STEPWISE REPEATED DE-STABILISATION AND STABILISATION OF HIGHLY COLLAPSIBLE SOIL MASS BY 'SOIL NAILING TECHNIQUE' USED FOR CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY/ROAD UNDERPASS

The excavations of side vertical walls for building and underpasses must be shored so that the excavations adjacent to the neighboring properties do not cave in during the constructions. A Soil Nailing system has been used for stabilization of excavations and natural slopes for the last few decades in India and Abroad. Soil Nailing Technique used steel anchor rods inserted directly into the soil mass as a driven nails and when Nails are placed in pre-drilled holes to form grouted nails. In both the cases, it restrained load and the side deformations. In the present study, an innovative technique of 'Soil Nailing' has been developed for stepwise vertical de-stabilization and stabilization of compacted collapsible sandy soil for the construction of railway underpasses in live railway loading conditions. This technique is successfully implemented first time in the world for controlled destabilization of vertical cut slope and again stabilization for creating a space for pushing of box for railway underpasses for the length of 22 m and 50 m at two sites, namely Yamuna Bazzar and Apsara border, respectively, in Delhi, India. This Soil Nailing Technique of controlled destabilization of soil and again stabilization in steps has proved a superficial method of stabilization with the other methods for such kind of dynamic loading situations.