Continuous monitoring of meteorological conditions and movement of a deep-seated, persistently moving rockslide along Interstate Route 79 near Pittsburgh

Pennsylvania Geology

By: Francis Ashland and Helen L. Delano

A large inventory of landslides exists for Allegheny County, Pa., and historical movement of many

of these has resulted in considerable damage to property, roads, and infrastructure. Along Interstate

Route 79, a subset of the landslide inventory includes deep-seated rockslides, two of which reactivated

during construction of the highway in the late 1960s (Gray and others, 2011). Following the initial

movement of the rockslides, slope-stability investigations were conducted (Hamel, 1969; Hamel and

Flint, 1969), and measures were taken to reduce their impacts to the highway, but movement of at least

one of the rockslides persists even today. Long-term continuous monitoring of such landslides provides

critical data used to assess how the state of activity and velocity of movement (when the landslide is

active) change with rainfall and snowmelt. Currently, we are continuously monitoring meteorological

conditions and movement of a rockslide along the northbound side of Interstate Route 79 in Aleppo, Pa.

(Figure 1). The project is intended to extend over many years (approximately 5 to 10) in order to collect

sufficient data to assess how extreme storms, prolonged wet periods, and melting of the snowpack affect

the landslide. The rockslide is an ideal location for such long-term monitoring because the land is owned

by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), and movement is not directly impacting

the highway; therefore no stabilization measures are necessary in the short term.

Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	Continuous monitoring of meteorological conditions and movement of a deep-seated, persistently moving rockslide along Interstate Route 79 near Pittsburgh
Series title	Pennsylvania Geology
Volume	45
Issue	2
Year Published	2015
Language	English
Publisher	PA Bureau of Topographic and Geologic Survey
Contributing office(s)	Eastern Geology and Paleoclimate Science Center
Description	5 p.
First page	22
Last page	26
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
City	Pittsburgh
Other Geospatial	Interstate Route 79
Google Analytic Metrics	Metrics page