ENGINEERING GEOLOGICAL ASPECTS IN THE SLOPE STABILITY OF LINK TAVAELI TOBOLI

Irianto Uno

I. Introduction One of the most important factors in the civil engineering construction is geotechnical aspect of the design, and one of the most important review on geotechnical aspects is the knowledge of the site of construction. The main objective is that how the construction will satisfy the requirements, as it done on the assessment of slope stability. Slope stability not only the subject but on the other hand also becomes the object as well. And that becomes interesting and challenging because most of failures and accidensts have brought situation into complaining of engineering failure. ink Tavaeli ! Toboli is the link where the complainment quite often emerge. This because the link untill now still the only one most accessible to cross between east and western coast of the neck of "entral Sulawesi. The popular term for this area is Kebun Kopi. #n this area, historically a lot of accidents have occurred whether including loss of human life of e$clude it. The fact is that the geological condition of the area is comple$. That is involving different types of rock, a lot of active and non%active structural disturbances that can be reactivated by natural phenomena or by human activity&environmental disaster in which loss, lack or decreasing of vegetation density has brought into comple$ity of the problem. #n engineering geology, the core of interest is Site Investigation. That means all the sites to be built has to be begun with study of the site. #t is e$pected that through Site #nvestigation, the best or the realistic solution can be taken.

II. Basic Conc !t o" En#in rin# G o$o#% The philosophy of engineering geology is based on three simple premises. These are ' (. All engineering works are built in or on the ground. ). The ground will always, in some ways, react to the construction of the engineering work. *. The reaction of the ground +its ,engineering behaviour-. to the particular engineering work must be accomodated by that work. The first premise would seem to be fairly obvious but it seems that sometimes the work of designing and e$ecuting a project is divided between various types of engineers, architects and planners so that no single person may have a comprehensive view of the whole project. The premise that the ground will always react to the construction of the engineering work also seems rather obvious. The problem is to assess the magnitude and nature of the reaction of the ground to both the contruction and the operation of the project. The Third premise, namely the engineering work be designed so that it can be constructed and operate within the site geological conditions without sustaining significant damage. The engineering behaviour of the ground could be e$pressed by three verbal equations. These are ' (. /aterial properties 0 mass fabric 1 /ass properties ). /ass properties 0 environment 1 The engineering geological matri$ *. the enginering geological matri$&changes produced by the engineering work 1 The engineering behaviour of the ground. #n the three equations all the factors leading up to the description of the engineering geological situation may be established by the process of site investigation. Thereafter the engineering behaviour of the ground with respect to the proposed engineering work is determined by calculation and judgement.

&.&. Intact Roc' V rsus Roc' (ass A rock mass may consist of intact rock only , but is more commonly formed from an array of intact rock blocks with boundaries formed by discontinuities +2ig.(.. 3ithin the rock mass the mechanical properties of both intact rock blocks and the discontinuities may be inhomogeneous and and anisotropis. 3hen conducting site investigation, each description of rock material and rock mass are required for understanding the analysis.
6iscontinuity set (1 joint plane 6iscontinuity set )1 bedding plane 2ault 6iscontinuity set *1 joint plane

5ock mass

3eathered 4one

#ntact rock block

2igure (. #ntact rock vs rock mass &.). G ot c*nica$ +nits Theoritically a proper description or geotechnical calculation to determine the behaviour of a rock mass should include all properties in a rock mass mass. This would be unrealistic and is also not possible without disassembling the rock mass. Therefore a standard procedure is to divide a rock mass into homogeneous geotechnical units.
2ormation of inhomogeneous discontinuity patterns 5ock material with variable properties #nhomogeneous weathering

Roc' ,ass as ncount r d in t* "i $d

7omogeneous geotechnical unit ( 7omogeneous geotechnical unit ) 7omogeneous geotechnical unit *

Fig. 2. Rock mass components

III. Past and Pr s nt Situation and Natura$ Pro-$ , o" T* Lin' 8ased on the historical data and some interview with the people of interest, the links between Tavaeli and Toboli has been e$ist since the middle part of )9 th century. Of course, the situation and condition were not as it seen recently. The only similariry between the past and current situation is that only very litle change has been made on the road alignment. And, of course, the link by itself has changed locally due to the mass movements or land slides of the old road body. The area, in the pass was dense forest, but human intervention and less control have worsening the environmental quality of the area. :ntil the beginning of ;9 th, indication of the e$tension of farming area was very significant. 8ut, thanks to the regulation and safety awareness, afterthat attention is fully given to conserve this area. 8ut, again, this is still big question mark. As one e$ample, some years ago the government has made program to resettle the people living in the area. One of the choices is what so called ,5esettlement of 2orest #nvader- +<erambah 7utan.. #n the beginning this program look good and prospective, but then recently this program seem in doubtful. The fact is that along the link no significant change appear. #n the practice of constructing engineering structures, such as buildings, tunnels and slopes, an interaction takes place between ground and engineering structure. =round, in the broad term is used for both soil and rock. Soil consist of loose particles not cemented together whereas tha particles in rock are cemented together, resulting in tensile strength. /ost rocks are not continuous, but contain fractures, faults bedding planes, or more general ' discontinuity planes that divide the rock into blocks of rock bounded by discontinuities. The whole array of block of rocks and discontinuity planes is then designated the ,rock mass- or ,discontinuity rock mass-. 2rom engineering geological point of view, the natural problems that can be permanent problem of the link are the presence of discontinuity planes in the rock body. These discontinuity planes can be related to faults, joints and foliation. And based on site investigation on the area it shows that the big problem is the presence of strongly foliated

and jointed metamorphic rocks, either schist or gneiss. This feature is quite clear when the investigation started from >m ?9 of the link. 2rom that point of view as described above, the use of blasting material for road construction +cutting and widening., has even worsening the rock mass quality. 8lasting, in one hand can made work easy but in the other hand bocomes trigger factor for other displacements of rock body, resulting in the landslides or rock fall. Therefore the method of e$cavation is one of the parameters to be known.

IV. En#i rin# G $o#ic% o" T* Lin' 8ased on the rock mass characteristic regarding the slope stability of the link, in general the slope rock masses in the link can be divided into * +three. main rock types. Those are ' (. 2rom Tavaili to >m *@ ). 2rom >m *@ to >m AA *. 2rom >m AA ! Toboli ' /olasse "elebes 5ock Type ' /etamorphic 5ock Type +Schist. ' /etamorphic +=neiss. and #gneous +=ranite. 5ock Types ../. Sta-i$it% o" t* s$o! s in r $ation to t* roc' t%! s. Molase celebes rock type : This type of rock has charasteristic of mi$ture of different si4e of materials that weakly cemented together. #n the link, the cement material is dominated by clay minerals. As consequency, the rock materials tend to detach each other. 6epending on its clay contents, the engineering characteristic of this material is low cohesion or cohesionless but the angle of internal friction on some cases can be high. The higher internal friction angle mostly found if the cement material dominantly silicate. =enetic of the rock has made it possibly for high value of permeability. Therefore, the water content in the rock mass body can be high, but also can easily flow through rock pores.

Metamorphic Rock Type Schist! : #n engineering geological point of view, among many of metamorphic rocks, schist type is the most susceptible to failed and weathered. The genetic of the material has made it even complicated when assessing the slope stability. The main characteristic of the rock is the presence of foliation in the whole body of rock mass, and the definiton of intact rock will be irrelevant because the nature of rock genetically presence the planes of failure. 3hen designing the road, the strike and dip of foliations is of most important data to be known. <aralelism between slope and foliation if it possible has to be avoided. #n the investigated area, section between >m ?9 to >m AA dominantly formed by this type of rock. The slope failures mostly occur in three ways ' plane failure, material failure and combination of the two. <lane failure is caused by presence of weak planes such as schistocity and joint sets. /aterial failure related to the highly weathered rock with water as trigger factor and lubricate material. 6ifferent from molase type, weathering product of schist tend to add cohesion value for the material. This because weathering product dominantly clay material with low permeability value. Therefore, once the water infiltrate into the material either through cracks or rock pores it will be difficult to drain and the whole slope become heavier.

"neiss an# "ranite The last eastern parts of the link dominantly consist of gneissic and granitic rocks. #n engineering geological point of view, these two types of rock tend to have or at least better condition for stability of slope. The slope failures in this section mostly occur in plane failure. /aterial failures that have occur basicly due to intensive weathering of the material. 8ut differs from schist slope case, the mode of material failure mostly occur translationally. #n other places that failures occur, the main factor is the presence of structural disturbances in the rock body.

The engineering performance of gneiss is usually similar to that of granite. 7owever, some gneisses are strongly foliated which means that they posses a te$ture with a preferred orientation and may be fissured in places and this can mean trouble.

..&. Sta-i$it% o" t* s$o! s in r $ation to t* structura$ distur-anc s Boints in plutonic rocks are often quite regular, steeply dipping structures in two or more intersecting sets. Sheet joints tend to be appro$imately parallel to the topographic surface. The sheet joints introduce a dangerous element of weakness into valley slopes. The most common structural disturbances in the links are joints and faults. /ost of the joint occur as a set. #n some places, more than one set e$ist with different orientation that may incline, slightly paralell or perpendicular each other. Therefore, the case of wedge failures can easily be found along the section. Structural disturbances that affecting stability of slopes quite significant in the last section +eastern part.. ThatCs why many failures occur as block failures. And this will bring big volume of the slope body to move downward. Dot only the slope side will fail but the road body as well. So, it is not questionable and donCt be surprised if the horisontal road alignment has changed in short period of time.

V. C*oic s o" R a$istic Soution #t is wise for the engineers to make decision not only based on the pure civil engineering approach, but the need for intensive site investigation is fulfilled as well. #n case of the link between Tavaeli and Toboli, historically a lot of accidents have occur. :nfortunately, one of causing factor that bring loss of human life is slope failure or mass movement. 8ecause the nature of the slopes is different, based on the review that has been described above '

2or the first part of the link, change of slope geometry is considered to be the best alternative. #n some sections where the slope height rather large with nearly horisontal bedding plane and difference in material compaction, benching of the slope face is considered to the best choice. 2or the second link, installation of the gravity structures such as rock block retaining wall with special attention to the internal and e$ternal drainage around risky areas may be the best choices, considering the possibility of movement of soil mass and earth flow. #nstallation of reinforcement or non%gravity retaining wall seems to be useless due to the uncertainty of the internal structure. The third section where the nature of material look fresher and stronger, besides use of reinforcement in some places where the intensity of fracturing and weathering are high, installation of rock block may be good alternatives. Of course, and it should be stressed that the environmental aspects such as farming, reboisation and housing have to be regulated in such a way in order to avoid the decreasing of the rock mass quality.