Roadway shoulders are easy to overlook — until they disappear. On Jolly Acres Road in Hartford County, Maryland, drainage-driven slope movement had silently eroded the embankment beneath the guardrail, in some locations removing the outer edge of the paved surface entirely. A January 2023 site assessment confirmed what residents and county engineers had feared: the embankment fill was failing, and immediate intervention was required.
The failure along the 4900 block of Jolly Acres Road was caused by a shallow slide within the existing roadway embankment fill, driven by drainage water channeled down the roadway surface. Over time, this flow had weakened the fill material and triggered progressive loss of both the road shoulder and the guardrail foundation. With 600 linear feet of instability identified, Harford County needed a contractor capable of mobilizing quickly and delivering a lasting repair before winter conditions worsened the situation.
After clearing the repair area and preparing the slope, GeoStabilization crews installed two rows of soil nails up to 20 feet in length to reinforce and restabilize the embankment fill. A 6-inch layer of reinforced shotcrete was then applied over the slope surface, creating a protective and structurally integrated facing. To restore the roadway cross-section and protect the guardrail, GSI also performed shoulder reconstruction for the full 600-foot repair length, placing 103 cubic yards of low-strength flowable fill to rebuild the lost shoulder width and ensure the guardrail posts were properly supported.
The completed repair was delivered within a tight November–December 2023 schedule, restoring the structural integrity of the embankment and rebuilding the roadway shoulder before winter precipitation could cause further damage. The combination of soil nail reinforcement, shotcrete facing, and shoulder reconstruction provided Harford County with a comprehensive solution that addressed both the root cause and the surface manifestation of the failure.
