Abstract:
Abstract: slope stability assessment of vulnerable slopes was conducted along national highway 58 (nh-58) from dhari devi to rudraprayag (~17 km), uttarakhand. Kedarnath devastation in june, 2013 due to flash floods has made road cut slopes along the alaknanda river vulnerable, which has a history of frequent landslides particularly at kaliasaur (sites k1, k2, k3). At kaliasaur landslide (site k1), the instability is mainly controlled by the combination of pre-existing tectonic fracturing, plunging fold, structural damage zones formed due to the passage of regional kaliasaur fault and at site k3, fault gouge is found due to shearing of quartzite. A total of 35 road cut slopes were investigated along nh-58 and kinematic analysis of joint data shows that 18 slopes are prone to planar failure, 7 for wedge failure and 8 for toppling failure. Slope mass rating (smr) and continuous smr show that 18 slopes are vulnerable with 6 slopes falling under the class iii category (partially unstable), 9 slopes under class iv (unstable) and the rest of 3 slopes are completely unstable fall under class v causing landslides on nh-58. Maps with location of stable, partially stable, unstable and completely unstable sites are formed to take infrastructure projects at stable zones. Research highlights: kaliasuar fault causes active landslides along nh-58, uttarakhand.maps with location of stable sites are provided for infrastructure projects.instability at kaliasaur landslide is caused by plunging fold, pre-existing tectonic fracturing.conducted kinematic analysis and geo-mechanical classification based on csmr of 35 slopes in the study area. © 2022, indian academy of sciences.