Slope Stabilisation & Erosion Protection – Platipus® ARGS Anchors

Platipus anchoring systems were used with a geosynthetic permanent erosion control matting and were chosen as a ‘combination solution’ to provide slope stability measures to an existing embankment slope located in Buderim in South East Queensland. The system was also designed and detailed to facilitate and encourage vegetation growth and establishment.

Design

GA Geotechnical designed detailed slope stability measures for a 50m length of existing steep embankment, up to 15m in height with a maximum batter of 50 degrees. The solution consisted of a permanent geosynthetic matting(providing erosion protection and surface tension) which was secured to the slope face with Platipus S4 ‘proprietary’ anchoring systems. The anchoring systems were also designed and detailed to address shallow slip failure within the slope face and were driven 1.5m into the slope on a 2m grid spacing. Design life of the embankment stabilisation project was 60 plus years.

Installation

A permanent geosynthetic matting providing both slope surface tension and erosion protection, was secured to the steep embankment face by installing 350no. Platipus S4ARGS anchoring systems. The proprietary anchoring systems were driven, tensioned and load locked to a depth of 1.5m into the slope with the total works being completed over a period of just 5 working days.

The Platipus anchoring systems were chosen and deployed for the following main features & benefits:

• A major driving force for implementing the Platipus ARGS solution was its speed and ease of installation
• Very short time frame to complete anchoring installation and overall slope repair and stability measures
• A difficult access project and simple and quick to secure the erosion control matting using small bespoke proprietary Platipus hand installation tools
• An environmentally sensitive solution facilitating natural vegetation growth and establishment