construction of piers for a new bridge on the Košická Street. These sheet piles ensure almost 100% waterproofing. This means that during the construction, a waterproof coffer was erected in the middle of the Danube river and the workers were building the foundations of the piers inside the coffer.
Sheet piles are made in the Sections Rolling Mill and with approx. 50% share they represent the most important product of this cost center. Some 40 % of the total production of sections is then made by IPE and HE beams, other products include: angles, and special sections (e.g. rims, mine supports, crane way rails, billets for production of cathodes, etc.). The last and the smallest part of production is represented by round steel. This year in the first half, some 26 000 tons of sheet piles was produced. Approx. 70 % of this volume is used for flood protection structures. The remaining 30 % is used for other types of constructions, e.g. for one of the most closely monitored projects on the territory of the Moravian and Silesian region – motorway D47. VÍTKOVICE STEEL supplies mainly sheet piles IIIn for the foundation works for this motorway. Until July 2004, some 800 tons of these sheet piles was used in the Černý potok area and in the area between Třebovice and Polanka.
