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Prevent Slope Failure with Soil Stabilization in Houston, TX

Soil Nails

Anchors

When conducting soil stabilization in Houston, anchors in rock formations or earthen formations increase shear, tensile, and load-bearing strength to protect from slope failure. The more common uses for anchors are to secure retaining walls, bulkheads, and rock formations with a variety of anchors systems. For example, steel bars grouted into drilled holes or cable strains anchors (made up of cables wound together) are the usual types of soil stabilization systems. There are also anchors with designed drill bits for self-drilling where hole failure may occur during the placement of traditional anchors.

Anchors are more substantial than sod nails. Anchors are used to brace retaining walls, bulkheads, and rock faces. They may be steel bars or twisted cables grouted into boreholes or rods with rudimentary drill bits where the borehole may collapse during a traditional anchor placement. Some anchors may also use a steel pipe to drain the interior of the rock mass.

Soil Stabilization

Chemical grouts and cementitious grouts are used below grade for soil enhancement, for repairs such as building, bulkheads, and open cuts pits/tanks. Soils can be modified to increase compaction, tensile, and shear strength. The injection of grouts to stabilize soil formations is very useful in projects around waterways, where forming and pouring concrete is not possible. Grouts vary in performance from rigid, gel, or elastomeric to allow for adhesion and cohesion capabilities. Traditional applications are common in open cuts for tanks, collection pits, buildings, and bulkheads.

One use of chemical grouting is to safeguard against leaks from contamination. This is especially the case when your project is near a landfill. To avoid the spread of contaminants, we inject flexible or rigid grouts to serve as barriers, whether from the top, bottom, or sides. This measure also stops the spread of contamination in the future.

Call us into your project when you find a structure doesn’t sit atop a firm base of soil. Perhaps it has settled, or you don’t feel secure about what might happen in the future. For this problem, we pump in cementitious grouting to fill in those voids. This is a solution that offers soil stabilization with lasting benefits.

Soil Nails

Soil nails are steel rods or cable grouted in boreholes, anchoring potential slide masses. Short soil nails also help to anchor shotcrete or reinforce gunite walls. These measures apply to below-grade structural repair in or around buildings, bulkheads, pits, or tanks.

Grouts can increase compaction, tensile, and shear strength. Injection of rigid, gel, or elastomeric grouts with adhesive and cohesive properties can allow excavation after soil stabilization.

Slurry walls/Trenches

Slurry walls are used to control the lateral or vertical movement of gasses or fluids in a strata formation. Mixing bentonite (expansive clay) with cement and placing it in an excavated cut controls fluids for a cutoff wall. Use of a poly liner in the open cut can also enhance performance.

Slurry walls are most appropriate when full penetration from the surface is required in a groundwater barrier. Expansive bentonite clay is mixed with soil or cement and emplaced in an excavated cut. Poly liners (HDPE) can be placed in the cut to enhance its performance.

Subsurface Barriers

Applications for subsurface barriers can range from landfills, waste sites, or migrations of contaminants through soil formulations. Subsurface barriers can be constructed from open cut slurry walls, compaction, permeation or jet grouting. Where applications vary for choosing the most effective method of containment or locking up is the permeability of the soil mass.

Safety

Arguably, the most important service we provide is our dedication to safety. You can learn more about our safety record and the extra steps we take on our safety page. Please contact us at 713.869.7632 with any questions you may have.