Owned and run by professional engineers.
Chartered civil and structural engineers lead every project we take on. We design, fabricate and supply fabric-formed concrete systems for marine construction, and our engineers stay with the works, on site, anywhere in the world, until they are complete. Sixty years of doing this has taught us how concrete behaves underwater, and where it is the right answer.
Fabric-formed concrete · first major installation 1966
Of engineer owners, led by chartered civil and structural engineers
Published research feeding the PIANC design guidance
Projects delivered, Europe to Antarctica
Chartered engineers, and you deal with them directly.
The company is owned and run by professional engineers, three of them chartered members of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The people who design your solution are the people who answer the phone, and the people who turn up on site.
Martin Hawkswood
A Chartered Civil & Structural Engineer, Martin ran a successful full construction company before purchasing Proserve in 1995. He has over 15 published papers on marine construction and scour protection design.
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George Hawkswood
A Chartered Civil Engineer, previously at contractor John Sisk and consultants Mott MacDonald, Aecom and KV Consultores. Fluent in Spanish, with extensive experience managing international projects.
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Matt King
Joined in 2010 and has worked on a vast array of projects, co-authoring several of the company's published papers on propeller action and berth scour protection.
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Mitchell Furborough
Co-author of the company's 2024 PIANC World Congress papers on open-hole mattress design for wave protection and on berth scour research and development.
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Samuel Mottershead
Leads project engineering, taking designs from the formwork drawings through fabrication to filling plans and on-site support.
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Junho Bae
Project engineering across the scour protection and foundation systems, from design detailing to installation support.
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James Hawkswood
A Business & Marketing graduate, James joined Proserve in 2013 and manages the commercial side of the business.
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Sam Fearn
Runs fabrication and production, making up every form to the project drawings before it is supplied.
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We design, fabricate and supply. Your team installs.
Fabric formwork controls the placement of concrete and grout so it can be cast reliably underwater, without heavy marine plant. Our role is the engineering and the system; the installation stays with the marine contractor, supported on site by us.
Design
Our engineers design the formwork and the works around it, covering form geometry, filling sequence, edge detailing and connection to the structure, to the conditions and loads of the specific project.
Fabricate & supply
Forms are woven and made up in the UK from HUESKER Incomat® high-strength synthetic fabric, purpose-made to each project, and supplied worldwide.
Support installation
We do not install. Installation is carried out by the client’s marine contractors and divers, with our engineers on site to support first-time filling and quality control.
Concrete mattress for port scour protection.
Proserve design and supply insitu concrete mattress for port and berth scour protection. The fabric formwork is HUESKER Incomat®, woven on HUESKER’s own looms in Gescher, Germany, to the weave, tie spacing and panel size we specify for each berth.
The design method is our own published research, presented to PIANC world congresses in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2024. Berths protected this way include Dunkirk, Szczecin, Dover, Ashdod, Eilat and Al Faw.
We finish the job with you. Our engineering stops when the works are complete, not at delivery.
Before the first fill
Installation guides, filling plans and training for the dive team, then a demonstration filling before any live work begins. Divers new to the technique are trained first.
During the works
An engineer on site for first-time filling, with pre-pour checks signed off and fill rates monitored throughout. On large projects visits continue at regular intervals as the area builds up.
At handover
Strength samples, batch testing records and as-built drawings issued to the owner, so the protection can be inspected and maintained for its design life.
We did the testing, then published it.
The design methods we use did not come from a catalogue. They came from measuring how propeller flow behaves over a protected bed, writing up what we found, and putting it in front of the industry to be reviewed.
Tested
Propeller and thruster action over protected beds, studied in physical model testing
Published
15+ papers in PIANC, ASCE and ICE proceedings, Martin Hawkswood as primary author
Adopted
15+ papers in PIANC, ASCE and ICE proceedings, Martin Hawkswood as primary author
The demanding foundation projects are where the engineering is proven.
Foundation and sealing works on major marine infrastructure are the most exacting jobs we take on. The confidence engineers place in fabric-formed concrete for those structures is what stands behind the more routine scour-protection work.
Foundations for the Venice flood barrier
Grout bag foundations beneath the precast caissons housing the MOSE flood gates, each caisson up to 60 m long and around 20,000 tonnes. 719 bags were filled across the Malamocco and Lido San Nicolò inlets, with vent feedback confirming full grout contact under every caisson.
Read the case study →
Founding bridge piers onto the seabed
Pier bases of 20 m and 23 m diameter founded onto an irregular seabed using six grout bag compartments each, filled by remote surface control in fast-flowing sea conditions with no divers involved.
Read the case study →Al Faw Grand Port, Iraq
Berth scour protection to a 1.75 km piled jetty, kept off the critical path by installing beneath the deck.
Confederation Bridge, Canada
Grout bags used to found the concrete piers of the 13 km crossing, the longest bridge over ice-covered water.
Port Canaveral, USA
In-situ concrete mattress protecting a cruise berth against azipod propulsion, where rock protection would be inadequate.
- VINCI Construction
- Grandi Lavori Fincosit
- Mota-Engil
- Bachy Soletanche
- Royal Haskoning
- Jacobs
We are appointed by the contractor or the consulting engineer, and work as part of their team. See the case studies →
The engineering has been recognised by the industry.
Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation
National recognition for innovation in the development of fabric-formed concrete systems for marine construction.
Ben C. Gerwick Award
Awarded for innovation in the design and construction of marine foundations, the field the grout bag foundation system was developed for.
Frequently asked questions
Can Proserve support a project anywhere in the world?
Yes. Forms are engineered and fabricated in the UK and supplied worldwide, and our engineers travel to site to support installation. Projects have been delivered on every continent, from Europe and the Americas to Africa, Asia, Australia and Antarctica.
Our Engineering Director is a fluent Spanish speaker and leads international projects, and the team has worked alongside contractors, dive teams, ports and navies in more than thirty countries.
Our divers have never installed a concrete mattress. Is that a problem?
No. Most of the dive teams we work with are installing the system for the first time. Divers new to the technique are trained before live work starts, and we run a demonstration filling so the team sees how the fabric behaves before it matters.
You receive installation guides and a project-specific filling plan, and one of our engineers is on site for the first fill. With the right training, installation is achievable in low visibility and even black water.
What support do we get on site, and for how long?
We finish the job with you. Our engineering stops when the works are complete, not at delivery.
That means an engineer present for first-time filling, pre-pour checks signed off, fill rates monitored, and continued visits at regular intervals as the installed area builds up on larger projects.
Do we need specialist marine plant or a heavy-lift barge?
No. The form goes down empty and is pump-filled in place, so there is no heavy lifting and no precast units to place. On quay walls it is filled from the quayside.
This is often the deciding factor on remote or busy sites: the work can be carried out by a local marine contractor and dive team using equipment that is straightforward to mobilise.
How do you assure quality when the concrete is cast underwater?
Through our Marine Quality Control System. Every concrete batch is checked with a Flowcone fluidity test, strength samples are taken in test socks, and the seabed is surveyed by sonar before laying.
Pre-pour checks are signed off, fill rates are monitored throughout, and as-built records are issued to the owner so the works can be inspected and maintained through their design life.
Are Proserve’s engineers chartered?
Yes. Three of the team are chartered members of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Martin Hawkswood, Director and Principal Engineer, a Chartered Civil and Structural Engineer; George Hawkswood, Engineering Director; and Matt King, Senior Engineer.
The wider team holds MEng and EngTech qualifications with ICE membership, and brings experience from major consultancies and contractors including Mott MacDonald, Aecom, John Sisk and KV Consultores, applied specifically to marine construction in concrete.
Who writes Proserve’s published research?
Martin Hawkswood is the primary author, with over 15 published papers on marine construction and scour protection design, presented to PIANC world congresses and to ASCE, ICE and GhIGS conferences.
He writes with George Hawkswood, Matt King and Mitchell Furborough, and with co-authors from partner organisations and research institutes. The published record runs from 2009 to 2024.
Who carries the design responsibility?
That depends on how the project is set up. We can take design responsibility for the fabric-formed works, or provide design support and specification input to your own designer or consulting engineer.
Either way the design is based on the hydrodynamic loads and seabed conditions of your specific project, using methods from our published research and physical model testing rather than generic guidance.
Does fabric-formed concrete lower the carbon of the works?
Usually yes, and the reason is volume rather than the material itself. Concrete has a higher carbon cost per cubic metre than quarried rock, but a sealed fabric-formed apron of 220 to 300 mm replaces 1.5 to 2.5 m of graded rock, so far less material is produced, transported and placed.
The mix is batched locally and pumped into the form, so there is no armour rock to quarry, size, import or barge to site, and no marine plant on hire. On the piled berths at Al Faw Grand Port the mattress removed 405,600 m³ of quarried rock from the works. We assess carbon against the specific alternative on each project rather than claiming a general figure.
What accreditation and recognition does Proserve hold?
Proserve is certified to ISO 9001:2015 for quality management and ISO 45001:2018 for occupational health and safety, both UKAS accredited.
The company has received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation and the Ben C. Gerwick Award from the Deep Foundations Institute for innovation in the design and construction of marine foundations, and its research has been presented to PIANC world congresses.
How long has Proserve been doing this, and who owns the company?
Proserve has been developing fabric-formed concrete systems for marine construction since 1966, and is now in its third generation of engineer owners.
It has been owned and run by professional engineers throughout. That continuity is why systems installed decades ago are still in service, and why the same people are still answering questions about them.
Bring us the problem.
Tell us the structure and the conditions. Our engineers will tell you whether fabric-formed concrete is the right answer, and what it would look like on your project.