ABSTRACT

On Trivandrum – Kanyakumari Broad Gauge line in southern part of Indian Railways, major slips took place at three locations in Nov.’98. The depth of cuttings at these locations is 12 –18m. Cuttings are in soft laterite deposits developed from cristallines and contain high percentage of fines. Laterite deposits are relatively harder in upper portion but have intercalations of soft whitish clay in large quantity in lower portion. Complete slip failures in the cuttings had taken place resulting in blockage of traffic in the section for almost one month. Non-availability of land with railway on either side of cuttings posed severe constraints in adopting conventional solution of flattening of cut-slopes. Detailed investigations were carried out and scheme was formulated for steep cut-slopes repair at these locations.