Location
Chicago, Illinois
Date
02 May 2013, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Abstract
A 225-ft long, 11-ft high MSE retaining wall was constructed in fall 2008 around the lowest corner of a parking lot at a community college. The wall provided grade separation between the higher parking lot and the green areas below. No geotechnical exploration was performed for the wall, although one had been performed for building additions elsewhere on campus, and density testing was performed periodically during MSE wall construction. The following spring, pavement had subsided up to a foot near two catch basins located several feet behind the retaining wall facing. Cracks in the pavement opened adjacent to the catch basins, allowing water to infiltrate into the wall backfill and thereby circumventing the planned drainage from the parking lot surface into the catch basins. In that area, the retaining wall facing blocks had also settled by several inches. At that point in time, geotechnical consultation was sought, and a subsurface exploration program was performed. The case history discusses the results of the subsurface exploration program, the probable causes of the wall distress and what went wrong, recommendations made for remediation of the wall, observations of a partial deconstruction of approximately half the wall, and reconstruction of the wall.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
7th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2013 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Bentler, Joseph G., "Exploration, Deconstruction, and Repair of a Distressed MSE Retaining Wall in Saint Paul, Minnesota" (2013). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 18.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/7icchge/session03/18
Exploration, Deconstruction, and Repair of a Distressed MSE Retaining Wall in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Chicago, Illinois
A 225-ft long, 11-ft high MSE retaining wall was constructed in fall 2008 around the lowest corner of a parking lot at a community college. The wall provided grade separation between the higher parking lot and the green areas below. No geotechnical exploration was performed for the wall, although one had been performed for building additions elsewhere on campus, and density testing was performed periodically during MSE wall construction. The following spring, pavement had subsided up to a foot near two catch basins located several feet behind the retaining wall facing. Cracks in the pavement opened adjacent to the catch basins, allowing water to infiltrate into the wall backfill and thereby circumventing the planned drainage from the parking lot surface into the catch basins. In that area, the retaining wall facing blocks had also settled by several inches. At that point in time, geotechnical consultation was sought, and a subsurface exploration program was performed. The case history discusses the results of the subsurface exploration program, the probable causes of the wall distress and what went wrong, recommendations made for remediation of the wall, observations of a partial deconstruction of approximately half the wall, and reconstruction of the wall.
