Floating breakwaters

Floating breakwaters

Traditional breakwaters are rigid and permanent structures generally constructed of huge concrete blocks from the seabed to above the water surface (which excludes their use in deep waters). The aim of overcoming these limitations with more flexible and economic solutions encouraged Ingemar, from 1980 onwards, to find an alternative option by using high performance and reliable floating structures. Their long experience led to the installation of floating breakwaters in areas of limited wave motion with short periods, such as lakes and sheltered bays or outer harbours. The creation of cost effective barriers, indifferent to the restrictions posed by depth and tide, immediately proved its advantages. The FCA model of breakwaters is the result of Ingemar’s experience acquired over 40 years of research and application. These are precast structures in reinforced concrete with an expanded polystyrene core, of significant size and displacement which, when connected in series and/or parallel to each other, provide an extremely reliable, robust and durable floating barrier, more than comparable to traditional fixed barriers. Each model of Ingemar’s breakwaters is subjected to stringent testing in the wave flume and wave basin of the University of Padua’s laboratory of maritime constructions.

Today the 360m long floating breakwater installed at La Spezia, with a width of 10m and overall height of 2.4m, is the largest installation of standard production floating breakwaters with the greatest performance at international level.