SOLDIER PILES &

LAGGING SYSTEM

PROCEDURE:
The procedure for constructing a soldier pile wall is to drive the H-piles into the ground prior to any
excavation.
The piles are driven with the flanges parallel to the proposed cut. They are usually spaced between
four and ten feet apart.
When they have been driven down to the desired depth (typically five to ten feet beneath the
proposed excavation bottom when in soil), the excavation begins in stages.
The first stage of the excavation is made to the location of the uppermost strut or anchor.
Timber lagging, cut to fit in between the webs of adjacent soldier piles is placed in back of the
front flanges of the piles.
They are set one piece of lagging on top of the other with only a small spacer between them.
Straw or a geotextile may be placed between and behind the lagging to reduce seepage through
the wall.
Once the lagging is set down to the first strut level, a horizontal wale is installed against the piles
and the struts or anchors are placed at the desired spacing.

PRIMARY
COMPONENTS:

1. Soldier piles which may be either steel H-beams, steel tubular pipes, concrete piles, or cast-in
place concrete piles.

Cross Sections used as Soldier Pile

2. Support system of braced struts or anchors. Anchors may be cast-in-place deadman, piles used
as anchors or tieback anchors.
3. Waller which distribute the anchor force as a line load between the soldier piles. They are
usually structural steel sections.
4. Wood/ metal/ Precast lagging which supports the soil between the piles.

BEHAVIOR
:
Simple Bending
(Ms)

Wooden / Precast
Lagging
Soldier
Pile
Anchor/
Tieback
E.G.L

Cantilever Bending
(Mc)

DESIG
N:

Wooden lagging design

1. Moment due to the simple bending in lag supports,
Ms = (w X L2) / 8
a) Wooden Lagging
Thickness of wooden lag = (F.O.S x Ms) /Permissible Stress
*Permissible stress of wooden shall be adopted from standards
b) Precast Slabs
D req = SQRT[(F.O.S x Ms) / (0.133 x fck x b)]
Ast req = (0.5 x fck / fy ) x { 1 SQRT[1-((4.6Ms)/(fck x b x d2))]} x (b x d)

DESIG
N:

Soldier Pile design

1. Moment due to the simple bending in lag supports,
Mc = 0.5 x H x w x (H/3)
Typical steel design of is described,
Section Modulus of proposed member = (F.O.S x Mc) / Allowable Stress

Thank
You