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Kathy Welt <br />March 27, 2012 <br />Page 2 <br />Identified Seepage Locations <br />Construction crews began draining water from the East Slide in early May 2011. A seepage area with <br />a flow rate of 5 to 6 gpm was uncovered in early June and crews chased it back to bedrock to allow it <br />to drain away freely. Other seepage areas were uncovered throughout construction as material within <br />the sliding mass was excavated. The maximum flow rate observed in any of the seepage areas was <br />about 7.5 gpm during the spring, and the flow typically emerged from thin coal seams. The primary <br />seepage areas are shown in Figure F -3. <br />Construction Methodology <br />In the East Slide area just below the sandstone outcrop, a bedrock bench was exposed and an upper <br />interceptor trench was constructed by pulling disturbed material up the slump area to the fill at the <br />base of the cliffs. A 12" slotted HDPE pipe and gravel were placed in a 15- foot -deep trench below <br />the wet zone and a granular drain was brought up the cliff face as the fill was raised. The HDPE pipe <br />was sloped downward to the west as shown in Figure F -4. The granular drain was brought up to the <br />base of the massive sandstone layer and then capped with compacted clay. <br />Excavation north and east of the fill was started to find a suitable foundation for the drainage blanket <br />beneath the road alignment. A competent bench consisting of siltstone /mudstone suitable for <br />installing a drainage blanket was reached at approximately Elevation 6,180 as shown in Figure F -3, <br />and the drainage blanket and associated chimney drain were constructed as shown in Figures F -4 and <br />F -5. <br />Samples of available aggregates proposed for the granular drainage material were collected and <br />tested to aid in designing the drainage blanket. The design resulted in a blend of 35% 3/8" crushed <br />rock and 65% 1/4" crusher fines. This blend resulted in a D 15 of approximately 5 mm, which was <br />targeted to provide proper filtration against colluvium/alluvium intrusion and from intrusion of fine <br />particles that could separate from the bedrock as groundwater flows through siltstone and <br />mudstone. The laboratory performed a permeability test and obtained a permeability <br />of2.6 x 10 -2 cm/sec for this composite. <br />The recommendation to use this material assumed the following: <br />• Gradations of the two materials supplied by the gravel pit remain reasonably consistent for all <br />materials used in the construction <br />• The gravel pit is able to blend the two materials thoroughly into a homogeneous mixture <br />• Segregation of materials during placement is minimized <br />Based on the permeability for this blend and an assumption that there is one 7.5 -gpm seep every 50 <br />feet along the length of the slide area, and assuming that bedrock benches have only a gentle slope to <br />the north, a thickness of 4.8 feet was computed for the drainage blanket. This was rounded to a <br />nominal thickness of 5 feet for construction purposes to give a small factor of safety and to allow for <br />variability in the bedrock surface. The recommendation for the thickness of the drainage blanket <br />against nearly vertical rock faces was that it could be thinned to 3 feet, which was a reasonable <br />minimum constructible dimension. <br />In the West Slide area, a similar construction methodology was employed. The main difference was <br />that a much shorter chimney drain was installed above the drainage blanket. This chimney drain was <br />near vertical and placed directly against bedrock (extended about 2 feet above the top of the bedrock <br />face to ensure that all bedrock strata are intercepted). Furthermore, a 16" HDPE pipe (slotted in the <br />P:AMplsA06 CO \26 \06261003 Haul Road Slide RepairAWorkFiles\Report \MCC Slump Repair Letter 2012- 03- 27.docx <br />