A Suggested Soil And/Or Rock To Pipeline Landslide Interaction Classification System

ABSTRACT: Pipeline Fitness for Service (FfS) assessments are required when landslides impact pipeline rights-of-way and pipelines. FfS assessments may have to be done rapidly for higher velocity landslides triggered by extreme weather events or conversely may be more methodical engineering assessments for slow-moving deep-seated landslides. A system is presented that has 3 “geo-mechanical” categories: 1) non-interacting, 2) exposing and 3) interacting that are divided into 19 sub-types that follows the work of Wang et al. (2016). The system is based on the author’s Western Canadian and Eastern US experiences. Non-interacting and exposing categories can be designated as lower priority while the appropriate attention is given to interacting landslides. A description of the preferred technologies and methods to detect and determine the FfS for each interaction subcategory is discussed. Additionally, limitations for the current state of practice are detailed.