Assessment of Rockfall Hazard along the Road Cut Slopes of State Highway-72, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Rockfall is a major problem in high hill slopes and rocky mountainous regions and construction of highways at these rockfall prone areas often require stable slopes. The causes of rockfall are presence of discontinuities, high angle cut slopes, heavy rainfall, and unplanned slope geometry etc. Slope geometry is one of the most triggering parameters for rockfall, when there are variations in slope angle along the profile of slope. The Present study involves rockfall hazard assessment of road cut slopes for <st1:chmetcnv unitname="km" sourcevalue="15" hasspace="True" negative="False" numbertype="1" tcsc="0" w:st="on">15 km</st1:chmetcnv> distance starting from Mahabaleshwar town along State Highway-72 (SH-72). The vertical to subvertical cut slopes are prone to instability due to unfavorable orientation of discontinuities in slope face of weathered and altered basaltic rockmass. The predominant type of instability has been found as wedge type failure involving medium to large size blocks. In order to investigate the existing stability conditions, analyses were carried out at two locations under different slope conditions. The kinematic analysis was performed using stereographic projection method. Roc</span><span lang="EN-US">k</span><span lang="EN-US">Fall 4.0 numerical simulator software was used to calculate the maximum bounce heights, total kinetic energies and translational velocities of the falling rockmass blocks, and a comparative analysis is presented with increasing the mass of blocks and height of the slope. The result of numerical analysis shows that varying slope angle geometry creates more problems as compared to the mass of blocks in the scenario of rockfall.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span> </p

Rockfall risk assessment for pilgrims along the circumambulatory pathway, Saptashrungi Gad Temple, Vani, Nashik Maharashtra, India

“…In past, there were reports of rockfall in the state of Maharashtra and property damage was also reported (Ansari et al 2012Ahmad et al 2013). The Saptashrungi Gad hill attracts large numbers of visitors due to its natural beauty as well as religious purpose.…”

Instability investigations of basaltic soil slopes along SH-72, Maharashtra, India

“…These high hill regions are near to Mahabaleshwar town and most of the road cut slopes have steep angle slopes. A rockfall study in high hill rock slopes of the same area have been done (Ahmad et al 2013) and found the major cause of rockfall in this area was due to heavy rainfall during rainy season and nearly parallel joints to the slope face. The area was also troubled due to formation of basaltic soils, which creates failure of slopes.…”

“…47G/9 NE, allocated by the Survey of India (SOI). The national highway, NH-17, provides an arterial link to Mahabaleshwar connecting it to the state highway, SH-72, after it stretches from Mumbai to Poladpur and finally the same highway (SH-72) connects to Mahabaleshwar (figure 1) (Ahmad 2012;Ahmad et al 2013).…”

Slope Stability Assessment of Saptashrungi Gad Temple, Vani, Nashik, Maharashtra, India—A Numerical Approach

“…In present time, n-number of slope stability analysis tools are available for rock slope as well as rock-soil mixed slopes; these range from limit equilibrium technique (simple infinite slope) to sophisticated couple finite distinct codes or couple distinct element codes. However, these slope stability methods can be discussed under three categories such as conventional, numerical and probabilistic [1] [2] [6]- [10].…”

“…The failure of these slopes occurs whenever an imbalance takes place between shear strength and shear stress in the ground and causes enormous loss of life as well as properties. The triggering factors for slope failure could be linked to heavy precipitation, weathering conditions, seismic disturbances and human activities [1]- [5].…”