QPL Acceptance Criteria | Draft: July 2004
Proprietary Wall Systems |

# Chapter 3 Proprietary Retaining Wall Systems - Draft

# 3.1 Purpose

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide a process for review and approval of both permanent and critical temporary proprietary wall systems and to insure that wall systems can be uniformly evaluated and approved. These guidelines apply only to permanent and critical temporary retaining wall systems that are to be used as structural retaining walls. Structural walls are walls that support a highway load (regardless of height) or walls that are greater than five feet high.

# 3.2 Tentative Systems Approval

A proprietor interested in having his proprietary system approved by the Florida Department Of Transportation (FDOT) shall contact the Office Of Specifications, New Products Evaluation Section and arrange for a formal presentation, describing the system and its applications, to be given to the Department personnel at the Department’s convenience. Prior to the presentation, the proprietor will provide the Office of Specification with the following documentation:

A. System theory and its derivation.

B. Laboratory and field experimentation, which support the theory.

C. Practical applications with descriptions and photographs.

D. Limitations and disadvantages of the system.

E. List of users including names, addresses, and phone numbers.

F. Details of wall elements, analysis of structural elements, design calculations, factors of safety, estimated design life, corrosion/durability design procedures for soil reinforcement elements, procedures for field and laboratory evaluation including instrumentation and special requirements.

G. Sample material and construction control specifications showing material type, quality, certifications, field testing, acceptance and rejection criteria and placement procedures

H. A well-documented field construction manual describing in detail and with illustrations where necessary, the step-by-step construction sequence.

I. Typical unit costs (i.e. per square foot wall surface) supported by data from actual projects.

J. Complete sets of plans from at least 3 previous projects.

K. Documentation to support the proprietor’s ability to meet production requirements of the various wall components.

L. Standard details showing the following: wall panel/abutment interfacing, slip joints, barriers, panel reinforcements, steps in leveling pad, coping details and filter fabric placement around obstructions (inlets, utilities, piling, etc.). These details will be incorporated into FDOT standard sheets that will be included in the FDOT Roadway and Traffic Design Standards Booklet.

# 3.3 Department Requirements

A. All retaining walls shall be designed in accordance with the latest edition of the AASHTO LRFD Design Specifications and the latest revisions thereof. In addition, the walls shall be designed in accordance with the latest FHWA recommendations (i.e. FHWA Demonstration Project 82), the FDOT Plans Preparation Manual (PPM), the Structures Design Guidelines (SDG) and this Guideline.

B. All connections between the facing units and soil reinforcement shall be visibly inspectable.

C. All connections, regardless of location ( i.e. upper or lower portion of the wall) in the wall, shall be able to develop at least 100% of the maximum calculated force at that particular vertical section of the wall.

D. Discreet panels shall be no larger than nominally 5’-0” by 5’-0”, except when top out panels are to be used and then they must be approved by the Department.

E. All permanent wall systems shall provide a minimum Design Life of 75 years. Walls supporting Abutments or End bents on spread footings (not supported by deep foundations) shall have a Design Life of 100 years minimum.

F. HITEC ( Highway Innovative Technology Evaluation Center) evaluation is highly desirable but is not required by the Department.

G. The entire bottom of the panel shall have bearing on the concrete leveling course when a leveling course is part of the system.

H. Systems using steel welded wire mesh soil reinforcement shall have the same size bars for the longitudinal and transverse bars.

I. Corner panels shall be used at all corners.

J. Soil reinforcement shall not be skewed more than 15 degrees from normal.

K. Metallic soil reinforcement shall not be cut in the field without prior approval. Any system using grid reinforcement shall have details to accomplish skewed reinforcement without cutting.

L. No soil reinforcement attached to a facing panel shall be anchored to an abutment or foundation element.

M. If the proposed system is subject to corrosion due to stray electrical currents, then details of how the system is to be grounded shall be provided.

N. All permanent systems shall have a non-structural concrete leveling course as a minimum.

O. All systems using soil reinforcement shall provide pull-out test data for the particular size and type of soil reinforcement proposed. The testing shall be done by an independent FDOT certified soil testing laboratory or testing agency. Only soil reinforcement that has been submitted with pull-out test data and approved shall be used.

P. Durability and/or corrosion data for the proposed soil reinforcement system must be provided.

Q. Bin Wall details shall be provided.

R. Provide differential settlement tolerance that the system can tolerate without exceeding the normal stress range of the soil reinforcement or the panels.

S. Hand calculations for the design of the wall and appropriate components shall be required. If the proprietor uses a proprietary wall design program, the program and instructions shall be provided to the Department for our use and the use of our Consultants in reviewing the wall design at no cost to the Department or our Consultants. No black box programs will be permitted.

T. Standard wall details will be required to complete the approval process.

U. The affects of scour and water flow shall be provided.

V. All reinforcing steel in all concrete components shall have concrete cover that is in compliance with the latest FDOT Structures Design Guidelines

W. Epoxy coated reinforcing steel or soil reinforcement is not permitted.

X. Normally End Bents behind retaining walls are supported on plumb piles and have soil reinforcement attached to the backside of the bent to resist overturning due to the retained earth load, thermal movement and friction forces. Details showing how to accommodate long term (post construction) settlement in excess of 4 inches without attaching soil reinforcement to the bent and isolate the aforementioned loads and forces from the bent shall be provided.

Y. All permanent systems that use steel grid (mesh) soil reinforcing; the minimum wire size shall be W11.

The above list is not all inclusive due to the unknown nature of any future retaining wall submittals. The Department reserves the Right to add to, delete or revise this list as the Departments sees fit without notification. If the Department revises the approval criteria and a system does not meet the criteria, the proprietary company will be notified and given 30 calendar days to revise their system. If they do not revise their system then their approval will be rescinded and they will not be permitted to participate in any construction project after their approval has been rescinded.

# 3.4 Departmental Action

The proprietor shall submit his retaining wall package to the Office of Specifications, New Products Section and the State Structures Design Office shall review it. The Department’s position on the wall system (i.e. rejection or tentative approval) shall be provided to the proprietor by written notification from the Office of Specifications. Once tentative approval is obtained, the Department may elect the following course of action:

A. The State Structures Design Office will select a suitable project for evaluation of the wall system and notify the proprietor of same. The wall system will be considered to be an experimental feature and as such, will not be subject to competitive bidding.

B. The Department will provide the proprietor with control plans prepared either in-house or by our Consultant Engineer of Record.

C. The proprietor shall submit complete design plans to the Structures Design Office during the design phase as soon as possible after receipt of the control plans. The proprietor is forewarned that he must comply with scheduling requirements that will not delay letting of the project.

D. In order to evaluate the performance and constructability of the wall system, a required field and/or laboratory instrumentation program may be developed by the State Geotechnical Engineer’s Office. These will be made part of the contract bid package.

E. The nature and extent of this program will likely vary significantly with the various wall systems. The system’s performance and constructability will be monitored, at the discretion of the Department, by either Departmental forces or by the Departments designee.

F. On completion of the project, the State Structures Design Office in conjunction with the State Geotechnical Office will provide a written report that will summarize the results of the monitoring program. This will include recommendations for acceptance, rejection, or the need for an additional experimental project with that particular system.

F. With approval from the State Structures Design Office the proprietor’s standard details will be added to the Roadway and Traffic Design Standards Booklet. As such, that particular system may then be considered for all suitable future applications as determined by the State Structures Design Office.

G. Any changes/modifications to any particular wall system made subsequent to being placed in the Standards Booklet may necessitate a complete or partial re-submission by that proprietor and a re-evaluation by the Department.