Abstract
During the Hyogoken-Nambu earthquake of January 17, 1995, many conventional masonry and unreinforced concrete gravity-type retaining walls completely collapsed, whereas many modern cantilever-type reinforced concrete retaining walls were also seriously damaged. Geogrid-reinforced soil retaining walls having a full-height concrete facing with a total length of about 2 km performed very well. It should be noticed that a wall located in one of the most severely shaken areas deformed only slightly. The performance of geogrid-reinforced soil retaining wall, as documented, will foster future confirmation and development of aseismic design procedures.
