With a massive rock tearing through a northern Athens neighborhood late last month, the safety of slopes around town has come into question.
Yet, local engineers don’t believe that there is such a problem, even though a rock-scaling ordinance passed in February.
Ron Lucas, the assistant safety service director for the City of Athens, said the rock-scaling ordinance was passed in order to allow for the Ohio Department of
Transportation to perform rock scaling near state Route 33, which happens to be within the city limits and therefore needed city approval.
Rock scaling, also known as slope stabilization, is the physical removal of rocks from the edges of slopes. While the process is only occurring on a small stretch of land, it still will require a lot of work.
“It’s a labor-intensive process,” Lucas said. “Climbers and heavy equipment are used to do this. One method is boulder busting, where hydraulics are used to break up the bigger stuff.”
Even with this project and the recent rock fall, Lucas said he doesn’t believe the risk of a rockslide is a problem in Athens.
“I know there is some loose stuff near the highway,” Lucas said. “I think that rockslides around here are very preventable; we don’t have the problems such as ones along Route 7.”
ODOT District 10 Deputy Director Steve Williams agreed with Lucas that rock falls are not a problem in the area but said that ODOT does occasionally check on state Route 33 and admits that there is still the element of surprise, such as last month’s incident.
“We do periodic inspections and get contractors when we need repair,” Williams said. “Of course, sometimes we are surprised by incidents in areas we haven’t inspected. Usually they are worse in the spring after the winter’s freeze passes.”
Lucas said that when one of these rocks falls onto a local road, the city must clean it up.
“We need to remove any impediment to the driving public,” Lucas said.
“Sometimes we are reimbursed for our efforts, sometimes not. If something falls on private property it is their job to clean it up. The state determines if an area is at risk.”
Though the city does take some measures toward taking care of the slopes, Lucas said it is not an issue on which they focus.
“We repair slips throughout the city and we monitor certain ones to make sure no earth is moving,” Lucas said. “We definitely have our eyes on it. I wouldn’t say we are reactive, but couldn’t exactly say we are proactive either. We just have many different things around here that need our attention.”
Athens Director of Engineering and Public Works Andy Stone said rock falls are not a source of regular concern but more of a freak occurrence.
“I do not think it’s a problem here, there are not that many exposed rock angles,” Stone said. “This isn’t a common situation in this state, as soil slips are more common. What happened on Fairview was very rare; it happened near an old clay mine, which definitely was a factor.”
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