Inspection Building Pit Retaining Walls
Inspection Building Pit Retaining Walls
(OP)
I'm designing an vehicle inspection building to check commercial vehicles. It is a single-bay facility, 18 feet wide by 80 feet long. The center of the bay has an inspection pit 6 feet deep by 3 feet wide, running 70 feet long to allow a person to wall underneath a vehicle to inspect the undercarriage. There are trench drains that run along the entire length of the pit at the floor level, so the concrete floor is not tied to the walls of the inspection pit. The design vehicle is an HS20-44. I've designed the walls of the pit as retaining walls to withstand the soil pressure and the surcharge load of the vehicle. Problem is, the base of the pit retaining walls works out to be 15 feet wide, since it's one slab to accomodate both walls of the pit. I might as well extend the base to the perimeter of the building and make it a raft foundation.
Does this sound right? I've tried to figure out a different way to design the walls of the pit so that they don't need such a huge base slab, but nothing is coming to mind.
Does this sound right? I've tried to figure out a different way to design the walls of the pit so that they don't need such a huge base slab, but nothing is coming to mind.






RE: Inspection Building Pit Retaining Walls
RE: Inspection Building Pit Retaining Walls
RE: Inspection Building Pit Retaining Walls
After sending in this post, I thought of looking at this differently. Since both walls of the pit will essentially be loaded at the same time and at the same load, it's possible to design this more as a "U" shaped concrete structure resisting the moment at the center of the pit floor instead of having a huge base extending away from the pit. Then, it's just a matter of making the pit floor slab thick enough to carry the double moment of the walls.
RE: Inspection Building Pit Retaining Walls
RE: Inspection Building Pit Retaining Walls
Agreed. I've already taken that approach. Thanks for the confirmation!