Redundancy that helped a wall survive an extremely high seismic load

January 1, 1970  |  Products

This photo shows a geosynthetic-reinforced soil wall that survived a substantially higher seismic load than its designed seismic load. This resulted from redundancy due to use of soil design Φ value lower than its actual value. Furthermore, the substantial apparent cohesion and toe resistance were …
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Inadequate compaction necessitates massive remedy

January 1, 1970  |  Products

These photos show a massive remedy utilizing anchors needed for an initially inexpensive geotextile reinforced wall. One reason that necessitated this remedy is poor compaction. Also, risers collecting surface water were embedded in the reinforced soil zone. These risers were connected sequentially …
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Wall failure after a typhoon

January 1, 1970  |  News

This photo shows wall failure during a heavy rainfall caused by a typhoon. There was no adequate internal drainage in the fine-grained backfill although water in front of the wall was collected by a concrete-paved ditch. Redundancy due to apparent cohesion disguised the lack of proper drainage for f…
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Apparent cohesion leads to eventual failure

January 1, 1970  |  Products

These photos show a wall failure next to a corner. This failure occurred in an area where successive triangular sectors of geogrid layers were not installed. Failure is to be expected because reinforced walls without reinforcement should fail. Curiously, this failure occurred about one year after th…
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In this article…

January 1, 1970  |  News

By Dov Leshchinsky and Fumio Tatsuoka There have been numerous failures of geosynthetic reinforced walls. The majority of these failures occurred in the private sector. This article does not look at the forensic of wall systems that failed due to exploited redundancy combined with ignorance or carel…
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The benefits of GRS bridges

January 1, 1970  |  News

By Jessica Bies Although GRS bridge technology is not suitable for every bridge building scenario, it can be a great option for replacing simple overpasses where severe flooding that could weaken a GRS structure is unlikely to occur. Here are some of the benefits of using GRS technology in appropria…
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Go with the flow

January 1, 1970  |  News

By Jessica Bies Located in the Shasta and Trinity River Division, Whiskeytown Reservoir is just one stop in a system that diverts water from the Trinity River Basin into the upper Sacramento River. The water takes a complicated path through a total of two tunnels and three reservoirs including the o…
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Central Valley Project

January 1, 1970  |  News

By Jessica Bies Encompassing 35 counties, California’s Central Valley Project provides electrical power and water to farms, homes, and factories located within a 500-mile north-south stretch. One of the largest water conservation developments in the U.S., it was constructed to protect the Central …
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The influence of geogrid’s geometry and structure on interface behavior

January 1, 1970  |  Features

European experience in pullout tests By Daniele Cazzuffi, Lidia Sarah Calvarano, Giuseppe Cardile, Nicola Moraci, and Piergiorgio Recalcati 1. Introduction The use of geosynthetics to improve the soil mechanical response has become increasingly common practice in geotechnical engineering application…
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How do wick drains work?

January 1, 1970  |  Products

By Ron Bygness The term wick drain is a misnomer because these clever devices do not actually wick away water. Wick drains, perhaps more accurately called strip or prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs), accelerate preconstruction soil consolidation. The drains are composed of a plastic strip with dra…
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