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• Triton Mattresses are flexible and easily lifted by end or ends
• Quickly creates a waterfront revetment, up to 1:1 slope

• Easily installed underwater by barge and crane with diver assistance
• Provides scour protection or foundation to marine structures

Triton Mattresses are similar in appearance to wire gabion mattresses but are made from a high density polyethylene grid that is strong but flexible when filled and easily placed in or near water. They can be made with lifting flaps on each end. They are between eight and eighteen inches in thickness, are stackable, and are easily connected together to form structures including revetments, channel linings, bridge or pipe scour protection, foundation for jettys, groins and breakwaters. The mattresses can be almost any length between 8 and 45 feet and typically they are 4.5 feet wide when stone filled. They contain a series of baffled compartments which are tensioned in by the volume of rock they hold through a bodkin rod system.

Suitable Application Areas

Triton Mattresses give the greatest benefit in areas that are difficult to reach for placement of typical wire gabion baskets or mats. For example, underwater applications such as around bridge abutments for scour protection where sections of gabions would have to be lifted with thousands of pick points to keep them relatively flat and prevent wire deformation, a very time consuming process. Because Triton Mats can bend without losing structural integrity(ie. geogrid does not stretch), they can hang free and be swung/laid into place by a crane, adjusting automatically to the bottom contours.

Cape May Point State Park,
New Jersey
(From top to bottom, Before and After)

Beach erosion was threatening infrastructure in a state park including a museum building and parking lot. An artificial dune/berm which had been constructed earlier was to be reconstructed throughout the waterfront, however armoring would be necessary for a 500 foot section which received the most severe wave impact. A rock groin defined the downdrift end of this section. Lack of space due to continuing erosion determined that the project would be built within the intertidal range. Concrete boulders made up the core of the revetment, overlain by crushed concrete aggregate and sand. Filter fabric was laid over the top of the 1:3 slope and 26 foot, 6.5 ton stone filled Triton Mattresses were placed side-by-side and connected by heavy duty connector ties. No anchoring was required. Granite boulders were placed at the toe of slope for additional wave buffering. Each mattress was delivered ready for installation and was lifted off the truck by crane, guided into place and connected in approximately 5 minutes. Two years later the revetment remained structurally sound and tightly butted up to the adjoining rock groin. At high tide, the mattresses absorb the wave energy into their stone layer, without reflecting it back out and no scour has occured at their base. Some loss of underlying sediments has occured on the slope but the flexible mattresses have adjusted without deforming and have not slipped from position. The State Engineer is pleased with the results, as nothing else has been able to hold up in this environment. In fact, another 1000 feet has recently been completed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

For a more complete description of this product and its construction, please request our white paper, published in IECA Proceedings '97, entitled "Oceanfront Revetment Construction Using Geogrid Marine Mattresses."

GEO-SYN Products Company
417 U.S. Highway 202
Flemington, New Jersey 08822
(800) 434-0644
Fax (908) 782-4381
Email GEO-SYN