Engineers are constantly finding themselves having to design ways to stabilize steep slopes with vertical wall structures. Land prices and availability of prime property are such that an engineer cannot use a lot of land to stabilize a slope by reducing the slope angle.

In a fill situation, a typical wall structure consists of concrete block or wooden tie facia held in place by geogrid that extends into the fill. This type of wall can be very expensive because of the cost of the facia materials. In addition, some engineers feel that although the facia looks very attractive when installed, over time that look will deteriorate. In a cut situation, the difficulty is keeping the wall from falling away from the soil. The solution is to design the wall such that it is stable on its own. The problem is that to make the wall heavy enough, the base of the structure maybe too large for the site conditions. In either situation, it is very important that the wall be properly designed and installed so that hydrostatic pressures will not develop behind the wall.

A geocell section filled with local soils can be an economical solution to both cut and fill situations. The cells not only hold the soil in place, they also provide drainage throughout the structure. A geocell gravity wall is constructed by filling the cells with onsite soils. An additional benefit of a geocell facia is that the outer cells can be vegetated which give the wall an environmentally pleasing look that can also control water flows at the face.