Inspection and Rating of Steel Sheet Pile

For much of its early history, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concentrated on the design and construction of new facilities, but now the mission of the corps is shifting from construction to the maintenance of existing facilities. The corps has addressed its changing role by instituting a repair, evaluation, maintenance, and rehabilitation (REMR) program. As a part of this program, a research effort that focuses on the evaluation and repair of the steel sheet pile structures within the corps' civilian projects has been undertaken. The objectives of this work are: (1) To develop an inspection and rating system that uniformly and consistently describes the current condition of steel sheet pile structures; and (2) to develop guidelines for the maintenance and repair of these structures. The first objective is described in this paper. The project team at Iowa State University has conducted several site visits and field investigations. Experts from the Corps of Engineers were asked to rate several walls, and the results were compared to a preliminary version of the rating system. Modifications were made to reflect the expert's opinions more accurately. The inspection and rating system given here is now ready for wider distribution and additional feedback.