Hashemite University

Department of Civil Engineering

Foundation Engineering

Dr. Omar Al-Hattamleh

Earth Retaining System

Earth slopes and earth retaining structures

Used to maintain two different ground surface elevations

Types of Earth Retaining Structure

Fill Wall Construction

Cut Wall Construction

Rigid Gravity and semi gravity Walls

•CIP Concrete Gravity Wall

•CIP concrete cantilever Wall

•Prefabricated Modular Gravity Wall

•Crib Wall

•Bin Wall

•Gabion Wall

MSE WALLS

•Segmented Pre-cast facing Sys.

•Prefabricated Modular Block MSE

•Geotextile, Geogrid MSE wall

•Reinforced Soil Slope

Non Gravity Cantilevered Walls

•Sheet pile Wall

•Soldier pile and logging Wall

•Slurry Wall

•Tangent And Secant Wall

•SMW Wall

•Anchored Wall

In Situ Reinforced Wall

•Soil Nail

•Micro-pile

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A cantilever gravity wall.

CIP (Cast in Place)

Concrete

Cantilever Wall

CIP (Cast in Place)

Concrete Cantilever Wall

Description

Cast in place concrete cantilever/ counter forth wall consist of a steel

reinforced concrete wall stem and base slab connected to for the

shape of an inverted T.

General1. Typical Application: Bridge abutments, retaining walls, soil stabilization

2. Size requirements: Base width of ranges from 0.4 to 0.7 of the wall height

3. Typical Height Range: 2-9 m Cantilever wall; 9-18 m (counter forth Wall)

Advantages1. Conventional Wall System with Well established design procedure &

performance characteristics

2. Concrete is very durable in many environments

3. Concrete can be formed, textured, and colored to meet aesthetic

requirements

CIP Concrete Cantilever Wall Cont.

Disadvantages

1. Requires relatively long construction period: formwork must be erected & concrete poured and allowed to cure before backfill loads

2. Costly :

a) Required selected backfill if not available near the site

b) May need temporary excavation support

c) Deep foundation support

3. Wall system is rigid and its sensitive to total and differential settlements

Gabion Wall

Description

Compartment unit filled with stone that is 100 to 200 mm in size. Each

unit is a rectangular basket made of galvanized steel, geosynthetic grid or

polyvinylchloride (PVC) coated wire. Each gabion units laced together on

site and filled with selected stone

General1. Typical Application: Retaining walls, Slope stabilization, bank stabilization

2. Size requirements: Base width of ranges from 0.5 to 0.7 of the wall height

3. Typical Height Range: 2-8m

Advantages1. Wall System is flexible and can accommodate large and differential

settlements with out distress

2. Wall appearance well suited to rural areas

3. Wall flexible, therefore, suited for application in high seismicity area

4. Wall pervious, therefore, well suited foe bank stabilization applications

Gabion Wall Cont.

Disadvantages

1. Source of stone must be available

2. Gabion wire are subjected to corrosion in aggressive soils

3. Abrasion of the gabion baskets may occur in water way

application

4. Requires significant manual labor

5. Not cost effective for temporary applications

Sheet Pile Wall

Sheet Pile Wall

Sheet Pile Wall

DescriptionConsist of driven, vibrated, or pushed, interlocking steel or concrete sheet

pile sections. The required depth of embedment (i.e. length of sheet pile

below final excavated grade) is evaluated based on the assumption that

the passive resistance of the soil in front of the wall plus flexural strength

of the sheet pile can resist the lateral forces from the soil behind the wall

General1. Typical Application: Retaining walls, Slope stabilization, excavation support

Marine walls, docks

2. Size requirements: N/A

3. Typical Height Range: 2-5m

Advantages1. Conventional Wall System with Well established design procedure &

performance characteristics

2. Wall system can be used for application in which wall can penetrates

below ground water table

3. Work area inside wall face is not required

4. Wall system is suitable for temporary applications

Sheet Pile Wall Cont.

Disadvantages

1. Requires specialized equipment

2. Driven sheet pile is noisy and it can be introduce vibration

3. Difficult to drive sheet in hard or dense or gravelly soil

4. Wall height is limited based on required structural sections

5. Wall system may undergo relatively movements which may be

detrimental to nearby structure

SMW Wall (Soil Mixed Wall)

DescriptionConsist of overlapped soil-cement columns in which in situ soils are mixed

with a cement slurry or other hardening agent. A multiple axis auger and

mixing paddles are used to construct overlapping soil cement columns

without soil removal or unmixed zones between columns.

General1. Typical Application: Retaining walls, excavation support

2. Size requirements: typically 1.0 m

3. Typical Height Range: 6-24 m with anchors

Advantages1. Reduce excavated spoil is produced

2. Is adaptable to an irregular installation arrangement

SMW Wall (Soil Mixed Wall) Cont.

Disadvantages

1. Design procedures are not well established

2. Construction of wall system requires specialty contractor and

equipment vibration

3. Quality control/ quality assurance protocol is not well documented

for this wall system

4. Disposal of excavated spoil resulting from soil mixing process

may be costly do to environmental restrictions

Soil Nailed Wall

Soil Nailed Wall Description

In Situ soil reinforcement technique wherein passive inclusions (soil nails)

are placed into the natural ground at relatively close spacing (1-2 m) to

increase the strength of the soil mass. Construction staged from top to

down and after each stage of excavation, the nails are installed, drainage

system are constructed and shotcrete are applied to the excavation face.

General1. Typical Application: Retaining walls, soil stabilization, excavation support

2. Size requirements: soil nail length typically from 0.6- 1.0 m of the wall height

3. Typical Height Range: 3-20 m

Advantages1. An unobstructed working space can be achieved on the excavation side of

the wall

2. Surface movements can be limited by installing additional nails or by

stressing nails in upper level to small percentage of working loads

3. Wall system is adaptable to varying site conditions

4. Is well suited for construction in areas of limited head room

5. Wall embedment is nor required

6. Suitable for temporary applications

SMW Wall (Soil Mixed Wall) Cont.

Disadvantages

1. Construction of wall system requires specialty contractor

2. Required permanently dewatering in case of the present of

ground table

3. Closed space nail May interface underground utilities

4. Nail capacity may be difficult to develop in some cohesive soil

Segmental, Precast Facing

Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls

Segmental, Precast Facing

Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls

Segmental, Precast Facing

Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls Description

A segmental, pre-cast facing mechanically stabilized earth wall employs

metallic (strip or bar mat) or geosynthetic (geogrid or geotextile)

reinforcement that is connected to a precast concrete or prefabricated

metal facing a panel to create a reinforced soil mass. Facing Panel are

typically square, rectangular, hexagonal or cruciform in shape

General1. Typical Application: Bridge abutments, retaining wall, slope stabilization

2. Size requirements: minimum reinforcement length of 0.7 m of the wall height

3. Typical Height Range: 3-20 m

Advantages1. Rapid construction; does not required specialized labor

2. Limited foundation preparation

3. Flexible; accommodate large differential settlement

4. Reinforcement is light and easily to handle

5. Flexibility in choice facing and architectural finishes

6. Suitable for regions in high seismicity

Segmental, Precast Facing

Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls Cont.

Disadvantages

1. Not economical for cut application due to additional cost in

temporary excavation

2. Requires relatively large base width

3. Use of metallic reinfrorcment requires a minimum electrochemical

requirements for corrosions

4. Allowable loads for geosynthetic reinforcement must be reduced

to account for creep, durability, and construction damage

5. Not appropriate for

If we need access to underground utilities

Locations subjected to scour

Place involving significant horizontal curvature

6. Not cost effective for temporary applications

RSS Reinforced Soil SlopeDescriptionThese systems incorporating planner reinforcement, typically geotextile or

geogrid in construct the earth slope face inclination less than 70o. The

reinforcement is laid down alternately with horizontal layers of compacted

soil. General

1. Typical Application: Slope stabilization, embankment construction

Sound/ Noise absorbing embankment wall

2. Size requirements: min. reinforcement length of 0.5-1.0m of the wall height

3. Typical Height Range: 3-30 m

Advantages1. Rapid construction; does not required specialized labor

2. Limited foundation preparation

3. Flexible; accommodate large differential & total settlement

4. Reinforcement is light and easily to handle

5. Extremely Flexible suited for seismic zones

6. Suitable for regions in high seismicity

7. Vegetation of the slope possible

8. Can be used for construction of very height embankment over 30m

RSS Reinforced Soil Slope Cont.

Disadvantages

1. Non vertical slope increase right of way compared to a vertical

wall

2. Requires relatively large base width

3. Geotextile and geogrid requires relatively large base width

4. Geotextile and geogrid life is reduced due to exposure to

ultraviolet light

Crib Wall

http://www.concrib.com.au/gallery_cribwall.htm

Crib Wall

Crib Wall

Crib Wall

Segmental Retaining Wall

Gabion

Gabion

Bin Wall

http://www.contech-cpi.com/default.aspx

CONSTRUCTION OF

SECANT PILE WALL

http://www.lta.gov.sg/projects/images/Secant%20Final.pdf

CONSTRUCTION OF

SECANT PILE WALL