3D stability analyses of Skjeggestad landslide

Abstract

In 2015, a sudden landslide caused the failure of one of the pillars supporting the southern lanes of the Skjeggestad Bridge near Mofjellbekken on Expressway E18. The transportation corridor was closed to traffic for 17 months. To investigate the cause of the failure, an assessment of slope stability is necessary. Usually, limit equilibrium analysis of the middle two-dimensional (2D) cross-section is modelled. The Skjeggestad landslide geometry was not close to a 2D case, and three-dimensional (3D) modelling is more appropriate to analyse the slope. The paper calculates the stability of the slope that failed and compares the results of 3D finite element analyses with classical limit equilibrium and 2D finite element analyses. The analyses were run in the Novapoint GeoSuite Stability software. The soil parameters, including their statistical values, were obtained with the GeoSuite Soil Data Interpretation (SDI) module. A companion paper at this conference analyses the pillar neighbouring the landslide with the module GeoSuite Piles. The paper illustrates the importance of 3D effects in a stability analysis. The results of the analyses also illustrate the need to include appropriate consideration of any strain-softening and spatial variation of soil properties.