Howth, Co. Dublin

Soil nailing using Reinforced Earth to reinstate the collapsed material.

When a large masonry retaining wall collapsed, the services of McDonnell Piling were sought to come up with a solution to stabilise and reinstate the wall.

Traditional solutions would have been to soil nail the slope, construct a reinforced concrete retaining wall, face it with stone and backfill behind. McDonnell Piling approached the site with great concern for the area of the site and the historical importance of the wall.

We carefully removed any areas of wall that were deemed unsafe and all loose material on the slope, installed the soil nails and secured the slope with galvanised mesh.

Reinforced Earths TerraNail system was used to rebuild the embankment out to its original position, this was a key design element as it meant that no load from the embankment would be imposed on the masonry wall when completed. A free draining stone was backfilled to ensure no build up of water behind the wall, new weep holes were constructed into the new wall.

Download PDF

SOIL NAILING