SSP Durability

Steel piling is widely used in temporary as well as, permanent earth retaining and structural foundation works. In the majority of applications SSP is installed and can perform in an unprotected condition. The impacts of corrosion and whether material protection is required depends upon the localized environments that it is installed in, which can vary even within a single installation.

Marine environments tend to be the most corrosive and variable. The vertical zone in which most SSP structures perform requires that piles often be exposed simultaneously to a variety of corrosive environments including:

• below grade,
• seawater immersion,
• inter-tidal,
• splash and
• marine

Characteristic corrosion rates have been established for most environments and can be found in NASSPA publications and references.

In evaluating the effective life of unprotected piles, the selection of piling sections and the need for protection is determined by the corrosion performance of bare steel in the variety of environments in which they will we installed and impacts of the specific conditions.