Geo synthetic reinforced soil walls as integral bridge abutments

摘要

The design requirements of the geogrid reinforcement for four MSEW integral abutment walls subjected to lateral loading from H-pile foundations located immediately (1.8-3.0 ft.) behind the MCBW facing is presented. While seismic loading (0.12g) controlled the geogrid reinforcement length, lateral loading from pile foundations dictated geogrid reinforcement strengths necessary to restrain the MCBW facing from excessive horizontal displacement. The initial 10 years of structure performance has been excellent, with no deleterious movements associated with the laterally loaded piles and or the typical imposed soil loading. More research into long-term structural performance is needed. The authors intend to monitor these MSEW abutments during the next decade to quantify the amount and rate of horizontal movement to assess current performance prediction models for deformation, connection strength, and distribution of load into geogrid reinforcement.