Reinforced soil retaining walls’ working principle rely on compacted coarse grained embankment used with the reinforcement inside this fill, friction is produced permanent and durable composite material in between them. Reinforcement in the fill is made in geosynthetic (steel or plastic strips, geogrid or geotextiles) and provides tensile strength that does not have itself. Geotextiles have tensile strength unlike the soil. This is provided to strengthen the soil with increased tensile strength and deformation ability before the breakage.

Reinforced Soil Slopes are used frequently for fill bevel becoming steeper than 1 vertical: 2 horizontal in highway construction. In the circumstances, new slope is built with compacted backfill and geosynthetic reinforcement. Reinforced soil slopes have similar properties as the reinforced soil walls in many respects. Typical reinforced soil walls have an angle between 0-20 degrees at vertical, reinforced soil slopes have an angle between 45-60 degrees at vertical.