Civil engineering Leonardo da Vinci designed a type of gabion called a
Corbeille Leonard ("Leonard[o] basket") for the foundations of the
San Marco Castle in
Milan. The
Maccaferri family produced sack-shaped gabions starting in 1893. A box-shaped wire mesh gabion for
erosion control, the most common civil engineering application, was refined in the early 20th century and
patented as the "Maccaferri gabion". it was used to stabilize shorelines, stream banks and slopes. Other uses evolved, including
retaining walls,
noise barriers, temporary
flood walls,
silt filtration from runoff, small dams,
fish screening, channel lining, and stepped
weirs, which enhance the rate of energy dissipation in a channel. In 1911, Gaetano Maccaferri established business relationships in
Spain,
Greece, and
Austria. Prior to
World War II, the company began diversifying through acquisitions in various industrial sectors, though the
erosion control sector remained the core business. This process led to the global expansion of Maccaferri technology and expertise, with a direct presence in over forty countries across all continents. The life expectancy of gabions depends on that of their wire. Galvanized steel wire is most common, but
PVC-coated and stainless steel wire are also used. PVC-coated galvanized gabions have been estimated to last for 60 years. Some gabion manufacturers guarantee a structural integrity of 50 years. In the United States, gabions were first used in stream erosion control projects beginning in 1957. More than 150 grade-control structures, bank revetments and channel deflectors were constructed on two U.S. Forest Service sites. Eventually, a large portion of the in-stream structures failed due to undermining and lack of structural integrity of the baskets. In particular, corrosion and abrasion of wires by movement of the streams’
bedload compromised the structures, which then sagged and collapsed into the channels. Other gabions were toppled into channels as trees grew atop their revetments, leveraging them toward the streams. Gabions have also been used in building construction, as in the
Dominus Winery in the
Napa Valley,
California, constructed between 1995 and 1997. The exterior is formed by modular wire mesh gabions containing locally quarried stone, allowing air movement through the building and moderating interior temperatures.
Military in a late 16th-century illustration Early gabions were round open-ended cages made from
wickerwork filled with earth and used as military
fortifications. In one example, willow twigs were brought from
East Lothian to make gabions to protect gun emplacements during the April 1573 siege of
Edinburgh Castle. Such early military gabions were most often used to protect
sappers and siege
artillery gunners. Depending on what they are filled with, gabions may be highly deformable, dissipating impact forces. This has led to the use of recycled materials such as used tires and ballast from railway tracks to fill some
rockfall protection embankments. ==See also==