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False tunnels as prevention measures against impact from rock falling on


mountainous roads

Chapter · September 2011


DOI: 10.1201/b11438-186

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False tunnels as prevention measures against impact from rock falling on
mountainous roads: experience in Colombia
D.A. Henao-Vergara
Universidade de Brasília, Pós-graduação em Geotécnica, Brasília DF, Brazil
M. Arenas-Rios, L.O. Suarez-Burgoa
Universidade de Brasília, Pós-graduação em Geotécnica, Brasília DF, Brazil and Grupo de Estudios y Obras
Subterráneas - GEOS, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín, Colombia

ABSTRACT: The geographic, geological and topographic complexities of most poles of development in Co-
lombia, included with the rough tropical climate, make this area susceptible to natural hazards, which are
commonly triggered by the anthropogenic development. Such is the case of debris flows and rock blocks falls
from slopes to the roads, a common phenomenon in many transportation ways in Colombia. In most of these
cases, these hazards have been not mitigated, and they carry out the associated risks to the road users, as also
economic impacts with the closure of some unstable road stretches and environmental impacts by landslides.
This work propones false tunnels as viable solutions to prevent rock-fall impacts (regardless of its type), in-
cluding geometric, construction and numerical modeling aspects.

1 INTRODUCTION eling of false-tunnels and its posterior construction


measurements. Also, they comment the state of prac-
A great part of the Colombian social and commer- tice in Colombia related to false-tunnel construction.
cial developments take place in the mountainous re-
gions which corresponds to the Los Andes range. The authors are expecting that the information
This situation forces engineers to project road infra- presented here will motivate take holders to imple-
structures at high elevations and rough topography ment this kind of solution in Colombia.
(Fig. 1), which imply geometrical designs with high
slopes, small curvature radii and a lot of earth
movements. 2 FALSE TUNNELS

The mentioned situation within the rough climate A false tunnel is a structure over the road that consti-
conditions that characterizes tropical regions and the tutes a shield against material falling, which is used
geologic complexities immersed in this climate, to evade specially landslides and rock falling, per-
make common to find in some Colombian roads all mitting give the road continuity in their transit. False
kind of geotechnical challenges related to slope sta- tunnel may be constructed with reinforced concrete,
bilization measurements, special those against debris pre- and post-stressed concrete or steel structures
flow and rock blocks falls. (Kishi et al., 2002).

Specially, due to economical deficits and bureau- False tunnels are not considered as stabilizing sys-
cratic reasons, in Colombia it is not common to tems, because its principal function is to avoid
solve these kind of geotechnical problems with effi- and/or retain the material coming from landslides or
cient and definitive measurements; instead, it is rock falling (Betancur, 2007).
common to make the continuously, eternal and tradi-
tional material collection in order to avoid the slope
stability problem, especially those coming from rock
masses.
According to the above mentioned general con-
text, efforts were concentrated to consider false-
tunnels as a feasible solution against the impacts
sourced by rock block falling.
Figure 1 Section across the Medellín – Santa Fé de Anti-
In this article, authors are exposing basic con- oquia road. Typical cross section in mountainous roads, where
cepts and recommendations for the numerical mod-
is common to have small curvature radii and high elevation dif- slab-deck receives all the impact energy of the block
ferences
rocks.
In their basic configuration of a false tunnel, it
consists on a shock-absorbing structure of selected
compacted granular material and reinforced with
geo-synthetics or other elements as expanded polys-
tyrene or used tires. It has also a foundation structure
(could be of steel or reinforced concrete), a support
structure and a confinement structure (natural or ar-
tificial) (Fig. 2).

Figure 2 Basic configuration of a false tunnel

3 FALSE TUNNELS IN COLOMBIA Figure 3 False tunnels in the Bogotá – Villavicencio road, a)
K64+200 and b) K56+000
Only since the nineties of the last century, false tun-
nels have been implemented in Colombia as a solu- Another false tunnel that enhances among the oth-
tion for this problem, this because landslides near ers is one at the Bucaramanga - Barrancabermeja
principal roads have been recognized as critical road (Fig. 4) at the known site of Peña de San Pab-
emergencies for the country. In that time, one ob- lo. It consists on an arcade structure with a shock-
served an evident backward about false tunnel re- absorbing roof to support specially rock blocks,
lated knowledge and technology if one compares which are common in the site. Figure 5 shows the
with the state of the art and practice of countries as Peña de San Pablo site rock fall problems at the Bu-
Japan and Swiss; especially in themes about the caramanga - Barrancabermeja road before the con-
concepts, experience, design, construction and oper- struction of the false tunnel.
ation.
The most two distinguished false tunnels found in
mountainous roads in Colombia are those at the Vil-
lavicencio – Bogotá road. The first one (Fig. 3a) has
120 m of longitude, consist on a roof of galvanized
steel, confined by a retaining structure with but-
tresses in reinforced concrete and anchored to the
rock mass. Between the concrete retaining structure
and steel structure, and between this last one and the
rock mass, the spaces were filled with selected ma-
terial. This makes a combined structure of earth,
steel and concrete materials. The second false tunnel
at this road (Fig. 3b) has a longitude of 40 m. It has
an arcade concrete structure with a slab deck. This Figure 4 False tunnel in the Peña de San Pablo site at the
false tunnel does not have a shock-absorbing, so the Bucaramanga - Barrancabermeja road
Finally, it is important to stand out the actual con- The impact forces that act on the false tunnel dur-
struction of the twin false tunnels in the Villeta – ing the fall of rock blocks are related with the inte-
Bogotá road, in the site named El Cune. They are raction of the materials involved. Pre-stressed con-
constructed with pre-fabricated concrete segments crete structures and reinforced concrete have high
that constitute the tunnel vaults. Figure 6 shows the stiffness, contrary to steel framing, whose mechan-
rock mass landslide problem which has been present isms of impact energy dissipation make them less
for around 20 years. likely to break (Yoshida et al., 2007).

Figure 6 El Cune site problem, landslide in shale rock mass


Figure 5 Peña de San Pablo site rock fall problems at the (Suarez-Burgoa, 2006)
Bucaramanga - Barrancabermeja road before the construction
of the false tunnel

4 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON DESIGN

One has to take into account the problems involved


in each project. It is essential have a previous know-
ledge about geological, geotechnical and geometric-
al configuration of unstable slopes, as also the rec-
ognition of hazard zones. In the following
paragraphs it is present some basic considerations
about forces of impact, geometry, and materials.
It is of utmost importance to know the forces at
which the structure will be submitted. Taking the
suggestions of Henao (2009), the forces should be
estimated by assessing first the probable path of fall-
ing rock blocks. This calculation can be done, for
example, by using the program Rockfall (Fig 7).
Once known the above mentioned paths, the im-
Figure 7 Path of rock blocks falling (Henao, 2009)
pact energy of the falls must be assessed, which can
be calculated, for example, with the models used by The roof acting as a shock-absorbing layer must:
Henao (2009) Yoshida et al. (2007), Delhomme et absorb compression and shear energies, be cheap
al. (2007, 2005), Mougin et al. (2005) and Kishi et and durable, have low density (to minimize dead
al. (2002). loads) and withstand impact without damage. Yo-
shida et al. (2007) compares three classic materials
By knowing the impact energy, one should con-
as shock-absorbing layer materials: expanded polys-
sider the false tunnel as a protective structure. Crite-
ria based on impact energy are given by Yoshida tyrene (Styrofoam), sand and used tires. The inter-
(2007) and Montani (1998). pretation of Yoshida et al. (2007) graphics, for the
three materials, is described in the following points:
• Rubber tires piles have considerable air sented in national currency, in order to not enter in
space. In fact it can fail in compression. sophism that can not correspond to the actual local
Once failure is present, the load force may situations.
increase rapidly as the rubber tires system is
compressed.
REFERENCES
• Sand fill present a parabolic stress-strain
curve with a small amount of energy ab- Betancurt, G., 2007. False tunnels as a complementary alterna-
tive for road projects (in Spanish). MSc Thesis, Postgra-
sorbed in the range of deformation. The load duate Course in Engineering – Geotechnics. Facultad de
force increases rapidly as the deformation in- Minas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín.
creases. This behavior is due to the initial
consolidation of the sand, because it is usual- Delhomme, F., Mommessin, M., Mougin, J.P., Perrotin P.,
2007. Simulation of a block impacting a reinforced concrete
ly loose. slab with a finite element model and a mass-spring system.
Engineering Structures, Vol. 29(11): 2844–2852
• Most of the energy absorption of expanded
polystyrene occurs between 5% and 70% of Delhomme, F., Mommessin, M., Mougin J.P., Perrotin P.,
the deformation, being of plastic nature. Af- 2005. Behavior of a structurally dissipating rock-shed: ex-
perimental analysis and study of punching effects. Interna-
ter reaching 70%, this material is almost ful- tional Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 42(14): 4204–
ly compressed, causing a sudden increase in 4219.
force.
Henao, D.A., 2009. False tunnels on the Rio Cauca – Aburrá
Knowing the nature of the behavior of both the road (In Spanish). BSc. Thesis, Facultad de Minas, Univer-
sidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín.
structure and the shock-absorbing layer facilitates
the structure modeling, which can be resolved using Kishi, N., Konno, H., Ikeda, K. & Matsuoka, K.G., 2002. Pro-
for example the finite element method (Delhomme, totype impact tests on ultimate impact resistance of PC
rock-sheds. International Journal of Impact Engineering,
2007). The calculations should optimize the geome- Vol. 27(9): 969–985.
tric configuration of the structure, minimize costs
and ensure its safety. Labiouse, V., Descoeudres, F., Montani, S., 1996. Experimen-
tal study of rock sheds impacted by rock blocks. Structural
Engineering International Journal, Vol. 6(3): 171-176.
5 FINAL CONSIDERATIONS Montani S., 1998. Dynamic loading of protective cover galle-
ries during rockfall. PhD thesis, École Polytechnique
Even though, some false tunnels where constructed Fédérale de Lausanne, Switerland (In French).
in Colombia, the knowledge about this theme is Mougin, J.P, Perrotin, P., Mommessin, M., Tonnelo, J. & Ag-
based on engineering experience imported from oth- bossou, A., 2005. Rock fall impact on reinforced concrete
er countries, private property which is owned by for- slab: an experimental approach. International Journal of
eign construction companies and almost null in- Impact Engineering, Vol. 31(2): 169–183.
vestment in academia was performed. Therefore, Suarez-Burgoa, L.O., 2006. The El Cune landslide problem.
little has been published in the country on the sub- Personal photography data base.
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Yoshida, H., Toshimitsu, N., Wyllie, D.C., Morris, A.J. Rock-
fall sheds: application of Japanese designs in North Ameri-
Authors consider necessary to extend future re- ca. 1st North American Landslide Conference: Landslides
search on new damping materials to be used in false and Society: Integrated Science, Engineering, Management,
tunnels, preferably recycled and easily accessible. and Mitigation. Vail, Colorado (3 to 8 June 2007).
The criteria to evaluate these systems should be pre-

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