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Slope Stability and Landslide Repairs
The stability of a slope depends on the driving forces, resisting forces, and critical failure surface. The stability requirements depend on design codes for permanent and temporary slopes and must consider both short-term and long-term conditions. Representative parameters are determined based on subsurface exploration and geologic models and geotechnical analyses are then performed for fill and cut slopes using the rocscience Slide2 computer program. In order to satisfy global slope stability, our design recommendations include details to identify areas of undercut, slope benching, and backfill material criteria. In certain applications where lateral space constraints dictate the need for a steep slope, the use of rock embankments, Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil (GRS) slopes, and soil-nail reinforced slopes may be recommended.
We also provide emergency services in the event of landslides, slope failures, and instabilities that impact roadways, commercial, industrial, and residential properties. Often, there are triggering events in the form of a heavy rainfall event or nearby excavation that initiate a failure to occur. In these instances, a thorough site reconnaissance is performed to identify visual observations of ground movement and surface waters along with other important features that may create constraints for the construction of treatment alternatives. After subsurface information is obtained, a geologic model is developed to characterize the most probable failure mechanism in order to back-calculate the soil strength parameters using a marginal factor of safety. In order to repair a landslide, the use of deep foundation elements may be installed as shear reinforcement, the slope geometry may be modified, or the selection of an embankment treatment similar to those used for steep slopes (rock embankment, GRS slopes, soil nails with a slope mesh) are utilized.