Lodge Road PM 0.6 Emergency Slide Repair

Location

Lodge Road PM 0.6 in Boulder Creek, CA

City or County Responsible for Project

County of Santa Cruz

Author

Joel Lacagnina

Organization

County of Santa Cruz Department of Public Works

Phone

831-454-2799

Project Description

Winter storms in December 2021 led to numerous slope and road failures throughout Santa Cruz County. At Lodge Road, an approximately 130 lineal foot section of outboard slope and roadway were lost due to a slope failure that transitioned into a debris flow, damming up downslope drainage and scouring the mountainous landscape. The County of Santa Cruz engaged in an emergency design-build slide repair project with GeoStabilization International with a repair consisting of a micropile supported soil nail wall, formed to regain up to 5 feet of lost road and shoulder. The repair leveraged innovative technologies such as all terrain walking excavators used in steep slope grading and slope contouring, injection drilled soil nails for increased drill rates, and cellular concrete backfill to restore road width behind the formed wall without applying a large load to the retaining wall and underlying slope.