Abstract:Expansive soil is a kind of high plastic clay, which has the characteristics of water absorption swelling, water loss shrinkage and repeated swelling-shrinkage deformation, attenuation of water immersion bearing capacity, development of dry shrinkage cracks and so on. Taking a municipal engineering pile-plank retaining wall project in Ankang City, Shaanxi Province as an example, this paper calculates and studies the problems involved in the design and calculation of pile-plank retaining wall in expansive soil area, such as shear strength reduction of expansive soil, horizontal swelling force, residual sliding force, pile-plank retaining wall structure checking calculation and so on, so as to provide reference for the design and calculation of similar projects.