Shotcrete Shoring: Back to Basics

Generally, shotcrete shoring comprises rock or soil anchors. Besides, it has shotcrete facing that is an ideal choice for slope stabilization and vertical excavation. The good thing is that the approach applies to the principles of what you can call reinforced earth soil. Here the purpose of the system is to stabilize the rock or soil mass using meshed shotcrete facing and distribute the anchor loads in addition to controlling the soil loss. Read on to find out more.

Advantages of Shotcrete Systems:

Shotcrete shoring offers a lot of advantages. This is the reason it’s the most common approach that is used in the field of construction. Given below is a description of some of the most common advantages of this approach.

This solution is quite cost-effective as it doesn’t have too many material requirements. Also, there are very few requirements for steel reinforcing, unlike the conventional shoring methods.

Since shotcrete is put right onto the face of the soil, it helps remove any void behind the shoring. And this is one of the major advantages of this system.

This system makes the excavation activities much faster as there is no requirement for large diameter drilling. Again, it can help save a lot of time for engineers and workers.

The beauty of the system is that it can be used with current structures, which is why it can replace conventional caisson wall systems. Therefore, it can help avoid the problem of wood rot linked with lagging.

It can help replace traditional underpinning as there is zero tolerance in today’s building.

It can be used even in areas where access is quite limited. For instance, you can use it where there is low headroom indoors.

Another major advantage is that the system is adaptable to irregular or curved surfaces. So, you have peace of mind that there will not be any compatibility issues.

Challenges linked with shotcrete systems:

Shotcrete systems have a few challenges as well. Listed below are some of the most common challenges that you may face:

It can be a challenge to install the systems in poor soils because of the time requirements for the soil. The reason is that the soil needs more time to stand upon for placing reinforcing mesh and steel.

There is a requirement for cohesive soils to stand vertically

It may require a lot of face-saving steps to ensure that the soil stands open vertically

So, these are just some of the advantages and challenges of the shotcrete shoring system. Based on these advantages, we can say that the system is one of the best ones to follow. So, if you are in this field, we suggest that you go for this system and you won’t regret your decision.

In short, this article gives you a bit deeper insight into the advantages and challenges of a shotcrete shoring system. Hopefully, now you have a much better understanding of how the system works and gives you a lot of advantages.