Episode 1 Overview Using FIBC Bags for Erosion Control

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=NEWkZcp3650

Although this collection of videos is not directly related to our work in Marketing Communications, we were helped by several of our clients and community members in this very large project to halt shoreline erosion of a foredune on Lake Superior. • We have found this method of erosion control to work well and is holding up with minor repairs using a special kind of tape that we outline in the video playlist and show at the links below. This project is essentially a low-cost version of a geotube, a giant monolithic sandbag made of geotextiles that are used for shoreline erosion control. http://www.tencate.com/amer/geosynthe... Instead of one giant tube of sand, we created a chain of large sandbags that we could fill one-at-time with a small tractor. • We list below some of the resources that were essential to success in the project: • The idea to use FIBC bags (giant tote bags) for erosion control came from Geoff Cutsy, an erosion control expert who presides over GJ Site Solutions. GJ is a client of ours and we are doubly grateful for Geoff's expertise in our community. • http://www.gjsitesolutions.com/ • The FIBC bags were supplied to us by Global-Pak, Nate was the first guy we spoke with but he's moved up the chain now and every interaction with the company was positive. They got us bags pronto and we used the 4400-lb(2000kg) woven polypropylene bags, which are a stock item and always available. • http://www.global-pak.com/ • Expertise on pumps and other hardware came from Superior Equipment and Events, an excellent supplier of the full trash pumps and other hardware we purchased. We are lucky to have them as a client and the advice of Donna and Brian Berryman was always encouraging. The provide the 2-inch full trash and semi-trash pumps, along with the rigid and soft hoses for moving water to pump the sand-water slurry into the scour mat. They have two websites: • http://alltool.com/ • http://renttheevent.com/ • For the scour mats we used a nonwoven geotextile from Miller Supply in Escanaba, MI. We used a 15-foot wide (~5meter) nonwoven fabric of 8-oz. weight. I don't know the metric equivalent of that fabric weight. We now believe a woven textile that was less permeable would be better for the scour mat. Miller's were super helpful and always had us fabric shipped within a day. They shipped via common freight carrier but the rolls are not so heavy and can be easily unloaded by one or two people. • http://millerproductsandsupply.com/ge... • The rope we used to secure the bags to anchors along the shore was 1/2-inch (~12mm) double braided nylon from Uline. This was the most expensive part of the project. We used about one mile (1.5km) of this rope in our project. • http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S... • The anchors to which we secured the tie-back ropes were mostly from Ace in Calumet, MI, Rodney can set you up with a good price for a bunch of those. We mostly used one anchor per bag, but when we had 48-inch depth anchors we secured two bags to each one. • We mostly used 40-inch(1m) earth anchors with 4-inch or 6-inch (10-15cm) diameter helical flights. Though we do have a number of anchors that are 30-inch (85cm) long X 4-inch (10cm) and have successfully held. there is a video where I test the anchor pull strength. The 48-inch X 6-inch anchors, I would estimate exceeded 7,000 pull strength in a test that we did not capture on video. • The saw horses we used as the primary structure for supporting the bags during filling were 45-inches (115cm) tall (good height for supporting a 4400-lb(2000kg) bag during filling if you use our framework show the videos) and 60-inches(152cm) long. You must reinforce the saw horse as shown in the videos, we crushed them once or twice before we built them properly. • The FIBC bags we used end up about 44-inches(112cm) wide after they are filled with sand. So figure you need one bag for every 44-inches of shoreline you wish to protect. • Finally, for the framework above the saw horses we used 2 X2 (5cmX5cm) box tubing that was 1/8 (3mm) thick aluminum cut to about 7-feet (210 cm) long. For the round part of the framework, we used 2-inch (5cm) schedule 40 black iron water pipe. • For the sheet metal hopper we had that fabricated by Royale Inc., • http://royaleinc.net/ Another customer of ours, what a community we have! We used 14-guage sheet metal 50 X84 with an opening at the bottom 8 X36 after we shortened it using plywood. Keep the angles about 45-degrees and the sand should slide. Less than 45 and it tends to stick. • Our tractor was a 32-horse John Deere model 1400 with a 60-inch wide bucket. It deserves a lot of credit. Special thanks to Jim and Myra for loaning their tractor to us for the proof of concept phase! • The polypropylene bags can be patched with Eternabond tape. http://www.eternabond.com/ • We wish you the best of luck with your project!

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