A Platform for Proactive Risk-Based Slope Asset Management - Phase I

Abstract

Unstable slopes, including landslides, rock falls, and debris flows, present significant risk to safety and regional commerce, and present a chronic concern for highway managers. Due to the widespread spatial and temporal distribution of these hazards, most states, have, or are taking, measures to manage slopes along their highway alignments. However, given the physical nature of slopes along highway corridors, they pose a number of challenges when deciding where to allocate funds; from a system-wide asset management perspective. Slope assessment has traditionally been laborious and costly but altogether necessary due to potential consequences of a failure. Current best-practices for management to not necessarily facilitate proactive slope management -- identifying and remediation hazardous conditions before a failure occurs. The goal of this project is to develop a platform that will facilitate an objective and proactive programming of DOT resources for rock-slope assets within highway corridors. The platform developed in this project is intended to be a risk-based administrative tool that will enable highway owners to make informed decisions on how best to program resources related to rock-slope inspection and remediation.