Retaining Walls used in Bridges (With

Diagram)
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After reading this article you will learn about the retaining walls used in bridges with the help
of diagrams.

Closed type abutments axe used where the spilling of the earth in front of the abutments is to
be prevented by retaining the earth and therefore, such sort of abutments functions as
retaining walls in addition to acting as load bearing walls. In bridges provided with closed
type abutments, the sides are also to be protected by walls so as to prevent the spilling of the
earth.

These walls when placed at an angle with the road embankment in the form of “wings” are
known as “wing walls” whereas they are termed as “return walls” when placed parallel to
the embankment (Fig. 20.1). Retaining wall is the general term of the wall which retains earth
and as such the wing walls and the return walls are also retaining walls.

Retaining walls may be built of brick or stone masonry, cement concrete or reinforced
cement concrete.

The following types of retaining walls are generally used:

i) Gravity or semi-gravity wall.

ii) Cantilever wall.

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iii) Counterfort wall.

iv) Buttress wall.

v) Tied-back walls.

Fig. 20.2 illustrates various types of retaining walls. Gravity walls require massive sections
and therefore, masonry or cement concrete is used in such walls. Reinforced cement concrete
thin sections are used in the construction of cantilever, counterfort or buttress walls. Gravity
walls may be suitable up-to height of 6 metres.

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Cantilever walls are generally adopted up to a nominal height of 6 metres. When the nominal
height exceeds 6 metres, counterfort or buttress type walls are used. Tied-back walls may be
used for high walls. These walls are specially suitable in cases where walls on both the sides
are to be provided.

In gravity type walls, the base width is kept as 2/3 the overall height of the wall. Usually a
batter of 1 in 20 is provided in the front face where a haunch of one horizontal to two vertical
for a depth of about 1/4 height near the base is also provided from stability consideration.

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The base width of the cantilever, counterfort or buttress walls varies from 1/2 to 1/3 the
height. The projection of the toe from the face of the wall is 1/3 the base width for cantilever
or counterfort walls. The stem thickness of the cantilever walls is 1/12 the height and the
thickness of the base raft is 1/8 to 1/12 the height.
The spacing of the counterforts or the buttresses or the columns of the tied-back walls should
be between 2.5 to 3.5 metres. The width of the counterforts or buttresses is generally 450 to
600 mm. Tie-beams of section 500 x 200 mm to 700 x 250 mm are normally found adequate
for the tied-back walls. The top of the tie walls is made of inverted V-shape to minimize
direct earth load including live load surcharge (Fig. 20.4). 

Similar to the abutments, the stability of the walls against sliding or overturning is very
important in addition to the safety of the walls in respect of safe foundation pressure.
Retaining walls are more susceptible to failure by overturning than the abutments for the
reason that there is no vertical superimposed load on the walls as in abutments except the
self-weight and the weight of earth coming over them.

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Failure of the retaining walls may also take place due to the following reasons:

i) Sliding failure (Fig. 20.3a)

ii) Settlement failure (Fig. 20.3b & c)

iii) Shallow shear failure (Fig. 20.3d)

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iv) Deep-seated shear failure (Fig. 20.3e)

Sliding failure may occur when the sliding resistance at the base or the shearing resistance of
the soil under the base is small compared to the horizontal thrust exerted on the wall.
Settlement failure is caused due to the excessive settlement of the foundation soil.
The wall may tilt outwards when the toe pressure is more than the allowable foundation
pressure. On the other hand, the inward tilting of the wall takes place if the soil under the heel
is of poor bearing capacity. Shallow shear failure occurs when the wall rests on a soil having
very poor shear strength (Fig. 20.3d).

When the wall is founded on a cohesion-less soil with good shearing resistance but the soil
underneath the cohesion-less soil is cohesive with less shearing resistance, shallow shear
failure cannot take place but the wall may move along with the cohesion-less soil underneath
the wall at the plane of weakness resulting in deep-seated shear failure (Fig. 20.3e).

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After checking the stability of the walls, the foundation pressure coming on the soil both at
the toe and heel with worst condition of loading may be investigated and compared with the
permissible value. If this is satisfactory, then the adequacy of the structural components such
as foundation rafts, walls, counterforts, buttresses, columns, ties etc. must be examined.

The vertical stem or the wall of both the gravity and the cantilever retaining walls acts as a
cantilever in the vertical plane under the action of the horizontal thrust exerted by the earth
pressure.

In the counterfort or the buttress type, the face slab spans horizontally between the
counterforts or the buttresses as the case may be like a continuous beam causing bending of
the face slab in the horizontal plane. The thrust from the face slab is transferred on to the
counterforts or the buttresses which again behave like cantilevers similar to cantilever walls.

The tied-back walls are somewhat different in action from other walls. The face wall is
supported on four sides by the vertical columns and the horizontal beams and as such the
thrust exerted by the active earth pressure on the face wall is ultimately transferred to the
node points, i.e. to the junction of beams and columns and the thrust is resisted by the pull in
the ties.

The face wall is designed as a slab supported on four sides. The horizontal beams are
designed with the triangular or trapezoidal load from the face wall. For example, in Fig. 20.4,
horizontal beam B3 will have earth pressive load from face wall such as top trapezium “defg”
and bottom trapezium “hklm”.
The load on the ties due to self-weight, earth load etc. over them are transferred to the
columns and therefore, the columns are to be designed with direct load from ties and moment
caused by the load from face wall directly on the columns and the moment transferred from
horizontal beams.

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The tics are designed with self-weight, the earth load and the live load surcharge over them. It
is believed that when the tie beam deflects, not only the weight of the earth directly over it
comes on it but also some more earth as shown in Fig. 20.4 transfers the load over the tie due
to arch action.

For example, the weight of earth for the portion “abc” comes on top tie T1. The live load
surcharge effect is, however, assumed on the top tie only and neglected for the remaining ties.
In calculating the live load surcharge on the tie-beam, the load coming on the portion “abc” is
taken as the load per running metre of the tie-beam but this load should be judiciously taken.

The Author suggests that the actual load (earth load and L.L. surcharge) directly coming on
the tie beam Ti may be increased by 100 per cent to account for the arching action. The
tension in the tie shall also be considered in the design.

Live Load Surcharge:

All wing/return walls provided for full height of approaches shall be designed to withstand a
live load surcharge equivalent to 0.6 metre height of earth fill.

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Weep Holes:

All wing/return walls shall be provided with adequate number of weep holes in the manner as
described in Art.
Back-Fill Materials:

Back-fill materials shall be as specified in case of abutments.