Repair the head of the breakwater wharf at Saint-Siméon

The head of the breakwater wharf of St. Simeon was built in 1988. The existing wharf is made of horizontal sheet piling inserted between "H" vertical piles embedded in the seabed and held in mid-height tie rods anchored in the embankment to the rear of the wharf. The salt water of the St. Simeon area being very aggressive, sheet piling have suffered irreversible damage in the drawdown zone which resulted in massive erosion of embankments at the back of the dock.

EMS was commissioned by the Society of Quebec ferries (STQ) to design repair and reinforcement work required considering the high seismicity of the Charlevoix region. The thrust of land under dynamic conditions was modeled using the Plaxis software. This analysis allowed to design an efficient rehabilitation scenario allows savings of around 50% compared to more traditional analytical methods.

The chosen rehabilitation solution was the installation of a new vertical sheet pile wall 1.2 meters in front of the existing wharf. The space between the existing wharf and the new sheet pile wall was filled with a stone embankment. The new vertical sheet piles are retained by a lower yoke attached to their existing stakes in existing law tie. Thus, efforts channeled directly to existing pile retaining points. In addition to the plans and specifications, EMS attended STQ during construction (office supervision).