Design of Mechanically Stabilized Earth Wall for Widened Embankment

Authors

  • B.Suresh, Suresh Kommu, SS. Asadi

Abstract

Existing road width is insufficient to cater to ever increase in the traffic,widening of existing roads and embankments becomes inevitable in order to address this issue. However, these extensions require a huge amount of suitable fill material and large amount of space at the base. In the present study, extension an embankment with mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall is proposed to reduce additional land utilization and quantity of material required for the new construction. An existing embankment 6.0 m high for a 4-lane road has top width of 14 m and side slopes of 1.5 H: 1V. The 4-lane road is proposed to be extended to 6-lanes to meet the increased traffic requirement of the highway. This 4-lane embankment is widened to a 6-lane embankment by using geosynthetic material and soil nailing as reinforcement. The proposed MSE wall was designed using Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) guidelines (FHW2001). Since the reinforcement layers do not have sufficient effective length a composite design with both geosynthetic reinforcement and soil nailing into the existing embankmentis proposed. The lateral deformation and lateral pressures along the depth is analyzed. The proposed design was analyzed using finite element analysis software plaxis2D. Overall economy of the proposed alternative design is quantified.
Keywords: Embankment widening; reinforcement; MSE wall; plaxis2D.

Published

2020-12-22

Issue

Section

Articles