26 GROUND ANCHORS AND SOIL NAILS IN

RETAINING STRUCTURES
ILAN JURAN, D.Sc. VICTOR ELIAS, P.E.
Professor and Head V. Elias & Associates, P.A.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Consulting Engineers
Brooklyn Polytechnic University

26.1 INTRODUCTION
Ground anchor and soil nail retaining systems are designed to
stabilize and support natural and engineered structures and to
restrain their movement using tension-resisting elements. The
basic design concept consists of transferring the resisting tensile
forces generated in the inclusions into the ground through the
friction (or adhesion) mobilized at the interfaces. These systems
allow the engineer to efficiently use the in-situ ground in
providing vertical or lateral structural support. They present
significant technical advantages over conventional rigid gravity
retaining walls or external bracing systems that result in
substantial cost savings and reduced construction period.
Therefore, during the past few decades, ground anchors, and
more recently soil nails, have been increasingly used in civil
engineering projects.
The use of these systems in permanent structures requires
careful evaluation of the durability of the structural elements
and assessment of the long-term system performance. Avariety
of inclusions, corrosion-protection systems, and installation
techniques have been progressively developed by specialty
contractors. This chapter briefly describes the construction
process and the main structural elements. It presents the main
aspects of ground-inclusion interaction, illustrates the observed
behavior of instrumented str\lctures, and outlines durability
considerations, performance criteria, and design approaches
that have been developed to ensure the internal and external
stability of these composite retaining systems.
structural element. Temporary ground anchors are used for a
specified construction period and their service life is generally
less than 2 years. Permanent ground anchors are corrosion-
protected to insure their long-term performance throughout the
design service life of the structure.
Figure 26.1 shows a schematic diagram of a permanent
ground anchor. The basic components of the ground anchor are:
• The tendon is made of prestressing steel wires, strands, or
bars and includes :
a. The anchor bond length-where the tendon is fixed in the
primary grout bulb and transfers the tension force to the
surrounding ground. The anchor bond length is designed
to provide the required load pull-out capacity of the
anchor.
b. The unbonded length-where the tendon is free to elongate
elastically transferring the resisting force from the anchor
bond length to the structural element (i.e., wall face, slab,
etc.). It is designed to reach the underlying substratum or, in

26.2 PRINCIPLES, HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT,

AND FIELDS OF APPLICATION

26.2.1 Permanent Ground Anchors

Permanent ground anchors are prestressed cement-grouted

tendons used in soils or rock to restrain and control the
displacements of structural elements such as walls or slabs.
They have been developed mainly by specialty contractors
involved in temporary excavation support systems and in some
cases are proprietary. The anchors are installed in drilled holes
and prestressed to the design load in order to mobilize and
transfer the required resisting force from the ground to the Fig . 26.1 Permanent ground anchors.

868
H.-Y. Fang (ed.), Foundation Engineering Handbook
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1991

homogeneous soils, to locate the anchor bond length
beyond the potentially unstable soil mass adjacent to the
structural element.
• The anchor grout, also called primary grout, is generally a
portland cement-based mixture or a polymer resin and is
used to transfer the anchor force to the ground. Secondary
grout can be injected into the drilled hole after stressing to
provide corrosion protection for unsheeted tendons.
• The anchorage is a device attached to the tendon that consists
of a plate and an anchor head (or threaded nut) and permits
stressing and lock -off of the prestressing steel.
During the past 50 years, permanent ground anchors have
been extensively used by contractors to provide vertical and
lateral support for natural and engineered structures. Typical
applications of ground anchors are illustrated in Figure 26.2.
They have found widespread acceptance in a variety of civil
engineering projects including cut slope retaining systems,
tied-back diaphragm or soldier pile walls, bridge abutments,
stabilization of natural slopes and cliffs, tunnel portals, under-
pinning, repair or reconstruction of quay walls, dam spillways,
loading ramps, hangars, etc. They have also been frequently
used as tied own supports for dams, transmission towers, and
waterfront structures, primarily to resist uplift water pressures
and rotational loadings.
Tiebacks were first used to anchor structures in rock. The
earliest permanent rock tied owns were installed by the French
engineer Coyne for anchoring the Jument lighthouse (1930)
and raising the Cheurfas Dam, Algeria (1934). By the late 1950s,
use of permanent rock tiedowns had become common practice
in renovation and construction of dams (Evans, 1955; Morris,
1956; Middleton, 1961) and towers (Weatherby, 1982). In the
1950s contractors began to use tiebacks for temporary supports
.D Wall
Fractured
sandstone ........... /
Permanent
tiebacks
(a)
(c)
Fig.26.2 Typical applications of permanent ground anchors. (a) Concrete wall. (b) Landslide and tunnel portal. (c) Permanent tower
tiedown. (d) Dams. (After Weatherby, 1982.)
Ground Anchors and Soil Nails in Retaining Structures 869
of deep excavations. The first permanent soil tiebacks in the
United States were installed in 1961 in a very stiff silty clay for
the construction of retaining walls for the Michigan expressway
(Jones and Kerkhoff, 1961). However, in spite of long-term
European experience, permanent ground anchors had not been
in common use in the United States until the late 1970s, mainly
because of engineering concerns with regard to long-term
performance, potential time-dependent (creep) movement, cor-
rosion protection of the tendon, and the need to establish
reliable quality control testing procedures to verify the short-
and long-term holding capacity. Technological efforts have been
continuously invested by specialty contractors to overcome
these limitations, develop efficient corrosion-protection systems,
improve grouting methods and installation procedures, and
increase the tension capacity of the prestressed tendons.
The rapid acceptance and growing use of ground anchors
can be attributed mainly to significant technical advantages
resulting in substantial cost savings and reduced construction
period. Specifically, in urban areas the use of ground anchors
often allows significant reduCtion in right-of-way acquisition
and permits the elimination of temporary support systems,
external bracings, or the need for underpinning existing structures
near to excavation sites. The increasing confidence in ground
anchor use for permanent structures is primarily due to reliable
quality control procedures that involve routine performance
and proof testing of all production anchors under loads
exceeding the design load. Performance specifications and codes
of practice, based on experience and long-term observations of
permanent anchor installations, have been developed in Euro-
pean countries (French Recommendations, Bureau Securitas,
1977; FIP Rules, 1974; German Standards, DIN, 1972, 1976;
PTI Recommendations, 1980) and more recently in the United
States (FHWA; see Cheney, 1984) to specify design, construction,
and monitoring procedures.
Permanent
tiebacks
(b)
Existing dam
• ',. " '- ... . F. ..
Permanent
tiedown
(d)