Retaining wall construction element

Abstract

A precast concrete retaining wall construction element for retaining a soil mass in a railway installation or the like includes an upstanding solid face panel having the shape of a hexahedron where a rectangular front wall and an integral stem. The front wall defines an area of between about 18.75 and 75 square feet and wherein the ratio of the width of the face panel to its height is between about 0.75 to about 3.0. A reinforced element including an upward extension, an improved shear key and stacked arrangement are also disclosed.

1 . A precast concrete retaining wall construction element for retaining a soil mass in a railroad application, said element comprising: 
 an upstanding solid face panel having the shape of a hexahedron with front and rear walls, a top wall, two side walls and a bottom wall and wherein the area of said front panel is about 37½ square feet with a width of about 7½ feet, a height of about 5 feet and a thickness of about 8 inches;    an integral stem extending rearwardly from said rear wall of said face panel in a generally T-shaped arrangement for embedment in a soil mass;    said integral stem having an upper wall, a bottom wall, two side walls, a rear wall and said upper and bottom wall each defining a notch therein and each of said side walls including a pan insert therein and in which said integral stem has a width of about 7 inches;    a shear key constructed and dimensioned to fit within one of said notches in one of said upper and bottom walls of said stem and adapted to fit within a corresponding notch in an abutting stem of a second element placed on top of or below said retaining wall construction element; and    wherein a plurality of stacked elements embedded in a soil mass will withstand a lateral earth pressure from two rairroad tracks adjacent to a retaining wall construction of 1,882 pounds per square foot of track.    
   
   
       2 . (canceled)  
   
   
       3 . A precast concrete retaining wall construction element according to  claim 1  in which said face panel and said integral stem have equal heights.  
   
   
       4 . A precast concrete retaining wall construction element according to  claim 1  in which the face of each of said pan inserts defines an area of between about 0.56 square feet and 1.56 square feet.  
   
   
       5 . A precast concrete retaining wall construction element according to  claim 1  in which a face of each of said pan inserts defines an area of about one square foot.  
   
   
       6 . (canceled)  
   
   
       7 . A precast concrete retaining wall construction element according to  claim 1  in which each of said notches has a width of about one foot and a depth of about 0.5 feet.  
   
   
       8 . A precast concrete retaining wall construction element according to  claim 1  in which each of said shear keys extend outwardly from said integral stem on each side thereof by distance of about one-half inch.  
   
   
       9 . A precast concrete retaining wall construction element according to  claim 4  in which said integral stem includes a plurality of rows of vertically aligned pan inserts to thereby provide solid concrete columns between said columns.  
   
   
       10 . A precast concrete retaining wall construction element according to  claim 1  which includes a trapezoidal support member between said face panel and said integral stem.  
   
   
       11 . A precast concrete retaining wall construction element according to  claim 1  in which said face panel includes an upper extension above the height of said integral stem and in which said upper extension has a height of 2½ feet, 3¾ feet or 5 feet.