A Hesco bastion, also known as a Hesco barrier, and formally Concertainer, is a gabion introduced in 1989 and primarily used for flood control and military fortifications. It is made of a collapsible wire mesh container and heavy-duty geotextile fabric liner and is used as a temporary to semi-permanent levee or blast wall against small-arms fire or explosives. It has been used in military applications in Iraq and Afghanistan.
History British ex-coal miner Jimi Heselden designed a geotextile fabric-lined bastion for erosion and flood control on beaches and in marshes.Flood Fighting Structures Demonstration and Evaluation Program U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Factsheet January 2006"Owner of Segway Company Dies in Segway Accident" New York Times, September 27, 2010 He founded HESCO Bastion Ltd. in 1989 to produce what he dubbed the “Concertainer”, a portmanteau of "concertina" and "container" for the unique way that units fold flat like a concertina for efficient packaging, handling, and erection.
Hesco bastions were used in 2005 to reinforce levees around New Orleans in the weeks between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. During the June 2008 Midwest floods, of HESCO barrier wall were shipped to Iowa. - David, David; Hammond Daily Star, June 25, 2008 In late March 2009, of HESCO barrier were delivered to Fargo, North Dakota, to protect against floods. In late September 2016, of HESCO barriers were used in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the fall flood of 2016.Cedar Rapids Discusses Permanent Flood Protection - Kalk, Jordee; KCRG, September 26, 2016
Assembly Assembling the HESCO unit entails unfolding it and filling it with sand, soil or gravel, usually using a front end loader.Mike Nowatzki, Flood Update: Portable floodwalls will be used in flood fight as city scrambles for protection The Fargo-Moorhead INFORUM March 23, 2009.
The HESCO barriers are varied in sizes and models. Most of the barriers can also be stacked, and they are shipped collapsed in compact sets.
Variants Since the original concertainer, HESCO has developed specialized variants, including:
a rapid in-theatre deployment design (in which a container is dragged along the ground to deploy multiple barriers);HESCO Raid (from the manufacturer Web site)
an "accommodation bunker" (with an aluminum roof and a pre-detonation screen);
a "Terrablock" combining concertainer ballast and metal mesh fencing;
a lightweight overhead protection system; and,
the Sangar, a fortification kit consisting of MIL walls, protective roof, and windows.
See also Bremer wall – steel-reinforced concrete blast walls
References
External links
HESCO Bastion Ltd—HESCO company site