The scascoli case study: Design and safety measures for a landslide area

Abstract

The Scascoli Gorge (Bologna - Italy) is bounded by very steep slopes. The right side of the valley is dominated by the Large Scascoli Landslide (20,000,000 m3). The left valley floor of the Savena stream is flanked by vertical sandstone walls 40-80 m high, and steep slopes of heavily fractured marl-sandstone multilayers. The most important rockfall known occurred in 1992, 2002 and 2005 when a rock wedge called "Mammellone 1", collapsed with an estimated volume of 27,000 m3 destroying a long segment of road and dammed the Savena riverbed. The geological - geotechnical surveys and the installed monitoring systems till 2002, allowed to plan the following interventions: (a) reshaping the residual unstable rock mass in the left valley side (b) removing a shallow earth slide from the right valley side, and consolidating its detachment zone with nails and mesh; (c) reconstructing the road embankment with reinforced soils and gabions; (d) delocalizing a segment of the road from its original path at the foot of a high and wide unstable cliff. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.