The cantilever sheet pile walls should be driven to a sufficient depth into the ground to become fixed as a vertical cantilever in resisting the lateral active earth pressure (USS Design manual 1984). The lateral support for cantilever walls comes from passive pressure exerted on the embedded portion, so the penetration depths can be quite high, and that will result excessive stresses. The distribution of earth pressure is different for sheet piling in granular soils and cohesive soils as described below.