Ensuring quarry safety: integrating rockfall barriers and bench-slope engineering for effective protection

Abstract

A single rock piece or several rock boulders getting detached and displaced from their initial position followed by free falling, sliding, bouncing, rolling, and deposition creates a rockfall incident [1]. Rockfalls are characterized by a greater destructive potential, owing to higher mobility and energy [2]. Recent instances including the Great Orme rockfall, in North Wales, UK (2023), Yosemite National Park rockfall in California, USA (2022), and the Glacier National Park incident in Montana, USA (2019) highlight their catastrophic nature. They not only interrupt the daily essentialities such as travel and transportation but also cause property damage as well as loss of life [3], [4], [5] (Figure 1). A rockfall is triggered by a natural or an anthropogenic alteration of the forces acting on a rock mass under stable conditions. Natural processes include weathering, earthquakes, formation of discontinuities, plant roots penetrating the rocks, rainfall, freeze-thaw cycles, and long-term deformations in the rock mass. Also, there is a significant contribution of human interventions such as slope cutting, blasting, heavy vehicle, and machinery operations to rock movements [1], [2]. Due to the prevalence of such activities, quarries rank top among the sites that are susceptible to frequent rockfall hazards [6], [7]. Given the critical nature of this issue, constant efforts have been made to devise an effective solution, incorporating expertise in geo-technology and engineering. There are two distinct engineering approaches, respectively, to prevent and mitigate rockfall as detailed in Figure 2. Most often, a combination of those two techniques is adopted in many quarry sites to enhance effectiveness [2].