Innovative design for the desilting basin walls at the Srinagar project, India

Retaining walls are structures used to retain earth or other loose material, which would not be able to support itself vertically. The retained material exerts pressure on the structure and this tends to overturn and slide it. In this paper a case study has been presented for the 30 m high and more than 400 m long retaining walls of the desilting basin at the Srinagar hydroelectric project in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Three options have been studied adopting different geometries of the wall on the earth side. It has been found that within the given space constraint, provision of a reverse slope in the lower portion of the wall is the best solution.