Hesco bastion

Flood control and military fortification barrier

HESCO MIL units stacked two units high around portable toilets in Iraq German base (Norwegian section) inside Camp Marmal near Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. Note the internal lines of gabions to reduce and compartmentalize mortar effects.

The Concertainer,[1] known colloquially as the Hesco barrier,[2] or Hesco bastion,[3] HESCO being the brand name of the manufacturer, is a modern gabion primarily used for flood control and military fortifications.[4] It is made of a collapsible wire mesh container and heavy duty fabric liner, and used as a temporary to semi-permanent levee or blast wall against small-arms fire and/or explosives. It has seen considerable use during the War on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Originally designed for use on beaches and marshes for erosion and flood control,[5] the HESCO barrier quickly became a popular security device in the 1960s.[6][failed verification] HESCO barriers continue to be used for their original purpose. They were used in 2005 to reinforce levees around New Orleans in the weeks between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.[7] During the June 2008 Midwest floods 8,200 m (9,000 yd) of HESCO barrier wall were shipped to Iowa.[8] In late March 2009, 10,700 m (11,700 yd) of HESCO barrier were delivered to Fargo, North Dakota, to protect against floods. In late September 2016, 16 km (10 mi) of HESCO barriers were used in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the fall flood of 2016.[9]

Development

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The Concertainer was originally developed by Jimi Heselden, a British entrepreneur and ex-coal miner, who founded HESCO Bastion Ltd. in 1989 to manufacture his invention.[10] The brand name for the barrier is a portmanteau of the words "concertina" and "container".[1]

Assembly

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Assembling the HESCO unit entails unfolding it and filling it with sand, soil or gravel, usually using a front end loader. The placement of the barrier is generally very similar to the placement of a sandbag barrier or earth berm except that room must generally be allowed for the equipment used to fill the barrier. The main advantage of HESCO barriers, strongly contributing to their popularity with troops and flood fighters, is the quick and easy setup. Previously, people had to fill sandbags, a slow undertaking, with one worker filling about 20 sandbags per hour. Workers using HESCO barriers and a front end loader can do ten times the work of those using sandbags.[11]

The HESCO barriers come in a variety of sizes and models. Most of the barriers can also be stacked, and they are shipped collapsed in compact sets.

Variants

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Since the original concertainer, HESCO has developed specialized variants to meet specific needs:

• MIL is the basic earth-colored unit for military use, available in a variety of sizes. Example dimensions of typical configurations are 1.4 m × 1.1 m × 9.8 m (4.6 ft × 3.6 ft × 32.2 ft) to 2.1 m × 1.5 m × 30 m (6.9 ft × 4.9 ft × 98.4 ft).[12] There is a "recoverable" variant with fast disassembly. However the horizontal loading from the fill materiel cause friction from the container steel mesh onto the vertical locking "pins", and may even cause deformation to them as they are in the same gauge.[13]
• FLOODLINE is a single-sized product for civilian flood control, colored green.[14]
• RAID (Rapid in-theatre Deployment) is deployed from a container, which is dragged along the line of ground where the barrier is to be formed, unfolding up to several hundred metres of barrier ready for filling within minutes.[15]
• HAB (Hesco Accommodation Bunker) combines a rectangular wall of MIL units with an aluminum roof and a pre-detonation screen.[16]
• TERRABLOCK, a barrier combining concertainer ballast and metal mesh fencing. The largest "XV" form works as a M50P1 (ASTM F2656: medium truck at 50 mph, less than 1 m penetration) vehicle barrier.[17]
• LOPS (lightweight overhead protection system), a lightweight roof protecting against mortar fire.
• Sangar kits consisting of MIL walls, a protective roof, windows, and optional metal support.

• FLOODLINE barrier, University of Iowa

• Palletized barriers, as delivered

• A crew installing barriers

• Using a skid loader to fill barriers

• Later in the same place, with 2-level protection

See also

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• Bremer wall - steel-reinforced concrete blast walls

References

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• HESCO Bastion Ltd—HESCO company site