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RETAINING WALLS
Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to (typically a steep, near-vertical or vertical slope).
They are used to bound soils between two different elevations often in areas of terrain possessing undesirable slopes or in areas where the landscape needs to be shaped severely and engineered for more specific purposes like hillside farming or roadway overpasses. A retaining wall that retains soil on the backside and water on the frontside is called a seawall or a bulkhead.
TYPES
Gravity: Gravity walls depend on their mass(stone, concrete or other heavy material) to resist pressure from behind and may have a ‘batter’ setback to improve stability by leaning back toward the retained soil.
Cantilevered: Cantilevered retaining walls are made from an internal stem of steel-reinforced, cast-in-place concrete or mortared masonry (often in the shape of an inverted T). These walls cantilever loads (like a beam) to a large, structural footing, converting horizontal pressures from behind the wall to vertical pressures on the ground below.This type of wall uses much less material than a traditional gravity wall.
Diaphragm walls: are a type of retaining walls that are very stiff and generally watertight. Diaphragm walls are expensive walls, but they save time and space, and hence are used in urban constructions.
Sheet piling: Sheet pile retaining walls are usually used in soft soil and tight spaces. Sheet pile walls are driven into the ground and are composed of a variety of material including steel, vinyl, aluminum, fiberglass or wood planks.
Bored pile: Bored pile retaining walls are built by assembling a sequence of bored piles, proceeded by excavating away the excess soil.
Anchored: An anchored retaining wall can be constructed in any of the aforementioned styles but also includes additional strength using cables or other stays anchored in the rock or soil behind it. Usually driven into the material with boring, anchors are then expanded at the end of the cable, either by mechanical means or often by injecting pressurized concrete, which expands to form a bulb in the soil.
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