Retaining Walls

Retaining walls are the foremost important structure in hill road construction to provide adequate stability to the roadway and to the slope. Retaining walls are constructed on the valley side of the roadway and also on the cut hillside to prevent landslides towards the roadway. Dry stone masonry is preferred to masonry in mortar as the former permits easy drainage of seeping water. Harger and Bonney suggest a section 0.5H with a minimum width of 0.45m to 0.60m at the top and a front batter of 1 in 4 with rear side vertical.
For heights greater than 6m sections of (0.4H+0.3) to (0.5H+0.6) m are adopted with a top width of 0.75m.