Design and Construction of Boulder-Faced MSE Walls(or How Not to Make a Mockery of Rockery)

摘要

As growth encroaches on undeveloped, mountainside areas in Western North Carolina, retaining walls are needed tornprovide level space for construction. A boulder-facing is often perceived as desirable to improve the aesthetics of thesernwalls. Beyond simply stacking boulders themselves for a gravity-type retaining wall, the use of geosyntheticrnreinforcements can reduce the wall cost as well as the number of boulders required for a stable structure. Currentrndesign methods for MSE retaining walls focus on the use of manufactured facing systems, such as segmental blocks orrnprecast panels with known mechanical properties. This paper presents design and construction methods used forrnboulder walls. Boulders are an irregular natural material. Two contrasting cases are presented: One where a lack ofrndesign resulted in failure of the wall, and the other where an engineered design allowed successful construction andrnperformance.