Soil Nailing

Howth, Co. Dublin

Ireland

Soil nailing using Reinforced Earth to reinstate the

collapsed material.
INTRODUCTION
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

Embankment stabilised and reinstated with wall being re-built.

mesh.
Reinforced

Earths

TerraNail

system was used to rebuild the

CLIENT:

embankment out to its original

MAIN CONTRACTOR:

McDonnell Piling & Foundations Ltd.

position, this was a key design

CONSULTING ENGINEER:

Donal G. Terry & Associates

DURATION OF WORKS:

Two months

element as it meant that no load

Private

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.

A612

Scope of Works
Remove collapsed material.
Stabilise embankment.
Reinstate embankment.
Rebuild stone wall.
Stabilise and repoint remaining wall.

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required strength. The drainage was

taken up in layers to ensure water could
be managed from behind the wall.

Completed wall.

A view of the collapse.

Soil nails extended into new wall to

Soil nail installation

provide additional tie for the wall.

Slope

base prepared for replacement

wall foundation.

Strapping visible for the TerraNail system.

Replacement wall construction, drainage

positioned behind the wall with weep
holes created at lower level. The stone
work was carried out using traditional
methods and materials similar to those
used approximately two hundred years
when the wall was originally constructed.
The wall itself is 600mm wide

and

needed to be constructed in rises of no

more than 900mm in order to allow the

Completed TerraNail system.

lime mortar sufficient time to achieve the

A612

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