1 RETAINING WALLS

1.1 Introduction
A retaining wall is a structure that holds back soil or rock from a building, structure or area.
Retaining walls prevent downs-lope movement or erosion and provide support for vertical or near
vertical grade changes. Cofferdams and bulkheads, structures that hold water, are sometimes also
considered retaining walls. Retaining walls are generally made of masonry, stone, brick, concrete,
vinyl, steel or timber. Once popular as an inexpensive retaining material, railroad ties have fallen
out of favor due to environmental concerns.
Segmental retaining walls have gained favor over poured-in-place concrete walls or treated timber
walls. They are more economical, easier to install and more environmentally sound.

The most important consideration in proper design and installation of retaining walls is that the
retained material is attempting to move forward and down-slope due to gravity. This creates lateral
earth pressure behind the wall which depends on the angle of internal friction (phi) and the
cohesive strength (c) of the retained material, as well as the direction and magnitude of movement
the retaining structure undergoes.

Lateral earth pressures are typically smallest at the top of the wall and increase towards the bottom.
Earth pressures will push the wall forward or overturn it if not properly addressed. Also, any
ground water behind the wall that is not dissipated by drainage systems causes an additional
horizontal hydrostatic pressure on the wall.

As an example, the International Building Code requires retaining walls to be designed to ensure
stability against overturning, slidding, excessive foundation pressure, and water uplift; and that
they be designed for a safety factor of 1.5 against lateral sliding and overturning.

1.2 Types of Retaining Walls

1.2.1 Gravity Retaining Walls
Gravity walls depend on the weight of their mass (stone, concrete or other heavy material) to resist
pressures from behind and will often have a slight “batter” setback, to improve stability by leaning
back into the retained soil. For short landscaping walls, they are often made from mortarless stone
or segmental concrete units (masonry units). Dry staked gravity walls are somewhat flexible and
do not require a rigid footing in frost areas.

Earlier in the 20th century, taller retaining walls were often gravity walls made from large masses
of concrete or stone. Today, taller retaining walls are increasingly built as composite gravity walls
such as geosynthetic or with precast facing; gabions (staked steel wire baskets filled with rocks);
crib walls (cells built up log cabin style from precast concrete or timber and filled with soil) or soil
nailed walls (soil reinforced in place with steel and concrete rods)

Figure 1: Typical Retaining Walls

1.2.2 Sheet Piling

Sheet pilling walls are usually used in soft soils and tight spaces. Sheet pile walls are made out of
steel, vinyl or wood planks which are driven into the ground. For a quick estimate the material is
usually driven 1/3 above ground, 2/3 below ground, but this may be altered depending on the
environment. Taller sheet pile walls will need a tie-back anchor, or “dead-man” placed in the soil
a distance behind the face of the wall, assuming that this is not a retaining wall for water.

1.2.3 Cantilever Retaining Walls

Prior to the production of modern reinforced-soil gravity walls, cantilevered walls were the most
common type of taller retaining wall. Cantilevered walls are made from a relatively thin 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. Sometimes cantilevered
walls are buttressed on the front, or include a counterfort on the back, to improve their strength
resisting high loads. Buttresses are short wing walls at right angles to the main trend of the wall.
These walls require rigid concrete footings below seasonal frost depth. This type of walls uses
much less material that a traditional gravity wall.

1.2.4 Anchored Retaining Walls

This version of wall uses 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 injecting pressurized concrete, which expands to form a bulb in the
soil. Technically complex, this method is very useful where high loads are expected, or where the
wall itself has to be slender and would otherwise be too weak.

1.2.5 Gabion Meshes

This type of soil strengthening, often also used without an outside wall, consists of wire mesh
‘boxes’ into which roughly cut stone or other material is filled. The mesh cages reduce some
internal movement/forces, and also reduce erosive force.

1.2.6 Segmental Retaining Walls

SRWs function as gravity structures by relying on self-weight to resist the external destabilizing
forces of retained soil (backfill) and surcharge loads. The durable and long-lasting system consists
of manufactured modular concrete units (typically dry-cast, machine produced concrete) placed
without mortar (dry stacked), which rely on a combination of mechanical interlock, unit to unit
interface friction, or shear capacity and mass to prevent overturning and slidding.

Figure 2: Segmental Retaining Wall with Geosynthetic Strengthened Soil in Construction

Figure 3: Segmental Retaining Wall

1.3 Soil Strengthening

The force experienced on a retaining wall from the retained soil is dependent on the cohesiveness
and the internal angle of friction of the soil. In the event that the loads imposed on the retaining
walls are big, such can be reduced by modifying the cohesiveness of the soil via stabilization.
A number of systems exist that do not simply consist of the wall itself, but reduce the earth pressure
acting on the wall itself. These are usually used in combination with one of the other wall types,
though some may only use it as a facing (ie for visual purposes). There is an array of techniques
for doing this. These include:

1.3.1 Soil Nailing

Soil nailing is a technique in which soil slopes, excavations or retaining walls are reinforced by
the insertion of relatively slender elements – normally steel reinforcement bars. The bars are
usually installed into a pre-drilled hole and then grouted into place or drilled and grouted
simultaneously. They are usually installed un-tensioned at a slight downward inclination. A rigid
or flexible facing (often sprayed concrete) or isolated soil nail heads may be used at the surface.

1.3.2 Mechanical Stabilization

Mechanically stabilized earth, also called MSE, is soil constructed with artificial reinforcing via
layered horizontal mats (geosynthetics) fixed at their ends. These mats provide added internal
shear resistance beyond that of simple gravity wall structures. Other options include steel straps,
also layered. This type of soil strengthening usually needs outer facing walls (S. R. W.’s –
Segmental Retaining Walls) to affix the layers to and vice versa.

The wall face is often of precast concrete units that can tolerate some differential movement. The
reinforced soil mass, along with the facing, then acts as an improved gravity wall. The reinforced
mass must be built large enough to retain the pressures from the soil behind it. Gravity walls
usually must be a minimum of 50 to 60 percent as deep or thick as the height of the wall, and may
have to be larger if there is a slope or surcharge on the wall.

1.3.3 Chemical Stabilization

This involves the use of substances that react with the cement to modify its cohesiveness. These
include the use of cement and lime.

Example

The retaining wall below (Figure Q2) has the following dimensions also shown on the figure:

Figure 1 – Typical Retaining Wall

Wall height = 5000mm

Wall thickness = 400mm
Base width = 2800mm
Base thickness = 400mm
Overburden = 21 KN/m2

Assume:
Weight Density of Soil = 18KN/m3
Weight Density of Water = 10KN/m3
Ka = 1/3
2 BASEMENTS
2.1 Introduction
A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the
ground floor. Shallow foundation buildings do not have basements. Basements are typically used
as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse
box, car park and air conditioning system are located; so also are amenities such as the electrical
distribution system, and cable television point.
In British the word “basement” is used for underground floors of, for example, department stores,
but is only used for a space below the ground floor of a house, when it is habitable – ie with
windows and usually with its own access. The word cellar is used to apply to any such large
underground room. Sub cellar is a cellar that lies further underneath.

2.2 Design and structural considerations

The basement walls structurally form part of the fourndation (ref: buoyancy raft in previous
discussion). Usually in warmer climates for low rise buildings basements are not necessary and
are only constructed for taller structures with requirements for higher ground bearing pressure
achievable at depths of one one more basements heights.

In cooler climates, foundations require to be below frost line which occurs at approximately one
basement depths thus basements are used to achieve the required foundation depths.

In places of high water tables basements are usually more costly due to requirements of water
proofing and drainage and thus not always financially feasible. Basements are also not applicable
in areas of high seismic activity due to the possibility of collapse.
The floor of the basement may or may not be part of the foundation depending on the type of
foundation employed. In cases where isolated pad footings or combined footings are used, the
basement floor may not necessarily be part of the foundation. However, in cases where a raft is
employed, it makes more sense to use the top of the raft as the basement concrete floor.

A minimum thickness of concrete slab is usually 100mm – 150mm depending on the condition of
the ground on which the basement sits. This rests on a blinding layer of mass concrete usually
class 15 concrete. The floor of the basement is also sloped towards drains to facilitate flow of water
during cleaning and/or in the event of ingress of ground water.

It is common practice to construct RC basement walls to a smooth finish to avoid doing further
finishes on them. This is mainly due to problems of maintenance of finished basement walls since
basement walls are always damp.
2.3 Drainage Considerations
Basement drains need to be filled regularly to avoid the trap from drying out and the sewer gas
escaping into the basement. This can be achieved automatically using the condensation from air
conditioners, and cleaning water (for large parking basements)

In some countries, city by laws allow the combination of storm water and sewer water. When this
is the case, there is danger of backflow of the sewer into the basement, since that’s the lowest part
of the building. To prevent this backflow, prevention devices (non return valves) are used. In
Kenya storm water and sewer are designed for separately and therefore this problem is not
commonly experienced.

Due to the problem of water seepage though the basement walls, several counter measures may be
taken:
 Soils around the basement can be well graded to facilitate water flowing away from the
basement walls
 Down spouts from roof gutters can be made to drain directly into the storm sewer and
directed away from the house.
 Downspouts should not be connected to basement draintiles since in the event of the drain
tiles clogging, the roof water can easily flow into the basement.
 Damp proofing/water proofing applied to the outside of the basement walls

2.4 Water Proofing

Water proofing falls into three main categories:
a. Tanking – Systems that bond to the basement structure and physically hold back gorund
water eg Heavy grade plastic plasced on the outside of the basement wall during
construction (this is a must for areas with high water table)
b. Cavity Drainage – Dimpled plastic membranes are used to line the floors and walls of the
basement, creating a “drained cavity”. Any water entering this drained cavity is diverted to
a sump pump and pumped away from the basement.
c. Exterior Foundation Drain – installing an exterior foundation drain that will drain away by
gravity is the most effective means to water proof a basement. An exterior system allows
water to flow away from the basement without using pumps or electricity. An exterior drain
also allows for the installation of waterproof membrane to the foundation walls.

 Use of sealing chemicals – Use of chemicals mixed with the concrete or applied to the
surface is also used in some placed together with the above mentioned methods. These
chemicals expand when they come into contact with water thereby sealing the small
cracks/voids present in the concrete creating a water tight structure.