Abstract
Bearing capacity failure of road retaining walls, of which foundation soil condition is not taken into account in the design practice, often results in the severe damage to road embankment during an earthquake. This paper proposes a simple method to assess seismic stability of existing masonry retaining walls. The seismic coefficient invoked in the method is derived based on case histories of damaged and non-damaged walls. It is shown that bearing capacity estimated based on blow count of the in-situ portable dynamic cone is an effective index to sort out seismically unstable walls from existing walls.
