At Shoreline Steel’s manufacturing facilities in New Haven and
Paducah, Ky., five roll forming operations are capable of producing
85 different piling sections. The sheets come in various sizes, from
lightweight all the way up to Mega-Z, and can be made at the exact
length of a contractor’s specifications.
Add-on features ranging from lifting poles to interlock sealants
and pairing of sheets are available for order, as are a wide range of
accessories that include corners, tees, capping, waling and a variety
of tie-back products used in sheet piling work.
The result is one-stop shop that Willey says is very appealing
to contractors looking to single-source their piling materials and
avoid having to customize piles on the job site.
Shoreline Steel will also transport piling materials directly
to a job site and can time its deliveries to coincide with
construction schedules.
“We sell predominantly to pile driving contractors who need
to have material delivered to their job sites, so that on-time delivery
is essential to that business. They don’t want to have material
brought into their yard, unloaded and then loaded again to take it
out to a job site,” said Willey. “We ship material directly to job sites
and that helps them meet their own timelines.”
All of Shoreline Steel piling products are “Made in America,”
which is an important selling point for many customers. That
includes the majority of state governments and Departments of
Transportation, which require that all materials used for bridge
construction work are produced domestically.
“Because bridge builders are one of the consumers of our products,
we do not make anything that isn’t fully melted and manufactured
in the United States,” said Willey. “We have stuck to that
since our inception.”
Numerous applications
Shoreline Steel products are used in many different applications,
including:
•• Erosion control
•• Seawall, breakwall and shoring construction
•• Soil stabilization
•• Waste and contamination containment
•• Highway construction
•• Bridge abutments and foundations
•• Cofferdams
•• Jetties and levees
PDCA’S FIRST STEEL MEMBER
The Changing
Piling Industry
Tom Willey got his start in the driven pile industry back
in 1977 when he began working for long-time PDCA
member L.B. Foster Company in Plymouth, Mich.
“They’ve been selling different types of piling for a
long, long time. I first joined L.B. Foster in their traffic
department and ultimately became a salesman for
them,” he said. “I worked for them for a number of
years, and it was really through my associations and
friendships with people in the piling industry that put
me in a position to come to Shoreline Steel.”
Willey says quite a bit has changed since his early
days in the driven pile business.
“There are a lot more people in the business, a wider
range of products being offered, and the pile driving
equipment has gotten way more sophisticated,”
he said.
Another notable change is that sheet piling sections
have become bigger and more efficient, cutting down
considerably on installation time.
“At our Kentucky operation, we make Mega-Z sections
and they are very wide pieces of piling,” said Willey.
“When I first started with Shoreline Steel in the early
‘90s, 26 inches was a wide piece of sheeting. We are
now selling piling that’s 36 inches wide.”
Willey is optimistic about the direction the piling
industry is heading.
“I really think that the future is bright for the sheet
piling business, and certainly if the United States
government gets around to addressing the issue
of aging infrastructure in this country,” he said. “I
believe that would be a real boon for people in the
piling business.”
“We do not make
anything that isn’t
fully melted and
manufactured in
the United States.”
– Tom Willey, Shoreline Steel
58 | EDITION 5 2019 www.piledrivers.org
/www.piledrivers.org
