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http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/environ-
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[2] Queen’s Printer for Ontario
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[3] Ministry of the Environment
Operations Division, April 2008,
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Hydrogeological Studies in Sup-
port of Category 3 Application for
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[4] Mori H. Mortazavi, Contaminated
Hydrogeology – A Pathway in
Geoenvironmental Engineering,
Geotechnical News, March 1995,
pp 46-51
[5] J. Patrick Powers, P.E., Construc-
tion Dewatering, New Methods
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Mori H. Mortazavi, MEng, P.Eng.,
P.Geo.
Senior Consulting Engineer
Peto MacCallum Ltd., Consulting
Engineers
165 Cartwright Avenue, Toronto,
Ontario M6A 1V5
Slope Engineering for Mountain
Roads
Hearn, GJ (editor). 2011. Geological
Society, London, Engineering Geology
Special Publication No 24.
Reviewer, DF VanDine, VanDine Geo-
logical Engineering Limited, Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada,
One of my fields of specialty is debris
flow mitigation, and therefore when I
received Slope Engineering for Moun-
tain Roads, opened it up, and the first
thing that dropped out was an erratum
sheet for Figure C7.31, entitled “Some
options for debris flow control and fan
crossings”, I had a good feeling about
this book. It turns out that the original
figure in the book was not incorrect,
but some of the lines on the figure
were shown thicker than intended. It
nice to know that the publisher cared
enough about the book to issue this
erratum sheet.
As the title suggests, the focus of the
book is the slope stability aspects of
design, construction and maintenance
of roads in mountainous terrain. What
the title does not indicate is that the
book is directed to regions of the
world that are in the humid tropics and
subtropics (primarily residual soils),
and is typically directed to low-cost
and low-volume roads. Neither of
these omissions in the title, however,
detract from the book because most
of the principles and techniques
described can be applied elsewhere
and in other situations.
Slope Engineering for Mountains
Roads evolved from a document
prepared for the UK Department for
International Development by a team
of consulting engineering geolo-
gists, geomorphologists, geotechnical
engineers and hydrologists, employed
or retained by URS Scott Wilson Ltd
in the UK. It draws upon the exten-
sive practical experience gained both
by these individuals and by this firm
while carrying out consulting, con-
struction and maintenance projects in
many developing countries. There-
fore, the book tends to be a practical
guide, not an academic textbook. And
although presumably the projects were
carried out over an extensive period of
time, the book includes current inves-
tigation techniques such as LiDAR,
current slope treatment techniques
such as bioengineering, and current
references. The many case histories
included do not appear to be dated.
Dr Gareth Hearn, an engineering
geomorphologist, is the editor and
one of the prime authors. Tim Hunt,
a geotechnical engineer, has contrib-
uted to many of the chapters. I get the
impression that these two individu-
als have worked closely together as
team members on many international
projects and as a result, the geological
and engineering topics in the book are
integrated very well. The fact that Dr
Hearn was both the editor and a prime
author has resulted in a consistent
writing style and consistent techni-
cal terminology throughout the book,
which make for easy reading.
Slope Engineering for Mountains
Roads is divided into four main parts:
background information on mountain
roads and landslides, including project
planning, slope materials, hazard and
risk, all in the context of the humid
tropics and subtropics; descrip-
tion and review of site investigation
techniques, from desk studies to field
mapping, to ground investigations
to monitoring; discussion on issues
related to the design and construction
of road alignments, rock and soil slope
stabilization, retaining structures,
drainage and erosion protection; and
introduction to issues related to slope
management, maintenance, inspection,
risk management, work prioritization,
and emergency management. Each of
the four main parts, are further subdi-
vided. In total there are 17 chapters,
plus a glossary and a comprehensive
index. I feel that the book contains
most topics that I think it should, and
in fact many of the topics in the fourth
part (slope management) are not typi-
cally addressed in other textbooks on
slope stability.
BOOK REVIEW