In the fall of 2017, Redi-Rock K.I.T. was approached by Filcon Construction and Land Design & Development to help with design and construction of a significant retaining wall structure that would support an access road to new home sites in the Fincastle Farm development in Louisville, Kentucky.
Situated along Harrods Creek on part of the Fincastle Farm Estate previously owned by W.L. Brown, Jr., the Fincastle Farm subdivision is an exclusive estate home community featuring building lot sizes from 1 to 5 acres with homes designed by some of Louisville’s most acclaimed custom home builders.
Redi-Rock K.I.T. called on design partner, JC Hines and Associates to prepare the design for a 35-ft tall retaining wall that would need to be constructed along the steep rocky hillside leading into the development. After a series of consultations with the local office of geotechnical engineering firm, ECS Southeast, a design for the retaining wall was determined that would minimize over excavation of the highly weathered limestone and still satisfy the overall global stability needed to secure the new fill that would need to be placed on the existing hillside.
The Redi-Rock Positive Connection (PC) Retaining Wall System was ultimately selected as the best option to meet the critical slope stability requirements and support the 30-ft wide access road. The Redi-Rock PC System is unique in that it incorporates 12-inch-wide continuous strips of PVC coated, woven geogrid reinforcement that pass through smooth cast slots in the wet-cast Redi-Rock block unit and extend horizontally into the crushed stone reinforced fill. Anchored in the compacted crushed stone fill, the geogrid strips provide tensile resistance at both the top and bottom of each individual block unit. The result is one of the most robust and structurally redundant mechanically stabilized earth retaining wall systems available on the market today.
The final constructed retaining wall has a face area of 11,588 square feet, reaches a maximum height of 35 feet and is 422 feet long. The final design includes a whopping 88,147 linear feet (16.7 miles) of 12-inch geogrid reinforcement strips. Wall construction was managed by Redi-Rock K.I.T.’s in-house construction group. Construction was completed in 2021.