Decision Support for Slope Construction and Repair Activities: An Asset Management Building Block

in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the principal investigators and the Research, Development and Technology Unit of the Missouri Department of Transportation. They are not necessarily those of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. This report does not constitute a standard or regulation. The Midwest Transportation Consortium (MTC) is housed at the Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) at Iowa State University. CTRE's mission is to develop and implement innovative methods, materials, and technologies for improving transportation efficiency , safety, and reliability while improving the learning environment of students, faculty, and staff in transportation-related fields. Abstract The objective of this project has been to develop a decision support framework based on asset management principles to facilitate effective decision making for selection of appropriate methods to stabilize failed earth slopes. Project activities included development of a simple asset management framework suitable for managing geotechnical assets, development of several analysis models to evaluate alternative slope maintenance and repair strategies, and evaluation of the potential for use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) for implementing geotechnical asset management systems. A simple framework for managing geotechnical assets was developed based on mapping of a generic asset management framework proposed by the Federal Highway Administration. A number of issues that must be addressed prior to complete implementation of a geotechnical asset management system was also identified. The most significant of these issues are lack of established procedures and techniques for collecting the required data and lack of suitable analysis tools required to evaluate alternative management scenarios. Because ongoing efforts to address the required data collection and maintenance are underway, efforts for this project were focused on development of suitable analysis techniques. Two basic forms of analysis models were developed, both of which use decision trees to predict outcomes of alternative stabilization measures. The first form is referred to as the Instant in Time (IIT) form of model to reflect the fact that the model considers only a single application of a repair and, in its current form, does not model the potential costs of alternative stabilization measures over a consistent life-cycle. The second form of model is referred to as the Specific Time Horizon (STH) form of model because it provides capabilities to model the potential need for repeated …