A comparative study on the design of flexible faced and rigid faced geosynthetic reinforced soil walls

In practice, Geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) walls are constructed using different types of fascia with different levels of rigidity. It is believed that fascia does not have any role on the load transfer behavior. It was observed that only RTRI (Railway Technical Research Institute) guidelines of Japan utilizes stability effects provided by the fascia while considering it as rigid and proposes entirely different design approaches compared to the design guidelines in other countries. RTRI guidelines also consider fascia as a load-carrying member in rigid faced GRS walls. This study is focused on the comparative study of design approaches involved in the design of flexible faced GRS walls (BS 8006) and rigid faced GRS walls (RTRI). Some of the key aspects like physical phenomena involved in both design approaches have been explained with a real-life example of design of bridge approach which is located near Bhagur in Nashik, India. An approximate material cost comparison study is also made which showed 30–40% cost reduction with rigid faced systems. Some of the construction and stability advantages of rigid faced GRS walls have been highlighted in this study.