Reinforced Retaining Walls

Sometimes the complexity or wall height required for certain installations require retaining walls that are reinforced by either geofabric material or, in really tough cases, concrete filled doubleskin layers of blocks.

Gravity Retaining | Reinforced Retaining | Submission Sheet | Test Results

1. Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Segmental Retaining Walls

Geosynthetic reinforced soil segmental retaining walls utilize reinforcing sheets of geogrid or suitable woven geotextile which are attached to the fascia and are embedded in a body of engineered fill. The integrated nature of the fascia and the abutting large body of reinforced soil thereby supports the applied earth forces. In this case the 'gravity' component of the retaining wall is provided by the reinforced soil mass acting as a monolithic unit.

Geosynthetic reinforced soil segmental retaining walls

By virtue of their inherent flexibility, such walls are able to accommodate movement and some settlement without suffering distress. This makes the system particularly suitable for construction on (engineered) filled ground or in areas which may be prone to settlement effects. Also, the cost and difficulty of construction of such retaining walls is minimized as the need to provide full frost wall foundations can be waived in many circumstances.

The maximum wall heights (in block height, metres, feet) for a single skin, mass gravity, block retaining wall system - with additional geogrid reinforcement

 

Geosynthetic reinforced soil segmental retaining walls

 
The publication "Terraforce-design and installation manual for Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Applications" by Colin Alston and Dr Richard Bathurst, contains 24 design charts which cover a wide variety of situations. Request a copy from your nearest supplier. See case studies for examples.
 

2. Reinforced Concrete-filled Segmental Retaining Walls

Design procedures are the same as those employed for traditional reinforced masonry retaining walls.