Earth Retention Systems Handbook




INTRODUCTION

The body of work called variously Earth Retention, or Shoring, or Geo Support,

or Sheeting has historical roots. Earth Retention, as we know it today, has been

the amalgamation of construction technologies, equipment innovations and engineering

analyses borrowed from many other disciplines. The real coalescing of

these roots into a distinct discipline did not occur until well into the latter part of

the 20th century, but now represents literally billions of dollars of work annually

in the United States alone.

Earth Retention systems are created by a contractor drilling, driving and excavating,

and an engineer investigating, analyzing, predicting, measuring and confirming.

The innovations of the past have come together in the 20th century to form

a critical mass which has evolved into the shoring industry as we know it today.



PILING AND PILE DRIVING

We may never know how those first timber piles, found in Swiss lakes, which

supported stilt type houses from the period of 3000 BC were installed, but we

assume that in some manner they were driven into the ground. Pile driving was

born. We do know, however, that the Greeks were driving piles in 1000 BC and

that later the Romans also performed pile driving. The driving of timber piles

continued through the ages. Just when piles were first used for their lateral capacity

as a retaining wall is open to conjecture. It may have been for fortifications

where parallel lines of vertical timber piles were installed and fill was placed

between them to create breastworks.



Download
*