[Editor's Note] Robert (Bob) Cummings, P.E. of Saguaro GeoServices, Inc. of Tucson, AZ has considerable experience in geotechnical engineering for transportation, heavy construction, and mining. Mr. Cummings has provided geological engineering and geotechnical engineering services to federal, state and local transprtation athorities on both urban freeway and rural highway development projects, involving materials testing, geotechnical exploration in rock and soil, pavement design, retaining walls, drilled shafts, and heavy earthwork in rock and soil, the last including development of rock blasting procedures in sensitive scenic and infrastructure settings. It is this last topic that is the subject of this article, aesthetic blasting and rock excavation. [/Editor's Note]

HIGHWAY CUT SLOPES IN ROCK:SPECIALIZED EXCAVATION AND ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUES

by
Robert A. Cummings, P.E.
for presentation at the
53rd Highway Geology Symposium, San Luis Obispo, CA
August, 2002

INTRODUCTION

Highway development projects crossing lands with special scenic or recreational characteristics may be required to meet special aesthetic criteria. Generally, the entity imposing the aesthetic criteria is external to the core roadway construction team. Usually, agencies imposing these criteria are land administration entities, external to highway departments, whose primary role is the preservation of historical or recreational opportunities, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the United States Forest Service, or local governmental agencies with similar responsibilities. However, agencies imposing aesthetic criteria may also be divisions of highway development agencies themselves. For example, in Arizona, the Roadside Development section within the Arizona Department of Transportation has defined aesthetic needs on numerous designated scenic highways.

Aesthetic attainment on highway jobs falls in the category of what many term “soft engineering”, whose design is, in large part, intuitive. This contrasts strongly with the “hard engineering” elements (structures, pavement, line and grade, and so forth) whose design is deterministic and more familiar to roadway designers and builders. From the perspective of the highway designer and constructor, the imposition of unfamiliar and sometimes vague design and construction criteria, by external entities whose approach differs greatly from that of engineers, can be problematic. The aim of this paper is to describe how geology, construction engineering, and visual analysis have been used to alleviate and streamline the process of aesthetic attainment.

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Excavation said:

ExcavationDo think that that it will give more and more benefit to us of the geotechnical exploration in rock and soil, pavement design, retaining walls, drilled shafts, and heavy earthwork in rock and soil.

Friday January 11, 2008 01:48AM

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