New ASCE Publication Analyzes Recent Embankment Failure in Northern California
Reston, Va. – In January 2021, a mudslide took out part of the California Coastal Highway near Big Sur. The Embankments, Dams, and Slopes Technical Committee of the Technical Coordination Council of the Geo-Institute of ASCE mobilized a team to investigate the disaster. This latest Geotechnical Special Publication (GSP) from American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Highway 1 Rat Creek Embankment Failure: 2021 Reconnaissance and Analysis, GSP 337, provides an overview of the reconnaissance and analysis done of the embankment failure caused by Rat Creek. The report begins with a historical and geological overview of this stretch of highway along with a description of the embankment failure. Specific data collection activities such as terrestrial LiDAR and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data acquisition, exposure mapping and sampling, radiocarbon dating of soil samples, precipitation and geospatial analyses, and satellite-based assessments, used by the invest...