Flexible mattress-like element usable at ballast for immobilising and protecting underwater pipelines

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A flexible mattress-like element usable as ballast or a load for immobilising and protecting underwater pipelines, includes an outer flexible envelope preferably, made from a non-woven fabric covering at least one, gabion which is made from double-twist hexagonal-mesh, wire netting in the form of a somewhat-flattened parallelepiped and is filled with a mixture of stones or pebbles with a sand-, filler-, and bitumen-based mastic. The composition of the mastic is such that it is fluid at 150°C to 180°C, semi-fluid at 100° to 140°C plastic, at 10° to 50°C, semi-plastic at temperatures of from 0°C to-10°C, and tends to become rigid at temperatures below -10°C. Each gabion is made from panels of …