Weathered Swelling Mudstone Landslide and Mitigation Measures in the Yanji Basin: A Case Study

Some national expressways and railways were routed through the Yanji basin with weak rock foothills. To achieve acceptable grades, a lot of excavations in swelling mudstones were performed, eventually forming many swelling mudstone slopes. After heavy rainfalls, slope failures occurred which were often attributed to the presence of swelling mudstones. Field and experimental investigations were carried out on a representative landslide with emphasis on the landslide causes and the higher landslide incidence in south-facing slopes in the Yanji Basin was also discussed. On this basis, a multipath mitigation method including drainage and reinforcement measures was employed for the landslide case. Considering the effect of slope orientation, distinctive vegetation was distinguishingly planted on the south-facing and north-facing slopes. The later field survey showed that the undertaken mitigation measures were efficient to prevent the landslide development and deserved to be adopted in other swelling rock and soil regions.