Mitigating Landslide on Hwy 40 (A Toolbox of Solutions)

Don Proudfoot is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer and Partner of Thurber Engineering Ltd. He completed his civil technologist diploma at NAIT and then joined Thurber in 1980, taking breaks to complete a B.Eng. in Civil Engineering at Lakehead University and then an M.Eng. degree in geotechnical engineering at the University of Alberta. He spent a four-year stint helping open Thurber’s office in Toronto but has otherwise worked out of the Edmonton office. Don is married with three children and loves anything to do with the outdoors. Don spends a lot of time assessing, investigating, and remediating landslides that are affecting Alberta’s highways, which is what this presentation will be focused on.

Thurber has been participating in Alberta Transportation’s Geohazard Risk Management Program for many years. This presentation describes three sites along Highway 40, located north of Grande Cache, Alberta where remedial measures were carried out to stabilize sections of the highway that were being affected by landslide movements. The three sites were chosen to demonstrate a variety of techniques that were implemented ranging from slope flattening/offloading, to dewatering, excavation and replacement with stronger backfill, shear keys, toe berms and pile walls. The site conditions, constraints, investigation, design, and construction are touched on for each site. The goal of the presentation is to provide a tool kit of techniques for various remedial projects.