Retaining Walls and Deep Basements

Much of the work of a Civil Engineer involves opening the ground in a safe way to construct underground structures. Retaining walls can be used to provide support to the ground in both the permanent and temporary condition, but they are expensive to construct, so the Engineer will try to use an embankment or self-supporting slope wherever possible. Only after eliminating this option will a retaining structure of some form be considered. Retaining walls are designed to provide support to otherwise unstable soil surfaces and are often an integral part of basement design. In particular, deep basements may incorporate several storeys of a structure below ground and must be designed with care to resist very large forces from the ground. In this chapter we shall consider the construction and design of retaining walls and deep basements. Looking initially at conventional retaining walls, we shall move on to discuss new developments in this field of construction linking them in to basement and deep basement construction.