Engineering on the precipice: mountain road

rehabilitation in the Philippines

J. Hart, G. Hearn & C. Chant
Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Co Ltd, Scott House, Basing View, Basingstoke, Hants, RG21 4JG, UK

Abstract Abra River and Haphap Faults. There is clear evi-

dence of the recent, disturbing forces of earthquake
opography and ground conditions for mountain activity which, according to the Philippine Institute of

T road engineering within the Central Cordillera of

Luzon in the northern Philippines (Fig. 1) are
some of the most extreme and unstable in the
world. The Central Cordillera is a range of mountains that
has been emplaced and shaped by rapid uplift, valley
Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), was caused
by movement principally along the Philippine and
Digdig fault lines. Numerous smaller splay faults were
mapped during the project (see below) trending both

incision, slope erosion, and often massive landslides

(Fig. 2). The Halsema Highway is a 180 km-long,
tortuous road that traverses this mountain range and is a
vital economic and strategic lifeline to the intensively
farmed agricultural mountainous regions of northern
Luzon. In 1990 the road suffered extensive loss and
damage as a result of a Richter magnitude 7.8 earth-
quake followed by a succession of typhoons and intense
rainstorms. Given the strategic and socio-economic
importance of the highway, the Philippines Government
sought international aid to rehabilitate this vital link fol-
lowing the devastation, and feasibility and design studies
commenced in late 1996. This paper presents some
of the geotechnical investigation carried out for these
studies, describing the types of instability and ground
conditions affecting the road and the approach adopted
to maximize the interpretation of the ground, and
to provide geotechnical engineering options for road
rehabilitation.

Keywords: earthworks, engineering geology maps, geological

hazards, geomorphology, highways

Regional geology
The Philippine Archipelago is one of the most tec-
tonically active regions in the world, and since 1954 six
earthquakes have been recorded at greater than 7.3 on
the Richter scale. On average, five earthquakes are
recorded each day (NZNSEE Reconnaissance Team
1991). Regular and often very intense seismicity in the
region is principally related to subduction-zone tectonic
activity surrounding the Philippine Islands (Fig. 3).
Lying at the convergence of the Philippine Sea Plate
to the east and the Eurasian Plate to the west the
Philippines are situated above two subducting plate
margins. Subduction occurs at rates of between 10 mm
and 70 mm per year, which is accommodated on land by
predominantly sinistral, strike–slip deformation along
major fault zones associated with the Philippine Fault
(Fig. 3). Within the project area, three major splays
cross the road from the main fault, including the Digdig, Fig. 1. The location of the Halsema Highway, Philippines
Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 35, 223–231 1470-9236/02 $15.00  2002 Geological Society of London
224
Fig. 2. Massive landslide and erosion scars along the Halsema
Highway
NW–SE and NE–SW (Fig. 4). These are associated with
extensive zones of shearing, fracturing and fault gouge
(clayey gouge up to 2 m thick was observed in some
landslide scars and cut slopes). Consequently, both
active and relict, small and large-scale discontinuities
control the Cordillera landscape and traverse the road
alignment.
The area is dominated by relatively young tectonic
arc volcanic rocks interbedded with sedimentary for-
mations, both of which have been intruded during
numerous magmatic phases by plutonic assemblages
(Fig. 4). The oldest rocks exposed in the area are
Cretaceous to early Tertiary in age and comprise basal-
tic and andesitic volcanic rocks, which were meta-
morphosed by later tectonic uplift and intrusion
(Geomatrix-Certeza 1996). These are overlain uncon-
formably by tuffs, volcaniclastics and younger, relatively
massive andesitic lava flows together with thick lime-
stone sequences laid down during periods of volcanic
quiescence. This sequence was subsequently intruded
during the Oligocene and Miocene, by a suite of plutonic
and hypabyssal intermediate and occasionally basic
rocks including diorite, granodiorite, monzodiorite, dac-
ite and gabbro (Geomatrix-Certeza 1996). As the area
was uplifted, explosive volcanic activity produced large
volumes of volcaniclastic deposits, including tuffs,
HART ET AL.
volcanic breccias and coarse-grained conglomerates. In
addition to complex geology, the ground profile is
further complicated by subtropical weathering, with
saprolite thickness often in excess of 40 m.
The Halsema Highway
There are two main tourist destinations in the Central
Cordillera of north Luzon. For cool climate seekers
Baguio (Fig. 1) is regarded as the summer capital of the
Philippines. It is the gateway to the Cordillera and, as
such, has become the principal marketing point for the
vegetable growing hinterland further north. The impres-
sive 2000 years old Banaue rice terraces constitute the
second focal point. Since the end of the 19th century the
road between these two locations has been progressively
upgraded from a horse and cart track to a motorable
road, with two-lane concrete carriageway now con-
structed for about 77 km. This progressive upgrade
has placed increasing demands on the neighbouring
landscape as slopes have been cut, waste rock and soil
have been dumped and natural drainage patterns, them-
selves probably only meta-stable, have been significantly
disturbed.
The highway follows a contour alignment and as a
result is very tortuous. The current motorable speed is a
maximum of 30 km/h but the limited records available
show a high number of deaths and critical injuries
occurring along the highway. For example, 23 deaths
were reported between 1995 and 1997 alone. Many of
these were due to vehicles being driven over the road
edge onto the precipitous slopes below. There are seven-
teen bridges along the highway, including Bailey-type
bridges constructed across eroded cols on the ridgeline.
The road formation itself is supported extensively on
retaining walls utilizing masonry and reinforced con-
crete grid designs that, as far as the authors are aware,
are unique to the mountain areas of the Philippines.
The combined effect on the Halsema Highway of the
1990 earthquake and subsequent typhoons was devas-
tating, and the road has been in decay ever since, under
the continuing onslaught of 3.5 m of typhoon rainfall
each year. The Philippines Department of Public Works
and Highways (DPWH) has undertaken selective
improvements, but sections of the road are closed for
significant periods each year (e.g. for up to 6 weeks in
1997), and the hazards posed by falling debris from
above and failing carriageway from below (Fig. 5)
combine to make this a particularly treacherous
mountain highway. However, the alternatives are not
good. Early pioneers planned a route close to and along
the major river valley floors to avoid the steep and
unstable terrain above, but their attempts were futile
given the flooding and shifting channel patterns of the
river systems found there. The nearest alternative route
between Baguio and Bontoc lies some 30 to 40 km to the
 MOUNTAIN ROAD REHABILITATION 225

Fig. 3. Tectonic setting and active fault zone

west, but this route would not serve the intensely farmed
agricultural areas currently accessed via the Halsema
Highway. Major road realignment would therefore be
unacceptable from the local socio-economic point of
view.
In addition to the inherent natural instability within
the road corridor, changing land use patterns, namely
from forest cover to intensive farming, have affected
drainage patterns and have led to an increase in erosion
potential. Past road improvement schemes and on-going
roadside developments have resulted in slope excavation
and spoiling of waste material, processes that have also
tended to contribute to slope degradation.
Road rehabilitation
Feasibility and design studies for road rehabilitation
commenced in December 1996 and were completed in
the summer of 1998. Given the sheer scale of existing
road damage, the heterogeneity and complexity of
ground conditions, and the dynamism of the landscape,
226 HART ET AL.

Fig. 4. General geology of the Halsema Highway

a pragmatic and low cost geotechnical design approach
was developed, giving full consideration to engineering
geology and geomorphology. Field mapping therefore
became a critical tool that provided data upon which
engineering feasibility and design decisions were made.
Studies commenced with a rapid reconnaissance survey
made by a team of highway engineers, geotechnical
engineers, drainage engineers and geologists. Their
brief was to assess the options available for on-line road
reconstruction, and whether alternative routes were
feasible if rehabilitation within the existing corridor were
impracticable or too costly. Usually, one of the first
considerations in mountain road construction is the
identification of a stable rock out-crop in which support
structures can be founded or an excavation can be made
to create a road bench. In the case of the Halsema
Highway, neither ‘stable’ nor ‘rock foundation’ could be
easily visualized during this preliminary assessment, and
this was proven correct during later ground investi-
gations (see below). Nevertheless, it was concluded that
 MOUNTAIN ROAD REHABILITATION
Fig. 5. Typical section of undermined road along the Halsema
Highway (case study 2)
a road formation could be satisfactorily reinstated along
the majority of the alignment, leaving short sections
with a moderate to high degree of residual risk
from failure. The relevant authorities were advised
of this accordingly. Engineering alternatives, including
re-routing and tunnelling, were considered too costly,
impractical and unrealistic given that similar steep and
unstable terrain would be encountered elsewhere, and
considerable effort had already been made to keep the
existing corridor open.
A regional geological map, highlighting the principal
lithologies and discontinuities, and supplemented with
previous geological information gained from a pre-
feasibility geohazard study (Geomatrix-Certeza 1996),
was completed at an early stage of the project (Fig. 4).
The results of the mapping, combined with an inventory
of road and slope instability, indicated that the fractured
metavolcanic rocks, particularly those located close to
intrusive and faulted boundaries and affected by hydro-
thermal activity in the past, were intimately linked with
the zones of major slope instability along the road. A
programme of aerial photograph interpretation, geologi-
cal and geomorphological mapping, sub-surface investi-
gation, and slope analysis was undertaken at critical
sections of the road.
227
In the critical areas, road access had been com-
promised by failures from below, leading to loss of
support for the concrete carriageway. In the most
extreme of these, erosion and instability had created
20 m deep voids beneath the carriageway leaving as
much as half the carriageway undercut for several
metres. The options for reinstatement were few. The
simplest was to shift the road into the hillside, thus
creating a bench wide enough to support the road. This
option, however, further oversteepens and destabilizes
the slopes above, and does not necessarily prevent the
instability below from progressing back to the edge of
the realigned road. The alternative was to reconstruct
the road edge on retaining wall. This option was least
tenable where the depth of the void beneath the road
was greatest. As wall heights increase, so too do bearing
pressures, and foundation investigations revealed that
ground conditions were poor and generally did not
increase significantly within surface layers. Calculated
bearing pressures and sliding forces were such that
foundation depths had to be scheduled several metres
beneath existing ground in some cases. The advantages
offered by cantilevered slabs and flying buttresses
(reinforced concrete carriageway decks supported on
piers) were examined at individual sites, but they are
both liable to damage if a significant rock fall hazard
remains on the slopes above the road. They are also
reliant on the remaining bench beneath the carriageway
for partial support. Nevertheless, at a few selected
locations cantilever slabs were adopted in the design as
appropriate.
Trial pitting and drilling investigations were under-
taken in advance of and during detailed design. Trial
pits proved useful and cost effective in defining founding
conditions for retaining walls and in assessing the
stability and bearing capacity of soil and rock beneath
existing wall foundations. Throughout the trial pitting
investigations, an experienced engineering geologist was
assigned full time to log 3-dimensionally the trial pit
exposures and to ensure that adequate penetration was
achieved. Both machine and hand-dug trial pits were
carried out to optimize progress. Rotary core drilling
was used in bridge foundation investigation, stability
assessment at sites of suspected major slope movement,
and to identify depths to rock head beneath ground level
when examining the feasibility for road edge retaining
walls. However, drilling through extremely disturbed
and fractured material and in remote locations proved
difficult both physically, leading to low recovery rates,
and logistically. Careful interpretation of the samples
was required and in many cases the findings were
inconclusive.
Two case studies are described below to illustrate the
problems encountered and the approach adopted for
design of road reinstatement and slope remedial works.
228 HART ET AL.

Fig. 6. Combined field mapping for site appraisal at km 314

Case study 1
Figure 6 illustrates the combined mapping approach
adopted at a location (shown in Fig. 4) where an
unstable hillside above the road, and perennial seepage
at road level, were responsible for the frequent blockage
(weekly during the wet season) of the carriageway by
debris. The geomorphology of the slopes above the road
was indicative of deep-seated structure-controlled
ground movement. Engineering geological mapping
highlighted the presence of sheared, variably weathered,
weak and highly fractured meta-andesites and micro-
diorites at the site. Two dominant joint sets, dipping at
45o to 50o controlled plane failure surfaces forming the
slopes close to the ridge top. In addition, major gullies
appeared to be following similar planes of weakness
along the flanks of the failing mass. Three observations
were critical to the interpretation of ground conditions
at this location. First, there were no signs of movement
at or beneath road level, implying that failure was
confined to the slopes above the road. Second, there was
juxtaposition of slightly weathered and even fresh rock
with fractured, sheared and highly weathered material in
several locations. Third, there were outcrops of clayey
 MOUNTAIN ROAD REHABILITATION
Fig. 7. Cross section A–A and detailed design at km 314 (case study 1)
fault gouge in at least two of the main gullies. Given
these observations, together with the presence of
stronger, less weathered rock at road level, the hillside
above the road was interpreted as part of a shear zone.
Stereographic analyses of discontinuity data indicated
that movement was kinematically feasible along the line
of intersection of the two dominant joint sets, which
dipped out of the slope towards the road at about 30o.
Gradual movement towards the road was postulated
along multiple failure surfaces defined both by shear
planes and by the intersection of the two joint sets.
Stability analysis assuming failure along a plane inclined
at 30o (Fig. 7) was used to demonstrate the positive
effects on the calculated factor of safety of cutting back
the slope above the road to a shallower angle. In
addition, ancillary works scheduled at this location
included the installation of horizontal subsurface drains
towards the slope toe to reduce groundwater levels in
that area, breast walling and the extensive use of scour
protection works using masonry cascades and bio-
engineering (Chant et al. 1999), to reduce the impact of
surface erosion and debris transportation. The overall
improvement in factor of safety was calculated to be
approximately 20%.
Case study 2
Figure 8 illustrates the combined mapping approach and
the use of subsurface investigation at the site shown in
Figure 5, where the most distressed and unstable section
of the alignment was encountered. For approximately
2 km, long sections of the original road bench have been
lost due to landsliding and erosion. Whole spurs have
229
been removed by these processes, and the road bench
has been realigned by the DPWH into the hillside to
compensate. In some locations the mountainside has
regressed back by up to an estimated 50 m since 1990.
Most of this regression took place during and shortly
after the earthquake, but progressive erosion has also
taken place since then. Continuous realignment of the
road into the hillside has deepened and steepened the
cuts and natural hillsides above the road, leading to
slope failures and potentially unstable slope conditions
in many places. Sections of road over culverts have
failed due to washouts and rapid downcutting on slopes
and in stream channels beneath the road, and the
disposal of large quantities of spoil material has led to
further disturbance and erosion. In one particular area,
the outside edge of the road bench was observed to have
regressed back by approximately 6 m during the
18 month feasibility study and design period (Fig. 5).
Ironically, immediately to the south of this narrowing
section of road bench, the carriageway remains relatively
intact (though severely cracked) across a massive relict
landslide (Fig. 8). The potential for reactivation of this
failure, and thus the stability of the 250 m of road
located on it, were also of primary concern. Field
mapping identified active tension cracking and localized
slumping above the road. In addition, severe erosion
and localized slumping below the road have led to the
progressive loss of bench support at the northern
flank of the relict landslide (Fig. 5). The patterns of
erosion, slope failure and road distress suggested that
the current movements are relatively shallow and related
to erosional unloading rather than deep-seated, large-
scale movement of the landslide mass. Mapping of the
230 HART ET AL.

Fig. 8. Combined field mapping and ground investigation for site appraisal at km 282 (case study 2)

Fig. 9. Cross section A–A and detailed design at km 282 (case study 2)

existing scars and cut slope surfaces, combined with
selective subsurface drilling, confirmed the presence of
25 to 30 m of disturbed and extremely weak soil and
rock, interpreted as a transported mass of hydrother-
mally altered and moderately to completely decomposed
metavolcanic rocks (Fig. 9). However, localized out-
crops of relatively stable rock were encountered on
either side of this mass. The design involved realignment
of the road into the hillside between these two outcrops,
and battering of steeper sections of the northern flank of
 MOUNTAIN ROAD REHABILITATION
the landslide with all excavated material being hauled to
approved stable spoil disposal areas. While this had the
disadvantage of removing support to the disturbed mass
above the road it allowed the road to be relocated away
from the deteriorating road margin below. Furthermore,
as the required slope excavation was to be undertaken
towards the head of the relict landslide, it was concluded
that there would be a positive influence on the stability
of the landslide slope as a whole.
Elsewhere, overhanging sections of pavement, caused
by washouts and erosion below, were frequently seen to
coincide with the locations where fault zones, some of
which contained considerable fault gouge, intersected
the alignment. At these locations retaining walls, the
foundations for which were investigated with trial pits,
were scheduled both above the road to support steep soil
cut slopes, and below the road over failure embayments
to reinstate the road bench.
Construction
The 180 km long road was divided into three sub-
sections and the construction contract for the first 85 km
between Baguio and Mt Data was awarded in June
2001. This section is the most critical from a geotechni-
cal point of view, as it is here that the majority of 1990
earthquake damage took place. Fifty percent of the
calculated reinstatement and road improvement cost is
designated for bench reinstatement, slope stabilization,
slope protection, and drainage. At the time of writing,
construction works had just commenced. Initial reports
from the construction site confirm the value of the trial
pit information, particularly in areas where heavy veg-
etation now conceals ground conditions of concern at
the time of the design. The construction supervision
programme allows for further geotechnical assessment
and advice during implementation of the works, and it is
the authors’ intention to publish findings and outcomes
at a later date.
Conclusions
The use of engineering geological mapping, with an
emphasis on geomorphological assessment, has allowed
both the inherent instability and dynamism of the
landscape to be evaluated for design purposes. Trial
Received 9 October 2000; accepted 15 November 2001.
231
pitting has proven extremely useful in this process, while
drilling investigations have, with one or two exceptions,
not contributed significantly to the interpretation.
Nevertheless, while the emphasis on using engineering
geological mapping is vindicated by this review, the
geotechnical engineering problems required to be
resolved on the Halsema Highway remain extremely
severe. In several locations the details of the design can
only be confirmed when excavations for deep cuttings
and foundations are opened up during construction.
Even so, the decision-making at that time will require
marginal value judgements in many instances. It is here
that the value of continuity between the design and
construction activities will be of value, assisted by
knowledge of the dynamism of each location over the
5 year time interval. Engineering on the precipice has
certainly benefited from the application of engineering
geology, but the real value of the mapping applications
will not be finally gauged until construction is well
underway and the exposed ground conditions and geo-
morphology of the site become clearer during the forth-
coming typhoon seasons. In this respect the impact of
Typhoon Feria, that struck Baguio on 4 July 2001 and
deposited in excess of 1200 mm in 36 hours, will allow
the observations, predictions and recommendations of
the engineering geological design to be fully put to the
test.
Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank the
Department of Public Works and Highways, Government of
the Republic of the Philippines for permission to publish this
paper. The lead consultant for feasibility and design studies
was BCEOM of France.
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