OWNER:
Panama City Beach Condos, L.P.
12889 Emerald Coast Parkway, Suite 111A
Destin, FL 32550

PROJECT ENGINEER:
McNeil Carroll Engineering
416 Jenks Avenue
Panama City, FL 32401

GENERAL CONTRACTOR:
T.Baird & Associates, Inc.
611 Carmen Street
Panama City Beach, FL 32413

SEGMENTAL WALL DESIGN/BUILD COMPANY:
Synergy Earth Systems, LLC.
26240 Equity Drive
Daphne, AL 36526

Many new developments along the beach are taking extra measures to protect against the threat of storm surge from the ocean during hurricanes. The storm surge can lead to beach erosion and other problems. One of the new ideas that engineers and architects are looking at is using segmental block walls to help protect the areas around the new buildings and minimize the erosion that occurs during storm surge events. For the Tidewater Condominiums project, the segmental retaining wall was located along the entire back end of the building and along one side. The area in front of the wall was filled in with sand and a dune restoration area was created. The wall was designed to be the last line of defense if the dunes eroded away.

T. Baird & Associates, Inc. (Contractor) contacted Synergy Earth Systems, LLC (SES) after being referred by two segmental wall suppliers he had contacted. The Contractor liked the idea of having a design/build company for the segmental wall and the fact that SES was so highly recommended. Limited access presented installation and design challenges that SES was well suited to handle. Using an efficient design to keep the geogrid lengths as short as possible along with having the right equipment to supply the fill from the front side of the wall allowed SES to overcome the challenges of the site. Construction of the wall was completed in about 3 weeks. The Contractor was pleased with SES’s ability to get the job done in a timely fashion.

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