Best Project — Specialty Construction: Emergency Embankment Stabilization of Roadway PR 110 at KM 10.2

Emergency Situation Embankment Stabilization of Roadway PR 110 at KM 10.2

Moca, Puerto Rico

BEST PROJECT

Sent by: GeoStabilization International

Owner: Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority (PRHTA)

Lead Design Firm/Geohazard Mitigation Contractor: GeoStabilization International

General Contractor: Constructora Hartmann, SE

Civil Engineer: Infinite Engineering

PR 110 is a narrow, well-traveled two-lane state highway in Moca, in northwestern Puerto Rico. Near km 10.2, the northern technique embankment to the bridge over the Río Culebrinas had actually been settling and stopping working, splitting the pavement and threatening the only useful path throughout the river for the surrounding neighborhood.

A $2.7-million repair work was bought under the Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority’s master agreement. The outcome is an irreversible stabilization and roadway-widening system created for a 75-year life span along both sides of the bridge technique, a combined repair work length of about 362 meters, restoring a full-width road bring 2 10.5-ft travel lanes.

The owner’s prepare for supporting the stopping working embankment initially required driving sheet stacks connected back with tie rods and confronted with erosion-control blocks. On a roadway this narrow, that implied activating devices that might not exist side-by-side with live traffic, requiring a complete closure of the crossing and a long detour for the neighborhood. When Constructora Hartmann asked GeoStabilization International if there was a much better method, GSI crafted a top-down soil-nail and grouted-column stabilization system, set up with excavator-mounted drilling devices that runs within a single lane. The 2 embankment sides might be supported sequentially, working one side under a single-lane closure while the opposite lane brought traffic, indicating the roadway never ever needed to close.

Image courtesy Constructora Hartmann, SE

The stabilization system integrated a number of methods into one incorporated area. A strengthened shotcrete soil-nail wall approximately 8 feet high with a shoulder build-out expanded the highway, while self-drilling and vertical soil nails as much as 20 feet long and a vertical soil-nail cap enhanced the base of the wall. A matrix of grouted columns approximately 20 feet deep set up through the existing pavement stopped continuous settlement of the embankment fill, and horizontal and strip drains pipes offer long-lasting drain. An articulating concrete-block erosion-control system sits over the lower embankment.

Finished on time and within budget plan, the job concluded after simply 5 months and the highway resumed in October 2025.