Flood defence. Givet | France

The Groundbreaking Flood Defense Project in Northern France

The €20-million project to protect the town of Givet in northern France began in 2006 after devastating floods in 1993 and 1995. The last phase of work began in 2010, including preparatory groundwork, installation of sheet pile cutoffs, slabs, and concrete walls for demountable aluminum flood barriers. Covering a footprint of over 2900 m2, this 3 km-long project is the largest of its kind in France. 

A special feature of the project is its demountable protection, like other European towns such as Bewdley in England and Cologne in Germany. The Meuse River's slow and gradual flood rise allows for predicting and reacting to rising water levels upstream. The installation time for the demountable barriers is estimated to be 48 hours.

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Meuse River
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Flood defence
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The works were divided into a number of separate zones on the left and right banks of the Meuse. Three different types of flood defence are involved: 

  • fixed defences comprising walls of appropriate heights (0.9 to 3.2 m); 
  • demountable defences between 1.2 and 1.3 m high; 
  • composite defences, comprising a wall combined with demountable defences, between 1.1 and 3.1 m high.

The height of the fixed defences (walls) is based on the level of the twenty-year flood and that of the demountable defences on the level of the one-hundred-year flood. Sheet piles are used to create underground cutoffs. They prevent seepage below ground level and take the hydraulic thrust along a large part of the length on the right bank and in places on the left bank. They also serve as foundations for the defensive walls.

The soil investigations carried out generally showed that the top layer of loamy deposits is of poor quality. Deeper strata at between 4 and 7 m made up of sand and clayey, sandy gravel have quite good geotechnical properties. Below 7 m depth the subsoil is schist. 

The sheet piles were driven to depths of 4 to 5 m and as deep as 7 m in places, depending on the zone. They were driven with an ICE 625B vibratory unit powered directly by the hydraulic circuit of the excavator. In the Quai de Rancennes area an ICE 223 vibratory driver mounted on a KH150 (Hitachi) lattice-boom crane was used. 

Reinforced-concrete coping beams were cast on top of the sheet pile walls and on top of these beams were built concrete walls with patterned colour-stained facings or Givet bluestone, depending on the zone. The baseplates and the slotted posts at the ends of sections of demountable defences were then fixed into the wall.

Behind the existing quaywall, a large concrete slabs was cast and serves as the foundation of the concrete wall.