Innovative slope engineering – Victoria – Australia

In Australia since mid 2002, the Australian Geomechanics Society has provided Geotechnical Engineers with landslide risk assessment and risk management strategies [1] and we have been involved in some significant examples of excellence in hillside engineering, applying bold investigative techniques, analytical techniques and solutions to a number of prominent residential developments within Victoria and Melbourne.

With increased affluence in our society, consumers are wishing to build their palaces in places not previously thought advisable and sometimes in relatively highly developed areas.

These developments present significant challenges to practising engineers in applying a combination of solutions and endeavouring to assign risks in accordance with the guidelines.

A number of our significant case studies are presented as a practical application of these guidelines and the way they are being interpreted by practising engineers.

Case studies and innovative solutions are presented for a site at Moreley Avenue, Wye River (South West of Melbourne – a slip area in the Otway Ranges) sites on the Mornington Peninsula South of Melbourne namely: Spindrift Avenue, Flinders (sites with a number of historical landslides and having an irregular slope of 15˚ – 45˚), Portsea (a 20 m high escarpment with a slope of 45˚ with seismic shocks originating from nearby fault in Port Philip Bay) and Nepean Highway, Frankston South (a site with a long history of slope instability with a slope of 40 degrees).