Gabions

Maccaferri

Gabions form one of the most cost-effective mass-gravity retaining structures. Their long-standing success is a testament to their longevity, simplicity of construction and robustness, characteristics first seen in the late 1800s when Maccaferri owned the patent for the original modern gabion.

The Maccaferri Gabion is a double-Twisted “DT” wire mesh container of variable sizes uniformly partitioned into internal cells. They are interconnected with other similar units and filled with stone at the project site to form flexible, permeable, monolithic structures such as mass gravity walls, channel linings, revetments, and weirs for geotechnical, hydraulic and erosion control projects.

What sets Maccaferri's gabion baskets apart are their high-quality manufacturing with 3rd Party Certifications, heavy-duty galvanising and the unique PoliMac polymeric coating.

Strongface Gabions
Maccaferri gabions can also be manufactured with thicker wire diameters, throughout the unit, or on discrete faces to ensure higher mechanical performance. Known as Strongface Gabions, these are used in environments where greater resistance is required.

Maccaferri are still innovating
PoliMac® is the unique new polymer coating for Maccaferri's gabions and other steel wire mesh products. Developed to address the worsening environmental exposure conditions as a result of climate change, designers should be considering the climate conditions that their structures will be exposed to throughout their entire working life, not just the conditions of today. If the conditions of the future are expected to be worse than today, why take a chance? Futureproof your gabions by using the PoliMac® coating.

PoliMac® is a revolutionary coating that can withstand aggressive environmental conditions, leading to a significant performance upgrade compared to other competitive polymer coatings.

PoliMac® ensures:
• 10x better resistance to abrasion
• 2x better resistance to chemical aggression
• 4x better cold-weather performance
• 4x better resistance to UV rays

Maccaferri’s new design software GAWAC 3.0 has been developed for the design and optimization of gabion walls. Within it, the user will discover the “GSC concept”, an experimental coefficient that considers and evaluates the long-term performance of gabion structures.

GSC introduces:
• Long-term performance at 120 years of service life
• Experimentally tested and numerically verified method
• Increased cost-effectivity of the design
• Significant environmental benefits

The GSC approach combined with PoliMac® coated gabions leads to a reduction of the input material for the construction of the gabion wall and up to 40% savings of CO2 emissions. Indeed, gabions enhance the biodiversification and the growth of vegetation within them, inducing CO2 sequestration. PoliMac coated gabions have 10x less emissions than an equivalent concrete wall.

Maccaferri's gabions reduce the total cost of ownership of the solution:
• Material reduction: less stone means savings! Thanks to the GSC concept the amount of material needed to build a gabion wall is reduced.
• More performance: PoliMac coating means outstanding performance in harsh conditions. It will preserve the structure, reducing maintenance costs.
• Faster installation: material reduction means easier and faster installation. An optimized design increases the production rate.
• Environment first: reduction of quarried stone means cutting the environmental burden.

Explore this new design approach to reduce the environmental impact of the structure!

Environmental Product Declaration
Maccaferri provide reliable and comparable information on the environmental impacts of the product life cycle, reducing energy and material consumption. The EPD Certification scheme is a third-party certified assessment of the emissions generated during the manufacture of their materials. They provide transparent data to enable clients and designers to compare solutions and products. These EPD Certificates are entirely specific to the Maccaferri manufacturing location Click here to find out more.

BIM
Maccaferri products are also available for BIM. Their BIM Objects have been validated by British Board Agreement (BBA) as being a true and fair representation of the physical product/system. The BIM system reduces design time and cost and facilitates cooperation between project stakeholders. Click here to find out more.