The 2,000-ton, Permanent
Sheet Pile Retaining Wall
MP 40.84 WB of the
Pennsylvania Turnpike
Value engineering by PDCA
members Earth, Inc. and L.B.
Foster Company delivered a
unique cost-savings approach
By Michael Sydlik, P.E., M.ASCE, Earth, Inc. and
Richard Morales, P.E., M.ASCE, L.B. Foster Company
Two thousand tons of steel for a retaining wall – is
that even possible? The answer is yes, and it was a
value engineering design by new PDCA member Earth,
Inc. for prime contractor Trumbull Corporation (subcontractor
Brayman Construction Company) with 2,000 tons of PZC 26
wall face sheets and PZC 13 fin sheets supplied by L.B. Foster
Company. The retaining wall was a substitute for a 1,573-foot-long,
as-designed MSE wall (with a permitted T-Wall alternate) at MP
40.84 WB of the Pennsylvania Turnpike as part of a four to six-lane
widening and total reconstruction project.
During the design process, Earth, Inc. decided that it might be
worthwhile to apply for a patent (Figure 1) for its sheet pile retaining
wall system, ideally to legitimize the idea and, hopefully, make
the process go smoother and quicker for the next value engineering
sheet pile wall project.
Earth, Inc., Trumbull Corporation and the Pennsylvania
Turnpike Commission were honored on May 7 at the ACEC
National Engineering Excellence Awards Gala in Washington,
D.C. with an Honor Award in the Special Projects category for the
sheet pile wall system. This follows an Honor Award received at the
ACEC/PA Diamond Awards Gala on February 28 (Figure 2).
Project description
This project is a 1,573-foot long, permanent, value engineering
sheet pile retaining wall system to accommodate embankment
widening of the Pennsylvania Turnpike from four to six lanes
(including widening of the center median from 10 to 26 feet). It
consists of Z-shaped, steel sheet piles comprising the wall face
which are restrained by similarly shaped sheet piles serving as vertically
planar, continuous tiebacks – i.e., fins attached to the wall
face via three-way connectors that provide resistance to lateral
Aerial view of sheet pile driving
operation for permanent sheet pile
wall system at MP 40.84 WB of the
Pennsylvania Turnpike
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