AlexR
Active member
This is mainly as an "archive" post if anyone ever encounters the same problem and wonders how to deal with it.
CJ and I are were faced with a very pesky scree slope, which immediately gave our dig the name "Sisyphus". Effectively the scree trundles into the dig (a tube in the side wall of the scree sloped passage, itself containing scree), and the scree slope is also the only real place for putting any spoil. There are some other holes, but I'd rather not fill them up at this point. The slope can only support itself up to an angle of around 45?, any more than that and it all just comes back. That and it's not a good foundation to put more spoil on.
Found a surprisingly effective solution:
Bits of wood plank ca. 40cm long were driven into the scree with a sledgehammer. Scree was then excavated downslope of these piles. Only about 5cm of the plank needs to remain burried to hold back the scree (bit delicate). The scree was put into sandbags and used to build a retaining wall. The process can be repeated downslope, changing an angle of 45? to around 70?, effectively gaining a lot of space for spoil. The wooden piles can actually be jiggled out and re-used, but after 2 rounds they're fairly knackered so we left them in.
We also used some mushroom trays as a sort of geogrid in the structure to improve load bearing capacity.
Just ignore the spoil tower visible on the left, that bloody thing still needs completely taking down an replacing with the same sandbag structure.
CJ and I are were faced with a very pesky scree slope, which immediately gave our dig the name "Sisyphus". Effectively the scree trundles into the dig (a tube in the side wall of the scree sloped passage, itself containing scree), and the scree slope is also the only real place for putting any spoil. There are some other holes, but I'd rather not fill them up at this point. The slope can only support itself up to an angle of around 45?, any more than that and it all just comes back. That and it's not a good foundation to put more spoil on.
Found a surprisingly effective solution:
Bits of wood plank ca. 40cm long were driven into the scree with a sledgehammer. Scree was then excavated downslope of these piles. Only about 5cm of the plank needs to remain burried to hold back the scree (bit delicate). The scree was put into sandbags and used to build a retaining wall. The process can be repeated downslope, changing an angle of 45? to around 70?, effectively gaining a lot of space for spoil. The wooden piles can actually be jiggled out and re-used, but after 2 rounds they're fairly knackered so we left them in.
We also used some mushroom trays as a sort of geogrid in the structure to improve load bearing capacity.
Just ignore the spoil tower visible on the left, that bloody thing still needs completely taking down an replacing with the same sandbag structure.