Slope Stability Studies of Excavated Slopes in Lateritic Formations

The study area for this paper is coastal Karnataka in India, which has laterites and lateritic soils. The soil stratification in this area mainly consists of lithomargic clay, which is a product of laterization, sandwiched between the hard and porous weathered laterite crust at the top and the hard granite or granitic gneiss underneath. This lithomargic clay, locally called as ‘shedi soil’ behaves as dispersive soil and is also highly erosive. In the first stage of this study, laboratory erosion studies are conducted by using the hole erosion test apparatus on controlled shedi soil samples. Erosion observed in the HET is accelerated due to slaking irrespective of dispersive nature of the soil. Erosion problems were also dealt with using a stabilizer, calcium lignosulfonate and resulted in high increase in its erosion resistance. In the second stage of this study, slope stability studies of excavated slopes in lateritic formations are conducted considering intensity of rainfall, ponding and seepage, apart from the usual geotechnical parameters. The slopes steeper than 60° are not stable in the case of shedi soil considered here.