Wall systems

Abstract

A retaining wall comprises a facing, a counterfort connected to the rear of the facing, a footing supporting the facing and the counterfort, backfill behind the facing to provide a support surface for traffic, and a traffic barrier along the top of the wall. The counterfort comprises a reinforced concrete slab having a substantially vertical front portion at right angles to a base portion, and a rear portion running from substantially the top of the counterfort to the rear of the base portion thereof, the angle between the rear portion and the front portion being smaller in the vicinity of the top of the counterfort than in the vicinity of the base. The counterfort and the traffic barrier are connected to each other such that impact loads on the traffic barrier are transferred directly to the footing. The facing comprises a plurality of substantially vertical wall elements supported side-by-side on the footing, at least one height adjustment means at the lower edge of each wall element for adjusting the orientation of the element in a lateral plane during construction, and connecting means between adjacent elements which are adjustable during construction in a first direction to vary the compression of seal means between the elements and in a second direction to adjust the relative vertical positions of the adjacent elements.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.