Why Is Slope Stability Important During The Design Of Hill Roads?

Slope stability ideally refers to the total stress a slope can endure before it collapses. Understanding slope stability when constructing a road can result in movements, landslides, and potential injuries. Hence all civil and geotechnical engineers should always perform slope analysis (also referred to as Landslide Hazard Analysis) to help evaluate the overall strength of the soil. Professionals can use their findings to help with their future stabilization efforts. 

Assessing the Stability of a Slope

Professional civil engineers need slope monitoring services on the following premise: if the slope is stable enough to prevent any movement, it’s considered stable. However, if the action tends to be too strong for the hill, it’s regarded as unstable. You need to factor several elements into determining if a slope is stable. Slope monitoring service professionals analyze these factors via a series of tests. The four most critical factors include

•         Material strength: It is the material’s overall strength used to create the slope.
  
•         Relief: The total height difference amongst the slope’s terrain.
•         Vegetation: Vegetation and plants covering or/and surrounding the slope area
•         Soil Water Content: Total amount of water in the soil surrounding the slope area

Another factor that you must keep in mind while hiring people to provide slope monitoring services is whether they are interested in finding long-term stability, short-term stability, or both. In both these cases, they will have to evaluate the soil and determine if there is any potential for sliding or slippage. When analyzing long-term stability for the slope, professionals must also consider several factors like 

• potential environmental events that may alter or rupture the soil 
• the possible quality of the soil in the future – say, in another five to ten years 

Top Techniques Used For Slope Stabilization!

There are various techniques that slope monitoring services use when achieving stabilization, some of which include:

•         Soil nailing: Here, stabilization is achieved by using steel nails that help add support to the infrastructure and the slope.
•         Anchor Blocking: Anchor blocking is when you strategically place blocks across the slope to help reduce any movement of sliding soil.
•         Micro-pile Slide Stabilization System: Professionals use concrete beams, micro piles, and sometimes even anchors to achieve excellent stabilization when performing this kind of slope analysis service. Engineers place a concrete beam inside the ground with these systems and drill micro piles into it from various angles. After completion, the connected micro piles offer ideal stability to protect the infrastructure from incurring any damages if it encounters any sliding forces.
•         Gabions: In this method, engineers attempt to provide stability by using walls (just like blocks) built using the soil. These walls can temporarily hold the structure for stability and rehabilitation.

3D slope analysis is another recent trend used to achieve and maintain slope stability. Though it’s not always required, 3D slope analysis has become a unique component of slope monitoring services as it offers engineers the ability to observe and analyze the current state of the slope, unlike 2D, which ideally relies on assumptions as an effort to simplify the process. 3D slope analysis can also help you manage much more complicated and potentially unknown factors. 

Contact G3Soilworks for Professional Insight Today!

Slope stability has become a critical part of our country’s expanding infrastructure. By professionally calculating the strength of a slope, civil engineers can now create innovative and beautiful roads, and infrastructure in areas and regions deemed unsafe to build anything in, in the past. Call our G3Soilworks team at 714-694-3068 for more information.