Construction or maintenance personnel and a geotechnical engineer narrowly avoided being a victim of a new landslide at the site of a landslide cleanup. They were attempting to clean up a landslide on the State Highway 2 in the Waioeka Gorge, New Zealand when spotters noticed the area becoming unstable. The workers were pulled back and had to ‘run for it’, but one worker was swept away by the slide while still in his excavator and two other excavators were partially engulfed. The man was able to safely get out of the cab of the excavator. [Source: Otago Daily Times Online News. Image: NewstalkZB]
Related Articles
Devil’s Slide Tunnel Update and First Attempts to Tame the Landslide
The Devil’s Slide Tunnel project is on schedule and on budget according to a news story at ABC7News.com from earlier in June. The video (shown after the break) has a few nice shots showing rock bolting, soil nailing at the portals, and the geologic mapping and laser scanning that happens at the tunnel face.
I also came across a very neat article about how the Ocean Shore Railroad Company was the first to try to cut into the slope along what is now PCH 1 at the Devil’s Slide back in the early 1900s. They were trying to connect the then rural farming community of Half-Moon Bay with San Francisco. The railroad fought the reoccurring landslide and serious rockfalls. Ocean Shore Railroad went bankrupt in 1922 and pulled up its rails, making room for the current highway. (Photo at left from halfmoonbaymemories.com)