What is a soldier pile?

Author: Ambrose Yost  |  Last update: Saturday, January 10, 2026

Soldier Piles are steel H piles that are vertically driven or drilled into the earth at regular intervals prior to excavation. As excavation progresses in stages, horizontal lagging in the form of timber or precast concrete is added behind the flanges to create the Soldier Pile and Lagging Wall.

What is the purpose of a soldier pile?

Soldier piles are used to create a strong foundation for heavy structures such as buildings, bridges and roads. The piles are commonly made of steel that's driven into the ground to help distribute the weight of the structure from the loose topsoil down to the rock below.

What is the difference between a sheet pile and a soldier pile?

The primary difference between soldier piles and other retaining systems like sheet piles is that soldier piles are spaced between 5 and 10 feet apart and intended to be temporary. They're filled with lagging, usually made of shotcrete, metal plates, or wood.

Are soldier piles permanent?

Soldier Pile and Lagging Design Requirements. Lagging for soldier pile walls, with and without permanent ground anchors, shall be designed as either temporary or permanent, based on the conditions described below.

How deep are soldier piles?

Piles are typically installed at 4 to 8 feet centers and extend at least 8 to 10 feet below final excavation grade to provide passive toe resistance. As site excavation proceeds in lifts, typically 5 feet in depth, lagging comprised of either wood or shotcrete is placed between the piles.

Soldier piles and lagging walls

What is the deepest piles in the world?

PETRONAS TOWERS, MALAYSIA

The towers are a mind-blowing 451.9 meters tall and were officially the tallest buildings in the world between 1998 and 2004. The really staggering thing about the Petronas towers is today, in 2022, they remain the world's deepest foundations, coming in at 400ft deep.

What is the difference between soldier pile and soil nail?

Soil nail walls are installed more quickly and cost effectively than other shoring systems. Soldier pile walls or sheet pile walls require large equipment to drill in place or drive the piles or sheets. Soil nails avoid the time and cost of installing these vertical elements.

How long can a person live with piles?

Some people live with hemorrhoids for months, or even years. But you don't have to go through that. The doctors here at the Alabama Colon & Rectal Institute are ready to diagnose and treat internal and external hemorrhoids.

What is soil arching between soldier piles?

When the soil between soldier piles is capable of self support the soil loads will transfer to the adjacent soldier piles, and no lagging will be needed. This soil load transfer is referred to as soil arching.

What type of wood is used for lagging?

The versatility of Southern Yellow Pine makes it ideal for many applications of Timber Lagging in highway, industrial and commercial applications being the strongest domestic softwood although the reliable Douglas Fir timber or the old standby Mixed Oak timbers are also available.

What is a king pile?

The king pile provides the bulk of the wall's structure, while the sheet pile is used to fill in the spaces between, making the wall continuous. A combined sheet piling wall system has a typical sheet width of about six feet, which includes the two halves of each beam, two connectors, and two sheets.

What is the rule of thumb for soldier pile embedment depth?

The required depth of embedment is then (d + D). As a rule-of-thumb for sandy soils this is usually in the range of 1.3 H to 1.5 H. It is conservative to add 20% - 30% depth to calculated embedment.

How to install soldier pile?

Soldier piles are drilled or driven vertically into the ground considering vertical elements like a steel beam, pile, pipe spaced between 6 to 10 feet. It is designed to limit the horizontal movement of soil excavation.

What is the difference between a soldier pile and a sheet pile?

Sheet piles are especially useful in excavations that need to go past the level of ground water. Soldier beams and lagging normally consist of driven or drilled single piles, so called soldiers, that are spaced 5-10 feet with the space between them filled with lagging consisting of wood, metal plates, or shotcrete.

What is a marine pile?

Marine piling is the process of setting deep foundations into the bedrock below sea level to support nearshore and offshore based structures.

What are the different types of soldier piles?

Soldier pile retaining walls may be constructed with driven piles (steel, timber or concrete) or they may be placed in drilled holes and backfilled with concrete, slurry, sand, pea-gravel or similar material. A soldier pile could also be a cast in place reinforced concrete pile.

How deep should a soldier pile be?

Cantilever soldier pile walls are commonly used when excavation depths are limited to 5m or less (15ft). In most cases, cantilever depths are kept to under 3.5m (10ft) because controlling wall displacements requires an increasingly stiffer steel section.

Are piles and caissons the same thing?

Caissons are watertight structures made up of wood, steel or reinforced concrete built above the ground level and then sunken into the ground. Pile foundation is a type of deep foundation, in which the loads are taken to a low level by means of vertical timber, concrete or steel.

Why is arching in soil important?

The increase in the vertical stress is due to the increase in the soil thickness, and the decrease in the vertical stress is due to the soil-arching effect, which results in a stress transfer from the subsoil to the piles. Figure 10. Distribution of vertical stress along the depth of embankment [65].

Is pile painful?

Piles don't always cause pain or other symptoms, but if you do have piles symptoms, they might include: bleeding when you poo – you may see blood (usually bright red) on the toilet paper, or drips in the toilet or on the surface of your poo. a lump in or around your anus.

What is a bath sitz?

A sitz bath is a warm, shallow bath you sit in to relieve pain, burning or itching in your perineum. Your perineum is the area between the opening of your butt (anus) and your external genitals (scrotum or vulva).

Do piles affect marriage life?

Do piles affect the married life of women? Yes, it can have an impact on the marital life of females. Having sex causes improved arousal and blood flow, automatically increasing pressure in and around the anal area. Such increased pressure may worsen piles.

What is the difference between soldier ants and worker ants?

Soldier ants are larger, stronger and have powerful mandibles that work like pincers to fight off predators threatening the colony. That is effectively their only job. Workers, meanwhile, have smaller bodies and mandibles more suited for grabbing and moving things.

What is a disadvantage of soil nail?

3 Disadvantages of soil nailing

The performance of the system can be affected by soil variability, nail corrosion, or installation errors. Additionally, it may not be suitable for certain soil conditions, such as very soft, loose, or organic soils. It may also not be effective for large or deep-seated failures.

How much does a soil nail wall cost?

Nationally, soil nailing costs $29–40 per square foot, compared to tie-back walls at $45–60 per square foot. Soil nailing isn't appropriate for all projects, though.

Previous article
What is the best caulk for insulation?
Next article
Where to install a water pressure booster pump?