Tire Anchor Wall, Gibraltar Road

About the Program

Category: Transportation (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

This Program describes the use of recycled used automobile tires to construct a retaining wall to stabilize the slope below Gibraltar Road in the mountains above the City of Santa Barbara, California. Heavy rainfall during 2005 saturated a cliff below the road causing the cliff to wash-out and remove a portion of the road. Whole tires are rarely used as a construction material. This Program describes an innovative use where whole tires were used in construction of a roadway repair. In fact, 98% of this repair program utilized recycled materials. There are 14 vertical layers of tires that comprise the tire anchor wall. Each tire is individually tied to the adjacent tire to form a web that resists outside pressures. The tires were easy to work with as they could be cut to fit next to rocks and other protrusions along the wall edge to easily conform to the site.