Qualitative stability assessment of cut slopes along the National Highway-05 around Jhakri area, Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

Several deformation phases in tectonically active Himalayas have rendered the rock masses very complex in terms of structure, lithology and degree of metamorphism. Again, anthropogenic activities such as roads, tunnels and other civil engineering constructions have led to a state of disequilibrium which in many cases, results in failure of rock masses. National Highway-05 around Jhakri area in India is a major connecting route to the China border in the hilly terrains of the state Himachal Pradesh. It cuts through the Himalayan rocks and has a hazardous history of landslides destroying human lives and interrupting communication very frequently. As a contribution towards the mitigation process, a study has been carried out along the highway to analyse kinematic stability and qualitative estimation of rock mass condition through rock mass classification systems. The kinematic analysis shows that the rock slopes are prone to planar and wedge failure. Rock mass rating for most of the locations lies between 7 and 34, representing a poor rock mass quality (Class IV), whereas slope mass rating is more disperse and ranges from 11 to 52 for most of the slopes (Class III, IV and V).

Application of rock mass classification to evaluate rock properties, NW Himalayas, Pakistan

“…RMR values suggests that the rocks along road corridor have fair to qood quality as compared to our study (poor to fair). Kundu et al (2017), performed stability analysis in Himachal Pradesh, India and found that RMR depicts poor rock mass quality which are somewhat in line with our investigations.…”

Study of the Conditions for Construction of the Haulage Berm in the Deposit Ledger-Wall

“…The obtained plan, which reflects the zoning on slope angle of the underlying rock, will allow to quickly trace the axes of technological roads and by the estimated parameters to construct roads for actual engineering and geological conditions [9,10,11].…”

Stability appraisal of road cut slopes along a strategic transportation route in the Himalayas, Uttarakhand, India

“…The Geological Strength Index (GSI) is a widely used rock mass classification system that is estimated by visual inspection in the field. As it does not consider the orientation of the joint, it indicates the strength of the rock mass [22]. It is a unique rock mass classification system that relates several rock mass strength and deformation parameters to a generalized Hoek and Brown failure criterion.…”

“…The major pitfalls are inadequate understanding of the underlying mechanism of slope failure and the interplay of causative factors of slope failures. However, recently, ample pioneering work has been done by many researchers employing conventional and numerical simulation approaches, and a much better understanding of rock slope engineering practices has been achieved [13,14,18,20,22,23,38,50,51,55,61]. In different sections of the Uttarakhand Himalayas, noteworthy studies on slope stability have been carried out by various researchers and organizations, which have provided reasonable and rational insights into environmental fragility, particularly in areas traversed by major and minor tectonic structures [18,20,52,54,60,67,69].…”