Soil Nailing

M25 Motorway Widening

Soil nailing has become very popular over the past two decades especially in embankment stabilisation works associated with motorway widening and railway embankment stabilisation.

It is especially useful for sites with difficult access as the drilling and grouting equipment is typically compact and light.

Soil nailing rigs can be purpose built or attachments mounted on suitable hydraulic excavators.

The hollow stem self-drill type anchors/soil nails are very popular as they are exceptionally quick and easy to install.

With self-drilling soil nails, grout is initially used as a flushing medium and finally as the permanent body of the structural nail.

After drilling the nail is tremmie grouted and they are normally used in conjunction with a soil retention system such as a geogrid, steel mesh or similar product. This is sometimes overlain by topsoil (possibly retained by a geoweb) or directly seeded for the cultivation of grass.