Instrumentation of unstable rock slopes along E16, Norway

Project summary

The E16 is a heavily trafficated national road, connecting large parts of Western Norway, with Oslo and Bergen. Long sections along this road are exposed to both rockfall and shallow landslides, but also large unstable rock slopes. In this project, we map and monitor the unstable rock slopes Stampa in Aurland and Skjød in Vang i Valdres. At Stampa, a major multistage rockfall endangered the E16 in June/July 2023. During this event, a large boulder hit and damaged the road. While our monitoring could contribute to a successful handling of the situation in 2023, our research contributes to a global community, with exploring amongst others, automated drone monitoring, explainable AI identifying causal relationships and analysing displacement behaviour and natural fracture and subsurface ventilations altering the ground thermal regime of unstable rock slopes. Skjøld, in Vang i Valdres, is a complex unstable rock slope with unusually high surface displacement within a scree slope. Our ongoing research here also promises to be able to contribute with new insights about hydrogeological drivers for displacement in both bedrock and scree deposits.