A landslide in glacial lake clays in central British Columbia
The CNR line in central British Columbia was built across an old landslide along the valley of the Fraser River near the city of McBride. Failure occurred shortly after the completion of construction in 1914 and the railway was relocated just off the slide area by construction of a timber pile trestle. In 1927 the railway was moved back to its original alignment by rebuilding the old embankment on the old slide area.During the waning phases of glaciation, sedimentation in glacial lakes in the Rocky Mountain trench resulted in thick, laminated deposits of silts and silty clays that cover the outer edges of the alluvial fans along the mountain front.Starting in late 1974 and continuing through 1976 track subsidence took place that required a series of track raises. In 1977 a track offset of 15 m was completed and a site investigation was carried out that provided data for the design of a stabilizing berm.It is interesting to note that, for a period of 47 years, a sidehill fill in the scarp area of a slide performed satisfactorily. Re-initiation of the landslide is considered to be due to an increase in pore pressure within the slide mass. The ingress of water to the slide area is vertical infiltration into the alluvial fans and thence laterally into the slide mass. There has been an increase in the average annual precipitation in east central British Columbia and the cumulative effects of this precipitation resulted in the slope failure of 1974.