Course Catalogue.

After Participating in this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize potential MSE wall applications for transportation facilities
• Understand the primary design considerations and select appropriate parameters for design
• To be able to check contractor submitted designs for MSE walls
• Select appropriate specification and contracting methods
• Identify appropriate construction inspection activities to confirm compliance with design

Description

The design, construction and long-term stability monitoring of MSE walls continues to evolve as designers, researchers and specifiers push the leading edge of the technology and use more advanced geosynthetic materials and systems. At present, MSE walls represent more than half of all retaining walls used for transportation applications. MSE walls can offer some fairly significant advantages for the construction of transportation infrastructure. They are used to reduce or eliminate the need for the improvement of poor foundations where piles, caissons or other soils stabilization techniques would be required for the use of conventional reinforced concrete retaining walls. They are most commonly used as cost-effective solutions where the cost of fill, right-of-way or other restrictions require a steeper slope than is practically possible. 

There are many types of MSE wall types categorized by the geometry of the reinforcement, mechanism used to transfer stress, the type of reinforcement material (metallic or non-metallic) and the type and geometry of the wall facing. This webinar provides a basic understanding of the type of MSE walls, their primary uses, key factors in their design and lessons learned from construction. A series of case studies provides the “good” the “bad” and the “ugly” experiences with the use of MSE walls along with key lessons learned for their long-term success.

Course Outline

This course covers:

• History of the development of MSE walls
• Advantages of MSE walls compared to conventional retaining walls
• Overview of MSE systems, types and applications
• MSE wall design elements
• Construction sequencing
• Examples of performance issues

Who Should Attend?

• Engineers involved in MSE wall design, construction and maintenance
• Provincial/State DOT and municipal agency personnel who specify MSE walls
• Specifiers and manufacturers of earth retaining structures
• Contractors interested in advancing the state of MSE construction technology