Bridge Abutments and Retaining Walls
Our state of the art GeoSynthetically Confined Soil® (GCS) technology translates to better and more cost effective retaining walls, bridge abutments, box culverts, foundations, rockfall barriers, avalanche & mudflow deflection barriers and more. Federally-funded research shows that GCS® structures have bearing capacities up to 20 times those of traditional Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls.
Facing options included natural vegetation, wire mesh, natural stone, concrete block, or sculpted shotcrete. For more information about the GCS® innovation, see our Tools page.
Just east of the Northern California’s famous wine country you will find an eco-friendly geothermal power generation plant, owned and operated by Calpine Corporation. This facility covers thousands of acres and depends on a network of rugged mountain roads for maintenance, new construction, and general operations. The plant property is accessed from the west by Geysers Road and from the east by Socrates Mine Road.
Calpine contracted with Soil Nail Launcher, Inc. to repair a section of Socrates Mine Road that was subjected to a shoulder-damaging slip out. In addition to the damaged shoulder, the over-steep head scarp, left behind by the slip, threatened the stability of the road. Calpine not only demanded a economical fix they also wanted Soil Launcher, Inc. to keep the road open during the repair and build an over-wide shoulder to accept future pipeline supports.
Soil Nail Launcher, Inc.’s remediation design included a combination of SuperNails®, SuperMicropiles®, and an innovative Geosynthetically Confined Soil® (GCS) retaining wall for the purpose of widening the shoulder. Calpine reported that the site was successfully repaired for less than half the cost of traditional repair techniques.
Contacts:
James Chinchiolo, Landslide Solutions, CEO
james@landslidesolutions.com
Steve Burden, Calpine Corporation, project manager
stevebu@calpine.com
