New civils in Northern CA start at around $55k per year (or more) with full benefits and sometimes a company vehicle. That is without a PE. The job market stinks right now, so be careful that you don't take a new job only to get cut due to downsizing in a year. I would try to negotiate first...
The base rock will only be added to the holes up until the bottom of the exposed wall elevation. The temporary wall is being installed on a down slope, so the soldier piles will be sticking out of the ground when we install the lagging. Then we will add compacted fill behind the wall to build...
In response to the concern about wall deflection, I'm not worried about that. The purpose of the temporary wall is to create a shoulder along an existing narrow roadway that is cut into a steep slope. We want the shoulder so we can sit on it and drill below the road without completely shutting...
I am designing a temporary retaining wall consisting of steel soldier piles and wood lagging. The wall will have to be removed, so I am planning to set the steel piles in drilled holes about 16 feet bgs and then backfill the holes around the piles with class 2 base rock. To remove the piles, I...
Thanks for the reply. I have asked this question to at least 5 of my geotech colleagues and they have all said the same thing: "There is no direct correlation." The closest that I have to a correlation is a table relating probable expansion (% volume change) to a range of swelling pressures...
My apologies for not framing the question correctly. Let's assume you are stuck with what was built. A 2:1 slope with exposed clay, no shell, no rip rap, nothing. This is a problem for an engineer dealing with a 60-year old earth dam.
Let's say you have a soil sample taken from a 10-foot thick clay layer and the lab results give a 4% swell on the sample. How do you predict the soil uplift pressure in the field if all you are given is the percent swell of the sample?
In a situation where you know you are going to have rapid drawdown, say an earth dam. What do you think is the best way to avoid a slope failure due to excess pore pressure within the embankment?
