• 9" Setback Walls for MI Road Construction

MI DOT Road Construction Uses Setback Walls to Save Trees and Space

Project Name: Mullet-Burt Lake Rd. #4

Customer Name: Michigan

Design / Specifying Engineer: Northwest Design Group

Block Manufacturer: MDC Contracting, LLC

Wall Installer: MDC Contracting

Project Location: Cheboygan, MI

Year Built: 2004

Project Scope

The right-of-way in Michigan allows the road commission 33' from the center line to private property on either side. While this is plenty of room in most cases, in hilly terrains retaining walls are needed. In the Burt Lake Road case, the project needed to widen the roadway and reduce the grade of a very steep slope while staying within the right-of-way. The adjacent properties were wooded and the landowners wanted to save their trees. A retaining wall of up to 18 feet high was required to retain the slope.

MDC Contracting proposed using Redi-Rock, a 2,500 pound modular block with a 9" setback to create a wall with a batter angle at 2V:1H requiring no geo-grid. The wall needed to be buried up to 6 feet at the tallest part to provide global stability and base sliding resistance; the tallest exposed section of wall is 18' high. Redi-Rock's large unit size and weight combined with its interface shear capacity made the construction of the Burt Lake Road Wall a viable solution.

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