EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENT OF THE LOAD-BEARING CAPACITY OF WIRE HOOKS AND BENDS USED IN GABION RETAINING WALLS

: Gabion walls are today a very popular and ecological solution for retaining walls in civil engineering. Gabions are made of stones placed in wire baskets made of galvanized wire, which are interconnected by hooks and bends. Their advantage is the natural appearance, good conditions for landscaping and catching climbing plants. Unlike concrete or masonry retaining walls, they cannot have cracks and therefore resist uneven subsidence of the subsoil. However, the decisive factor for their load-bearing capacity is the quality of the quarry stone, its placement and the load-bearing capacity of the individual wires and, above all, their joints. In the laboratories of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Technical University of Ostrava, a number of tests of wire basket hook joints were performed, which were taken from damaged gabions on construction sites. The results of these tests will enable better prediction of the static effect of gabion walls in their design and implementation in construction practice. The paper presents the results of these tests and recommendations for their design and planning.