In this type of retaining wall, counterforts (cantilevers) are provided on the earth side between wall and footing to support the wall, which essentially spans as a continuous one-way slab horizontally. Counterfort walls seldom find application in building construction. A temporary condition in which basement walls may be required to behave as counterfort retaining walls occurs though, if outside fill is placed before the floors are constructed. Under this condition of loading, each interior cross wall and end basement wall can be regarded as a counterfort. It is usually preferable, however, to delay the fill operation rather than to design and provide reinforcement for this temporary condition.
The advantages of counterfort walls are the large effective depth for the cantilever reinforcement and concrete efficiently concentrated in the counterfort. For very tall walls, where an alternative cantilever wall would require greater thickness and larger quantities of reinforcing steel and concrete, the savings in material will exceed the additional cost of forming the counterforts. Accurate design is necessary for economy in important projects involving large quantities of material and requires refinement of the simple assumptions in the definition of counterfort walls. The analysis becomes complex for determination of the division of the load between one-way horizontal slab and vertical cantilever action.
See also Art. 6.7 (F. S. Merritt, Standard Handbook for Civil Engineers, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, New York.)
