Landslide Covers Freeway, Taiwan

Written by Randy Post   FROM http://www.geoprac.net

Thursday, 29 April 2010 13:09

Last Sunday, April 25, 2010 a major landslide covered a 300-m plus stretch of Taiwan’s National Freeway No. 3, killing at least 4 people and burying three cars and destroying a bridge. The estimated volume of the slide is 200,000 cubic meters (262,000 C.Y.). [Photo by Reuters] The failure mode appears to be a dip-slope type failure, possibly as shallow as 20-degrees and according to the MSNBC article, the failure was preceded by “days of rain” so the slope was likely at least partially saturated. From Google Earth photos seen at Dave’s Landslide Blog, it appears the failure occurred on an engineered cut slope. And a Taiwan News article indicated that there were some kind of anchors stabilizing the slope, but there were comments regarding possible corrosion and age of the ground anchors. Likely the investigation into the failure will center around this issue.