Variations in river level and their impact on slope stability at the Borden Bridge landslide

Jenae Nixon, David Elwood, Harpreet Panesar, Allen Kelly

In the proceedings of: GeoEdmonton 2018: 71st Canadian Geotechnical Conference; 13th joint with IAH-CNC

Session: Landslides and Geohazards I (Translational Landslides)

ABSTRACT: Slope failures along the deeply incised river valleys are common throughout the prairies. These failures typically take the form of deep-seated, translational landslides that move predominately on either weak bentonite layers or pre-sheared Cretaceous shale bedrock layers. One of these landslides is at Borden Bridge, which is located on Highway No. 16 approximately 50 km west of Saskatoon. This paper presents a numerical evaluation of the potential role of the river level and the corresponding pore-water pressures within the clay shale on the rate of movement of the east bank of the Borden Bridge. Pore-water pressures and rates of movement modeled in the parametric analyses will be compared to those measured in the field. Though this work is preliminary, it will provide information regarding the role of river level fluctuations, the corresponding pore-water pressure response on the pre-sheared slide plane and the observed rate of movement of the Borden Bridge landslide.

RÉSUMÉ: Les ruptures de pente le long des vallées des rivières profondément incisées sont courantes dans toutes les Prairies. Ces défaillances prennent généralement la forme de glissements de translation profonds qui se déplacent principalement sur des couches de bentonite faibles ou sur des couches de substratum schisteux du Crétacé préchargées. L'un de ces glissements de terrain se trouve au pont Borden, qui est situé sur la route no 16, à environ 50 km à l'ouest de Saskatoon. Cet article présente une évaluation numérique du rôle potentiel du niveau de la rivière et des pressions interstitielles correspondantes dans le schiste argileux sur la vitesse de déplacement de la rive est du pont Borden. Les pressions interstitielles et les vitesses de déplacement modélisées dans les analyses paramétriques seront comparées à celles mesurées sur le terrain. Bien que ce travail soit préliminaire, il fournira de l'information sur le rôle des fluctuations du niveau de la rivière, la réponse de la pression interstitielle correspondante sur le plan de glissement pré-cisaillé et le taux de déplacement observé du glissement du pont Borden.

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Cite this article:
Jenae Nixon; David Elwood; Harpreet Panesar; Allen Kelly (2018) Variations in river level and their impact on slope stability at the Borden Bridge landslide in GEO2018. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{geo2018Paper448,author = Jenae Nixon; David Elwood; Harpreet Panesar; Allen Kelly,title = Variations in river level and their impact on slope stability at the Borden Bridge landslide ,year = 2018}