The island of Trinidad is located at the southern most end of the Caribbean archipelago.

It experiences two seasons annually between the period of January to June known as the dry season, and July to December, known as the wet season. Port of Spain is the central business district of the island by which all highways lead to. The Ministry of Works and Transport is the main state agency that deals with the construction and repair of all roads in Trinidad. Of all the roads that are under their management, the Naparima Mayaro is one of the most difficult to maintain. The road was used as a footpath many years ago by native tribesmen and was built on the ridges of land. Presently, the road runs laterally across the southern part of island with a distance of 52.2km and is plagued by depressions and landslides along its entire length. The Naparima Mayaro road has approximately 1 landslide per kilometre (0.939 landslides/km) which inhibits the normal traffic flow along the route. The road serves as a major route for many industries operating on the eastern coast of the island including Oil, Fishing, Agriculture, Forestry and Tourism. A landslide site was chosen along the Naparima Mayaro road to conduct a geotechnical investigation on the failure mode of a retaining wall that had collapsed shortly after construction. The site is 40m wide and 45m long and is located at St Julien Village, Matilda, Princes Town along the Naparima Mayaro road. Presently, the collapsed retaining wall on site caused the existing roadway to sink concavely. This collapsed retaining wall is seen to have slid downslope and overturned. Steel columns were driven into the ground, and steel sheets were temporarily placed to the back of the failed wall to retain the integrity of the roadway. There are two houses on site, of which one of them is directly in the path of the landslide. Site investigations were carried out over the period of March 2012 to July 2012 to determine the extent of damage that was done to the roadway and neighbouring residential properties in the immediate area. Pictures were taken of the site to document the extent of the damage that has already occurred and a topographical site survey was done to accurately map the contours of the slope and determine the critical path of the soil mass as it moved downslope. A soil sample was extracted from a hand dug pit on site and was tested at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) San Fernando Technical Institute (SFTI) soil laboratory to determine the geotechnical properties of the soil, specifically looking at Atterberg limits and shear strength values. Personal interviews were conducted with Mr Kapildeo Ramdath, chief civil engineer, from the Ministry of Works and Transport to get some information on the geology of the site. Soil boring data was acquired through Mr Ramdath from the site which was done in 2009. The information was used as a geotechnical baseline for all soil tests that were conducted in the UTT SFTI soil lab. A geological soil map was acquired from the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs to determine the underlying geologic soil formations that are present at the site and in the general area. A driveby survey was done to count the number of landslides that were present along the Naparima Mayaro road to properly determine the extent of landslide damage that has affected the road infrastructure over the years.

Abstract

The geotechnical report which was acquired from Mr Ramdath revealed that the soil in the area is a CH type soil (BS classification). It means that the soil is an expansive clay which has a high swell-shrink potential and has a permeability of less than 10-6 m/s. These types of soils possess the ability to absorb large amounts of water from the environment. Expansive soils are clearly denoted by having huge desiccation cracks on the surface, however there were no desiccation cracks to be seen on site. This means that the soil is saturated all through the dry season. From the site investigation, it can be clearly seen that there was insufficient drainage on site to relieve the slope of any water that would have been absorbed by the soil. Water would have originated from a combination of precipitation and municipal drains that carry greywater and storm water from the neighbouring houses. Water may have been seeping through potholes in the road surface or through the exposed backfill material that was placed on the side of the roadway. It was also apparent that there were multiple failure planes present on site. This was noticed from the differential sliding mechanisms that were seen to be present from the angle of tilt (from a vertical position) of utility poles and the house that was directly affected. Since both the pole and the house foundation are at different depths, it proved that the shallower movement was translational while the deeper was rotational. The information gathered from the geological map of Trinidad revealed that the St Julien site is situated on a thrust fault, which means that the site is a highly sheared site that exhibits multiple failure planes within the soil stratum. This point confirms the differential movement of the different man-made structures on site such as the house and utility poles. The results show that the retaining wall failed due to lateral earth pressures that were too strong for the retaining wall to resist. This is evident by the downslope sliding and overturning effect displayed by the retaining wall. Because the soil is an expansive clay, it has the ability to absorb large amounts of water, thereby increasing the lateral earth pressures behind the slope. The water which originated from precipitation and poor site drains would have emanated from seepage though the roadway and backfill at the top of the slope. The slope would have destabilised due to the added hydrostatic pressures that would have been generated as a result of seepage into the soil. The soil would then have lost some of its original shear strength value because of water intrusion, thereby leading to slope failure. This slope failure in front of the wall may have led to partial failure of the retaining wall depending on the type of wall that was designed. Because water seepage is the main factor for the failure of both the retaining wall and slope, it should be mitigated first. A proper site drainage plan was developed consisting of proper kerb and slipper drains at the top of the slope and subsoil drains on the slope itself. All water on site must be allowed to drain freely to the watercourse that is at the base of the slope. This would restore the soil to its natural shear strength value. The other solution is for the mitigation of the roadway. A retaining wall with the roadway running over it is proposed to be constructed to restore a level riding surface. The entire roadway will be paved edge to edge to prevent water seepage behind the wall.