"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.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $360000
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Contract Numbers:
69A3551747110
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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
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Performing Organizations:
University of Alaska Fairbanks
College of Engineering & Mines
P.O. Box 755960
Fairbanks, AK United States 99775-5960Oregon State University, Corvallis
Department of Civil Engineering
202 Apperson Hall
Corvallis, OR United States 97331-2302University 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: 20230215
- 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 6:52PM