Performance of 150 year-old railway slopes in glacial till: case study from southwest Ireland

摘要

A survey of railway slopes has been carried out on the Irish rail network. The survey findings for the southwest region of the rail network, which comprises about 600 soil slopes formed mostly in glacial till, showed few slope instability problems. Average slope inclination was 38° with an average height of about 5m. About 6% of slopes were found to have instability problems. Most major instability problems occurred on slopes with a history of failure with first-time major slope failures generally rare.