PROTECTION OF TRAFFIC ROUTES FROM FALLING ROCKS WITH A SYSTEM OF DEEPLY ANCHORED NETS OF HIGH STRETCH STRENGTH

Abstract

Living space is becoming increasingly valuable, so traffic routes ever more often run through terrains which are essentially more demanding from the point of view of protecting traffic from falling rocks. Because of increasingly frequent inclement weather conditions, erosion on the banks of existing traffic routes is also considerably more intensive. Protection from falling rocks is a major problem for road maintenance, especially because this must satisfy ever greater and far more decisive ecological demands, in addition to traffic safety. In the developed world, and recently in Slovenia, too, protecting banks from crumbling rocks and stones with a system of deeply anchored nets of high stretch strength has therefore been increasingly used. They ensure effective protection of the banks and, at the same time, enable greenery to grow on even very steep banks. In Slovenia, the system has been used on the banks of Polica and Mali vrh above the Malence – Višnja gora motorway. It has been very successful in both cases.