Structural panels and super deep cut-offs

Gualdo di Roncofreddo (FC), Italy

Trevi Group has once again made a major breakthrough in the field of subsoil engineering.

In the second half of 2012, thanks to the employment of an innovative SOILMEC hydromill (Tiger Type) and to the co-operation between Trevi (operating in the service sector) and Soilmec (designing and manufacturing machines for subsoil engineering), the Group succeeded in performing cut-off walls down to 250 meters at Gualdo Site: a goal never attained before and deemed inconceivable up to now, since it redoubles the currently-known potential of said technology.

This important experimental test was scientifically supported by Politecnico di Torino (coordinator ) Università di Bologna (geotechnics), and Università Politecnica delle Marche (preliminary tests and quality control on materials).

During the test, 150 and 250 mt deep panels with a size of 3,2 x1,5m were performed. Deviation from verticality measured at the bottom of excavation (250 m ) was 30 cm along the longitudinal axis (0,12%) and 20 cm along the transverse axis (0,10%); rotation was always lower than 2°.

The results achieved, besides further confirming the great synergy between the Group’s Divisions, also provide chance to participate in the most complex International job orders. In particular, the new technology devised by Trevi Group allows designers to face and solve complex geotechnical problems concerning underground infrastructures and hydraulic works that require the construction of deep cut-off walls.

The following sectors are mainly involved:
– dams;
– hydraulic confinement of polluted sites;
– support infrastructures for shafts, underground stations, toe-of-slope thrusts.