Ninety feet above the Delaware River in Shohola, Pennsylvania, a section of metal bin wall along the mid-slope of the Central New York Railroad embankment gave way in the spring of 2024. The collapse was not a minor maintenance event—it triggered a large downslope failure that exposed a head scarp along the base of the existing stacked stone wall supporting the railroad's siding track. With the mainline and siding tracks of the CNYK at Milepost 104.3 now sitting above an actively failing slope, the New York Susquehanna & Western Railway needed an engineered solution fast.
GeoStabilization International (GSI) was engaged to provide full design-build slope stabilization services, mobilizing in May 2024 and completing the stabilized system by June 2024—a six-week turnaround from start to finish.
The site's position high above the Delaware River created both geotechnical and logistical complexity. The existing slope infrastructure included a stacked stone wall and a concrete barrier wall, and the failure had compromised the structural support provided by the metal bin wall that had formerly buttressed the mid-slope. With the head scarp exposed and the tracks at risk, stabilization had to address both the immediate sliding threat and the long-term structural adequacy of the entire slope system—without disrupting active railroad operations.
Access to the site presented an additional challenge: the steep, constrained slope offered no conventional road entry. GSI's crews accessed the work area exclusively via hi-rail equipment from the Shohola crossing, threading their operation through the active railroad corridor with precision coordination to keep trains moving throughout construction.
GSI's engineered solution centered on a Micropile Shoulder Cap (MPSC) system—a proprietary design combining deep micropiles and soil nails to address both the structural and slope stability demands of the failure zone. Micropiles provided deep load transfer capacity through the unstable slope material into competent bearing strata below, while soil nails reinforced the slope mass and resisted further sliding.
The micropiles and soil nails were encapsulated in a 10-inch-thick reinforced shotcrete facing, designed specifically to follow the existing profile of the stacked stone and concrete barrier wall. This facing approach integrated seamlessly with the historic infrastructure already in place, preserving the visual character of the wall while providing a structurally robust, weather-resistant encapsulation that protects against future deterioration.
The completed stabilization system achieved a factor of safety of 1.3—a 30% improvement over pre-repair conditions—providing quantified, engineered assurance that the slope is stable and the tracks are protected. GSI delivered final as-built drawings stamped by a licensed Professional Engineer upon project completion, giving the New York Susquehanna & Western Railway a permanent record of the constructed system for their engineering files.
The project is also backed by GSI's five-year performance warranty, reflecting the company's confidence in the design-build solution and providing the railroad with long-term accountability from a single source. From engineering design and construction plan submittals through field installation and documentation, GSI delivered every element of this complex slope repair—protecting a critical railroad corridor above the Delaware River in under two months.
