Engineering Rock Mechanics

31 0 Foundation and slope instability mechanisms

and superstructure construction are intimately connected and it is not
easy to change the completed work nor implement remedial procedures.
This makes the final design of foundations more important than other
rock engineering structures, such as tunnels and underground caverns,
where a ‘design as you go’, or observational, approach is often adopted.
The seminal book5 on rock slope engineering is Hoek and Bray
(1977). The subjects covered in that book are economic and planning
considerations, basic mechanics of slope failure, graphical presentation
of geological data, geological data collection, shear strength of rock,
groundwater, plane failure, wedge failure, circular failure, toppling fail-
ure, blasting and extra topics.

5Hoek E. and Bray J. W. (1977) Rock SIope Enginm’ng. Institution of Miniig and

Metallurgy, London, 402pp.