Shipping container buried in a concrete retaining wall

Part 1

A trusted client asked us to raise the elevation of his yard, which slopes dramatically down to the waters edge, whilst keeping a shipping container for storage. Our remedy; bury a shipping container inside of a 16ft tall concrete retaining wall, leaving just the end exposed, with a door for access. At the very end we will create a landing and a concrete stairway, granting access to the dock.

We constructed the forms using the Symons concrete wall forming system. The forms comprise of 2ft by 8ft filler boards, each one an inch and 1/8 thick. These are held in places with snap ties and steel “shoes”, also known as Omni-wedges. 

What makes this project unusual is that we used the shipping container to create part of the form work. We did this by drilling holes in the side of the container. After which, we used sections of the forms to create bracing along the inside of the shipping container. This helps to spread the load when the snap ties and shoes are added, rather than pulling directly on metal wall of the container. In between the formwork, we added #4 rebar, connected to the J hooks in the concrete footings.

On the day of the pour, the concrete will be added in a couple of “lifts”. So instead of pouring the concrete all at once, it will be poured into the forms in stages. This will control the amount of the hydrostatic pressure placed on the forms. We start from one end and fill the forms part way. By the time we do the first pass the concrete will have hardened enough to go back around and top up the concrete.