Abstract: Progressive collapses of tied-back excavations caused by partial failure of some anchors often occur. However, there are few studies on the mechanism of how partial failure evolves to global failure and how local failure rate influences the progressive collapse. In this study, anchor failure experiments of the tied-back excavation are designed to explore the load transfer path and rule in case of partial failure of anchors. The results indicate that anchor failure leads to an increase in the axial force of adjacent anchors due to stress redistribution in the surrounding soil and the retaining structures. Under slow failure conditions, stress redistribution in the soil and structure is more sufficient, resulting in a smaller load transfer coefficient for the remaining anchors. Moreover, anchors adjacent to the failure zone are prone to tensile fracture upon reaching their ultimate strength, while anchors farther away may experience pullout due to insufficient anchorage capacity as soil deformation progresses, thereby expanding the range of progressive collapse.