JOESCO Gabion Wall is a single-unit gravity retaining structure constructed using natural stone, following the standard design approach of gravity retaining walls. The following design guidelines are provided by JOESCO to assist professional engineers, governmental agencies, land developers, and contractors in correctly designing, specifying, constructing, and inspecting the gravity retaining walls of the Gabion Wall.
JOESCO Gabion Wall utilizes natural stone construction. When drainage occurs, soil particles settle into the small voids of the natural stone fill inside the Gabion Wall, providing a living environment for vegetation growth.
JOESCO’s flexible double-twist type Gabion Wall is designed to settle without rupture when scour occurs and bond with the ground. For standard Gabion Wall, graded fill ranging from 4 to 8 inches is used, while Reno Flexible Gabion Wall uses graded fill ranging from 3 to 6 inches to ensure healthy slope flexibility and create a new balanced state of the structure after settlement occurs to provide sustained stability. The upper protection mat of the Gabion Wall is often used to protect the foot of the Gabion retaining wall and prevent scour that may cause foundation erosion in hydraulic engineering. It is recommended that the minimum depth of the upper protection mat of the Gabion Wall be 9 to 12 inches. The length of the upper protection mat of the Gabion Wall should extend more than twice the expected scour depth of the structure foot. This ensures that the upper protection mat of the Gabion Wall extends beyond the outer limit of the expected scour hole.
The upper protection mat of the Gabion Wall needs minimal excavation and groundwork. Typically, the upper protection mat of the Gabion Wall is directly placed on the ground to prevent soil from seeping out from under the mat. If the upper protection mat of the Gabion Wall is placed in relatively deep water, an efficient large-scale placement method is to prefabricate the mat on a barge and then push it into the water. With this method, the size of the upper protection mat of the Gabion Wall that can be placed is only limited by the deck area of the barge. Gabion boxes or Reno Flexible Gabion Wall can also be installed in water using slings after being filled and grouped. This method is often used to construct scour-resistant mats around bridge piers. The upper protection mat of the Gabion Wall can be manufactured using Terra Aqua Standard PVC Gabion Units or JOESCO PVC Reno Flexible Gabion Wall.
Through investigation and stability analysis, it can be determined that in order to achieve an acceptable factor of safety against sliding, it will be necessary to increase the cross-sectional area of the Gabion Wall to enhance stability. Before enlarging the cross-sectional area of the Gabion Wall, one option to consider is placing the Gabion gravity retaining wall on a slope with an incline angle of 6-10 degrees. This will require graded and compacted base soil to accommodate the specified slope inclination.
