PDCA ENGINEERING AFFILIATE MEMBER
“We are a small company but we’re not
afraid to do things differently.”
– Mike Sydlik, Earth, Inc.
1 (314) 869-8600 | www.MVE-STL.com
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success, earning an Honor Award in 2019
from the American Council of Engineering
Companies (ACEC National) in the Special
Projects category.
“I thought, let’s pitch the idea of sheet
piles,” said Sydlik.
The idea was met with some skepticism
at first.
“There is a reluctance to use driven
sheet piles as permanent structures,” he
said. “They are typically used as temporary
shoring so the contractor can dig their
foundation, and then they’re removed. So,
that was a hurdle to get over.”
But he said the Turnpike’s chief engineer
was able to see the idea’s potential and had
the authority to approve the unique plan.
The wall face is constructed of Z-shaped,
steel sheet piles. To resist lateral loading,
Sydlik’s firm incorporated perpendicular
“fin” sheets attached to the wall face and
used cementitious backfill to occupy the
space between the embankment slope
and the wall face. Essentially, this method
allowed for a single stage of construction
as opposed to two separate stages, where
temporary shoring is installed first to
allow for construction of the permanent
wall. The sheet pile wall concept effectively
combines these two stages into one.
The work was completed in six months,
versus about 11 months following a more
traditional approach.
“This wall type saved them roughly a
million dollars out of a $7 million budget
for the as-designed structure,” said Sydlik.
“As contractors, it’s more exciting being
involved in that kind of project.”
While designing its permanent sheet
pile wall, Earth, Inc. patented the idea,
which Sydlik hopes will grease the wheels
for future similar projects.
However, that job wasn’t the first time
that Earth, Inc. incorporated sheet pile
into a Pennsylvania Turnpike project for
permanent construction. Just three years
earlier, the firm developed the design
concept for six cantilevered sheet pile
walls for a three-mile long reconstruction
and minor widening project on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Northeast
Extension at MP 101 to MP 104.
“That allowed the Turnpike to avoid
a lengthy environmental permitting
process,” said Sydlik. “If you think about
it, if you have an embankment and you
need to add three or four feet to widen
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