Earthquake resistance of geogrid-reinforced soil walls based on a study conducted following the southern Hyogo earthquake

The earthquake at the southern Hyogo early on the morning of January 17, 1995, with its epicenter on the northern tip of Awaji Island, cause tremendous damage to the southern district of Hyogo prefecture. Earth–retaining walls, including gravity and semi–gravity types, were no exception. The Earthquake is reported to have severely damaged such earth structures in this region. We investigated ten Geogrid–reinforced soil walls that existed prior to the earthquake, near the hypocenter where a seismic intensity of 6 to 7 was recorded. We found that although the earthquake caused some settlement and cracks in the foundation, the walls themselves were almost free of deformations. In this study, we will report the findings of our on-site investigation of the Geogrid–reinforced soil walls and will verify the earthquake resistance of each ten structures on the basis of some established aseismic design procedures.