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Instructor: George R. Koerner, Ph.D., P.E. & CQA

Course Length: 90 minutes

Purpose and Background

This webinar sheds light on the large number (400 to date) of excessive deformation and/or actual collapses of MSE walls with geotextile or geogrid reinforcement. While the situation is indeed worldwide, most of the issues are experienced within the U.S. private sector. This webinar quantifies 10 specific items and details them accordingly. It presents four main design and constructions issues. It examines failure causes and their commonality components (63% are water related). It also addresses major design and construction issues.

Primary Discussion Topics

• Data on 400 quite similar failures (estimated to be about 8% of the total worldwide failures)
• Bring attention to this serious situation with respect to geotechnical and geosynthetic engineering communities
• Four main design and construction issues which are felt to be greatly contributing to the failures
• Use of fine-grained silts and/or clay backfill soils
• Poor compaction of these fine-grained soils
• Need for removal of internal drainage and piping systems
• Need for proper surface and adjacent water control

Benefits and Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize areas of concern insofar as design is concerned
• Identify how, when and where these failures have occurred
• Explain the sources of water which is common to these failures
• Describe specific aspects of these walls which have failed
• Illustrate proper design procedures to avert failures
• Prepare plans and specifications to avoid such incidences in the future

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed through a short post-test (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Who Should Attend?

• Reinforced MSE wall and slope design engineers
• General civil, geotechnical and geosynthetic consulting engineers
• Geotextile and geogrid manufacturers and distributors
• Private property developers and architects
• Permitting engineers from municipal districts and townships
• Contractors and installers of these systems
• Academic and research groups
• Insurance companies and attorneys

Outline

• Introduction and background
• Identification of the two main failure classifications
• Main statistical findings from 400 failures
• Major design and construction issues
• Summary comments and recommendations

How to Earn your CEUs/PDHs and Receive Your Certificate of Completion

This course is worth .2 CEUs/2 PDHs. To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short on-line post-test and receive a passing score of 70% or higher within 365 days of the course purchase.