Behavior of full-scale VERT wall in sand

The VERT wall is a new type of top-down retaining wall, which derives its name from the fact that it is vertically reinforced. Typically, three to four rows of 1-m-diameter cemented-soil columns are constructed to the depth of soil to be retained. After curing of the cement, the soil in front of this gravity wall is excavated in one step. To study the viability of this new wall type, a 10-m-high, 40-m-long, and 5.6-m-wide VERT wall was built at the National Geotechnical Experimentation Site at Texas A&M University. The sail is a medium-dense silty sand, and the wall was instrumented for horizontal and vertical movement. One year after excavation the horizontal movement of the wall was 24.6 mm and the settlement was 9.3 mm. These values are very close to the movements of the similar size tieback wall built at the same site. This performance is an indication of the viability of this new wall type.