Major Landslide Remediation in an Urban Setting-PPT Presentation

PPT Presentation

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DRS Engineering Inc. provides geostructural design services across the Western United States, including temporary shoring, permanent retaining walls, slope stabilization, specialty foundations, expert witness services, and debris-flow mitigation. Led by President Dave Salter, BSc, PhD, PE, the firm has provided earth-support design services for 15 years.<br /><br />A major project was the Bel Air Landslide Remediation, completed over 2006–2016 in an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood. A portion of an ancient landslide reactivated in 2004, threatening a residential property. The complex, single-family-client project—described as a “$100 million backyard repair”—removed the active slide and an underlying clay seam, then backfilled the site and created four lots: the existing main-house lot and three lots for future construction.<br /><br />The work involved extensive, phased excavations, including approximately 90,000 square feet of shoring up to 100 feet deep, and construction of roughly 80,000 square feet of permanent walls up to 65 feet high. Temporary systems included trench shoring, tieback-supported bulkheads, and pipes used as compression struts and temporary and permanent deadmen.<br /><br />Permanent walls were built primarily as fill walls, using cast-in-drilled-hole (CIDH) piles supported by deadmen. The piles were battered before concrete placement to achieve vertical walls after backfilling and deformation. Structural facing was connected to the piles with epoxy dowels, while threaded high-strength bars linked the wall system to deadman anchor blocks. Deadman layouts were tailored to avoid conflicts with future buildings and utilities.

Keywords

geostructural design

temporary shoring

retaining walls

slope stabilization

specialty foundations

expert witness services

debris-flow mitigation

Bel Air Landslide Remediation

CIDH piles

deadman anchors