Abstract:The horizontal displacement calculation of retaining wall pile foundation is an important link in the design of retaining wall in the water conservancy and waterway engineering on the soft soil foundation in Shanghai. The commonly used m method has many limitations in practice. In a river excavating project on site of Shanghai, Two methods of m method and finite element method are used to verify the displacement cause and calculate the final displacement. The result shows that according to the recommended value of m value in different current specifications, the results are quite different. The comparison of the results by the finite element method and m method can shows that the influence effect of geological conditions on displacement by finite element method is close to that calculated by m method in accordance with Design Standards for Foundation and Design Standards for Flood Control Wall Engineering. However, the cumulative horizontal displacement of the wall top calculated by the finite element method is larger than that calculated by the m method.