Start with the opening drawing note of the issued Section 31 41 16: confirm that the plans and wall elevations give every run of sheeting its location, shape, size and weight, minimum section properties, and tip and cutoff elevations, and that the section is used for the permanent wall while temporary sheeting follows the contractor’s shoring design under Section 31 00 00. Then check that the steel or aluminum material, corrosion protection, fabricated corners and junctions, splices and holes, driving tolerances and sequence, drainage, tiebacks, wales, and tie rods, and the test, survey, and monitoring paragraphs kept in the section agree with the wall details and the geotechnical report.
Assemble the review package
Gather the site or wall layout plan with each run of sheeting, corner, junction, and closure, the wall elevations with top and tip elevations, existing grade, dredge line or mudline, and water levels, the sheet pile schedule with section, shape, weight, steel grade or aluminum alloy, and minimum section modulus and moment of inertia, the corner, junction, splice, and fabricated section details, the wale, tie rod, deadman, tieback, cap, and coping details, the coating and cathodic protection drawings with their limits, the drainage, weep hole, and backfill details, the geotechnical report with boring logs, obstructions, rock, groundwater, and corrosivity, the plan of existing structures, utilities, and new concrete near the work, and the issued Section 31 41 16 with Sections 31 00 00, 31 68 13, 05 50 14, 05 50 15, and the coating and cathodic protection sections the project uses. Follow one run of sheeting from its corner through its wale or tie rod to its tip before assuming the others match.
WBDG publishes UFGS 31 41 16: Metal Sheet Piling as a public guide-specification reference (accessed November 8, 2026). Use your project’s issued specification and amendments for the actual comparison; the guide specification does not automatically govern your project. The checklist below is an original suggested review workflow, not a reproduction of the UFGS requirements.
Eight checks to run against the issued set
Use one record per location or system. The CSV contains the same eight prompts plus fields for source revisions, observed evidence, the review owner, the decision, and closure references.
| Check | Sources to compare | Question to resolve |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent wall scope, drawing note, and design responsibility | Opening scope note (permanent earth retaining structures; temporary shoring and sheeting left to the contractor) + opening drawing note (locations, soil data, shape, size and weight, length or tip and cutoff elevations) + Description article (design, furnish, install, and test) + General Requirements note (section properties on the drawings as minimum requirements) + Basis of Bid note on “(Min.)” + Section 31 00 00 Shoring and Sheeting + wall layout, elevations, and schedule | Is the section issued for the permanent wall only, with temporary sheeting left to the contractor’s excavation and trenching plan and certified shoring drawings under Section 31 00 00, do the plans and elevations give each run its location, shape, size and weight, and tip and cutoff elevations, as the drawing note requires, are the section properties on the drawings marked as minimums where larger ones are acceptable, as the bid note suggests, and has the Description article’s “Design, furnish, install and test” been edited, since the notes have the designer select the section and show it on the drawings? |
| Sheet pile type, material, and interlocks | Metal Sheet Piling note (hot-rolled straight web for interlock tension, hot-rolled Z-type for lower permeability, cold-formed sections, aluminum in corrosive soils) + material bracket (ASTM A328, A572, A690, cold-formed sections, ASTM A857, or aluminum alloy) + General Requirements article and note (minimum section modulus, moment of inertia, shape, size, interlock type) + Interlocks article + Interlocked Joint Tension Test notes + geotechnical report and wall purpose | Is one material kept and named the same way on the schedule, is cold-formed sheeting kept out of walls where seepage through the wall matters and out of I-walls that act as flood barriers, as the note directs, is aluminum kept out of the corrosive soils and water the note lists, is an interlock type specified where the wall’s performance depends on it, is the interlock tension test kept only for straight-web piling, and since the note says ASTM A572 covers three grades but then lists more yield strengths in inch-pound units than in metric, has the grade been written into the bracket from the standard itself? |
| Corrosion protection, coatings, and tie rod protection | Metal Sheet Piling note (salt or brackish water, splash zone coating, more than one system above and below the splash zone) + coating and cathodic protection bracket (Sections 09 97 02, 26 42 13, and 26 42 17) + Delivery and Storage (damage to coatings) + wall elevations with mudline and water levels + Section 09 97 13.28 | Where the wall stands in salt or brackish water or corrosive soil, do the elevations show which protection applies where, with the coating limits, splash zone, mudline, and any cathodic protection, does the bracket name a coating or cathodic protection section the project actually issues, and are the tie rods, wales, and fittings that sit in the backfill or the water protected by a section the project issues, such as Section 09 97 13.28, which covers tape wrapping of steel bulkhead tie rods, since Section 31 41 16 has no article for them? |
| Corners, junctions, fabricated sections, splices, and holes | General Requirements brackets (full-length sections, fabricated sections, Y-sections for cells and arcs, tees, wyes, and cross pieces, same manufacture in circular cells) + Section 05 50 14 and Section 05 50 15 references + Cutting-Off and Splicing article (splicing as indicated, adjoining piles full length, AWS D1.1 welding, holes for bolts, rods, drains, or utilities as shown, watertight holes on the wet side of cofferdams) + corner, junction, splice, and penetration details | Does each corner, junction, and closure on the layout plan have a fabricated section detail, are splices detailed on the drawings, since the article says splicing must be as indicated, or excluded, are the holes for tie rods, weep holes, drains, and utility crossings shown with their locations and sizes, and are Sections 05 50 14 Structural Metal Fabrications and 05 50 15 Civil Works Fabrications, both Active and both originally developed for USACE Civil Works, issued, or the references edited to the sections the project uses? |
| Driving, tolerances, templates, and obstructions | Driving Hammers note and energy blanks + Jetting Equipment and pre-augering brackets + Driving note (tip protection for hard driving, rocky soil, or debris; jetting and pre-augering limits; press-in method) + Placing article (excavation before placing, templates, plumb, alignment, and cutoff tolerances, heave) + Driving article (increments, obstructions, rock seating, top tolerance blank, nearby new concrete) + Earthwork article (pre-excavation) + boring logs | Where the logs show cobbles, debris, riprap, or rock, is tip protection or the cast steel shoe kept, as the driving note advises, with its shop drawing listed, are the hammer energy and top tolerance blanks filled in, are jetting and pre-augering permitted only where the notes allow, is the pre-excavation bracket chosen to agree with the earthwork drawings, does the sequence keep driving away from concrete younger than the age the Driving article sets, such as a new cap or deadman, and do the drawings say how the wall is realigned if an obstruction cannot be removed, since the article lets the alignment change as directed? |
| Drainage, backfill, tiebacks, wales, and caps | Drainage note and article (free-draining backfill under Section 31 00 00, drainage system and weep holes where the wall is not designed to retain saturated soil) + Earthwork article (backfill as indicated) + Anchors note and article (tiebacks conform to Section 31 68 13) + Placing article (temporary wales only) + wall sections and wale, tie rod, deadman, and cap details | If the wall is designed for drained backfill, are the free-draining backfill, drainage system, and weep holes on the sections, as the Drainage paragraph requires when kept, where the wall is tied back with grouted anchors, is Section 31 68 13 issued with its anchors scheduled, and since Section 31 41 16 mentions wales only as temporary installation guides and has no article for permanent wales, tie rods, deadmen, or the concrete cap, do the drawings detail them and does another issued section specify them? |
| Basis of bid, test piles, and acceptance | Basis of Bid notes and Lump Sum Payment article with its Table 1 option + Unit Prices (sheet piling, fabricated sections, Government-furnished piling, cut-offs, splices, pulled pilings, removal) + Navy Project Price and Payment Procedures + Estimated Quantities + Contractor’s Geotechnical Consultant + Description test pile bracket + Testing Agency Qualifications (ASTM D4945) + bid schedule | Is one basis kept, with the Navy price and payment paragraphs kept only on Navy projects, does a lump sum basis rest on drawings that show the number of piles, locations, and tip and cutoff elevations, as its note requires, or on a Table 1 that agrees with them, and since the section names test piles, a consultant who observes test pile installation, and a testing agency for ASTM D4945 dynamic testing but has no test pile or dynamic testing article, and ties lump sum payment to acceptance criteria it never states, has the specifier added those requirements or deleted the references? |
| Inspection, survey, damaged piles, records, and monitoring | Inspection of Driven Piling article (interlocks, divers for cofferdams) + Pulling and Redriving + Survey Data article + Damaged Piles article + Installation Records + Removal and Sorting articles + Vibration Control, Noise Control, Preconstruction Condition Survey, and Construction Instrumentation and Monitoring Program articles and notes + site plan of existing structures and utilities | Is the Survey Data paragraph edited for a wall, since it holds concrete until the safe load for the pile group is verified, language written for bearing piles, are the Damaged Piles remedies edited too, since they extend a footing to embed a short pile and drive replacement piles beside a defective one, neither of which suits an interlocked wall, is the Removal article kept only where sheeting is to be pulled, and where monitoring is kept with locations “shown in the plan”, does the plan show them, along with the structures and utilities to be surveyed? |
Worked example: a tie-rod bulkhead specified with grouted anchors and no coating section
Illustrative example: a new permanent steel sheet pile bulkhead lines a small-boat basin at a waterfront training center, with hot-rolled Z-sections, a steel wale and tie rods to a concrete deadman, and a concrete cap. The wall schedule calls for a minimum section modulus and a high-strength grade, while the issued Section 31 41 16 keeps the cold-formed light-gage bracket. The wall elevation notes a coating over the upper part of the sheets, but the coating and cathodic protection bracket has been deleted and no issued section covers the tie rods, the section keeps the Anchors article sending tiebacks to Section 31 68 13 though the design uses no grouted anchors, and no detail shows the tie rod holes through the sheets or the wale connection. The boring logs record buried riprap along the old shoreline, yet no tip protection is kept, and the Survey Data paragraph still holds the cap concrete until the safe load for the pile group is verified.
Ask the structural engineer to keep the one material bracket that matches the schedule, to define the coating limits against the splash zone and mudline, and to add the wale, tie rod, hole, and deadman details. Ask the specifier to issue the coating section the elevation relies on, to add tie rod protection such as Section 09 97 13.28, to replace the grouted anchor article with tie rod requirements, to keep the cast steel shoe or other tip protection given the riprap, and to edit the Survey Data and Damaged Piles paragraphs to the wall acceptance the structural engineer sets.
Avoid a false conflict
Section 31 41 16 covers steel and aluminum sheet piling for permanent walls, cells, and cofferdams, and its driving, splicing, inspection, and removal. Temporary shoring and sheeting are left to the contractor’s certified excavation and trenching plan under the Shoring and Sheeting article of Section 31 00 00, which also covers excavation and backfill; grouted tiebacks follow Section 31 68 13 and the soil and rock anchor guide; fabrication and splice welding follow Sections 05 50 14 and 05 50 15 and AWS D1.1; coatings follow Section 09 97 02 Painting: Hydraulic Structures or the coating section the project uses; cathodic protection follows Section 26 42 13 or 26 42 17; and tie rod tape wrapping follows Section 09 97 13.28, so check those before calling a requirement missing. PVC and fiber-reinforced polymer sheet piling are UFGS 31 41 16.16 Synthetic Sheet Piling, and bearing piles are the 31 62 sections, such as Section 31 62 16.16 and the steel H-pile guide, all Active on WBDG. Several articles carry bearing pile language, test piles, a pile group’s safe load, and footing extensions, that a wall needs edited. Wall design, section selection, embedment, anchorage forces, hammer selection, and vibration limits belong to the structural and geotechnical engineers. The current guide section cites AWS D1.1 and D1.5, ASTM A6, A328, A572, A690, A857, B221, B221M, B308, D4945, and E329, and FAR 52.211-18 in its Navy payment paragraphs; confirm the editions your project invokes.
When requirements disagree, follow the project’s document-control and clarification process. Do not assume that drawings always override specifications, or the reverse. Identify the exact sources and request an authorized decision.
Close the issue across the affected documents
Record the location or tag, drawing and specification references, issue dates, observed difference, and the decision needed. Assign an owner and keep the item open until the response identifies the governing requirement. Check the revised drawings and specification references together; a response email alone may leave the issued package inconsistent.
For the overall process, use the guide to drawing and specification conflicts. Mark an inapplicable checklist row with a reason, and distinguish a verified correction from a question that still needs design information.
Where Groundbook fits
Groundbook’s drawing and specification review helps investigate potential disagreements in the documents you supply. Include the relevant specification sections and drawing references, then verify the cited evidence with the responsible reviewers before acting on a finding.