A geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) mass is formed by placing closely-spaced layers of polymeric geosynthetic reinforcement in a soil mass during soil placement. The reinforcement in a GRS mass serves primarily to improve engineering properties of soil. The concept of GRS has been used successfully over the past few decades in many transportation facilities, including retaining walls, embankments, roadways, and steepened slopes. Tests and in-service installations have shown that GRS systems, particularly GRS walls with modular-block facing, are structurally sound, easy and fast to construct, and low cost compared to other designs. Interest in
using GRS design for bridge abutments and approaches, in particular, has grown but a lack of rational and reliable design and construction guidelines for such structures has impeded more widespread adoption.
NCHRP Report 556: Design and Construction Guidelines for Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Bridge Abutments with a Flexible Facing, was produced as a first step effort toward developing such guidelines. The research described in that report addressed static loading conditions only. NCHRP Project 12-59(01), the subject of this report, was undertaken to develop design and construction guidelines for applications in seismically active regions.