Effective management of rock slopes requires knowledge of the location of all potentially unstable rock slopes and an indication of the level of risk posed to the infrastructure and user. Only then is it possible to prioritise and target future maintenance action. The lack of a coherent risk assessment and maintenance management strategy has also lead to the inability to compare the relative risks associated with different failure mechanisms and rock slopes. This has further prevented the optimum targeting and prioritisation of expenditure on rock slope maintenance. A pro-active approach is required to minimise the risk to transport infrastructure and users prior to incidents occurring, and to allow effective priority based budgeting of maintenance funds. A standard, repeatable and rapid method of rock slope risk assessment and a maintenance management strategy is required for such a pro-active approach. In 1993 TRL were commissioned by the Scottish Office Development Department (SODD) to develop a risk assessment system and maintenance management strategy for highway rock slopes. This research and development has now been completed successfully and the results implemented for the Scottish Office National Roads Directorate (NRD) in the Northwest Highlands. This paper outlines the philosophy behind the new rock slope risk assessment and maintenance systems. (A)
Samenvatting