Analysis of performance of spaced piles to stabilise embankment and cutting slopes. Prepared for Highways Agency, Quality Services (Civil Engineering).

The use of a single row of spaced piles for stabilising slopes has been used widely and with success for some considerable time primarily elsewhere in Europe and in Japan. On the UK highway network the technique could provide a permanent and cost effective method of both remediating potentially unstable or failed slopes and of steepening slopes in a widening situation. However, the availability of design guidance on the use of this technique is limited: this is partly because the soil-structure interaction problem is complex and three dimensional in nature. This report discusses the results from three dimensional finite element analyses in which the performance of untreated cutting and embankment slopes was compared with those stabilised using a single row of piles. The study concentrates on the performance of clay slopes and discusses the implication of the findings upon their design. (Author/publisher).