Sheet pile walls have been used to support excavations for below-grade parking structures, basements, pump houses, and foundations, to construct cofferdams, and to construct seawalls and bulkheads. Permanent steel sheet piles are designed to provide a long service life.

Sheet pile walls are constructed by driving prefabricated sections into the ground. Soil conditions may allow for the sections to be vibrated into ground instead of it being hammer driven. The full sheet pile wall is formed by connecting the joints of adjacent sheet pile sections in sequential installation.

Cantilevered sheet pile wall is one of the most famous flexible retaining structures that usually used secures deep excavation down to about 5.0m, it could be constructed using steel profiles or tangent piles (driven pre-cast or board piles)