Unstable Slope Management Program for Federal Land Management Agencies
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UNSTABLE SLOPE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM FOR FEDERAL LAND MANAGEMENT AGENCIES Publication No. FHWA-FLH-19-002 January 2019 FOREWORD The Federal Lands Highway Division (FLH) of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) promotes development and deployment of applied research and technology applicable to solving transportation related issues on federal lands and with our state transportation partners. The FLH provides technology delivery, innovative solutions, recommended best practices, and related information and knowledge sharing to federal agencies, tribal governments, and other offices within the FHWA. The objective of this study was to provide rapid geotechnical assessment, evaluation, and management methodologies to assist Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMAs) and lower annual daily traffic transportation departments and agencies among our state transportation partners to manage their unstable rock and soil slopes. Management tools include condition assessments that consist of hazard and risk evaluation, digital field data collection applications and an Internet-based searchable database, examples of performance measures, and scalable and flexible cost/benefit and quantitative risk assessment prioritization techniques as part of this research and development project. _____________________________________ Timothy G. Hess, P.E. Associate Administrator for Federal Lands Federal Highway Administration Federal Lands Highway Notice This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of the information contained in this document. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation. The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers' names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document. Quality Assurance Statement The FHWA provides high-quality information to serve Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public understanding. Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of its information. FHWA periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement. Technical Report Documentation Page 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No. FHWA-FLH-19-002 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date Unstable Slope Management Program for Federal Land January 2019 Management Agencies 6. Performing Organization Code 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Darren Beckstrand, David Stanley, Paul Thompson, Eric Bilderback, Mike Wittie, Upulee Kanewala, Eli Cuelho, and Douglas A. Anderson 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) Western Transportation Institute PO Box 174250 11. Contract or Grant No. Bozeman, Montana 59717-4250 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered Federal Highway Administration Final Report 610 East 5th Street 14. Sponsoring Agency Code Vancouver, WA 98661 15. Supplementary Notes This project was funded under several programs. Phase I was funded under the FHWA Federal Lands Highway Coordinated Technology Implementation Program (CTIP). Phase II was funded by Federal Lands Planning and Programming (FLPP), Geohazards, Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change, Technical Transfer Funds from the FHWA Resource Center – Office of Technical Services, the National Park Service Geologic Resources Division, the Oregon and Washington Region of the Bureau of Land Management, and by Region 6/10 of the United States Forest Service. 16. Abstract The primary objective of this research project was to develop an unstable slope management program (USMP) based on transportation asset management (TAM) for use by multiple federal land management agencies (FLMAs) and lower traffic volume transportation departments and agencies among our state transportation partners to manage their unstable rock and soil slopes. TAM uses economic and engineering analysis to create a process for maintaining, preserving, rehabilitating, and replacing assets to maintain them in a state of good repair over their life cycle and for the minimum practical cost. The USMP was also founded on performance management and risk management principles. The objective was in accordance with generally accepted transportation asset management principles and with recent federal highway legislation (MAP-21 and FAST Act) and their supporting regulations. The scope of work for this phase of the USMP project included the development of a standardized rating tool, a database with searching and reporting capabilities, and a GIS-based map to display unstable slopes and rockfalls along transportation corridors. As part of the development process, examples of performance metrics for geotechnical assets were established, an assortment of scalable and flexible benefit/cost analysis procedures for differing levels of available information were developed for prioritizing slope work, and a quantitative risk analysis procedure was developed to support further risk assessment needs for some transportation partners. In addition, the research plan included tasks to create maintenance tracking forms, forms for recording new geotechnical events, and mobile software applications to conduct rapid field inventory and inspection work using hand-held devices. Final tasks associated with the project centered on the creation of various training tools and educational materials for classroom and field training sessions at several locations around the U.S. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement unstable slope management, geotechnical asset No restriction. This document is available to the management, rock slopes, soil slopes, geotechnical public from the sponsoring agency at the website engineering, quantitative risk analysis http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/engineering/geotech 19. Security Classification. (of this report) 20. Security Classification (of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price Unclassified Unclassified 177 Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authorized SI* (MODERN METRIC) CONVERSION FACTORS APPROXIMATE CONVERSIONS TO SI UNITS Symbol When You Know Multiply By To Find Symbol LENGTH in inches 25.4 millimeters mm ft feet 0.305 meters m yd yards 0.914 meters m mi miles 1.61 kilometers km AREA in2 square inches 645.2 square millimeters mm2 ft2 square feet 0.093 square meters m2 yd2 square yard 0.836 square meters m2 ac acres 0.405 hectares ha mi2 square miles 2.59 square kilometers km2 VOLUME fl oz fluid ounces 29.57 milliliters mL gal gallons 3.785 liters L ft3 cubic feet 0.028 cubic meters m3 yd3 cubic yards 0.765 cubic meters m3 NOTE: volumes greater than 1000 L shall be shown in m3 MASS oz ounces 28.35 grams g lb pounds 0.454 kilograms kg T short tons (2000 lb) 0.907 megagrams (or "metric ton") Mg (or "t") TEMPERATURE (exact degrees) °F Fahrenheit 5 (F-32)/9 Celsius °C or (F-32)/1.8 ILLUMINATION fc foot-candles 10.76 lux lx fl foot-Lamberts 3.426 candela/m2 cd/m2 FORCE and PRESSURE or STRESS lbf poundforce 4.45 newtons N lbf/in2 poundforce per square 6.89 kilopascals kPa APPROXIMATE CONVERSIONS FROM SI UNITS Symbol When You Know Multiply By To Find Symbol LENGTH mm millimeters 0.039 inches in m meters 3.28 feet ft m meters 1.09 yards yd km kilometers 0.621 miles mi AREA mm2 square millimeters 0.0016 square inches in2 m2 square meters 10.764 square feet ft2 m2 square meters 1.195 square yards yd2 ha hectares 2.47 acres ac km2 square kilometers 0.386 square miles mi2 VOLUME mL milliliters 0.034 fluid ounces fl oz L liters 0.264 gallons gal m3 cubic meters 35.314 cubic feet ft3 m3 cubic meters 1.307 cubic yards yd3 MASS g grams 0.035 ounces oz kg kilograms 2.202 pounds lb Mg (or "t") megagrams (or "metric 1.103 short tons (2000 lb) T TEMPERATURE (exact degrees) °C Celsius 1.8C+32 Fahrenheit °F ILLUMINATION lx lux 0.0929 foot-candles fc cd/m2 candela/m2 0.2919 foot-Lamberts fl FORCE and PRESSURE or STRESS N newtons 0.225 poundforce lbf kPa kilopascals 0.145 poundforce per square inch lbf/in2 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 Report Organization .................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2. Statement of Work ..................................................................................................... 5 Background ................................................................................................................................. 5 Research Plan .............................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 3. Unstable Slope Management Program for FLMAs .............................................. 12 Geotechnical Asset Management .............................................................................................. 12 Defining Geotechnical Assets ................................................................................................... 13 Steps to Managing Unstable Slopes .......................................................................................... 14 Chapter 4. How to Conduct Field Ratings................................................................................ 27 Unstable Slope Rating