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Geotechnical Investigations for Evaluating the Performance of the Misaligned MSE Wall: a Case Study

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Abstract

This paper presents the details of the geotechnical investigations carried out to evaluate the performance of the misaligned Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) wall in India. The reported MSE wall is part of the approach to the railway over bridge in Hyderabad-Bangalore highway. The MSE wall of height 13.85 m was misaligned vertically after the highway was opened to traffic in 2010. Initially, the only option seemed was to dismantle and reconstruct the MSE wall. However, the detailed geotechnical investigation revealed that the existing wall can be retained with minor repair works. As part of the geotechnical investigations, both field tests and the design analyses were performed. The field tests included standard penetration test, multichannel analyses of surface waves, and ground penetrating radar. The design analysis included the stability assessment of the MSE wall using SLIDE software. The results of the investigations revealed that there was no structural instability in the wall. The major cause of the misalignment was attributed to poor construction practices. As part of the rehabilitation, minor repair works were performed. After the completion of the rehabilitation, the wall has sustained heavy traffic loads in the past 5 years without developing any additional misalignment or cracks.

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Abbreviations

A c :

cross-sectional area of the reinforcement (m2)

α:

scale correction factor (dimensionless)

b :

width of the reinforcement (m)

C :

constant (dimensionless)

f 1 :

resistance factor for the soil reinforcement tension (dimensionless)

f 2 :

resistance factor for soil reinforcement pullout (dimensionless)

F y :

yield strength of the steel (N/mm2)

F*:

pullout resistance factor (dimensionless)

K a :

coefficient of active earth pressure for unreinforced soil (dimensionless)

K r :

coefficient of lateral earth pressure in the reinforced soil zone (dimensionless)

L e :

pullout length (m)

R c :

coverage ratio (dimensionless)

S v :

vertical spacing of the reinforcement (m)

T al :

allowable tensile strength (kN/m)

T max :

maximum factored tension in each reinforcement layer per unit width (kN/m)

T r :

factored tensile resistance (kN/m)

σH :

horizontal stress (kPa)

σ v :

factored vertical pressure at the depth of interest (kPa)

Δσ H :

additional factored horizontal stress due to external surcharges (kPa)

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Prof. P. Anbazhagan, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, for his assistance during the field tests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bengaluru, 560012, India

    T. G. Sitharam

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Patna, 801103, India

    A. Hegde

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Contributions

The first author visited the site and carried out all the field tests. He also decided the type of analysis to be done. The second author performed the analysis and prepared the draft manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Hegde.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Sitharam, T.G., Hegde, A. Geotechnical Investigations for Evaluating the Performance of the Misaligned MSE Wall: a Case Study. Transp. Infrastruct. Geotech. 5, 332–348 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40515-018-0063-0

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