Gentle Driving of Piles

Gentle Driving of Piles (GDP) is a new technology for the vibratory installation of tubular (mono)piles. Its founding principle is that both efficient installation and low noise emission can be achieved by applying to the pile a combination of axial and torsional vibrations. 

The GDP method allows full extraction of old (mono)piles at the end of their lifecycle. The advantages of the GDP technology for  decommissioning projects are:

• Contribution to the circular economy goals by providing complete removal of offshore and onshore pile foundations;

• Reducing the operational offshore time and in this way minimizing the costs of the decommissioning operation;

• Aiming at zero environmental impact: by causing no damage to any neighboring structures, such as dams or any other type the coastal protection infrastructure. 

The fact that torsional vibrations cannot propagate in the water eliminates the issue of noise emissions protecting the well-being of the marine species as well as the operators. In the soil, the vibration propagation is also reduced drastically as already tested within a pilot full-size joint-industry project GDP 1.0. Consequently, in the case of offshore (mono)pile installation projects, the environmental noise emissions will be negligible compared to all existing techniques. This allows taking expensive noise mitigation measures such as noise mitigation screens or bubble curtains out of the equation. Which, obviously, leads to significant cost reduction.