Extending long-standing retaining walls

A successful product is one that gets used more than once, having satisfied the expectation of the client. See the showcase of two projects that used the same local retaining block to extend long-standing retaining walls.

The first wall, approved by Harries Projects, is a long wavy sound barrier along Ratanga Road that shields residents of the Oasis Retirement Centre from excessive noise and prying eyes. The steep road-facing wall was designed with three curving terraces to reduce the overall footprint of the 500m earth berm and to improve overall noise absorption.

The retaining wall, installed in 2006 by Cape Town based Terraforce approved contractor, Decorton Retaining Systems, consists of around 8,000 Terraforce L12 Rock Face blocks with a concrete foundation for each terrace. A subsoil drainage system is located behind the bottom row of blocks while the earth backfill is reinforced with Polytex 115 geo fabric every third row of blocks. The three meandering terrace walls each reach a maximum height of 1.8m to create terraces of varying width.

Seven years later the wall is completely covered by (mostly) water wise, indigenous plants that are also effective in preventing wind erosion on the gently sloping embankments that face the buildings. Pleased with the way the wall has been performing, Harries Projects approved an extension of the noise barrier by around 13,000 blocks, as the development keeps growing. Decorton completed construction in December last year.

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Extending long-standing retaining walls