One of the major concerns in hillside development is stability
of hill slope. While not sacrificing safety, it is also the
desire of developers to maximise the available land area for
development.
To achieve these conflicting requirements,
reinforced soil wall using Anchored Earth was considered for
a residential development on a hillslope at Desa Mutiara,
Penang. The use of Anchored Earth allowed construction of
high vertical walls (up to 1 3m) using precast concrete facing
panels held back by reinforcing elements embedded in the backfill.
The major role of these reinforcing elements was to take tensile
stresses from the backfill thereby enhancing the mechanical
property of the backfill. Thus, an optimum design was achieved
both in the stability of the structure and land usage.
During the construction of Anchored Earth
wall, several problems were encountered. For example, the
foundation soil at Desa Mutiara consisted a top layer of weak
soil, about 2m deep. This layer was excavated and replaced
with suitable fill wrapped around with Polyfelt geotextile
as separator. An adjacent stream was also located which intersected
some parts of the wall construction. Despite the high water
level, construction of Anchored Earth wall was carried out
with minor difficulties.
In areas where drains were required at the
top edge of the wall, Anchored Earth system allowed these
drains to be incorporated easily. In some locations, an upper
tier of Anchored Earth wall was built adjacent to the drains,
thus creating a two-tier effect which further enhanced the
appearance of the structure.
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