RECo MSE Wall Supports Rocket Launches

August 10, 2020 rockman Project Related Comments Off on RECo MSE Wall Supports Rocket Launches
RECo MSE Wall at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility

There is a neat little blurb in Roads and Bridges magazine on a small mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) retaining wall at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Coast of Virginia. The wall was designed and supplied by the Reinforced Earth Company (RECo) back in 2011. Although the wall is only 10 feet high supporting a bridge abutment, it is the route that the Antares Rockets take to reach the launch pad and eventually blast off to resupply the International Space Station. Design challenges for the wall included possible inundation with seawater, extreme live loading, and very thorough QA/QC by NASA and their designees. The live loads were 1,500 psf or about 6 times the normal highway live loading! Read more in Roads and Bridges Magazine.

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Software Updates

MSEW and ReSSA Updates

September 29, 2009 rockman Software Updates Comments Off on MSEW and ReSSA Updates

ADAMA Software has released update 10.1 for their Mechanically Stabilized Earth retaining wall design software, MSEW 3.0 as of September 29, 2009. Click through for the download link and a few of the changes.

I expect that when the new FHWA MSE Wall Manual hits the street in a few months time that we will see some significant updates with the MSEW software package.

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Software Updates

MSEW and ReSSA Updates

January 28, 2009 rockman Software Updates Comments Off on MSEW and ReSSA Updates

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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