Abstract
Ground anchor corrosion is a common problem for anchored slopes in Taiwan. It is partly due to the humid climate condition and abundant groundwater in the slope and partly due to poor corrosion protection of anchor design and construction. In 2010, an anchored slope at Taiwan National Freeway No. 3 failed suddenly after 13 years of service. It buried 3 cars and killed 4 people. It caught the public’s attention and initiated the island-wide program on over hauling the anchors slopes in Taiwan. Since this event, the Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC) of Taiwan government had launched an extensive inspection and maintenance program for the existing anchored slopes along the freeways, highways, and railways. Totally, more than 100,000 ground anchors had been inspected. This paper will evaluate the findings from this inspection program. It includes (1) the status quo of the anchors regarding the corrosion condition and the residual load that remained on the existing anchors; (2) remedial measures taken to sustain the serviceability of existing corroding anchors; (3) measures taken to enhance the long-term durability of new anchors without changing the strand material and the practice of anchor construction commonly used by the local contractors.
Highlights
Ground anchors are commonly used in Taiwan and elsewhere in the world to tie back cut slopes or to enhance the stability of natural slopes
In 2010, the sudden failure of a tied back cut slope of National Freeway No 3 in Taiwan had revealed the problems of ground anchors of anchored slopes in Taiwan and changed the practice of design, construction, and maintenance of the anchored slopes
Since voids under the anchor head were found in the majority of ground anchors and the steel components of anchor were corroded at different extents, anti-corrosion measures had been used to prevent the corrosion from happening on the existing anchors as well as the new anchors
Summary
Ground anchors are commonly used in Taiwan and elsewhere in the world to tie back cut slopes or to enhance the stability of natural slopes. Some local governments even tried to restrict the use of ground anchors for slope stabilization due to its uncertainty of the long-term performance. In 2010, an anchored slope failed suddenly and catastrophically after 13 years of service at Taiwan National Freeway No 3 (Fig. 1) [4,6]. This failure case had fundamentally changed the ways of design and maintenance of anchored slopes in Taiwan. The remedial measures taken to sustain the serviceability of existing anchors and to secure the long-term durability of the new anchored slopes are proposed
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