Soil Nailing is a cost-effective system of supporting or stabilizing slopes that may be used for many soil materials to stabilize even near-vertical slopes. Steel bars or similar “soil nails” are installed creating a reinforced zone, and the excavation face then is stabilized, usually with shotcrete.
Where natural or constructed embankment slopes are judged to be unstable or to not have an adequate factor of safety against failure, Schnabel designs slope stabilization schemes that might include, for example, one or more lines of drilled or driven piles or even drilled shafts (caissons)