42
Geotechnical News • June 2016
WASTE GEOTECHNICS
The 14th Annual University of Alberta Applied Geotechnical
Engineering Reinforced Soil Wall Design Contest
Jeffrey Journault and Vivian Giang
The 14th Annual University of Alberta
Applied Geotechnical Engineering
Reinforced Soil Wall Design Contest
was held on April 5, 2016. Spon-
sored by the Geotechnical Society of
Edmonton, the event had five teams
of students from the University of
Alberta Geotechnical Engineering
graduate program and NAIT Civil
Engineering Technology program
compete for prizes for the stron-
gest wall, closest prediction of wall
strength and best design presentation.
Teams of three to five students had one
hour to construct a reinforced soil wall
using only five sheets of newsprint,
two sheets of 15 x 30 cm geotextile,
100 paper clips and 20 popsicle sticks.
Construction tools provided on the
day of the contest included two rub-
ber mallets, two scoops, two 300 mm
pieces of 2 x 4”, one 300 mm piece of
4 x 4”, one pair of needle nose pliers
and one ruler.
Walls were initially loaded to 200 kPa,
with subsequent loads applied in 50
kPa increments. Each load increment
had to be sustained for at least 10
seconds, and wall failure was defined
as when sand exits from the face of the
wall. Winners of the contest included:
Strongest wall (Dr. J. Don Scott
Applied Geotechnical Design
Award)
: James Bartz, Hugh Gillen,
Haley Schafer and Stephen Lanyi (400
kPa)
Closest prediction of wall strength:
Amir Hossein Haghi, Sai Deng, Shuai
Gao and Mujtaba Khidri
Best design presentation:
Nathalia
Ardila, Juan Alejandro Arias, Adriana
Luis and Juan Sebastian Gomez
The University of Alberta Geotechni-
cal Centre thanks the Geotechnical
Society of Edmonton for their gener-
ous support of the annual competition
as well as AECOM, BGC Engineering
and Thurber Engineering for providing
additional contest prizes.
Winners of the Dr. J. Don Scott Applied Geotechnical Design Award with judges from the Geotechnical Society of
Edmonton.
