Admittedly, we were a little nervous at Greenwall last Thursday: A storm?!

Admittedly, we were a little nervous here at Greenwall the other day because of that fierce storm. Not when the KNMI issued the code orange warning the day before—that just meant, at most, that traffic would be a little lighter. No, from the moment the roof of our hobby greenhouse was blown off with a thunderous roar early that Thursday morning, we didn’t sleep a wink…

Greenwall Sound Barrier—Foundation-Free

Our Greenwall noise barriers are designed in such a way that they can be installed without a foundation. This is not just an empty claim, but an argument backed by structural calculations. Due to the wide base and narrow top of the panels, combined with their heavy weight, the overturning moment is reached at most once every 50 years. For example, during an extremely severe storm….

“A Greenwall can be installed without a foundation. The only time you’re at risk is during a storm that occurs at most once every 50 years.”

There were certainly extreme weather conditions that Thursday. The orange alert was upgraded to a red alert. In Den Helder, wind gusts reached force 11, and the total number of trucks blown over exceeded 50. Starting at 4:30 in the morning, I found myself wondering how much wind pressure a Greenwall sound barrier actually has to withstand, whether a structural engineer ever has their calculations checked, and who you should call first if a Greenwall blows across the highway.

A storm in a teacup?

But in the end, it turned out to be a storm in a teacup for Greenwall. All the noise barriers we had installed had successfully withstood the storm, unlike construction signs, shipping containers, trash cans, and portable toilets, as was reported that evening on the 8 o’clock news.

So was there no damage at all? Actually, there was. Some of our customers reported that branches or even entire trees had fallen onto our green screens. Fortunately, no one was injured. For us, it’s simply a matter of removing the damaged parts, replacing them with new ones, and thereby resolving the problem quickly and easily.

And that’s another advantage of prefabricated components: plug-and-play…