Thursday, September 13, 2007

Re: Retaining Wall Questions

Jordan,
 
        Let me suggest a cross-section for your consideration.  For the front (call it the right, for discussion purposes) face of the trial cross-section use the front faces of the upper and lower retaining walls as you would like them to appear; for the back (make it the left) face of the trial cross section use a vertical line at the farthest back (left) of the following three points: 1) the top back of the upper retaining wall; 2) the back (left) edge of the footing of the upper wall; or 3) the back (left) edge of the footing of the lower wall.  If this trial cross-section will not work as a gravity retaining wall then you must change the section or use tie backs.  If the section does work you should be able to design both the components and their interconnection.
 
        With retaining walls, over designing is probably a good idea.  The cost of over designing  (call it the insurance premium) is relatively trivial; the cost of failure is VERY substantial.
 
Regards,
 
H. Daryl Richardson
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 3:56 PM
Subject: RE: Retaining Wall Questions

Jordan,
 
    This doesn't exactly answer your question, but at a seminar I attended on segmental retaining walls the presenter said that you had to design the walls as one wall unless the horizontal distance between them was at least twice the height of the lower wall. He didn't give us the theory behind the rule-of-thumb, though. Also, he said that you needed to check the global stability of the whole tiered system. He said that he had seen at least one case where a whole hillside gave way behind the walls rather than the walls themselves giving way.
 
 

Wesley C. Werner


-----Original Message-----
From: Jordan Denio [mailto:jordan@AshleyVance.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 5:28 PM
To: seaint@seaint.org
Subject: RE: Retaining Wall Questions

I don't have the answer for that as I'm looking for opinions/advice to determine what the size and configuration of the walls should be.   If it helps the discussion, let's say the wall upper wall is set back 5' from the lower wall and all the sliding is resisted by a key. The lower wall retains ~8'-0" and the upper wall retains ~4'-0".  

From: Jnapd@aol.com [mailto:Jnapd@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 9:10 AM
To: seaint@seaint.org
Subject: Re: Retaining Wall Questions

 

Jordan

 

How far apart are the walls...vertically and Horizontally



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