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Toe Drain |
Retaining
walls and water are almost always bitter enemies. If a retaining wall fails,
there is a good chance that the reason for failure has something to do with
water. That being said, routing water away from your retaining wall is a very
important step in the design process.
A common
question that we get is if the toe and heel drains are necessary on every
design. The toe drain’s main purpose is to collect and expel incidental water
that makes its way through the wall rock right behind the wall but shouldn’t be
used as a main drainage system. The heel drain is used to route water that has migrated
behind the wall away from the reinforced soil mass.
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Heel Drain |
While we
always recommend adding toe drains, heel drains are not always needed. For
example, gravity walls don’t have a reinforced soil mass to route water away
from, and a wall designed with no-fines-concrete doesn’t need a heel drain
because the water will flow straight through the concrete mass.
The reason
that Allan Block always recommends a drain is because there is always a chance
that water will get behind the wall, and it’s very important for the water to
have a safe exit path that avoids the wall. Here at Allan Block it’s our goal
to see all retaining walls designed and built properly and now that you know
the importance of toe and heel drains, you can help us reach that goal.
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