Anchors of Anchored Slopes in Taiwan

Abstract

A catastrophic failure of an anchored cut slope at the national expressway in 2010 uncovered the status quo of tie-back anchors in Taiwan. Serious corrosion of anchor components due to poor corrosion protection was found to be the most obvious factor contributing to this landslide among other factors. After an extensive island-wide investigation on the existing anchored slopes, similar corrosion problem was found in many other anchored slopes. After the investigation, the construction and maintenance practice of anchored slopes had been fundamentally changed in Taiwan. This paper covers the inspection results on anchored slopes and also the measures taken to improve the corrosion protection of existing anchors and new anchors. Based on the problems found from the existing anchored slopes, some modifications on anchor tendon assembly and cement grouting practice had been developed to upgrade the corrosion protection of the new anchors and to monitor the long-term anchor load change as well.