Protection Measures Selection Tool

Caissons or a A continuous length of silt curtain, fully surrounding the pile driving area and installed in close proximity to piers, must be used as necessary and as practicable to protect aquatic resources and to provide sediment containment while construction activities are occurring if working in a wetted channel. The silt curtain will prevent the release of a turbidity plume and trap sediment that may become suspended as a result of the pile driving. The bottom of the silt curtains must be weighted with ballast weights or rods affixed to the base of the fabric to resist the natural buoyancy of the silt curtain fabric and lessen its tendency to move in response to currents. Where feasible and applicable, the floating silt curtains must be anchored and deployed from the surface of the water to just above the substrate. The silt curtain must be monitored for damage, dislocation or gaps and must be immediately repaired where it is no longer continuous or where it has loosened. The silt curtain must restrict the surface visible turbidity plume to the area of pile construction and must control and contain the migration of re-suspended sediments at the water surface and at depth.