Sea-Tac Runway Nearing Completion
Side-hill retaining walls refer primarily to fill-walls built partway down the sides of an existing slope or embankment. They are encountered in roadway and rail widening projects as well as site development but usually in steep terrain. This article provides an overview of the problems, failure mechanisms, investigation approaches, analysis tools and wall type alternatives for these structures. Click through to read the article!
[Update Jan 28, 2008] It appears as if the Port of Seattle is in some hot water for some alleged shady dealings with one of the contractors on the project. More at Seattle Times. [/Update]
Erosion Control magazine has an interesting article on MSE Walls. I think the tie-in of MSE Walls with erosion control is a little questionable (they did mention wall drainage a few times), but the article highlights several interesting projects, particularly the Seattle-Tacoma Airport or Sea-Tac Third Runway Project retaining walls. The West wall for that project is the tallest MSE Wall in North America, 130-ft at its highest point. More after the break. (Photo by Sea-Tac Airport)
ADAMA Software has released update 9.2 for their Mechanically Stabilized Earth retaining wall design software, MSEW 3.0 as of December 12, 2008. They also released update 3.1 for ReSSA 3.0, a reinforced soil slope design program on January 15, 2009. The ReSSA update seems like a relatively minor one, but the MSEW update contains a number of updates related to AASHTO LRFD resistance factors and design methods. If you are involved in MSE wall design for highway structures using LRFD, be sure to click through for a few highlights from the update and the download link.
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