Retaining walls are the most effective physical barrier against flash floods, land sliding, erosion, and slumping hillsides. They can protect your property while maintaining its functional and visual appeal.

Building a retaining wall, however, is nothing like a simple wall or boundary construction. A lot of thought, design, and engineering expertise go into the process.

Before installing a retaining wall, Mountain Movers Engineering Co.’s expert design engineers thoroughly assess construction or project site conditions. They take the space, ground conditions, size, and various other factors into account before coming up with a design. For optimum performance, retaining walls must meet strict criteria consisting of balanced loads and forces.

Let’s talk about these technicalities in detail.

1. Lateral Earth Pressure

Lateral earth pressure is the first element that lays down the foundation for creating a retaining wall. It’s preset to retain soil on the ground surface before, during, and after installation.

Lateral earth pressure is defined as the horizontal pressure exerted by soil. It impacts the overall binding and stability strength on the soil level, ensuring its ability to balance a retaining wall. Earthwork and retaining wall builders follow the sliding wedge concept when designing a retaining wall.

2. Surcharge Loads

In addition to horizontal pressures like lateral earth pressure, a retaining wall also has to bear vertical forces. The ground applies a surcharge load creating an adjacent pressure and acting as backfill for the wall.

Highway surcharges, backfill compaction surcharges, and adjacent footing surcharges are common load types affecting your retaining wall design.

3. A Retaining Wall’s Structural Weight

The next thing the retaining wall design team has to study is the final product’s probable weight. It includes all the components, such as the footing, base, bearing, and the wall itself. Assessing ground conditions and forces is essential to ensure the stability and strength required to hold a retaining wall in place.

4. Wind Forces and Seismic Pressure

Yes, the wind force and the earth’s seismic pressure are quite critical for a retaining wall installation plan. Your retaining wall will be exposed to external weather conditions, including strong winds and earthquake shocks. Therefore, the design team will invest time in computing maximum level wind force and velocity.

This helps decide the correct wall positioning, earthwork requirements, and retaining wall material.

How Can Mountain Movers Engineering Co. Help You?

When it comes to high-quality retaining wall installation and earthwork services in California, no one does it better than us. At Mountain Movers Engineering Co., we’ve built credibility with our quality services and unmatched customer experience.

Our projects include residential, commercial, and industrial sites where we have performed excellent earthwork, grading, slope wall repair, retaining wall installation, and more.

Dive deeper into our service portfolio, or call us now for further discussion.