Development, justification, and verification of a rock fall hazard rating system

The Missouri Rock Fall Hazard Rating System (MORFH RS) was recently developed for the State of Missouri. It is a system that separates the risk of failure from the consequences of failure factors, thus allowing better assessment of the hazards of rock falls. Efficiency is gained by video logging of highway rock cuts from vehicles moving at highway speeds, pre-screening of rock cuts from video images, making some of the measurements needed for the rating system on digital images, and using GPS receivers to collect field data and GIS to organize all the data. This paper describes the rationale behind the parameters selected for the system using factor analysis and other methods and the verification of the system through sensitivity studies and multiple rater tests. Simulations of remediation techniques were applied to recognize the most effective methods for remediation.