A landslide in stiff, intact clay

A landslide in a stiff clay formation, interrupting the excavation of a tunnel for a major railway in Sicily, is reported. Limit equilibrium and FEM undrained and drained analyses of the slope before tunnel excavation agree in showing that the slope was stable with a relatively high factor of safety and the critical slip surface is located well above the tunnel. The undrained stability of the tunnel checked both via FEM and via standard analytical solutions for face stability is also verified. The FEM analyses of the slope have been repeated considering the excavation of the tunnel in undrained and drained conditions. The advancement of the tunnel face is simulated in a plane strain analysis by the Panet method. In undrained conditions, the system keeps stable. In drained conditions with a stress release factor of 50 %, the slope is on the verge of failing with a very low safety factor, while with a stress release factor of 80 %, it fails following a complex mechanism that matches the observed failure surface. These findings are discussed and some conclusions attempted.