Refused/bridged sheet pile walls

[Fynch]

Hello,

I'm very new to retaining sheet pile walls. I'm assuming that if a pile refuses or bridged over a utility for example that the force is shared between the longer piles on either side? Or is this not exactly the case?
If it is the case, if they're not strong enough to take the additional loading, do you increase pile thickness or the depth? Or both?

What about if you can't change the thickness or depth because you have already installed the sheet piles?

I know this is going back to basics but I'm a little lost by it all.

Thanks

 

[GC_Hopi]

You have a few options: 1) Use a horizontal steel member above grade to share the load across multiple sheets. 2) Replace the backfill with concrete or slurry to reduce the lateral loading 3) Drive deeper sheets behind the problem area to take the load. 4) Install tiebacks of some sort to reduce the stress via changing the load path