Abstract: Taking the reinforced soil retaining wall(RSRW) of Heyuan-Longchuan Highway as the prototype,the structural characteristics of stepped RSRW were investigated by model tests.It was shown that when the soil pressure on the stepped RSRW was relatively small,its distribution form was zigzag,and would be affected evidently by unloading function of the step;the potential fracture surface of the stepped RSRW was obviously different from the 0.3H fracture surface proposed by the usual hypothesis,and would change with height-width ratio of the wall;finally,its deformation characteristics were different from the vertical RSRW with single step.