"The Long-Term Effect of Earthquakes: Using Geospatial Solutions to Evaluate Heightened Rockfall Activity on Critical Lifelines"

Rockfall is a chronic slope hazard along transportation corridors throughout North America, where tens of millions of dollars are spent annually on rock slope maintenance and mitigation works (Turner and Schuster 2012). The problem is particularly acute throughout much of the Pacific Northwest (PNW). In this region, the combination of topographic relief, high rates of precipitation, and elevated seismicity create a setting where rockfall is widespread and pervasive. Rockfall hazards result in frequent road closures and lane restrictions, damage to infrastructure, and loss-of-life and injuries to motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians. Thus, rockfall directly impacts driver safety, mobility, and accessibility for many critical lifelines across the PNW. These impacts are amplified by moderate- to large-magnitude seismic events— both during and long after shaking. Seismic activity poses one of the most significant threats to nearly all parts of the PNW (Goldfinger et al. 2012, Frankel et al. 2018). Moreover, it has been shown that earthquakes may dramatically increase rockfall activity (Massey et al. 2014), both during shaking and the months and years after an earthquake. This current PacTrans proposal will analyze the datasets collected from PacTrans funded previous efforts, and to answer the following research questions: (1) What was the “baseline” rockfall activity at the study sites, and how did this vary (if at all) with fluctuations in local climate conditions? (2) What are the mechanisms and factors that govern rockfall both during and after the event; how, if at all, do these vary from the pre-earthquake activity? (3) How soon after the earthquake does rockfall activity and magnitude return to baseline conditions? (4) How is this influenced by short-term local weather conditions during this period of “recovery”? Answering these questions is critical for transportation agencies to plan for and allocate resources optimally to address maintenance needs for rock debris removal and slope mitigation, thus ensuring efficient mobility of the transportation network.

Record URL:

Language

English

Project

Status: Active
Funding: $360000
Contract Numbers:
69A3551747110
Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590
Managing Organizations:
Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium

University of Washington
More Hall Room 112
Seattle, WA United States 98195-2700
Project Managers:
Darrow, Margaret M
Performing Organizations:
University of Alaska Fairbanks

College of Engineering & Mines
P.O. Box 755960
Fairbanks, AK United States 99775-5960

Oregon State University, Corvallis

Department of Civil Engineering
202 Apperson Hall
Corvallis, OR United States 97331-2302

University of Washington, Seattle

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
201 More Hall, Box 352700
Seattle, WA United States 98195-2700
Principal Investigators:
Wartman, Joseph

Leschinsky, Ben

Olsen, Michael
Start Date: 20200916
Expected Completion Date: 20220915
Actual Completion Date: 0
USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

TRT Terms: Climate; Earthquakes; Evaluation and assessment; Geospatial data; Rockfalls; Weather conditions
Geographic Terms: Pacific Northwest
Subject Areas: Geotechnology; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

Accession Number: 01763326
Record Type: Research project
Source Agency: Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium
Contract Numbers: 69A3551747110
Files: UTC, RIP
Created Date: Feb 3 2021 3:02PM