Soil Nails

Steep slope stabilisation and retaining walls.

Soil nails are “in ground” reinforcing elements that are commonly used to enhance steep slope stabilisation and construct medium scale retaining walls.  The soil nails can be permanent or temporary, are generally of relatively small diameter and can be drilled and grouted or mechanically driven nail components.  Soil nails are generally reinforced with steel or GRP bars which must incorporate a suitable head connection to restrain any shotcrete, mesh or geogrid surface protection membrane.   

The soil nail process requires sequential excavation of the slope/retaining wall face prior to nail installation and so soil nails are generally only used above the ground water level and in strata that has adequate, short term, unsupported stability.  One significant advantage of soil nailing is that it has a very high degree of geometrical flexibility and walls can be constructed to accommodate irregular slopes and complex 3D cut profiles. 

The CMW team has significant soil nail design, specification, construction and testing experience and we work closely with a number of specialist soil nail contractors.  Our design team provides services including ground modelling, nail design, test specification and assessment, construction detailing and inspection as well as selection and detailing of suitable corrosion protection measures.