Building Blocks and Method for Rapid Building of River Fronts
Som
Karamchetty [1]
Abstract:
River and lake fronts are traditionally built at a slow pace while long
bridges are built in a short span of time. A novel method is invented where
river fronts (edges) can be built fast. In order to accomplish this rapid
building, techniques similar to bridge construction are used in the designing
and building of the blocks and the method of construction.
Background:
Prefabricated and pre-stressed reinforced concrete blocks of
large sizes have now become common place in bridge construction. Moreover such
construction is carried out without interrupting the water flow in the river.
Summary Description:
A novel method of construction is invented by which river
fronts are quickly constructed as described in the following.
Pre-stressed steel reinforced concrete blocks of novel
designs are prefabricated in a location nearer to the river. Figure 1 shows an
edging panel and Figure 2 shows a pavement panel. Bumps and recesses are
designed into the edging panels and pavement panels respectively so that they
make a good fit. As the names indicate, the edging panel goes vertically along
the edge of the river front while the pavement panel is located horizontally
being interlocked with the edging panel. Figure 3 shows how they fit together
when assembled together after placement.
Figure 1. Precast Pre-stressed Reinforced Concrete Edging Panel
Figure 2. Precast Pre-stressed Reinforced Concrete Pavement Panel
Figure 3. Pavement Panel and Edging panel fit together like Lego Blocks.
Prefabricated and pre-stressed reinforced concrete columns
are inserted into holes drilled into the river bed along the edge of the river.
These act as anchor columns and they hold the edging panel from collapsing into
the river. Figure 4 shows the arrangement where the edging panel is dropped
such that the holes in the edging panels fit over the anchor columns. Figure 5
shows an alternative arrangement where the edging panel is placed next to the row of
anchor columns.
Figure 4. Edging panels are placed and located on the river's edge.
Figure 5. Edging panels located next to the anchor columns (alternative arrangement).
After the edging panels are in place, the pavement panels
are placed on top of the edging panels making sure that the panels are level.
It is also possible to make suitable designs on these panels
so that they contain plant holders (not shown). Barriers can be added to the
pavement panels to prevent people and animals from falling into the river or lake.
Benefits:
The benefits from this technique and method are as follows.
• Quick
construction
• Better
standards from controlled manufacturing
• Economy
of scale (owing to factory production of panels).
Recommendation:
Prototypes should be built and tested. That can be followed
by large scale implementation.
[1]
Som Karamchetty, 1400 Stratton Dr., Potomac, Maryland 20854, USA, somkdsr@verizon.net, www.karamchetty.net
