Location
Arlington, Virginia
Date
14 Aug 2008, 2:15pm - 4:00pm
Abstract
Approximately 18 months after construction, an 11-m high rock faced Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil (GRS) wall was found to suffer from subsidence of about 100 mm on the crest, along with rocks being dislodged from the wall face from time to time. In the ensuing three months after these signs of problems were first detected, the subsidence on the crest of the wall increased to about 250 mm with significant lateral bulging on the wall face. The wall comprised two sides. The problems occurred primarily on one side of the wall; while the other side showed little distress. The entire wall eventually had to be demolished and reconstructed. Prior to reconstruction, a forensic program was undertaken and analyses were performed to examine the causes of failure. This paper describes the geometry and properties of the wall, the events leading to failure of the wall, and the post-failure analysis. It was concluded that the failure likely stemmed from two causes: (1) poor compaction of the fill in harsh winter weather during which the wall was constructed, and (2) wetting of the fill on the side of wall where failure occurred, caused by discharge of water through an abandoned pipe behind the reinforced fill. The wall was reconstructed with well-compacted granular fills with drainage units installed behind the reinforced fill. The reconstructed wall has since performed satisfactorily.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
6th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2008 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
Wu, Jonathan T. H. and Ketchart, Kanop, "Investigating Failure of a Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil Wall in Black Hawk, Colorado" (2008). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 29.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/6icchge/session07/29
Investigating Failure of a Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil Wall in Black Hawk, Colorado
Arlington, Virginia
Approximately 18 months after construction, an 11-m high rock faced Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil (GRS) wall was found to suffer from subsidence of about 100 mm on the crest, along with rocks being dislodged from the wall face from time to time. In the ensuing three months after these signs of problems were first detected, the subsidence on the crest of the wall increased to about 250 mm with significant lateral bulging on the wall face. The wall comprised two sides. The problems occurred primarily on one side of the wall; while the other side showed little distress. The entire wall eventually had to be demolished and reconstructed. Prior to reconstruction, a forensic program was undertaken and analyses were performed to examine the causes of failure. This paper describes the geometry and properties of the wall, the events leading to failure of the wall, and the post-failure analysis. It was concluded that the failure likely stemmed from two causes: (1) poor compaction of the fill in harsh winter weather during which the wall was constructed, and (2) wetting of the fill on the side of wall where failure occurred, caused by discharge of water through an abandoned pipe behind the reinforced fill. The wall was reconstructed with well-compacted granular fills with drainage units installed behind the reinforced fill. The reconstructed wall has since performed satisfactorily.
