contours and available space may enable emplacement of the wall without major excavation in this particular example of the invention an excavation 23 is present and has a rear slope 24 and a bottom 26 which is below the level 27 of the ground or pavement which extends outward at the base of the wall 11 the excavation 23 may be broad enough to situate the columns 12 of header members 13 a distance outward from the rear slope 24 of the excavation if necessary to provide space for a broad roadway on top of the wall 11 or for other reasons the front portions of header members 13 extend out of compacted structural backfill 28 which fills the regions between the more rearward portions of the header members and which extends backward from the header members the front boundary 29 of the compacted backfill 28 is defined by upturned front ends of vertically spaced apart layers 31 of geosynthetic mesh reinforcement which extend within the backfill and which will hereinafter be described in more detail front boundary 29 of the compacted backfill is spaced apart from stretcher members 14 and a vertically continuous filling of relatively loose planting soil 32 is situated between the stretcher members 14 and the front backfill boundary 29 the previously described uptilted orientation of the stretcher members 14 leaves broad strips of planting soil 32 exposed at the successive tiers 16 of the wall 11 the term u201c structural backfill u201d as used herein and in the appended claims should be understood to refer to filler material having a high load bearing capacity and is typically compacted aggregate of the known type which is composed of gravel intermixed with smaller soil particles the term u201c planting soil u201d.