Distress in reinforced soil structures - Causes and remediation methods

To create sturdy and long-lasting structures, engineers have created reinforced soil structures, which combine soil with discrete materials (usually geosynthetics like steel strips, geogrids, or geotextiles). In civil engineering, these constructions are frequently utilised for retaining walls, slopes, embankments, and bridge abutments, among other purposes. The idea behind reinforced soil structures is to use reinforcing materials to enhance the overall strength and stability of the structure. Despite being sturdy and frequently utilized in civil engineering due to their affordability and simplicity of construction, they may experience problems in specific situations. Reinforced soil structures may encounter distress, most of which are caused by design flaws, inadequate construction techniques, inadequate drainage design etc. The distress is reinforced soil structures can be avoided by adopting good construction practices like vigilant during the construction activity. However, after adopting good construction practices at site, distress happens in such structures, and they require remediation strategies to rehabilitate distressed reinforced soil structures. This paper is an attempt to understand the probable causes of distress in reinforced soil structures and the remediation measures which can be adopted to reduce the distress in reinforced soil structures. This paper will act as a guide to the engineer working in the rehabilitation of distressed Reinforced Soil structures.