ESC Group is a piling solutions provider working globally with offices and representatives strategically located in different parts of the globe to better cover the markets and give its customer the best service possible. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, Houston, Monterrey, Singapore, Jakarta, Belo Horizonte, Bogota, Guayaquil, Saint Petersburg, Brisbane and Melbourne are some of cities where ESC Group has presence.

ESC started in early 1980s as a sheet pile installer and manufacturer, using its own designed profiles having its first sheet pile driven in Magnetic Island in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Over the years, the company has supported various projects gaining enough experience to make itself one of the leaders in piling solutions. ESC counts with a strong and powerful team of engineers with extensive technical knowledge in sheet piling that can easily identify the best alternative solution to its customer?s construction needs. It can also supply and give engineering design support on different steel structural components for multiple purposes, such as bridge constructions and alike.

One recent successful project ESC involved was Watco Company?s Greens Port Industrial Park. ESC Steel, a group company of ESC, participated in the tender for Watco Companies that owns and runs Greens Port Industrial Park which is located at the east of the Houston heavy industrial zone along the Houston Ship Channel in Harris County, Texas. Greens Port offers deep-water barge docks along the channel with approximately 3 million sq ft of indoor warehousing and numerous cranes ranging from 5 to 125 tonne capacity. This port, foreseeing the increased demand, had to go for an extension of its facilities to expand its cargo handling capacity - a third and fourth berths had to be built.

ESC Steel bagged the contract due to its expertise in geotechnical and structural design calculations and presented the best alternative with the most cost-effective solution to Watco Companies. ESC proposed a system that has been used extensively internationally and on every other continent of the world including Antarctica. ESC Steel due to its superior cost competitiveness was awarded the supply of all steel pipes, steel sheet piles, steel tieback system and bollards for the combi wall.

The scope did not finish there. Using its international experience on the installation of sheet piles and combi wall systems, ESC also assisted with the construction methodology and in fact the installation guide for the system was provided free of charge to the installation contractor Russell Marine. ESC believes in providing clients with a ?piling solution? and not just a product. Sheet piles, piling pipes and associated products are not just commodities but rather they are engineered products that need engineered solutions.

ESC Steel proposed a combi wall system utilising steel pipe piles with cold rolled Z-steel sheet pile infills coupled with galvanised threaded tie backs connecting the main front wall to an anchor wall. The anchor wall was composed of steel H-piles with cold rolled Z steel sheet pile infills. The walings and connection items for the complete system even including the bolts were included in the ESC scope. All products were manufactured in China. Design and supply of the bollards was also under the ESC scope and supplied from China.

ESC with its large international team of design/construction engineers as well as the QA/QC engineers set up to provide a guaranteed economic and international quality solution. The Watco berths was a perfect example of this. During the production and then even the installation phases of the project, the ESC team in the US in addition with the international teams stayed in constant contact with the client and their installation subcontractors to ensure any and all facets of the project went ahead without a glitch.

The author is Managing Director, ESC Group.