Geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures for railways and roads: development from walls to bridges

Abstract

The development and construction of various types of geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) structures for railways, roads and others, mainly for railways, for the last 35 years in Japan is described. In the 1980s, GRS retaining wall (RW) with full-height rigid (FHR) facing was developed. The FHR facing is constructed firmly connected to reinforcement layers after the reinforced backfill and subsoil has deformed sufficiently. In the early 1990s, GRS Bridge Abutment supporting one end of a simple girder at the top of the FHR facing was developed. In the early 2000s, GRS Integral Bridge was developed, which structurally integrates both ends of a continuous girder to the top of the FHR facings of a pair of GRS RWs. The total wall length of these GRS structures became about 185 km by June 2019 with no problematic case. The use of FHR facing, the staged construction of FHR facing and the structural integration for GRS Integral Bridge are the three major breakthroughs for the development of these GRS structure technologies.