Retwalls - Help !

[BigH]

G'day mates,

I am in the need of some retaining wall pictures. Not brick walls - but say massive gravity walls or cantilever walls. I have some and have searched the "net" but can't find any with the right pizzazz!! I will be giving a presentation to some students at one of the Malaysian Universities at the end of November.

Pictures of walls - standing okay; and "massive failure" which might be more in line with global stability.

If any of you have some and would be interested to pass them on to me, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

BigH - Good to hear from you again. See if the attached document has photos you can use. Here is an example:

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

 

[JAE]

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[oldestguy]

I have some, but am digging. Le's see if I can post one or two here.

 

[oldestguy]

I did a volunteer engineering job for the Village of Ferryville, WI. There was a right of way street dedicated out into the flats of the Mississippi. Job is about 40 miles south of La Crosse, WI. the village wanted a park between the main highway and the railroad. They applied for grant money from two agencies and got 80 percent of the job estimate, based on using blocks of concrete, left over from ready-mix trucks and reinforcing with plastic grids. I was to get the 20 percent for engineering, etc. This right of way crossed the right of way for a busy railroad., but the only limit in going close to the tracks was something like 17 feet from nearest rail. That is the limit for typical bridges over the tracks.

Anyhow, the job was bid and the use of those reject concrete blocks got it. I checked the supply of blocks and found them very sound with the tests by an impact hammer test. I have many photos of the progress sand wonder how about 10 of them might be sent to you.

I am attaching a shot of the completed job. By the way, to make the 20 percent engineering legal with the grant money, they paid me by check. I endorsed that v check back to the villeinage's park fund.
I could send the photos this way, maybe a few with each reply. You decide. This is before the job.

 

[oldestguy]

Here is the final job. The guy in shorts is my neighbor, a retired insurance guy, he was the rodman.

I see by the photo, the set-back of the job from theail was much larger. then my guess.

 

[BigHarvey]

You can also talk to your students about an alternative called Texsol. It's a mixture of sand and continuous fiber showing both apparent cohesion (0.1 MPa) and a good friction angle. It's used as a retaining structure (can be theoretically vertical, but paractically limited to about 80°). See link :

https://www.eiffageinfrastructures.com/texsol

It's an invention from the french DOT lab in the early eighties.

 

[BigH]

Thanks to all - to date. of course you all know my email: bohicafries - gmail com . .

I am finding that MSE walls - gabion faced, RECO, small block faced, big block faced seems to be the way most walls are going these days - likely because it is a few labourers, a cherry picker or backhoe, etc. Don't see many pictures of the traditional cantilever walls being built these days.

When I get the presentation "nearly done" - I'd be pleased to pass it on for some "friendly (haha)" readovers and suggestions. Retwalls are to (1) be temporary support (2) permanent support and (3) deep excavation support. I would mention the three but want to focus on the more permanent ones.

I am not planning to go over any "mathematics" - but want to put forth some commentary that likely isn't covered in their analysis class (such as effect of seismic, silos and compaction) - but then more onto selection of types of wall that can be used. Finally, I plan (am wanting) to set forth three or so scenarios and interactively go over which type of wall might best be suited for the scenario put forth -

One would be a retaining wall on a thin (6 m layer) of very soft clay - a bridge approach embankment;

another I plan to do on a road widening but at the outside widened end - is adjacent to a water canal;

a third one would be to lay out a case of a retwall (real project) that was to be about 800 m long for a roadway but only 1 to 1.5 m high. What would one use? (hint - I suggested to do away with the retwall and change the vertical curve so there wouldn't be a wall!)

a fourth would be a downhill slope wall on a mountain road with a tight 50 m horizontal curve radius.

Anyway my thoughts now as I get started!

Cheers to you all - hope you had a great Halloween. It was our daughter's 27th birthday - she is a marketing manager for a night club in Bangkok and they seemed to have quite a wild party on Halloween night!