Coastal protection structures protect existing shorelines, the edges of new reclamation, causeways and particularly port operational areas from anchorages and channels to berth facilities.

Coastal protection is a specialised area of engineering requiring a sound understanding of the potentially destructive forces of the ocean from locally generated wind waves and remotely generated swell and the importance of wave and current conditions on the ability for vessels to safely navigate, manoeuvre, berth and moor alongside and any operational downtime. The performance of seawalls and breakwaters hinges on their ability to dissipate wave energy whilst remaining hydraulically stable and preventing erosion and unacceptable wave overtopping.

Coastal protection structure services include planning and design:

• Gravity Seawalls
• Sloping Seawalls
• Gravity Breakwaters
• Sloping Breakwaters
• Causeways
• Wave screens
• Rock and concrete revetments
• Wave overtopping assessments
• Scour protection
• Estuarial river training structures
• Structures with historical significance

Detailed design of coastal protection structures will often involve specialist hydrodynamic modelling of exposure to waves and currents. This allows our designers to optimise the layouts, confirm wave attenuation, tailor the protection system to the hydrodynamic stability requirement, confirm any impact of new structures on current fields, scour, accretion, bed protection, navigation and maintenance dredging.