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    8 views7 pages

    10 4

    Uploaded by

    Veenoy
    structural

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 7
    Geotechnical Risk Associated with Hillside Development B. WALKER, M, DALE, R. FELL, R. JEFFERY, A. LEVENTHAL, M, MoMAHON, G. MOSTYN, A. PHILLIPS 1. INTRODUCTION Slope instability has been a problem in both house and sub- divisional development on hillsides in the Newoastle- Sydney-Wollongong region for some time. Instability in its ‘geotechnical sense is dramatically observed ax landelips, landslides and mudflows and these phenomena have been recorded In the region at least since the tum of the century. Slope instability has become particularly evident In the past 30 years with the more intense development of ible land and the greater acceptance of, and even ply sloping land. In the most severe problem areas land instability hae led to the preference for, house sites on st destruction of houses, whilst in other cases the development of large areas has been severely restricted, Members of the Sydney Group of the Australian Geomechanics Society have been particularly aware of the problems and in 1985 ovelop @ risk classification for slope instability and to The sub committee subsequently prepared a classification and by adlly sub-committee was established to provide guidelines for hillside construction. terminology system which ean be unifarmly us ‘geotechnical consultants and which can be Understood by landowners surveyors, structural well as council engineers and sngineers and architects. 2. GEOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT ‘The region particularly considered by the sub-committee wae the geologically defined as the Sydney Basin, the approximate extent of which is shown on Figure 1. Detailed Aiscussion of the Sydney Basin Is not attempted here, though f brief and simplified description follows to provide the geological setting. As its name implies, the Sydney Basin consists of various sedimentary rock strata thst have been deposited in an elongated trough during 5 The oldest ‘outeropping and sub-cropping racks occur along the margine feral geologle ages. » ‘and are principally the coal bearing strat of Permian age, ‘though other older rocks occur in the southern limit of the The cot fother than coal, Basin. bearing strata, which include many rocks "@ generally called the Ilawarra Coal Measures though they Measures along the northern margin af the basin. also known as the Neweastle Coa These bbeds are overlain by rocks of the Narrabeen Group, the Hawkesbury Sandstone and finelly the Wianamatta Group ‘which together underlie the majority of the Sydney Basin. ‘The Narrabeen Group rocks, which consist of interbedded siltstones, claystones and sandstones, form the spectacular Cliff lines around Katoomba and crop out along much of the The Hawkesbury Sandstone underlies @ large portion of the city of Sydney ‘and its northern metropolitan area. The Wianamatte Group principally of shales and underlies the majority of coast from Swansea to Wollongong. the Sydney metropolitan ‘occur throughout the sequence. rea. Faults and igneous intrusions ‘The weathering and erosion of the rocks has created slopes covered with a mantle of residual soils, transported solls (commonly known a6 colluvium) and fragments of rocks ‘8 geological sense and time scale, these slopes are all Inherently unstable. In terme of human development, however, the rate of downhill movement of the slope Ie ie these soil In materials may or may not be apprecia land rock slopes and thelt tisk of instability to which this paper is directed. 3. SLOPE INSTABILITY A detailed dlecuesion of the cause of slope instability In the Sydney Basin Is beyond the scope of this paper though the major factors Involved include: the geological setting of the slopes the strength and depth of the colluvium, bedrock ‘and residual solls; the slope gradient and the topographic ‘and the vegetation cover. Most tting of the sites Important are the groundwater regime, its variation, ‘man-made changes euch as cuts, fill and drainage, nd Instability of slopes occurs throughout the entire Sydney Basin. Table 1, entitled "Slope Instability and Geological “Setting”, provides an appreciation of the extent and nature It should be noted ity will and dose occur in areas other than those listed in the table, and also that only small portions of the of slope instability in the Sydney 8 18 areas are acti unstable. Other areas of the Sydney Basin will prove unstable (in the domestic and sub-

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