Soil Nail Wall with MSE Wall Facing

[MTNClimber]

I have a soil nail wall to be faced with MSE blocks. Due to space constraints, I plan to require the grid to be installed into the shotcrete facing, with the grid wrapped around continuous #4 bars.

Are there any official guidelines for calculating minimum embedment lengths of geogrid into the shotcrete facing of a soil nail wall? Seems like this is mostly done by judgement but I would rather have backup in case things don't go right for some reason.

 

[BridgeSmith]

I think the geogrid manufacturers have connection details for many different facing types. The ones I've seen for installations like you describe have the bars woven through the first row of geogrid openings.

Rod Smith, P.E., The artist formerly known as HotRod10

 

[jdonville]

If you must have the look of precast panels, I'd look hard at using form elements or tooling to mimic the appearance of these panels in the permanent facing, OR I would use the precast panels as the form itself and cast-in-place the permanent facing between the precast and temporary shotcrete facing using the nail anchorage or ends of nails to support the precast panel forms.

 

[PEinc]

I would not want to design or build that type of block facing for a soil nail wall unless the shotcrete was at least 6 inch thick and reinforced well (but then you would not need the blocks). The devil is in the details (the connections).

http://www.PeirceEngineering.com

 

[Obregon]

For calculating minimum embedment lengths of geogrid, follow same criteria as you do for soil nail lengths based on expected earth pressures and soil's shear strength.