Gabion installation

1.      The boxes shall be placed in position with break joints to avoid the longitudinal cut-through joints;
2.      The four sides of gabion box shall be erected, the adjacent edges shall be fastened by binding wires, the binding wires shall be spirally screwed around two overlapped frame lines (when seaming the edges) or double twisted sides of frame line and box (when seaming the grids) when fastening to avoid the damage of thick zinc plating, and the screw pitch shall be less than 50 mm;
3.      When installing gabion boxes on the completed bottom meshes, the binding wires shall fix them on the gabion boxes at bottom along the lower frame of newly installed gabion box, the adjacent gabion boxes at same level shall also be mutually fastened by binding wires to connect gabion boxes into one.
4.      When carrying out the construction at the same leveling course of an element project, the pebbles shall be filled after all the gabion boxes are placed in position, the rockfill elevation difference of two adjacent gabion boxes (including the adjacent cells of same gabion box) shall not be greater than 35 cm to avoid the transformation of gabion boxes;
5.      Before installing the gabion boxes, the bank slope and ground shall be properly modified, and the original shape of bank slope shall be maintained as far as possible without obvious bumps and dips.
6.      The pebbles to be filled can be selected from the flood plain, of which the compressive strength can meet the design requirements, the pebble grain size shall be among 8 to 20 cm, the size match is required to be reasonable to reach the void fraction required by design and guarantee the straight line configuration of gabion boxes;
7.      When filling the pebbles into gabion boxes, the pebbles with grain size not less than 10 cm shall be applied for external surface, which shall also be smoothly placed by manual work, so as to obtain the beautiful surface and prevent the pebbles from being washed away from meshes. The height of rockfill shall be 2.5 – 3 cm to allow for unforeseen circumstances of sinking;
8.      The head covers shall be covered after the gabion boxes are filled with rocks, and the two overlapped frame lines shall be spirally screwed by binding wires with screw pitch not greater than 50 mm, please refer to 2.3 for binding method;
9.      The humid soil with thickness of 10 – 15 cm shall be paved and filled on the constructed gabion boxes for vegetation growth.