Working Below The Quay

Quay walls, sheet piling and underwater concrete carry loads every day, yet the part that fails first is almost always the part nobody sees. This episode follows a quay from first inspection to completed repair.

We cover how damage develops — corrosion of steel, washed-out joints, scour behind the wall, deteriorated concrete at the tidal zone — and how a dive team measures it: thickness readings, visual and tactile inspection, and photographic and video documentation that an engineer can actually use.

We then walk through the repair sequence, from cleaning and preparation to grouting, underwater concrete and steel repairs, and explain why sequencing and reporting decide whether a repair lasts a season or a generation.