Soldier Piers
A contractor contacted Clark Engineers with a need to design a retaining wall for basement construction in a River Oaks subdivision. The foundation engineer declined to design a retaining wall. The issue with that was there was insufficient room on the property to slope the cut for safety during construction.
Clark Engineers designed a wall using drilled soldier piers with a cut back at the top to reduce some of the lateral load. The piers were installed on three sides, and then the hole was excavated. We also provided a monitoring program to check for movement. Detailing permitted the casting of a top perimeter beam if large deflections occurred. The hole was open for about three months, then the piers were abandoned in place.
