TEHRAN-NORTH HIGHWAY RETAINING WALL AT KM 14+700

To shorten the travel distance between Tehran and the north of Iran for about 60km, a new path was designed. Several bridges, tunnels, and retaining walls had to be constructed to pass through many mountainous regions. The new highway comprises of 4 sections. To get from the local access road to the highway level, a huge amount of fill was required in section 1. Between km 14+620 and 14+980, due to the terrain's topographical and geotechnical characteristics, the most feasible intervention was to construct a high retaining wall.

Since the required retaining structure length is more than 300m for a maximum height up to 33m, constructing a bridge or concrete wall would be too costly. Consequently, the best available option was decided to be the Paramesh system, a widely used composite system by Maccaferri by combining high strength Paralink geogrids along with Terramesh facing units. This solution is a lot more cost-effective and easy-to-apply, particularly for such huge structures. A combination of road base and rock material was used for backfilling. Since the type of the natural rock in the project site was not suitable for the fill material (weathered tuff and shale), selected rock material was taken from an area near the site for this purpose. Maccaferri’s Iranian distributor M/s. Rahyab Sanat Alborz was involved in the design, supply, and site assistance of the project.