Shotcrete
GRW applies shotcrete to rock and soil faces in exposed environments with certified nozzlemen. We create durable facings that control ravelling and erosion, protect reinforcement, and satisfy design requirements
Understanding Shotcrete
What is Shotcrete?
Shotcrete is concrete pneumatically placed at high velocity to form a bonded layer on rock or soil. It can be plain, fiber-reinforced, reinforced with mesh/rebar, or integrated with anchors and drains.
What it solves
A solution when exposed slopes or cuts are weathering, unraveling, or shedding debris; when a face needs erosion protection; or when you need a structural skin to work with bolts, dowels, nails, or lattice girders.
Where it applies
Used on highway and rail cuts, portals and excavations, dam and powerhouse slopes, steep building sites, and retaining/shoring faces.
Shotcrete Techniques
What It Is: Bonded shotcrete facing applied to rock or soil to stabilize the near-surface zone and protect the face from unraveling, erosion, and weathering.
Why We Do It: Controls frequent small falls and surface unraveling after excavation or blasting, and reduces ongoing maintenance exposure where a structural skin is needed fast.
How We Do It: GRW scales and cleans the substrate, establishes thickness controls, then applies shotcrete in controlled lifts with the required finish and coverage, documenting as-built areas and thickness.
What Structural Shotcrete Is: Shotcrete placed with welded wire mesh, rebar, and/or fibers to form a reinforced structural shell, often integrated with drilled anchors via plates
Why We Do It: Used where plain facing is not enough—higher loads, larger block sizes, tighter deformation limits, or when the design requires a composite system tied into bolts, dowels, or nails.
How We Do It: GRW prepares the face, builds and locks the reinforcement to hold consistent cover, controls thickness with grade pins and staged lifts, then shoots from the bottom up to pack behind steel and around plates—removing rebound between passes, curing to spec, and documenting thickness and test results for a defensible as-built record.
What Access & Rope-Based Shotcrete Is: For shotcrete placement on steep high faces, GRW uses specialized access systems
Why We Do It: Enables stabilization through safe, efficient, low-cost methods not commonly available
How We Do It: GRW’s expertise is in high places, shooting from manlifts and on certified rope access systems
What Is QA/QC: Placement controls and verification aligned to spec—precon requirements, nozzleman qualification, test panels/cores where required, thickness verification, curing controls, and repair tracking.
Why We Do It: Shotcrete performance is highly placement-dependent; QA/QC makes the work defensible and reduces rework and long-term delamination/cracking risk.
How We Do It: GRW documents mix delivery, placement conditions, test results, thickness checks, NCRs/repairs, and as-built coverage for turnover and project records
Why work with us
Experience: GRW is a construction contractor at heart—our crews scale slopes, drill holes, hang mesh, stand posts, and build barriers every season. GRW has been operating for 20 years on projects ranging from $10,000 to $20,000,000 across diverse industries, geographies, and climates.
Rope Access: We are North America’s first SPRAT-certified geohazard contractor, with 100% of field technicians certified to work on steep slopes, cliffs, and canyons.
Safety: Our extensive safety program is third-party audited and recognized as best in class. Safety is in our DNA and extends throughout the organization as our leading priority.
Equipment: GRW utilizes track-mounted drills, spider excavators, telehandlers, heli-portable gear, and custom equipment so we can reach and stabilize slopes that conventional equipment cannot.
Project Management: Our teams, engineers, and geologists use structured planning, risk registers, and an internal ERP system, supported by tools like MS Project and Safety Evolution, to ensure we stay on top of our projects.
Collaboration: We build relationships and communicate early with our clients, subcontractors, and vendors to ensure joint success. We are prequalified and preferred with many agencies, utilities, and GCs.
Emergency Response: GRW can respond immediately to emergency landslides and rockfalls often caused by storms, floods, earthquakes, or gravity.
Frequently Asked Questions
A near miss with rockfall just occurred, what do I do?
First, secure the area and keep people and traffic away from the impact zone. Assess if additional debris can come down and notify your geotechnical engineer.
Contact a rockfall contractor to complete a rapid site assessment and temporary risk control measures as a permanent mitigation plan is put into place.
How early should we involve GRW in project planning?
As early as possible once rockfall hazards are identified or new cuts are being considered.
We add the most value when we can advise on access, staging, and practical mitigation options before designs are finalized and traffic or outage plans are locked in.
How does GRW handle differing ground conditions?
We expect ground conditions to vary on steep slopes and rock faces, and understand subsurface samples may not always be economical to provide.
When we encounter conditions that differ from assumptions, we document them, raise them quickly through RFIs or change notices, recommend means and methods modifications, and work with the owner and engineer to agree on scope and pricing adjustments.
Can GRW respond to emergencies?
Yes, we can!
We frequently mobilize quickly after rockfall or slope failures to secure the area, remove immediate hazards, and reopen access, then work with owners and engineers to transition into permanent engineered rockfall mitigation systems.
How does GRW work with our internal or contracted engineer of record?
We typically build to the engineer of record’s design, asking questions early about access, staging, and constructibility.
On many projects, we also support design-assist, providing field feedback and options so the final design can be built safely and efficiently in the terrain you actually have.
Does GRW offer design-build solutions?
Yes. When appropriate, we deliver design-build solutions in partnership with trusted geotechnical engineers so owners get a single, coordinated team for investigation, design, and construction. This approach works well on time-sensitive or complex projects where access, staging, and differing ground conditions need to be resolved quickly and turned into constructible, defensible engineered solutions.