ABSTRACT

Slope stability investigations generally consist of three major aspects: site characterization, stability analyses, and remedial measures. This chapter describes the investigative approach developed to evaluate the stability of a section of sea cliff for a proposed resort hotel site. The investigation included continuous diamond-core borings with geophysical logging. The strict hotel footprint requirements also prompted a comparison between two and three-dimensional stability analyses for determining the factors of safety at the site and for defining a construction setback line to mitigate the potential instabilities of the sea cliff. Three-dimensional slope stability analyses generally require significantly more effort as well as geotechnical input data, especially with finite element methods. Critical sites, however, often call for more sophisticated and accurate methods. As with two-dimensional methods, computer basing of simplified three-dimensional stability methods has made the methods more attractive to the engineering community.