Engineering:Rock shed

From HandWiki
Short description: Road protection structure
Rock shed on Nagano Prefectural Road, Japan
Rock shed on Niigata Prefectural Road, Japan

A rock shed is a civil engineering structure used in mountainous areas where rock slides and land slides create highway closure problems. A rock shed is built over a roadway that is in the path of the slide. They are equally used to protect railroads.[1] They are usually designed as a heavy reinforced concrete covering over the road, protecting the surface and vehicles from damage due to the falling rocks with a sloping surface to deflect slip material beyond the road,[2] however an alternative is to include an impact-absorbing layer above the ceiling.[3] A further use of this type of structure may be seen protecting the A4 road; although constructed primarily to alleviate risk from falling rocks from a limestone seam[4] it also serves to protect against objects or persons falling from the Clifton Suspension Bridge[5] where the height differential of approximately 70 metres from the bridge to the bottom of the Avon Gorge would give sufficient kinetic energy to even a relatively small item to cause injury on impact.

Examples of rock sheds

  • A4 road where it passes under the Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol, England, constructed in 1980
  • California State Route 1 at Pitkins Curve, just north of Limekiln State Park, constructed in 2014
  • Ferguson Rock Shed, to rectify a closure of California State Route 140 by a landslide in 2006, completion expected in the mid-2020s

See also

References

  1. "The Landslide Handbook". USGS. pp. 102–103. https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1325/pdf/Sections/AppendixC.pdf. Retrieved 31 December 2017. 
  2. "SEISMIC RETROFITTING MANUAL FOR HIGHWAY STRUCTURES: PART 2". US Dept of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. August 2004. pp. 127–129. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/pavements/ltpp/05067/05067.pdf. Retrieved 31 December 2017. 
  3. Chen, Jian-An; Lin, Ming-Lang; Lo, Chia-Ming; Wang, Ching-Ping (12 April 2013). "DEM Simulation of Rock Shed Failure due to Rockfall Impact". EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (EGU General Assembly 2013): EGU2013-3780. Bibcode2013EGUGA..15.3780C. 
  4. "The cliff face under the Clifton suspension bridge, Avon Gorge, Bristol". Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology (The Geological Society). http://qjegh.lyellcollection.org/content/20/1/2.short. Retrieved 14 June 2016. 
  5. Thomas, Ray (18 March 2000). "Bristol Avon Gorge". http://brisray.com/bristol/gorge1.htm. Retrieved 31 December 2017.