Reinforcement of Retaining Walls & Types with Their Purpose

 

Whether it's to serve residential or commercial purposes, there are many considerations to make when designing and building retaining walls. In addition to bridges and walls being structures, both should be treated with equal care. Your experience and the application may call for different types of walls, footings that need to be buried deep, reinforced, and even which materials work best for your application.

Types of Retaining Wall

1. Gravity Wall

A gravity wall is constructed of heavy materials such as stone, large blocks of concrete, or cast-in-place concrete so that their weight can use to hold the soil behind them.

Using their mass, they resist pressure from behind by leaning back toward the soil with interlocking edges. Gravity walls can be as small as 4 feet high or as large as 10 feet high without reinforcement. Permits typically require walls taller than 4 feet in most municipalities.

2. Cantilevered Wall

Reinforced concrete or mortared masonry cantilever retaining walls are often built in the shape of an inverted T and operate on the principle of leverage. It is easier to create a cantilevered wall than a gravity wall, and it is possible to pour the concrete on-site or have it prefabricated.

A relatively thin stem and two slabs of wood, the heel, and toe, form the foot?s structure. A heel is the part of the base beneath the backfill, while a toe is a part above it.

3. Sheet Piled Wall

Sheet piles often fail to withstand the vibrations make due to piling drivers, so bored piles are used instead. Anchors may be required to support the walls, but they are not always necessary. A precast concrete, steel, vinyl, or wood plank is typically used on soft soil and in tight spaces.

The planks are driven into the ground and hammered into place to ensure stability. A groove and tongue use to connect the planks. The ground should anchor into an anchor that is attached to a tall wall. You can use these along waterfronts to prevent erosion, construct shoring, dig trenches, or build cofferdams.

4. Panel Wall

There are many places where panel walls are utilized, for example, highway ramps or the areas where heavy loads fall.

A steel-reinforced precast concrete panel may also connect to posts. Various types of architectural finishes can be applied to the face panels to blend into the surroundings.

5. Gabion Wall

Gabion walls consist of stacks of boxes filled with stone and rocks. A wire ties to each box, and it is angled back toward the slope. Retaining walls made from gabion wire usually last for the lifetime of the wire.

6. Counter-fort Wall

The backside of counter-fort walls must be supported, just as with cantilever walls. A wall is made stronger by building concrete webs, also called counter-forts, at an angle. By reducing soil pressure, they also increase the wall's weight and durability. The wall must be taller than 25 feet to consider over cantilever walls.

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