New: Design Practices for Rock Slopes and Rockfall Management

Design Practices for Rock Slopes and Rockfall Management

Many US State departments of transportation (DOTs) have rock slopes in their inventory of geotechnical assets, and those that do also have to deal with rockfall. A new synthesis document from the TRB / National Academies surveys tries to summarize the current state of the practice in addressing these challenges.

The objective of this synthesis is to document current DOT practices for the design of rock slopes and rockfall mitigation systems. The information was gathered via a literature review and a detailed questionnaire sent to DOT geotechnical leads of each state DOT, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and the three regional offices of the Federal Lands Highway Division (FLHD) of the FHWA. Responses were provided by 49 DOTs and the 3 FLHD offices—a 94% and 100% response rate, respectively. Follow-up interviews with four state DOTs provided additional insight regarding design practice within their departments.

This document is sure to be a great resource for geohazard professionals around the world. Congrats to the lead authors from Landslide Technology, and all of the authors, reviewers, and survey respondents to help get this information out to practitioners. Download Design Practices for Rock Slopes and Rockfall Management from the National Academies.