Remedial Measures against Combined Debris Flows and Rockfalls Hazards along Part of a Mountainous Road, Western Saudi Arabia
Bahaaeldin Sadagah
Prof. Bahaaeldin Sadagah, Department of Engineering and Environmental Geology, King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Manuscript received on March 03, 2015. | Revised Manuscript received on March 09, 2015. | Manuscript published on March 15, 2015. | PP: 6-12 | Volume-3 Issue-4, March 2015. | Retrieval Number: D0810033415/2015©BEIESP
Open Access | Ethics and Policies | Cite | Mendeley
© The Authors. Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Construction of the mountain roads in western Saudi Arabia is one of the most challenging missions. Many problems faced before, during and after construction of the roads. Inhomogeneous rock masses, structural settings, steep slopes, sharp cliffs and geomorphological constraints are the obvious obstacles to safe mountainous roads. Al-Hada mountain road is almost 22 km long subjected to frequent rockfalls, usually after rainfalls. A huge accumulation of debris formed due to slope failures and rockfalls through years, dropping from almost 100 m above the highway alignment. This accumulation started to move soon due to rainfall, stabilized by benches and shotcrete. The RocFall computer program utilized to analyze the event regarding modeling and mitigation. Study on the debris content properties performed. Parameters such as rock blocks size, initiation point, kinetic energy, and geomorphology are the major factors determining the destructive effect of the combined rockfall and debris flows events on the road. Debris flows barriers and rockfall meshes are the remedial measures recommended according to the site constraints and modeling process.
Keywords: Al-Hada road, rockfalls, debris flows, rainfalls.