Customer case

RD® pile wall in Tallinn Old City Harbour, Estonia

May 20, 2021 6 min read

Case details

Product RD® pile walls

Country Estonia

Company YIT Eesti

Industry Building structures and infrastructure

SSAB delivered RD® pile wall to Tallinn Old City Harbour, Estonia. The project was set up in order to build a supporting wall to a new cruise terminal. The solution used was easy to install in demanding conditions while saving time.

Case details

Product RD® pile walls

Country Estonia

Company YIT Eesti

Industry Building structures and infrastructure

The RD pile wall was built to protect the foundations of new cruise terminal at Tallinn Old City Harbour from soil erosion. Tallinn is a popular destination on the Baltic Sea serving hundreds of thousands of cruise passengers yearly. In a normal year, more than 300 cruise ships anchor at the Port of Tallinn.

SSAB delivered an RD pile wall, with pile size RD220/10, to a retaining wall at the new cruise terminal in the beginning of 2021. The RD pile wall was the first RD pile wall in Estonia. Main contractor of the project was YIT Eesti AS. YIT Eesti chose the RD pile wall solution for project because of demanding conditions. Large piling machines could not reach the area near the water, as the drilled steel piles had to be installed on a very narrow area of land. Soil conditions were also challenging. There are numerous obstacles in the soil, such as tetrapods, reinforced concrete, and old wood, through which the piles had to be drilled.

RD Pile wall drilling in Tallinn Old City Harbour

Collaboration with YIT Eesti and SSAB was successful for both parties. YIT Eesti got familiar with SSAB's RD pile wall solution at SSAB's annual Steel Pile Day. They also received additional information from YIT's Finnish colleagues. RD pile wall is easy to install and in this case, it was the fastest possible piling solution, making it easier to keep the schedule. According to site Manager, Peeter Valter, this was a new solution for them to use. The installation time was 1.5 months, whereas other alternative solutions would have taken at least 3 months. Since everything worked as planned, the customer is happy to use similar solution in their other projects as well.

The RD pile wall used in Tallinn Old City Harbour was manufactured in Finland SSAB Pulkkila mill and delivered by truck to Tallinn. Retaining walls made with drilled steel piles often replace traditional cast-in-place based retaining wall structures. RD piles create a pipe-pipe retaining wall with RM/RF interlocks that are welded under factory conditions at the mill. Installation at the site is done with down-the-hole (DTH) drilling system and with oversized ring bits.