For ages, rip rap, the aggregate is used to provide slope stability, protection of channels, water flow and prevent soil erosion. It is also employed for laying foundations of buildings, providing protection to the building structures and ensuring public safety.
Certain specific rip rap varieties are used to create a base for, roadways, driveways and gravel parking areas as well. By preventing possible damage to the road infrastructure, rip rap ensures safety for the vehicular and pedestrian traffic on roads and pavements.
The constructions near shorelines and on outer banks of river bends as well as sloped areas are more prone to soil erosion. Rip rap by minimizing the erosion caused by water waves prevent damage to the bridge structures constructed on waterways.
Apart from soil erosion, pedestrian safety, rip rap is used for landscaping and architecture purposes and creating a natural appearance for homes, yard decoration and also to act as a retaining wall in steep slopy areas.
Limitations of Rip rap
Rip rap, despite being an effective hard armor, provides a layer of loose angular rock stones and hence may cause seepage.
In addition, rip rap may cause some degree of sediment deposition which may lead to morphological changes in the riverbeds that may cause scouring of the river bed as well as coarser sediment particles.
Though long-lasting yet rip rap needs periodical inspection and in extreme cases, it may require maintenance. At the same time, besides being a safety hazard for pedestrians and vehicles; rip rap may also not provide you the ecological and environmental benefits
While the retaining wall erected with rip rap can protect your home from flooding, it might not do any good to the land or property adjacent to you. The adjacent areas might still have inadequate shoreline protection and face a flooding problem and can potentially harm your property despite rip rap on your shoreline.
If construction is in remote locations, where you have perennial periods of extreme stream flows, ice build-up and unpredictable extreme weathers or environmental conditions; making regular inspections of rip rap for efficient monitoring of structures becomes a challenge.
Above all, the cost of rip rap and its transportation can also increase the burden on your pocket and might not prove cost-effective when compared to other vegetative and soft armor alternatives to rip rap
When needed, you may search for safe, better and more flexible alternatives to rip rap at earthlok.com.au which are soft armor, vegetative and flexible concrete alternatives like Earthlok.
What is Earthlok?
Earthlok is an efficient flexible concrete matting system that provides protection against soil erosion and soil loss due to winds, rains or water flows. Earthlok is a long-lasting hard armor concrete matting interconnected pyramid-shaped blocks at some spacing that helps anchor the mat into the ground surface. These pyramid-shaped blocks are interconnected with UV stabilized geogrid mesh.
The spacing between the blocks provides the mat flexibility and enables you an option for vegetation growth.
Apart from a longer life span, in both vegetative and non-vegetative applications, Earthlok can be manufactured with underlying made from biodegradable nutrition to allow you to have an option for vegetation growth.
Earthlok is made from recycled materials like slag, recycled sand and water and hence considered highly eco-friendly.
Contact Earthlok-the premier manufacturer to offer flexible concrete matting solutions which are better alternatives to riprap at earthlok.com.au
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