Steep Slope Retaining Wall

The site topography presented the developer with the challenging task of constructing a permanent retaining wall structure into a hill formation near Blackfoot Trail in southeast Calgary, Alberta. The purpose of the permanent wall was to support a portion of 4th Street S.E. which is serving as an access road to a multi-building complex for commercial real estate. The retaining wall was designed by EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd. as a Cantilever Tangent Wall with various excavation depths, c/w embedment of soldier piles between 7.5m and 14.5m below-grade. The length of shoring wall was 142 linear metres with a total of 470 square metres of exposed surface area. The pile sizes included diameters of 810mm and 912mm. The overall scope of work consisted of drilling approximately 70 soldier piles and 140 filler piles. The client also accepted HCM’s proposal to trim the front surface of the 10 MPa concrete wall which then became more suitable for future application of architectural cladding or finished shotcrete. HCM completed this task with an excavator-mounted Antraquip wall trimmer.

The design also required precision in the placing of the piles along the contour of a curvilinear access road which, in most cases, took place on the edge of a steep slope.

HCM Contractors successfully completed this project to the engineer’s satisfaction, and on schedule.

Client: Centron Group of Companies
Location: Calgary, Alberta