TERAMESH WALL FOR WADI SHOMER BRIDGE

The proposed Wadi Shomer Bridge is located in Al Zarqa, Jordan which is part of the ongoing Al Zarqa - Al Sukhneh Road Project. The geographical area and the project is separated by deep wadi (wadi shomer) which gets flooded with high water flow when it rains in the area. The proposed shomer bridge (240m long) thus intend to connect the two area with 4 lanes (2+2) at the top and with a carriageway width of 20m. The critical factor in the design of the bridge is the high discharge - high velocity flood that occurs in the wadi every year, during the rain and the presence of silty clay soil in the foundation depths. As per the project tender documents the proposed bridge to built as an RCC structure with pile foundation and two approach roads to be constructed on the MSE Retaining Walls. As per the tender documents MSE Retaining wall shall be carried out by MSE Concrete Panel Walls.

Maccaferri was invited for submitting the MSE Concrete Panel Retaining Walls. However, Maccaferri’s advise to the main con-tractor was to adopt MSE TeraMesh Wall system, as the concrete panel wall can have distresses & washing out during the high dis-charge flood and due to the presence silty clay soil layers in the foundation bed. Maccaferri’s concerns of wadi floods and presence of weak soil was thus brought to the attention of the client and the consultant and after several meetings, the client and the consultant agreed to change to TerraMesh Wall system, understanding the risk in-volved in Concrete Panel Retaining Walls on the project. Subsequently a full design of MSE TeraMesh Wall was submitted by Maccaferri which was reviewed and approved by the consult-ant and the client.