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A case study of a debris slide (estimated volume of about 35,000 m) is described in this paper. This slide occurred in April 2009 in the North Western Italian Alps (Aosta valley) and damaged the SR25 road along the Valgrisenche valley. Ground investigations started with severe safety and logistic issues being posed. Given the need to open as soon as possible the road, the design of the landslide stabilization works was carried out using a 'design as you go' approach. The stabilization measures were conceived to be flexible in order to allow for changes and integration during construction, in line with the progressive refinement of the geological-geotechnical slope model being developed. Back analysis by means of the limit equilibrium method (LEM) and the finite element method (FEM) was used. Groundwater level rise following heavy rainfall and spring snow melting was found to be the main cause of the debris slide. The stabilization works were designed by using both the LEM and FEM methods. The stability conditions of the engineered slope were assessed based on the available performance monitoring data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rock avalanches are complex phenomena that occur with a low frequency but which have a high destructive potential. As a consequence, the people who are responsible for the management of a territory are more and more interested in predicting the possible evolutions of well-known potential events. Tackling the above problems from a quantitative point of view, the RASH3D code, based on continuum mechanics concepts, has been here used to predict the evolution of a potential rock avalanche in the Western Italian Alps. A calibration-based approach, in which rheological parameters are constrained by systematic adjustment during trial-and-error back-analysis of past events similar to the landslide under investigation, is proposed to set rheological parameter values to be used for prediction purposes. The back-analysis of a 2⋅10 m rock avalanche located in the Divedro Valley, close to the area of the potential event, has then been analysed using both a frictional and a Voellmy rheology. The characteristics of the slope and the dynamics of the event have made the frictional rheology more suitable to come to the correct simulation of the historical case. The back-analysis results have contributed not only in the selection of the rheological parameter values but also in the choice of the type of rheological law to use in the carried out forward-analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]