TSB Newsletter Volume 6, Issue 2, December 2007
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TECHNICAL STANDARDS BRANCH VOLUME 6, Issue 2, December 2007 Editor’s Remarks The December Newsletter contains articles This newsletter also contains wishes on Highway Ditch Erosion Remediation, for a safe and Happy Holiday Season. Geotechnical Conferences, Recommended Guidelines for Traffic Control Devices, Usage May the coming year be filled of the Alberta Infrastructure and with good health, prosperity, and peace Transportation New Products List, Alberta for you and your friends and loved ones. Infrastructure and Transportation Goes Florescent on Select Traffic Warning Signs, and Technology Transfer/\Technical Training. Allan Kwan Editor-in-Chief All of us in Technical Standards Branch look forward to working with all in the New Year. Tricia Hurry Roger Skirrow………….………Ron Stoski Associate Editors IN THIS ISSUE Highway Ditch Erosion Remediation.................................................................................... 2 Geotechnical Conferences ...................................................................................................... 5 Recommended Guidelines for Traffic Control Devices....................................................... 6 Use of Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation New Products List ............................. 6 Alberta Goes Florescent on Select Traffic Warning Signs……………………………….. 9 Technology Transfer // \\ Technical Training.…………………………………….……….10 1 \ Highway Ditch Erosion Remediation The gully erosion along south ditch was a result of the Hwy 986:01 Daishowa East Hill steep ditch bed gradient, erodible soil type, large North of the Town of Peace River catchment area and frequent intense rainfall and snowmelt conditions. Erosion of the south ditch was Fred Cheng aggressive and progressive, acting to deepen, widen Geotechnical and Materials and lengthen the erosion gully. Additional background This project was presented by the author at the 2007 information and photos can be found under geohazard Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA), site PH7, located on the INFTRA website at http://aicm/Content/doctype372/production/PH7.htm . Alberta Chapter Fall Tour - Peace River Tour, on September 20, 2007. There were about 150 conference participants, primarily environmental practitioners and consultants (plant ecologists, fish biologists, planners) involved with reclamation and conservation in the mine and oil and gas industries, as well as government regulators, and 40 students and faculty from Lakeland College, Vermillion. Background There is active erosion along the south ditch of Hwy 986 along the approach to BF81239, east of Daishowa Pulp Mill, north of the Town of Peace River. Thurber Engineering Ltd was retained by AIT to undertake the Severely Eroded South Highway Ditch annual inspection and monitoring of geohazard sites in the Peace River area. Over the past several years the monitoring team has observed rapidly occurring, Remediation severe erosion and deterioration of the south ditch. During the remediation design process, the 850m south These conditions jeopardize the safety of the travelling ditch was identified as an ideal test section when public and negatively affect the environment. Although considering the ditch grade and soil condition the ditch was regraded several times the erosion uniformity. A project was initiated to install eight (8) problems soon returned. Permanent remediation work different ditch liner products. Some of these products to repair the south ditch erosion was recommended. are listed on the AIT Products List and BMPs in the Erosion Observations of South Ditch department’s Design Guidelines for Erosion and Sediment Control for Highways. Four (4) of these liner The ditch erosion stretched for 850m along the south products have never been used by AIT so this test site highway ditch (7% grade). The erosion gully varied provides an opportunity for side-by-side comparison. from 0.1 to 2.2m in depth and from 0.4 to 15m in In addition, the severe ditch grade with test the width. At the west end of the site the ditch entered a performance boundaries of the remaining four small settling basin, beyond which the ditch flow was products. The re-constructed ditch will be monitored redirected across the highway through a centreline over a number of years to assess the effectiveness of culvert that carries the flow into another deeply each lining under such a harsh environment. The scoured gully which eventually flowed into to a performance results and associated cost/benefit marshy pond north of the highway. Photos of typical analysis will be used when considering repairs at ditch erosion conditions follow. similar sites within Alberta Cost of repairs for this project was about $1.1 million. Construction work was awarded to Core Energy Solutions (a Nabors Co.) of Grande Prairie, and Project Design and Management to Thurber Engineering Ltd. Work started on July 24, 2007 and was completed on October 22, 2007. Construction was interrupted for several weeks due to wet weather. Severely Eroded South Highway Ditch 2 Permanent Ditch Liners 3. Interlocking Concrete Blocks – Larfarge Mini-Slabs II. Concrete blocks are placed in a tight interlocked manner on The south ditch was filled and graded to a trapezoidal a sand and non-woven geotextile bedding. Voids and spaces cross-section with typical 4H:1V side slopes and a are filled with sand or gravel. 3.5m bottom width. Each of the eight permanent ditch liners was placed on a 100 m slope length and 10 m slope width. Adjoining liners were tightly joined to prevent undercutting at the joint location. This was done by tucking the upper ends of the downstream liners under the bottom ends of the upstream liners. The liners are, going from upstream (uphill) to downstream (downhill) area as follows: 1. Pillow Concrete Mattress – HydrotexTM Fabric Forms. Fabric forms are placed on the ditch and filled with concrete to form a hard and durable ditch bed. Concrete Blocks 4. Gabion Mattress – Maccaferri Gabion Mattress. Galvanized and PVC coated wire gabion mattresses filled with cobble sized gravel. This is a proven ditch armoring technique. Pillow Concrete 2. Cable Concrete Mattress – Alberta Wilbert CC35. Concrete blocks are made of high strength concrete that are joined together by flexible stainless steel cable in a regular pattern to produce a flexible mattress. Gabion Mats and Site Tour 5. Cellular Confinement System – Presto Geo-web. They are lightweight, expandable high density polyethylene panels that are opened to form a honeycomb mattress. They are placed and filled with granular fill. Chain Concrete Geo-web Mat 3 6. Canal Liner – Coletanche ES Geomembrane. It is a 8. Rolled Erosion Control Products (RECPs) - Vmax3 C350. modified bitumen impregnated geomembrane that has been This is a composite permanent Turf Reinforcement Mat reinforced with a non-woven geotextile. It is used in (TRM) made of a biodegradable material (coconut coir) environmental protection and hydraulic applications. It is sandwiched in synthetic nettings used for permanent mechanical and chemical resistant and waterproofing. protection of disturbed soils at slopes and channels. It is seeded and grass is expected to catch. Coletanche Canal Liner TRM C350 Mat TM 7. Compost Sock – Filtrexx Channel Soxx. Compost is the controlled biological decomposition of organic material Conclusion under aerobic conditions (for this project compost derived from wood by-products is used). It is seeded and grass is Installation of the 8 liners on the south ditch, and the expected to catch. cross highway culvert and ancillary work in the north side was successfully completed. Since some of these liner products have not been used by INFTRA on highway projects, periodic performance monitoring will be done. Successful products will be introduced to other regions where severe erosion has occurred. A cost/benefit assessment will also be undertaken to determine which products provide the best value. Acknowledgement Thank you to staff from the following groups who assisted in the conference presentation and Site Tour: Peace Region and Edmonton AIT, Thurber Engineering, Core Energy Solutions and CLRA Alberta Chapter. Compost Channel Soxx If there are questions regarding this article please contact: Fred Cheng: by email: [email protected] or phone: 780-415-1039. 4 Geotechnical Conferences First North American Landslide Conference, Vail, Colorado, June 3-8, 2007 By Roger Skirrow A theme specific conference sponsored by TRB, Geotechnical and Material FHWA and various learned societies was held at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort & Spa. About 400 people from government agencies that deal with Canadian Geotechnical Society/International landslides, geotechnical academia, consultants, Association of Hydrogeologists Conference, industry specialists and exhibitors attended the five day Ottawa, Ontario. October 21-24, 2007 conference. Technical presentations were a combination of invited keynote addresses in the About 600 people from geotechnical and mornings and about 120 technical paper presentations hydrogeological academia, consultants, government, in the afternoons. Topics included: industry specialists and exhibitors attended the three day conference. Technical presentations were offered MONITORING & MANAGEMENT OF SLOPES & in 6 concurrent technical sessions, with about 320 LANDSLIDES papers delivered in rapid fire 12 minutes presentations. Landslides and Society: an Overview of Topics included: Buried Structures; Cold Region Landslide Processes Engineering; Computer