[Squizzy Taylor]

I have a frontyard (house lower than road by 5ft) that is retained with old railway sleepers. The sleepers are rotted out and I am quoting the owners on a single wall (either Mass or SRW) across the front and down the side of the sloping driveway. The driveway is steep. It will give tham a useful flat area in front of the house, rather ampitheatre like.

My question is, can I back the Keystone blocks up to the driveway side as I would with mass blocks. Obviously I can't get behind the blocks because that would undermine the concrete driveway. Is there any options to slope the top of a SRW with the drive??? I guess not..it will have to be stepped down???.

I am tempted to (if they want the SRW option) to bring the wall across the front and than curve parrallel with the driveway run down and then curve/butt into the side of the driveway where it gets down to about 1 foot. Obviously I am trying to retain from about 4 foot down to zero of the sloping driveway...if that all makes sense. the driveway seems well stable having been pushed in with gravel, roadbase and then 4" concrete. Even though the sleepers at the side have given away its not cracking or falling away. The wall will essentially not take load but stop the eroding of the base material.

[Bill Schwab]

Squizzy:

Keystone Standards are engineered with the right soil conditions to be used up to 6' with no grid. The concern is the driveway, as you never know what might find it's way down to the house. Most likey a Subaru but easily could be a garbage truck.

Said that, you got a live surcharge to deal with. Can you local Keystone rep engineer something for you? Without destroying the driveway, it's going to be hard to use any grid if I'm reading you right, which leaves soil nails and a section of pipe to tie the grid to if you want to save the drive.

[Squizzy Taylor]

Your reading it right Bill, there is no opportunity for Grid along the driveway side. Keystone rep?...this is Australia Mate...they just make them...their not interested in helping us poor dumb installers...that might involve some liability. If I want help I have to contract an engineer.

I think I will do the side of the driveway with some concrete blocks, which will be hidden, and sweep the SRW around and parrallel with the driveway side a couple of feet off the actual concrete.

[Barry]

Squizzy...........Bill is right........you need an engineer. if you are not going to use grid. There is a way, to stack block behind the base course, ( double stacked wall ) and up to the third or fourth row, behind the wall, to add stabilization without grid. I would suggest contacting the NCMA ( National concrete and masonry association). They have an excellent wall certification program as well. ( Most of the LA's and Engineers in this part of the country conform to their standards) At the NCMA - Segmental Retaining Walls section of the website is a substandard picture of what I'm speaking of.

[Barry]

http://www.ncma.org/Use/srw.html Sorry........for some reason it did not post on my last reply...........here is that picture. Sorry it's not better.

[Squizzy Taylor]

Thanks Barry

[ckcland]

Tech bloc has a new wall block that they say is engineered to go 6 or 8 feet(i dont quite remember exact) without grid. Check out there site it might be a help in your situation. The base course weighs something like 1100 lbs ea. Sorry i couldn't be more specific but havent used it yet. Good luck.

[mrusk]

I'm working with a guy on a almost similar project.

This guy has a 2 tier rail road tie wall holding up his driveway. Total wall height is 6 ft. The rr tie tiers are about 20in apart.

This guy has a pavement driveway that is only 4 years old. I am going to have to rip 50% of it up to put in the 8ft grid. The best part is the driveway is only 20 feet long. I have to excavate the dirt and have it trucked out, and then truck new dirt in as i build the wall. Since there is no room to stack it.

The next proablem, is this guys driveway is 20 ft long. I know you can't put the gaurd rail right next to the wall, i been hearing engineers like the guard rail 5 feet on the wall on a geo grid wall.

The best proablem is, the first teir of the rail road tie wall was build partially on top of the guys 500 gallon waste water septic tank! I have know doubt, this guy will have to have this tank removed to build any type of wall!

But this guy still has landscapers telling him that he 'don't need no engineering!"