Vision for Geotechnical Asset Management at Alberta Transportation

ABSTRACT: Geotechnical assets such as soil and rock slopes, retaining walls, embankments, and subgrades play a crucial role in the functioning of transportation networks. These same assets also pose potential threats to the transportation system as a result of deteriorating condition, escalating maintenance costs or catastrophic failures. Alberta Transportation is responsible for managing approximately 500 identified geohazard sites through the province. This paper will describe Alberta Transportation’s current Geohazard Risk Management Program (GRMP), and the vision for transforming this program into a formalized Geotechnical Asset Management (GAM) program. The goals of GAM at Alberta Transportation are to enhance the Department’s ability to monitor the condition and deterioration of the geotechnical asset inventory, forecast future funding requirements to achieve desired levels of service and risk reduction, and facilitate evidence-based decision making that considers the full life cycle costs and benefits of our geotechnical assets.