Contenido Rockfall: Characterization and Control

 Rockfall is an important ongoing socio-economic issue at many locations world-wide. Accelerating development in response to population growth and associated increased demands for energy, mining, forestry, agricultural and recreational activities has caused communities and civil infrastructure to expand onto marginal lands, where evaluations of potential rockfall hazards and appropriate countermeasures are often very difficult. At many locations on major transportation routes, degradation of rock exposures constructed 30-40 years ago has increased rockfall-induced traffic disruptions, accidents, and injuries.
     Demands for improved rockfall evaluation and mitigation measures have encouraged adoption of new technologies that support new approaches to both evaluation and quantification of rockfall hazards and provision of rockfall protection. However, information concerning these technologies is not widely available to many personnel who could utilize it. Faced with these concerns, the Transportation Research Board (TRB) is publishing in 2012 an extensively researched book that is devoted to all aspects of rockfall characterization, analysis, and mitigation.

The book has 18 chapters authored by a dozen internationally-recognized rockfall experts. The book addresses the current state of knowledge of rockfall processes, the currently available procedures for rockfall investigation, and the regulatory and economic climate under which rockfall investigations and corrective actions are typically undertaken. The five chapters in Part 1 cover topics related to the identification and evaluation of rockfall hazards. The five chapters in Part 2 collectively define the entire rockfall investigation process. The six chapters in Part 3 begin with an overview of rockfall mitigation options, including definitions of engineered versus non-engineered solutions and discussions of important criteria affecting the selection of a mitigation option. Five additional chapters describe each of the major mitigation options in turn. Chapter 17 and 18 in Part 4 discuss how various maintenance or monitoring activities significantly reduce the risk associated with rockfall and improve public safety and the importance of rockfall-management programs, based on experience by the Washington State Department of Transportation, respectively.

The book includes a DVD that contains numerous video clips of individual rockfall field tests and several longer historical movies showing rockfall field activities. Appendix B describes the contents of the Rockfall DVD.

Although rockfall events along transportation facilities are stressed, most of the discussions and examples in this book apply equally to any rockfall characterization and control situation. Therefore, despite the narrow range of much of its exemplary material, this volume will be useful for anyone whose practice includes evaluation of rockfall hazards.  The text has been written and organized to appeal to a diverse audience, including:

Transportation engineers responsible for rockfall investigations throughout the world,

Students in geoscience and geotechnical fields with an interest in rockfall, and

Researchers needing a definitive source for rockfall investigation and mitigation procedures.

Many students and researchers desire comprehensive references to the literature and discussions of case studies, state-of-the-art techniques, and research directions. Accordingly, considerable effort was expended in identifying suitable literature citations and in providing some discussion of recent developments. However, references to specialized and hard-to-obtain sources were avoided as much as possible.

CONTENTS

- Preface
- Metric Conversion Table

PART 1- RECOGNITION OF ROCKFALL HAZARD

- Introduction

- Rockfall and Transportation
- Intended Audience
- Definitions and Restrictions
- Historic Information on Rockfalls
- Overview of Report
- References

Rockfall Types and Causes

- Introduction
- Primary Elements Controlling Rockfall
- Types of Rock Slope Failures
- Rockfall Causes
- References

Rockfall Hazard Rating Systems

- Introduction
- Terminology
- Benefits of Implementing a Rockfall Rating System
- Development of Rockfall Hazard Rating Systems
- Description of the RHRS
- Importance of participation by Maintenance Personnel
- Rockfall Rating System Database
- Limitations of Rockfall Hazard Rating Systems
- References

Implementation of Rock Slope Management Systems

- Introduction
- Survey of Rock Slope Management Systems in 20