WE SPECIALIZE IN RETAINING WALLS

Types of Popular Retaining Walls

Retaining walls are structures that are helpful to restrain soil against unnatural slopes. They are constructed to hold the soil in between two different elevations, and also in places where the landscape needs to be shaped for road construction or farming purposes.

The most important factor to consider when designing and constructing a retaining wall is the tendency of the retaining material to move downslope due to gravity. This situation must be counteracted with methods of retaining the material in place. The groundwater behind the wall should be dissipated properly in order to avoid the hydrostatic pressure on the wall, which in turn can be a threat to the strength of the retaining wall. A proper drainage system is mandatory unless the wall is built to retain water.

There are several types of retaining walls that are currently popular. They can be constructed with many different materials and a variety of construction techniques. There are four extremely popular retaining walls that are extensively used for construction purposes. Gravity retaining walls, Counterfort retaining walls, Semigravity retaining walls and Cantilever retaining walls are the most popular in this regard.

Gravity Retaining Walls –

Gravity retaining walls are constructed with heavy mass such as concrete, stones and other heavy material. The weight of the wall is used in resisting lateral forces of the earth. They are economical up to 10 feet in height for cast concrete structures. They are also sufficiently massive to be reinforced.

Semigravity Retaining Walls –

A specialized form of gravity walls are called semigravity retaining walls. Semigravity retaining walls include tension reinforcing steel in order to reduce the thickness of the wall.

Cantilever Retaining Walls –

Constructed with reinforced concrete. These walls have a thin stem and a base slab. The base has two parts: the heel and the toe. They are part of the base under the backfill. These walls are economical up to a height of 25 feet.

Counterfort Retaining Walls –

They are almost same as the Cantilever walls. They consists of thin vertical concrete particles at regular instances on the back of the wall. This is the only difference between a Cantilever and Counterfort wall. These walls are much more economical than the Cantilever walls for heights of more than 25 feet.