{"id":39769,"date":"2021-12-13T08:29:45","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T08:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=39769"},"modified":"2021-12-13T08:29:45","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T08:29:45","slug":"retaining-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2021\/12\/13\/retaining-walls\/","title":{"rendered":"The failure of retaining walls"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>The failure of retaining walls<\/h4>\n<p>Retaining walls are an essential part of modern construction.\u00a0 In general they perform remarkably well; occasionally they fail and find their way onto this blog.\u00a0 You should be able to find a list of examples here, and<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2014\/05\/02\/baltimore-retaining-wall\/\"> some posts have included videos<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2021\/04\/01\/duzce-zonguldak-1\/\">spectacular photographs<\/a>, such as this:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_37213\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37213\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37213\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/04\/21_03-duzce-zonguldak-1.png\" alt=\"The highway slope failure at D\u00fczce Zonguldak\" width=\"650\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/04\/21_03-duzce-zonguldak-1.png 650w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/04\/21_03-duzce-zonguldak-1-300x166.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-37213\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The highway slope failure at D\u00fczce Zonguldak in Turkey on 26 March 2021. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.habergolkoy.com\/duzce-zonguldak-yolu-coktu\/5503\/\">Image from Haber Golkoy<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Loyal reader George Haeh has very kindly highlighted a link to <a href=\"https:\/\/practical.engineering\/blog\/2021\/12\/5\/why-retaining-walls-collapse\">an interesting video that describes types of retaining walls and the mechanisms through which they may fail<\/a>. The video should be embedded below:-<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why Retaining Walls Collapse\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/--DKkzWVh-E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst it is not technical, it is a good summary.\u00a0 An interesting aspect of the video is that it includes an interesting example of a retaining wall failure from New Jersey:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39772\" style=\"width: 808px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39772\" class=\" wp-image-39772\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/12\/21_12-NJ-retaining-wall-1.jpg\" alt=\"A retaining wall failure on I-295 in New Jersey in April 2021. \" width=\"798\" height=\"520\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/12\/21_12-NJ-retaining-wall-1.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/12\/21_12-NJ-retaining-wall-1-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/12\/21_12-NJ-retaining-wall-1-1024x666.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/12\/21_12-NJ-retaining-wall-1-768x500.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 798px) 100vw, 798px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-39772\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A retaining wall failure on I-295 in New Jersey in April 2021. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/news\/2021\/03\/i-295-project-was-4-years-behind-schedule-before-retaining-wall-collapsed-dot-says.html\">Image from NJ.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>This failure of a retaining wall has further delayed an already deeply troubled project (it was originally supposed to be completed in 2022, even before the failure this had been delayed until 2028.\u00a0 In this case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/news\/2021\/10\/i-295-wall-collapsed-after-heavy-rains-undermined-supports-initial-probe-reveals.html\">an investigation has indicated<\/a> that the problem may have been higher than anticipated groundwater levels that caused &#8220;a partial collapse of a column-supported embankment system&#8221;. It is interesting to note that in the image above it appears that mass was being added to the toe of the slope, which is sensible way to stabilise the slope temporarily.<\/p>\n<p>One of the key failure modes for retaining walls is a slope failure that goes through material upon which the wall has been constructed.\u00a0 This is the idealised cross section of such a failure:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39774\" style=\"width: 809px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39774\" class=\" wp-image-39774\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/12\/21_12-NJ-retaining-wall-2.jpg\" alt=\"An idealised cross section of one key mode of failure of a retaining wall. \" width=\"799\" height=\"342\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/12\/21_12-NJ-retaining-wall-2.jpg 1460w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/12\/21_12-NJ-retaining-wall-2-300x128.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/12\/21_12-NJ-retaining-wall-2-1024x438.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/12\/21_12-NJ-retaining-wall-2-768x329.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-39774\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An idealised cross section of one key mode of failure of a retaining wall. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.structuralguide.com\/retaining-wall-failures\/\">Image from structuralguide.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Readers may spot some similarities between this cross section and the examples shown above. Way back in 2010 <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2010\/02\/04\/the-rivermist-subdivision-in-san-antonio-texas-is-on-the-move-again-and-it-is-a-rotational-retaining-wall-failure\/\">I highlighted another really interesting case study, at the Rivermist subdivision in San Antonio, Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An interesting video discusses modes of failure of retaining walls<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":39772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[598],"tags":[698,212,963,725,161,48],"class_list":["post-39769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-processes","tag-bearing-capacity","tag-construction","tag-landslide-video","tag-north-america","tag-retaining-wall","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}