Retaining wall system

A retaining wall system is made up of standardized posts and face panels formed of a polymeric cementitious material which are reinforced by a lattice-like polymer grid embedded in the posts and panels during their formation. Similar lattice-like polymer grids are mechanically attached to the grids embedded in the panels to project horizontally from the panels and to be embedded in earth fill at one side of the wall to permanently anchor the wall in position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is directed to retaining wall structures assembled 
from standardized structural units to form retaining walls useful for 
retaining earth embankments, and is particularly well adapted for the 
construction of levee or seawalls along shorelines. 
The retaining wall system of the present invention finds its most practical 
application in situations where there is a difference of ground level 
elevation between the opposite sides of the wall of about two or more 
feet. In those cases where the wall is erected on relatively flat terrain, 
as to serve as a water barrier, back fill may be emplaced behind the wall. 
The structural components from which the wall is constructed may be made 
in units capable of being manually handled and emplaced. The system is so 
designed as to be assembled and emplaced by relatively unskilled labor. 
The system when emplaced provides a retaining wall defined primarily by 
panels which are relatively thin, but which are firmly anchored to the 
fill which bears against the unexposed side of the wall. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The retaining wall system of the present invention includes a standardized 
post formed with vertical slots extending the entire length of two opposed 
sides of the post. The slots are dimensioned to receive the end portions 
of face panels which may be vertically lowered into position between two 
emplaced posts with the opposite ends of the face panel received in the 
slots in the facing sides of the two posts. The face panels typically have 
a width of six feet and a thickness of approximately 11/2 inches. The 
panels may either take the form of a relatively large panel having a 
height of four feet or more which is operable, by itself, to define the 
complete section of the wall between two adjacent posts or, alternatively, 
the panels may be of boardlike construction having a height of 
approximately one foot so that a wall section between two adjacent posts 
is built up of four or more boardlike panels extending horizontally 
between the posts and stacked in edge to edge engagement with each other. 
These narrow panels are formed with complementary tongue and groove 
configurations along their upper and lower edges and provided with a seal 
along the top edge of each panel which will sealingly engage the lower 
edge of the next adjacent panel when installed in the wall. 
The posts and panels are made up of a polymerized cementitious material and 
are provided with an internal reinforcement in the form of a polymeric 
grid embedded in the post or panel during its formation. A suitable 
polymeric grid for this purpose is commercially available. 
During emplacement of the wall, lattice-like grids of the polymeric 
material referred to above are fixedly secured to the face panels to 
extend horizontally from the nonexposed side of the retaining wall at 
selected elevations to be embedded in the fill emplaced behind the wall. 
These horizontally projecting grids are emplaced as fill is put into 
position behind the wall as it is installed and serve to firmly anchor the 
wall to the subsequently compacted fill behind the wall. The horizontally 
projecting grids may either be embedded in the face panels as the panels 
are formed or may be otherwise mechanically attached to the face panel, as 
by clips embedded in the panel during its formation or other suitable 
fastening means. 
Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent by 
reference to the following specification and to the drawings.

The invention makes substantial use of a polymer grid structure 
commercially available from The Tensar Corporation of Morrow, Ga. This 
polymer grid structure was specifically developed for and has been 
successfully employed to stabilize earth enbankments, typically in 
connection with highway construction or maintenance. These lattice-like 
grids are formed in continuous sheets of indefinite length and are 
flexible enough to be stored and transported in rolls. As compared to 
grids formed of metal wire, the polymer grids are of relatively light 
weight and unaffected by moisture so that once embedded in the earth, they 
are not subject to corrosion or rust. 
A portion of a grid G of the type described above is illustrated in FIG. 6. 
The grid G is formed from a suitable thermoplastic polymer as a one-piece 
structure of sheet-like form having a plurality of uniformly spaced, 
transversely extending thickened sections 10. Longitudinally elongated, 
generally oval openings 12 extend in uniformly spaced relationship between 
adjacent thickened sections 10 to define interconnecting webs 14 
integrally connecting the thickened sections 10 to each other. 
In FIG. 1 there is illustrated an exemplary installation of the retaining 
wall system of the present invention in which a wall including posts 
designated generally 16 and face panels designated generally 18 is 
emplaced along the shoreline of a body of water W to act as a dike or 
seawall. Referring particularly to FIGS. 1-3, the posts 16 are formed 
preferably from a polymeric, commercially available, cementitious material 
with a uniform, generally H-shaped transverse cross section having 
vertical slots 20 extending the length of opposite sides of the post. 
Strips of the polymeric grid of FIG. 6 are embedded in the post as 
indicated in FIG. 2 to overlap the opposite sides of the slots 20 to 
provide a reinforcement. Typically, the posts are formed in standardized 
lengths of six or eight feet with a width or depth of five to six inches. 
In the form of the wall shown in FIG. 1, the face panels 18 are formed on a 
single panel, typically of a standardized length of six feet, a depth of 
four or six feet on a thickness of approximately 11/2 inches. A 
correspondingly sized grid G is embedded in the panel which is formed of a 
polymeric cementitious material. As best seen in FIG. 2, the slots 20 in 
posts 16 are dimensioned to receive the end edges of face panels 18, the 
slots within the post having a sealing strip 22 extending the length of 
each slot to provide a reasonably watertight seal when the panel is seated 
within the slot. 
As indicated in FIG. 1, when emplaced, the posts 16 are spaced from each 
other by a distance such that a panel 18 extending between two adjacent 
posts has its opposite ends fully seated within the slots of the adjacent 
posts. The posts are emplaced so that approximately half of the length of 
the post is embedded below ground level. The panels 18, when in place, 
will preferably project a foot or more beneath ground level. 
As indicated in FIG. 1, two or more sheets of grid material G-1 extend 
horizontally from the land side of each face panel and are emplaced at 
different levels beneath the surface of the earth at the land side of the 
wall. These horizontal grid sections G1 are fixedly attached to the 
respective face panels 18 as by thermally bonding a length of grid G1 to 
the grid G embedded within the face panel 18 as in FIG. 4 or, 
alternatively, by embedding suitably fashioned grid attachment clips C to 
the grid within the panel as indicated in FIG. 5. Because the horizontal 
grids G1 may extend as much as ten feet or more from the wall, the 
embedded grid section G1 as shown in FIG. 4 may be relatively short in its 
extent from panel 18 and an additional length of grid may be mechanically 
attached to the projecting portions by any suitable means. 
In FIG. 3, a modified form of face panel is shown as consisting of a 
plurality of boardlike panels 24 formed of polymeric cementitious material 
with oppositely oriented recesses 26, 28 along their respective upper and 
lower edges to enable the panels 24 to be vertically overlapped with each 
other in a tongue and groove relationship when the panels are stacked edge 
to edge upon each other. A sealing strip 30 extends along one of the 
horizontal edges of each panel 24 to provide a seal along the joint 
between the panels 24. Suitable grid attachment clips C (see FIG. 5) are 
attached to the grid G embedded centrally within each of the boardlike 
panels 24. 
Emplacement of the horizontal grids G1 below the surface of the earth at 
the land side of the wall requires either that the earth behind the wall 
be excavated or that back fill be provided. Earth on the land side of the 
wall is graded to the level at which the lower of the grids G1 will be 
laid, the lower grid G1 is then laid in position and an additional layer 
of earth is then graded over the emplaced grid G1 until the level at which 
the next uppermost grid G1 is to be laid. The grids G1 provide an 
extremely firm anchor to the wall, the layers of earth being cohesively 
bonded to each other through the openings 12 in the grid, with an initial 
compaction being achieved normally by the passage of the grading machine 
over the previously emplaced fill. 
While exemplary embodiments of the invention have been described in detail, 
it will be apparent to those skilled in the art the disclosed embodiments 
may be modified. Therefore, the foregoing description is to be considered 
exemplary rather than limiting, and the true scope of the invention is 
that defined in the following claims.