Case History: Failure of the Reinforced Soil Slope at Yeager Airport, Charleston, West Virginia
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Volume 147, Issue 1
Abstract
The 73-m-tall () reinforced soil slope (RSS) that supported Runway 5 at Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia failed catastrophically on March 12, 2015 after a service period of about . In the context of the slope’s stability, this case history describes the RSS design, construction, and performance up to the failure, as well as the postfailure investigation. The postfailure investigation revealed a fill–rock interface region composed of degraded sedimentary rock below the RSS. Shear strength characterization included 150-mm-diameter () consolidated drained triaxial tests on the coarse-grained fill (more than 50% gravel and cobble sized) and fully softened and residual shear strength tests on fine-grained soil from the fill–rock interface region. Limit equilibrium analysis reasonably explained failure by considering changes in shear strength in the sedimentary rock. Although the lowest calculated factor safety was behind the RSS, a local minimum of the calculated factor of safety corresponded closely with the observed failure surface.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The cross-section geometry, soil shear strength, and reinforcement strength data are available. The limit equilibrium software is available only commercially.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the importance of the laboratory testing provided by Dr. Bernardo Castellanos at Virginia Tech and by Fugro. The investigation team also is grateful for the extensive assistance provided by Triad Engineering, Inc. under the leadership of Dave Meadows.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 1 • January 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 17, 2019
Accepted: Aug 13, 2020
Published online: Nov 12, 2020
Published in print: Jan 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Apr 12, 2021
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