The
paper is a response to ideas published recently, concerning the disputed causes
of the
structural failure
of the A4 motorway’s high
embankment which appear to
completely contradict the standpoint expressed when the problem was presented
at the previous
Structural Failures conference. The paper identifies
main controversies. It shows that observation and measurements do not support
the claim that stability of the embankment was lost solely due to its own
weight. It demonstrates that employing, for the purposes of the analysis, the
values of cohesion so considerably lower than the cohesion obtained in shear
box tests is utterly unjustified, as is the view that geomattresses are of no
use as a method of protection of the embankment against mining deformations.