Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
SYNOPSIS A new multi-storey hotel has been constructed on a steep slope at the Genting Highlands resort in Malaysia.
The site formation works involved cutting back the slope of decomposed granite soil, to form two platforms, one above
the other, and two vertical faces of combined height up to 40m. The faces are each retained by a line of non-contiguous
hand-dug caissons, with infill panels between, tied back by multiple rows of permanent ground anchors. The building is
founded on hand-dug caissons socketed into bedrock as deep as 42m from platform level. This paper describes the slope
stability assessment, including the soil parameters adopted and examples of the calculated factors of safety, and the design
and construction of the anchored retaining walls and foundations. A long term inspection and testing programme for
monitoring the performance of the retaining walls and anchors is briefly outlined.
INTRODUCTION vertical retammg walls support the cut faces above the
platforms - Wall D, 20m to 23m high, between the two
Recent expansion of accommodation and car parking platforms, and Wall F, 9m to 17m high, along the face
facilities at the Genting Highlands hilltop resort in Malaysia above the upper platform (Figure 2).
has included construction of the New Highland Hotel, on
a steeply sloping site. The following sections describe the The retaining walls each comprise a line of non-
site, the geotechnical investigation carried out and the contiguous hand-dug caissons, with reinforced concrete
design and construction of slope stabilisation measures and infill panels between. Multiple rows of permanent ground
foundations for the development. anchors installed through the caissons provide lateral
support to the walls.
SITE AND DEVELOPMENT
The building foundations comprise hand-dug caissons
The site is on a steep hillside on a strip of ground along socketed into granite bedrock. Loads from the hotel tower
and just below the crest of the slope. At the top of the are carried on caissons installed through the lower
slope to the east of the site is the well known Genting platform. The 3-storey podium on the eastern side of the
Hotel with open-air car parking to the north. A road tower is supported on caissons installed through the upper
following the contour around the hillside marks the site's platform and on the Wall F caissons.
lower, western boundary, below which there is a very steep
slope dropping more than lOOm to the valley floor. Before
construction began at the site, the area was undeveloped SITE INVESTIGATION
and covered in natural vegetation (grass and shrubs).
Topographic Survey
A plan of the building is shown in Figure 1 and a typical
cross-section in Figure 2. The development contains an A topographic survey for the project included the general
hotel and multi-storey car park. The substructure below area around the proposed building and extended down the
ground level at the top of the site comprises up to 12 levels slope well below the lower platform level. The survey
in all (9 levels of car parking and 3 levels of staff quarters) generally provided contour lines at 1.5m intervals. One of
and the 16-storey superstructure consists of a 3-storey the primary purposes of the surveying was to enable
podium with 13-storey tower block above. accurate plotting of ground profiles (cross-sections) through
the site for engineering analysis.
The site formation works essentially involved cutting back
the existing slope to form two 'steps', ie platforms. Two
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Soil Investigation
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INTERM£DIA T£
STABIUTY
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successive rows of permanent ground anchors through
the caissons.
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4. Install caisson foundations from the lower platform. INTERt.I£DIAT£
STABIUTY
ST.ABIUfY
the caissons (as 3 above).
SLOPE STABILITY
Soil Parameters
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(ii) the caisson excavations were generally dry or
encountered water only close to bedrock level; (t) Shear resistance of caissons - the contribution of the
reinforced concrete caissons to the shear resistance on
(iii) the platform at the top of the slope (open-air car park) potential slip surfaces was conservatively neglected in
is paved, allowing minimal rainwater infiltration; the stability analyses.
The following external loads acting on the potentially Results of Slope Analyses
sliding soil mass were allowed for in the slope stability
analyses where appropriate:- Slope stability analyses were performed on four cross-
sections considered to be representative of the most critical
(a) Traffic surcharge - applied on the road and open-air portions of the slope. One of these, Section 5, is shown in
car park at the top of the site. Figure 3. For each cross-section, analyses were carried
out for each of the failure modes identified above and for
(b) Wind load - acting on the tower block. It was up to six different load cases. (Altogether, there were 168
assumed conservatively that the caisson foundations sets of analyses for the four sections). As an example, the
might transfer the full lateral wind load to the results for Section 5 are shown in Table 1. ·
potentially sliding soil mass.
(a) Overall Stability
(c) Vertical building load - part of the load on the The analyses yielded high factors of safety (FOS), in
caissons may be transferred in shaft resistance to the an overall range of 1.80 to 3.08 for all the cases
soil mass above the solid bedrock. Therefore two considered. This implies that such a mode of failure
cases were considered : would not occur, even if all the anchors were to fail.
(i) Zero building load applied to the soil (ie 100% As noted above, in the stability analyses the SDG was
transferred to bedrock). assigned the same shear strength as the MDG. But
(ii) Half of the vertical load on the caissons generally in practice the SDG has much greater
transferred to the 'sliding' soil mass. strength than the MDG and slip circles that penetrate
deep into the SDG are unlikely to be critical.
(d) Ground anchor forces- the vertical component of the Therefore, where the slip circles in Figure 3 are shown
anchor loads was assumed to be resisted by the through the SDG, the critical circle will actually be
caissons. The horizontal component was included in the shallower and have a higher FOS.
slope stability analyses as an external (resisting) force
acting on the potentially sliding soil mass. The anchor (b) Intermediate Stability
forces incorporated in the analyses were Analyses performed on these slip circles indicate the
conservatively based on only the design working FOS exceeding 1.4 when the full anchor design load is
loads of the anchors, and not their ultimate capacities. applied. In the hypothetical case when half the anchors
Check analyses were performed with the anchor force have failed, there would generally still be a FOS of at
equal to half the design value (and also zero, for least 1.0.
overall stability) to examine the sensitivity of the
results. (c) Local Stability
Analyses for slip circles passing beneath the tower
(e) Lateral loads from retaining walls - in analysing the footprint yield FOS values for Load Case 1 (no lateral
local stability of the lower platform, checks were made load from the retaining walls and no building weight
of the hypothetical case where a number of the upslope transferred to the 'sliding' soil mass) which are not less
ground anchors fail : analyses were performed than about 1.4, and for Load Case 2 (half the building
assuming that half the lateral load on Wall F (upper) weight transferred) values not less than 1.25. For the
and the full lateral load on Wall D are transferred to hypothetical Load Cases 3 and 4 where lateral loads
the tower substructure and through its foundations to from the retaining walls are applied, to model failure
the soil beneath. of the ground anchors, the FOS values are lower but
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still above 1.0. For slip circles 'J', outside the tower tied back by up to seven rows of permanent ground anchors
footprint, FOS values for some of the cross-sections installed through the caissons.
were marginal, in the range 0.95 to 1.10. Since failure
on such a surface would probably damage the road The principal considerations in the design of the retaining
below the building, and might jeopardise the building walls were :-
platform, slope stabilisation works (anchored caisson
wall and soil nails) are being installed on the (i) lateral stability
downhill side of the road. (ii) structural adequacy - considering soil-wall interaction
(iii) vertical load capacity of the caissons.
H 1.92
Local Stabilty of
1.56
Lower Platform
1.10
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For the toe stability analyses, the soil parameters in Table The results of the soil-wall interaction analyses for walls
2 were adopted. The mobilised horizontal earth pressure D and F are summarised in Table 4. The shear forces and
coefficients K.m and ~m were determined using the design bending moments calculated by FREW are equivalent to
charts in NA VFAC 7.2 (1982) adopting a factor of safety 'working' values. These were factored up by 1.4 to obtain
(FOS) = 1.3 on soil shear strength, and wall friction ratios 'ultimate' values for reinforced concrete design to British
Standard BS 8110.
Table 2 - Soil Parameters for Calculation of Wall Toe
Stability Vertical load capacity : the retaining wall caissons were
treated as load bearing piles to determine the required
Stratum 'Y c' rf>' Kam Kpm penetration below final excavation level. The vertical loads
(kN/m 3> (kPa) (deg.) allowed for were the self-weight of the caisson and infill
CDG 18 0 35 0.31 4.17 panels, friction on the back of the wall, the vertical
component of anchor load and any applied column loading.
MDG 21 - - 0.31* 4.17*
* - conservative
PERMANENT GROUND ANCHORS
of¢' m of 2/3 and 112 for active and passive pressures,
respectively. The FOS of 1.3 was considered appropriate The anchors are of the multistrand type, designed to
for the temporary condition of the wall during excavation, British Standard BS 8081, to an allowable load of 1500 kN
which is the critical case for wall toe stability. with a factor of safety of not less than 1.5. The anchors
were installed in 165mm diameter drillholes and socketed
The groundwater level was assumed to be below the wall at least lOrn into rock (grade III or better). Typically the
toe, based on the site investigation boreholes and anchors were 25m to 30m long. The minimum lengths of
observations in the initial caisson excavations. 'fixed' (bonded) strand at the bottom of the anchor and
'free' strand in the tendon were 6m and 12m, respectively.
For most sections of the retaining walls the toe For long term durability, triple corrosion protection of the
penetration was governed by the required vertical load steel strand in the free length was provided by a coating of
capacity of the caissons. grease, individual PVC sheathing, and finally grouting the
drillhole to achieve a water and air free environment. The
Structural adequacy : soil-wall interaction analyses fixed length of the anchor was pregrouted into a corrugated
modelling the staged excavation and anchoring sequence tube before installation in the drillhole.
were carried out to determine the shear forces and bending
moments in the wall and to estimate lateral wall The anchor design included checks for the following
displacement, using the Oasys program FREW (for design modes of failure :-
of 'flexible' retaining walls). The soil parameters in Table
3 were adopted. The horizontal earth pressure coefficients (i) grout-rock bond failure
K. and KP were varied with depth according to the SPT (ii) grout-strand bond failure
blowcounts and were determined using the design charts in (iii) rock cone (mass) pull-out
NA VFAC 7.2 (1982) with unfactored soil parameters. (iv) strand tensile failure.
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Table 4 - Results of Soil-Wall Interaction Analyses CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISION
354