Soil nails, and their bigger cousins, soil anchors are a remedial measure to treat unstable natural soil slopes. As a technique it can also allow the safe over-steepening of new or existing soil slopes.

Soil nailing inserts relatively slender reinforcements such as rebar into pre-drilled holes in the slopes. The bar is then grouted into place.

CLL is a leading specialist in horizontal drilling and grouting, and we run up to four crews skilled in percussion, and auger, bits.

Our auger bit capability means very little mess is created, allowing remedial work close to houses, and in environmentally sensitive areas. Our rigs are very mobile, and able to be deployed on the side of cliffs or steep slopes.

This is carried out by CLL’s rope access team. These abseilers are particularly useful with height and limited access are of issue.

CLL’s rope access expertise includes placing and fixing rockfall mesh and geotextiles for slope stabilisation.

“Soil nails and soil anchors can be a very effective way to stabilise different sites at different times. They’re a way to tie back a face to more secure material that’s below, as well as grouting the nail or bolt in place.

“As well as repairing and rejuvenating steep faces, we’ve also used ground anchors to hold down the likes of large holding tanks – ensuring they’re not ejected from the ground.

“We sometimes use them to tie down foundations such as pads to more stable ground.

“On other sites, we can use soil nails to create more access, create more real estate as such. We’ll cut down a bank in sections or benches, and create a virtual face. Then we use soil nails to hold everything together, and create more area for the build of a lot of projects.

“In some of these situations, access to the site itself is really problematic. Occasionally we’ll break down the machines we have to use, take those pieces to where they need to be, and reassemble the rig.

“We pride ourselves in coming up with innovative answers for particular challenges. It could be one of the reasons we receive these random phone calls. They come to us through word of mouth because of what we’ve achieved for other clients.”