In order for the Panama Canal to be built, there needed to be an in-depth take on geotechnical analysis. The geotechnical team working on that project had divided up the area into the big and small picture, which are: geotechnical characterization, stability analysis, retaining walls, and the design of accessibility for the ships.
In order for the project to begin, the geotechnical engineers had to take the small picture approach for the research on the type of rocks and soils that were in the area. The rocks that are found in the Canal are sedimentary. Since the rocks are of volcanoclastic nature, there have been many changes to its texture; the rocks also have high contents of clay minerals. These types of rocks are very difficult to work with.
Next was the stability analysis which was broken up into many steps due to the changes of elevation for the Canal. Before the analysis of the Canal could take place, the engineers made shear strength models for the two types of rocks in the area: soft rocks and hard rocks. For the properties of the soft …show more content…
There are currently two retaining walls built in the Gutan Dam of the Panama Canal. Both retaining walls were made out of rocks roughly 0.25 miles apart from each other. In order to create the retaining walls, a railroad trestle was constructed where the retaining walls would be. The dirt inside the railroad cars would be dumped to both sides of the trestle, thus increasing the height. As the elevation of the rock retaining walls increased, there was a greater risk to the workers on site because the weight of the rocks at the bottom of the wall would constantly change; the railroad would constantly shift, throwing the tracks out the alignment. The workers would have to shift the railroad back to normal until the walls were completed. After a long and tedious process, both walls were completed in the spring of