CEMEX Eliot Quarry

Geotechnical Characterization Report

Alameda County, California
Page 23
Drilling in Lake A and overseen by Kane GeoTech in 2013 indicated that lacustrine clay was
present on the Lake A side (eastern) of Isabel Avenue. However, visual inspection of the slopes
in Lake B on the western side of Isabel Avenue by KANE GeoTech and CEMEX personnel on May
8, 2014 revealed that the clay is not laterally continuous through the face of the slope adjacent to
Isabel Avenue. The discontinuous character is most likely due to erosional unconformities, as
described by Barlock/USGS. Therefore, It was conservatively modeled as extending half the
distance between Lakes A and B.

4.2 Laboratory Study

Cooper Laboratories, Inc., Palo Alto, California, tested the clay samples collected by KANE
GeoTech in order to obtain the undrained compressive strength and determine Atterberg limits for
the soil. The soil properties determined by laboratory testing were used to perform slope stability
analyses, discussed in the following section. Soil test results are given in Appendix B.

4.3 Slope Stability Analyses

Slopes were analyzed using Geo5 Slope Stability analysis software (Fine Engineering Software,
2014). 21. Geo5 uses slope stability analyses methodologies that are standard of practice in the
geotechnical field. It utilizes standard practice limiting equilibrium slope stability methods to
calculate safety factors against sliding. To verify the validity of Geo5, KANE GeoTech recreated
the models constructed by Cotton, Shires, and Associates (CSA), and produced verifiable results.
For the Eliot Quarry analyses, the Bishop method was used for a circular failure plane and the
Sarma method was used with polygonal failure planes.

The safety factor against failure is the ratio of driving forces versus resisting forces (e.g. material
gravity weight vs. material strength respectively). When the resisting forces are exactly equal to
the driving forces, the safety factor is 1.0 and a slope is said to be at the condition of limiting
equilibrium. If the safety factor is less than 1.0, it is assumed that failure will occur. If the safety
factor is greater than 1.0, stability is assumed and increases with an increase in the safety factor.

A minimum factor of safety of 1.5 is desired for permanent slopes such as road cuts and
developments. For seismic conditions, slopes are generally modeled as pseudo-static bodies. That
is, the static weight of the slope material is multiplied by a seismic coefficient and the analysis is
repeated as in the static case. When conducting the seismic analyses for Eliot Quarry, the
guidelines and requirements reported in California Special Publication 117A were followed.
Material properties were selected using drained strengths for gravels as published by Berlogar
(2012) from laboratory test data. Undrained compressive strengths for clays were used to
determine shear strengths at each profile. Undrained strengths were used to better represent the
actual in-situ conditions at the site. Undrained strengths for clays are commonly used in slope and
foundation design where loads are applied faster than pore pressures dissipate from the clay.
Results using the undrained strengths of clays are more conservative and likely to be more
appropriate in this situation. In order to verify this for the Eliot site, slope stability analyses were
run using drained strengths of soils with similar plasticity indices and clay fractions derived from
Stark and Eid (1997), Figure 11

KANE GeoTech, Inc.