Soil Nail Walls
In cut situations that require excavation and concurrent lateral support of adjacent structures, soil nailing is a useful and specialized technique. These anchors reinforce the soil much like an MSE or tieback wall, but at lower capacity so there is no costly over-engineering.
The grouted steel bars get inserted into drilled holes followed by wire mesh and shotcrete on the exposed soil face. Their spacing and lengths decrease as the shear strength of the soil increases and the mass is properly reinforced and retained.
Soil nails are a solid option for temporary or permanent retaining walls because they minimize the amount of cut and fills required, and they eliminate the need for drilling and installing piles or caissons.
A backhoe fitted with a special drill motor is used to install temporary soil nails on a five-foot grid pattern. The soil nail system eliminates the need for H-piles and caissons at sites where there are high variations in subsurface geology.
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