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Abstract
Based on the findings from a study initiated by the
Geotechnical Engineering Office of the Civil Engineering and
Development Department (GEO/CEDD), new design guidelines
which supplement the original design guidance for the use of
soil nails to upgrade loose fill slopes have been recommended
and are summarised in a report jointly published by the
GEO/CEDD, and The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers,
Geotechnical Division (GEO-HKIE, 2011).
The new
guidelines recommend the use of a hybrid nail arrangement
comprising soil nails at two different orientations. A design
procedure for delineating loose fill at great depths which can be
assumed to be non-liquefiable is also recommended.
To demonstrate the implementation of the new
recommendations given in the GEO-HKIE (2011) Report,
GEO-HKIE prepared three worked examples pursuant to the
new recommendations, which are presented in this report. The
first example demonstrates the procedure for adopting the
hybrid nail arrangement, which is a novelty to local practitioners.
The second example assumes that steeply inclined nails have to
be adopted due to site constraints. The design therefore
includes the provision of an embedded concrete footing which
aims to reduce slope deformation. The effectiveness of the nail
arrangement is verified by numerical analysis. The last
example considers a fill slope with loose fill of a considerable
depth, and illustrates the procedure to delineate the
non-liquefiable loose fill zone by limit equilibrium method.
Recommendations in respect of the selection of design
parameters are also presented in the worked examples. The
draft version of this report was issued in April 2013, and
circulated for comments among government departments and
practitioners via The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers,
Geotechnical Division (HKIE-GD). These comments and the
responses are attached in Appendix B. The salient points of
these comments and responses are summarised in Section 5.
The worked examples serve to illustrate the principles of the
design guidelines only, and the design parameters, assumptions
and considerations adopted in the worked examples are not
meant to be adopted for general design purposes. Designers
should use design parameters appropriate to their project at hand.

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