Experience with treatment of road structure landslides by innovative methods of deep drainage

Abstract

During construction of infrastructure projects, emergency situations due to the presence of groundwater and slope instability occur very often. In addition, damage to existing roads or railways caused by groundwater or slope deformations do not represent any extraordinary situation. In such cases, the water should be taken from the ground in order to improve the properties of the soils and rocks. According to the consumption of energy, the methods of dewatering can be divided into gravity dewatering and dewatering with electricity. Traditionally used drainage techniques are proven methods. However, in certain geotechnical conditions, two innovative drainage systems, Siphon Drains and Electropneumatic Drains, can prove to have many advantages. In this paper, several applications of the innovative deep drainage systems are described. The paper introduces selected sites where groundwater lowering played a key role in the successful solution of slope stabilization and road remediation. The sites are located in France. © 2010 WIT Press.