Nucor Skyline manufactures and supplies soil nails for a wide variety of geotechnical projects. Applications include slope stabilization for highway embankments, levee construction, tunneling, temporary excavation support for permanent retaining walls, and more. Reliable soil nail products are available in a variety of sizes and grades to suit any construction project.
What Are Soil Nails?
Soil nails are fully threaded steel bars, placed into pre-drilled holes and grouted to keep them in place. Soil nails are placed horizontally into the soil and provide support to a soil mass by transferring tensile loads throughout the ground area. Bond (shear) stresses occur along the nail grout-to-ground interface and properly configured nail systems reach the resistance level required for the specific retaining wall design.
Considered passive reinforcing products, soil nails are not pre-stressed like tie back rods. Typically, 20 to 30 feet in length, with small diameter sizes, soil nails are amenable to a variety of drilling patterns needed to support any retaining wall height. With soil nails in place, providing sufficient tensile resistance and pull-out resistance, the ground remains stable until the earth-resisting retaining wall is built. Corrosion protection contributes to the sustained performance of the earth-resisting system over the long term.
Soil nails are bars installed within an excavation or slope to provide reinforcement to an earth retention structure. They differ from tie backs in that they are considered passive elements and are not actively loaded in tension like a prestressed ground anchor. Soil nails are used in combination with a steel grid cover and shotcrete. As a system, the soil nail, grid cover, and shotcrete act as a coherent mass with enough strength to resist the overburden pressure of the surrounding soil mass, as well as any surcharge pressure.
In comparison to tie back anchors, soil nails have a few significant benefits. The equipment required to install soil nails is relatively small and mobile, providing a distinct advantage for applications with tight spaces or noise control issues. Using soil nails is typically a more flexible construction technique, allowing for simpler on-site modifications. Also, soil nails are installed early on in the construction process, limiting the disturbance on adjacent structures.
Advantages of Soil Nails
- Cutting-edge manufacturing process eliminates material loss
- Left- and right-hand thread configurations optimize threading flexibility
- Various grade options offer flexibility in yield strength
- Wide range of sizes
- Fully threaded bars provide the ability to cut bars to the desired length
- Ability to supply single bar lengths of up to 60 feet
- Wide variety of corrosion protection options are available
- Complete range of accessories available to complement our threaded bars
- Easily installed in tight spaces, with small equipment.
- Relatively quiet installation, thanks to the compact equipment/tool size
- Eco-friendly benefits, with a lower environmental impact than other stabilization methods
- Cost-effective and comparatively budget-friendly due to quick construction with fewer supplies
- Complete range of accessories available to complement our threaded bars
Applications of Soil Nails
- Permanent retaining wall construction
- Temporary support of excavation
- Slope stabilization
Soil Nail Wall Design and Function
During the excavation process to produce a retaining wall, soil nails form part of a passive system to reinforce and temporarily support the existing soil or weathered rock. Soil nails hold the earth in place, allowing for successful, permanent retaining wall construction, erosion control, rock-slope stabilization, and landslide prevention.
Soil nail wall design is tailored to the necessary strength and service load limits of the project by varying soil nail length, diameter, and spacing. Soil nails are generally used in conjunction with a steel grid cover and shotcrete facing for ground support in advance of retaining wall construction.
Soil nail wall design and construction must take into account seismic activity, external loads (hydrostatic and wind forces), drainage, frost penetration, and aesthetics. Soil nails are generally not ideal for high plasticity clay soils, sand, gravel, soil with high water tables or low (undrained) shear, with the possibility for soil creep. For most other applications, these key ground reinforcement elements, (properly configured soil nails, grid cover, and shotcrete grouting), work together, serving as a reliable foundation for building strong, pressure-resistant retaining walls.
When planning your next retaining wall project, you can count on soil nail products supplied by Nucor Skyline. No matter which type of soil nailing method is required, such as drilled and grouted, jet grouted, driven, launched, or self-drilled, Nucor Skyline delivers the products you need.