DESIGN APPROACH FOR SLOPE REPAIRS AND EMBANKMENT WIDENING . REINFORCED EMBANKMENTS. THEORY AND PRACTICE. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE REINFORCED EMBANKMENTS, THEORY AND PRACTICE IN THE BRITISH ISLES, ORGANISED BY MMG CIVIL ENGINEERING SYSTEMS, HELD AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY, SEPTEMBER 27 1989

Many highway embankments in South East England are constructed of stiff overconsolidated clay which is particularly prone to softening and shallow slope failure. Repair techniques have been developed to reuse the on site clay by reinforcing with geogrid layers. The use of reinforcing layers is now being extended to new embankment and highway widening schemes where landtake is restricted and steeper slopes are required. A design approach for assessing the stability of reinforced embankments by limit equilibrium methods is described and a practical example given for embankment widening. Other design aspects including embedment lengths, pull out resistance and factors of safety are discussed. (Author/TRRL)