ISGTI 2018

7-8 April2018, IIT Delhi, India

Soil Nailing For Failed Slope Stabilization on Hilly Terrain

Mr. Shuvranshu Kumar Rout
Mr. Manos De
Dr. Anup Kumar Mandal
Mr. Biswajit Das
Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd., Pipe Line Road, Sakchi, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand-831001, India
E-mail: skrout@tce.co.in; mde@tce.co.in; akmandal@tce.co.in; biswajitd@tce.co.in

ABSTRACT: In applications where it is required to enhance stability of vertical cut faces or natural slopes, soil nailing
techniques are being increasingly used. The nails improve the ability of soil mass to take care of tensile forces by acting
as reinforcement. From reported literature, it is found that such applications have been made mostly in highway projects
with favourable soil conditions. The advantages can be extrapolated for applications in mine infrastructure projects and
difficult soil conditions with undulated terrain. This paper aims to highlight a unique case on the rehabilitation of a
failed slope in lateritic soil mixed with iron ore fragments and stabilization of 33kV transmission tower foundation
which is situated just edge of the hill slope. This achieved the desired purpose for stabilization of failed slope and
restoration of conveyor operation which is just beneath the hill slope in a shortest possible time. The site specific design
aspects along with modified construction methodologies in difficult geological situations have been reported and
lessons are learned for future implementation.
Keywords: soil nailing; grouting; shotcrete; limit equilibrium method; factor of safety

1. Introduction carrying conveyor. The alignment of the bench was

Conventionally soil nails are used in situations where
vertical excavation faces are required to create
necessary working space. Soil nailing techniques with
appropriate facing element finds wide application in
various situations across the world. Not all types of soils
are suitable for application of soil nailing techniques. Of
particular interest to the present study is the application
of this technique in laterite which is a highly weathered
soil. Only few references of such studies and
applications are available (Atefeh and Erwin, 2014).
The current study attempts to evaluate the adaptability
of soil nailing techniques for re-stabilizing failed soil
mass caused due to landslides in lateritic soil mixed
with iron ore fragments. The intent of this paper is to
present a case study in an application where collapse of
existing slope led to disruption of ongoing plant
operation and endangered the stability of structures
previously built at top of the slope and mitigation of the
problem by stabilizing the failed slope through
application of soil nailing.
2. Brief History of Problems
The site is located in an iron ore mines area in eastern
region of India. The property owner had installed a new
ore processing and handling plant at site comprising of
long conveyors and junction houses.
There exists a 33kV transmission line tower at the top
of the slope of this hill. The 33kv transmission line is
also crossing the railway lines further downhill of the
slope and is connected to state electric grids. The 33kV
tower is the lifeline of the total operation of plant. The
foundation for this tower was constructed by cutting
into the slope and subsequently backfilling the
foundation pit.
Following completion of the new expansion project,
excavation into the hill side was made by the mine
developer to create bench for installation of material
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roughly parallel to the slope of the hill. It was noted at the
time that the rock formation had discontinuities with
inward inclination.
In the next phase of construction on this hill slope, the
conveyor foundation was constructed by again cutting into
the hill slope along the conveyor route including the
portion below the tower foundation. The construction
activities which required cutting into this hill side had also
endangered the stability of the foundation for this vital
installation. In order to prevent failure of the excavated
slope for creation of the bench, the conveyor contractor
constructed a gabion wall of height 3m.
After one year of operation, initial signs of shallow
failure were noticed just above the gabion wall after
significant rainfall at project site. The bulging of gabion
boxes was observed in the bottom portion. As a
protective measure, a stepped random rubble masonry
wall was constructed by local contractor just above the
gabion wall and backfilled the cut with locally available
fines from mine spoils. Heavy rainfall during the
retreating period of monsoon had further detrimental
effect on the already vulnerable situation. Failure of the
soil slope caused extensive damage to the conveyor in
operation. The damage was for a length of
approximately 30m. The slope failure additionally
threatened the stability of 33kV tower foundation which
is present just at the edge of the slope. The poorly
managed drainage system for the facilities, uphill of this
conveyor location pass through this stretch during rainy
season which further destabilized the soil mass. It was
concluded that RR Masonry wall which was constructed
over existing gabion wall could not sustain the earth
pressure and pore pressure developed due to the seepage
water. The typical location of transmission tower and
conveyor has been presented in Figure -1.
Soil Nailing For Failed Slope Stabilization on Hilly Terrain
Fig. 1 Project location showing the hill slope with 33kV
tower at top and conveyor at bottom along with position
of collapsed RR masonry wall above gabion wall
3. Site Constraints, Geology & Sub-surface Profile
The disruption of the conveyor system led to shut down
of the mining plant and the operation was required to be
restarted on urgent basis. There was no scope for new
geotechnical investigation at the landslide location.
Therefore considering the urgency previous geotechnical
reports of nearby area were considered for design
purpose. The geological formation is of hematite rock.
The soil layers encountered at site comprise a thin fill
layer of hard silty clay underlain by completely
weathered to highly weathered reddish brown laterite and
rock with steel grey fine grained iron ore mixture. The
input design parameters for sub-soil profile as obtained
from field and laboratory test results are shown under
Table 1.
Table-1 Geotechnical parameters for design
Unit Cohesion
Sub-strata weight
(kN/m3) (kN/m2)
Filled up soil 18 0.5
Residual soil 19 5 30
Weathered rock 22 25
The lateritic soil being of residual formation is naturally
of high porosity. The presence of water in the soil mass
highly aggravates tendency for slope failure and also
impedes slope protection schemes. Parametric study on
residual soils with various values of internal friction
angle and cohesion have already shown that such soil
slopes tend to have probability of collapse when cohesion
values are less than 10 kN/m2 with factor of safety less
than the acceptable value of 1.5 (Atefeh and Erwin,
2014).
4. Design Basis & Formulation of Inputs
There is very little previous available reference of any
successful slope protection scheme applied in such type
of iron-ore rich soils. Detail discussions and literature
survey was done to evaluate the merits and demerits of
slope protection treatments in similar type of conditions.
Based on the available input data, design charts by
FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) was initially
used for the analysis in absence of IS codes.
Subsequently, stability of 33kv tower under various
operational circumstances was established to reach
acceptable level of confidence. Therefore, design aspect
were investigated for different stages throughout the site
progress and inputs collected from drilling time in
different strata, volume of grout consumptions etc.
Accordingly, stability of the slope was assessed under
different operating conditions e.g. variation in nail length
& spacing, diameter, inclination with varying slope
profile, varying geotechnical parameters, etc. For
optimum design iterations were continued until the
required minimum factor of safety was obtained.
Ultimate bond strength of nail and grout was taken from
design guidelines initially and verified by pullout test
results on sacrificial nails on adjacent locations. Stability
of slopes are commonly analyzed by established classical
limit equilibrium methods of slope stability analysis
using commercial software package (GeoStudio 2007).
The following Table 2 presents the basic design inputs
for soil nails.
Table-2 Design parameters for soil nails
Item Description Value
Vertical wall height, m 7-13
Nail length, m 4-11
Nail spacing, m 1-1.3
Grade of nail bar Fe 500
Internal
Friction Grade of steel plate Fe 250
Angle
Grade of grout & shotcrete M 30
(degree)
Drill hole diameter, mm 150
28 2
Ultimate bond strength, kN/m 80
35 5. Challenges in Design Stage
At the start of the design, full length nails were planned
in equal grid spacing. However, when drilling started at
top layers, full length couldn't be achieved due to collapse
of holes. This was because of the heterogeneous back fill
material in the tower foundation zone. Manually 1m
casing were pushed to facilitate further drilling. However,
success was not achieved beyond 4m drilling. Due to
presence of large iron ore boulders the equal spacing was
not maintained both vertically and horizontally. Also, the
top nails had to be drilled with sufficient safe distance
from underground tower foundation. After removal of
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debris at bottom level, civil, mechanical & electrical
erections for conveyor were started along with nailing.
The bottom row nailing was not feasible due to space
constraint. To compensate the short length top nail a
concrete toe wall with 3m vertical nails was introduced at
bottom portion as additional protection.
Based on continuously changing soil properties, time,
space constraint and all possible construction issues that
arose during and after excavation, various situations have
been analyzed. Results of the minimum 'Factor of Safety
(FOS)' are summarized in tabular form below and
outcome figures are shown in thereafter.
Fig. 3 Prediction of FOS > 1.5 with 8 rows designed
Table-3 Preliminary Cases considered in Design Stage length nail (Case-B)
Method of Analysis
Sl. No.
Fellinious Bishop Janbu Spencer
Case-A 0.47 0.48 0.47 0.47
Case-B 1.57 1.65 1.61 1.64
Case-C 1.72 1.84 1.82 1.84
Case-A: After complete removal of debris from slope
face at one go.
Case-B: Installation of 8 rows of designed length nails
Case-C: Installation of 8 rows of designed length nails
with 1m height RCC toe wall
The factor of safety in Case-A is very low to work under Fig. 4 Prediction of FOS > 1.7 with 8 rows designed
these conditions. To maintain minimum factor of safety length nail and RCC toe wall at bottom (Case-C)
of 1.0, step wise debris removal of 1 to 1.5m depth from
top-down approach was adopted during execution.
Table-4 Additional Cases considered at Execution Stage

Method of Analysis
Sl. No.
Fellinious Bishop Janbu Spencer
Case-D 1.54 1.62 1.57 1.61
Case-E 1.71 1.84 1.78 1.83
Case-D: Installation of 2 rows of short nail & 6 rows of
designed length nails.
Case-E: Installation of 2 rows of short nail, 6 rows of
designed length nails & 1 row of vertical nail with 1m
Fig. 5 Decrease of FOS to1.5 with 2 top rows of short
height RCC toe wall
length and 6 rows of designed length nail (Case-D)

Fig. 2 Prediction of FOS < 0.5 under condition of Fig. 6 Increase of FOS to1.7 with addition of vertical
complete debris removal and without nails (Case-A). nail and RCC toe wall at bottom (Case-E)

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Soil Nailing For Failed Slope Stabilization on Hilly Terrain
6. Challenges in Construction Methodology
Soil nailing is generally carried out in top-down approach
with staged excavation. Hence the general approach is to
create benches to accommodate drilling & grouting
operation. The bench heights are restricted to desired
depths for which the face of excavation can safely remain
unsupported till the drilling & grouting of last row nail.
The bench heights are also guided by the requirement of
the nozzle operator to hold the nozzle at an angle normal
to the face of the slope. Detail analysis of the convenient
bench height for nailing and shotcreting operations are
presented by Kutschke, Tarquinio & Petersen (DFI
2007).
In the present case, the slope reinforcing is carried out on
an existing failed slope and hence required a different
approach in planning the execution activities. The
collapsed soil mass actually provided additional support
to the failed slope and was preventing further slide. It was
decided to take advantage of this mass of collapsed soil to
facilitate the normal top down approach for carrying out
the slope reinforcing work.
6.1 Anchoring Tower
The first requirement at the site was to immediately
ensure and enhance the stability of the slope beneath the
33kV tower foundation. In order to enhance the stability
of the tower in this modified profile of the slope, tie-back
structure with massive anchor blocks embedded in soil
was provided to the tower structure. Additionally sand
bags were placed on the slope for additional support
during drilling.
6.2 Staging Platform, Debris Removal & Bench
Excavation
Staging platform were erected from limited space at
bottom, taking support from existing trestles of
conveyors. Benches were created with scaffolding
material resting on the collapsed debris at bottom. Stages
were created at different levels at intervals corresponding
to convenient operating height of 1.5m. The working
platforms were connected by ramps fabricated from
scaffolding material to allow the drilling machine to
reach the topmost level of the slope. Similarly
construction schedule was compressed by drilling &
grouting at day time and shotcreteing & scaffolding
erection during night time.
6.3 Nail & Drainage Pipe Installation
Due to the non-cohesive nature of the residual soil,
undulated surface profile resulted during the drilling
operation. Modified design approach was adopted by
providing one layer of shotcrete on the exposed surface
prior to start of drilling to prevent sloughing of loose soil.
This technique was also beneficial to enhance the
stability of the vulnerable soil mass below the 33kV
tower foundation.
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The other aspect of nail installation is the insertion of
nails inside the hole. Special care needs to be taken so
that the nails do not touch the mouth of the drilled hole at
insertion point causing it to collapse. Manual lifting and
insertion of nails causes needless striking of the nail
against the hole face and can create holes to collapse.
Therefore for long holes and nails at heights, support
system with the help of crane at nail end was deployed to
minimize the hole collapse. Since there was no space to
operate a crane at this location for both vertical (due to
active high 33kV transmission line) and horizontal
clearance (due to conveyor and trestles), nail insertion
was carried out manually.
Normal steel reinforcement bars were used for nailing.
For extra precaution against corrosion, one coat of
galvanization were applied at site.
Similarly, inclined drilling were done for installation of
drainage pipes of length 2-3m. The drainage pipes were
perforated PVC pipes wrapped with non-woven geo-
textiles over the perforation and end of pipes.
6.4 Shotcrete & Grouts
During simultaneous drilling operation for both ends of
platform, the disturbance to the loose soil mass from the
vibrations caused large soil mass to collapse when the
drilling depth had reached about 3 metres. As indicated
earlier, the drainage through the soil mass on the slope
further aggravated the situation. Therefore, in many
cases, large quantity of shotcrete was required to fill the
pockets created by collapsed soil. The same thing
happened for grouting operation also. In some places the
grout consumption was very high; about 50%-200%
greater than the usual grout consumption. The presence
of fracture planes or pockets inside the strata which can
account for higher grout consumption couldn’t be
quantified accurately even with proper investigation
report. Portland cement with plasticizers were used for
grouting with water-cement ratio of 0.45.
7. Instrumentation
Conventional surveying methods were adopted for any
movement of ground and displacement of tower
pedestals. Due to schedule and time constraints, special
geotechnical field instrumentation were not installed.
However, dedicated safety inspection teams were
engaged for 24/7 monitoring of site activity.
8. Conclusions
The soil nailing method was successfully implemented at
site comprising of lateritic soil mixed with iron ore
boulders in a constrained area especially with 33kV tower
at top and conveyor at bottom. This achieved the desired
purpose for stabilization of failed slope and restoration
of conveyor operation in a shortest possible time.
Successful implementation of soil nailing work in
situation presented in this study was possible through the
following:
 i. Detailed analysis and design for the soil nailing
system coupled with micro planning of all site
activities considering various constraints at the
site.
ii. Rechecking and modification of the design
calculations to incorporate site specific design
issues during execution.
iii. Continuous monitoring of site conditions as per
the progress and modifying execution
methodology accordingly.
The major learning from the present case study are
presented herein which will be beneficial for future
design as well as implementation practices.
The solution for slope stabilization should be looked at
holistically considering existing facilities and structures Fig. 8 Step wise debris removal and lowering platform
in the vicinity of the work site. Special attention has to be for smooth movements of drilling machine and resources.
paid to ensure safety and stability of nearby structures in
brown field projects.
Most of instability occurs in hill slope due to inefficient
drainage networks. To avoid such type of failure, an
extensive study of existing drainage networks and
periodical maintenance plans have to be addressed.
In order to facilitate the evaluation of long term risk and
the probable detrimental effect, continuous monitoring of
slope movement and water table is recommended with
installation of appropriate field instrumentation.

9. Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully recognize Tata Steel Limited,
Jamshedpur, India for giving opportunity to Tata
Consulting Engineers to work as "Consultant" in such a
complex brown field project. Similarly, the authors
would like to thank L & T Limited, India for their
continuous support on site specific inputs throughout the Fig. 9 Installation of grouted nails by wagon drilling
project execution. machine after phase wise debris removal from top.

10. Site Photographs

The site photographs showing site conditions and
construction stages are enclosed.

Fig. 10 Drilling and placing of perforated PVC drainage

Fig. 7 Project site of 33kV tower with damaged conveyor pipes and wire mesh for shotcreting layer.
due to collapse of gabion & random rubble masonry wall.

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Soil Nailing For Failed Slope Stabilization on Hilly Terrain

72

Fig. 11 Application of shotcrete layer with additional Fig. 14 Final finished slope face showing 33kV tower at
cavity filling by concrete, small boulders. top and restored conveyor along with toe wall at bottom.

References
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Stabilization of Vertical Cut Supporting a Retaining
Wall Using Soil Nailing: A Case Study.
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Fig. 12 Bottom debris removal & installation of vertical
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(2007) Practical Soil Nail Wall Design and
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