Cement Bag Retaining Wall

[PAGUY]

I am thoroughly confused as to why all the cement bags are at the exit side of the pipes and not at the entrance of the overflow side? The water exiting will erode below the pipe where you intend to place rip-rap which makes sense or erosion could cause one **** of a hole. As for the entrance of the overflow side I would have a cement truck drop a load around the top of the pipes and up to the waters edge creating a funnel appearance in front of pipes. This water will only be present as overflow and not constantly running through the pipes. Am I correct on that issue?

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I am thoroughly confused as to why all the cement bags are at the exit side of the pipes and not at the entrance of the overflow side? The water exiting will erode below the pipe where you intend to place rip-rap which makes sense or erosion could cause one **** of a hole. As for the entrance of the overflow side I would have a cement truck drop a load around the top of the pipes and up to the waters edge creating a funnel appearance in front of pipes. This water will only be present as overflow and not constantly running through the pipes. Am I correct on that issue?

You are correct, the water will only be present as overflow. I put the bags at the lower end because I want to contain my backfill.m and have a less severe slope from the ends of the pipes to the road surface. There isn't much dirt below the spillway, as the natural flow of the previous existing spillway had already worked its way down to bedrock.
I will be drystacking above the spillway for a retaining wall as well. It's just going to take me a couple more weekends to get that done. I put my focus on the lower portion this weekend because I want to get the bridge more stable and secure.

 

[Ford850]

Your view from the road rotated upright:

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Your view from the road rotated upright:

I hadn't noticed that two of the pictures display upside down when enlarged. How did you fix that?

 

[Threepoint]

I hadn't noticed that two of the pictures display upside down when enlarged. How did you fix that?

Curious about this, as well. For awhile now, every pic I attach on TBN as a correctly oriented thumbnail will display rotated 90 degrees right. So I have to rotate the original 90 degrees left before I upload and post it. I don't recall this being a problem months ago.

 

[jcummins]

Curious about this, as well. For awhile now, every pic I attach on TBN as a correctly oriented thumbnail will display rotated 90 degrees right. So I have to rotate the original 90 degrees left before I upload and post it. I don't recall this being a problem months ago.

And ...for me....they open SLOW. Something about attachments on this forum isn't right.

 

[Ford850]

I hadn't noticed that two of the pictures display upside down when enlarged. How did you fix that?

I opened yours, saved it locally on my PC, resaved it there after rotating it 180 degrees, and then attached it to my response. Not sure why they do that sometimes, but your picture looks much better upright.

 

[Tinstafl]

I go to a place in Texas with a 20 foot plus retaining wall made out of stacked cement bags. I think there were 12,000 of them plus a few. it is very strong and has held up in huge rains from hurricanes since the 70s.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I go to a place in Texas with a 20 foot plus retaining wall made out of stacked cement bags. I think there were 12,000 of them plus a few. it is very strong and has held up in huge rains from hurricanes since the 70s.

Where is that? I'd love to see a picture of that.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

So. We did a little work on the bridge this weekend. I had a few things slowing me down. Saturday was my granddaughter's first birthday party and in the evening I went to a family BBQ for my sister in law. Sunday I got started with my wife and son around noon. The weather was great...it didn't get over 81 all day.
I started by digging almost a foot below the pipes....I hit bedrock on the far right pipe. I busted open about a dozen bags and filled the channel I created with concrete mix. At about 6 inches, I laid in several pieces of rebar, then filled it to ground level and started laying in bags.


We stacked the bags, and moved in soil, tamping it down an inch or so at a time. We were extremely careful to pack the soil in with the tampers as tight as we could. In the channel I created under the pipe I knifed in the concrete mix and brought it up several inches before starting the bags. Behind the the cement the clay is packed in tight for about 8 feet. It's amazing to me how much soil it takes to backfill when you are compacting it. I am very fortunate that I had help.