An economic and technical appraisal of geosynthetic soil nails

Soil nailing has been used widely in continental Europe for stabilizing slopes and strengthening earth retaining structures. To date, the technique has not found much application in the UK but has high potential for use in the motorway widening programme. The use of soil nails may be increased substantially if concerns about their long-term durability could be allayed. It was therefore opportune to examine the potential of non-metallic nails. The fundamental requirements of anchoring systems and the inherent properties of geosynthetics were thus reviewed to establish possible configurations for a geosynthetic soil nail/anchorage. A technical appraisal of soil nailing was completed and aspects of performance requiring confirmatory tests were identified. An economic appraisal was also completed to establish the relative costs of soil nails incorporating metallic elements, having various types of corrosion protection, and geosynthetic elements. The study showed that there was good potential for the use of geosynthetic soil nails for stabilizing slopes. Outline designs for prototype nails that seem to have the best potential for development are provided in the report. (A)