Ground Support Asset Management

Geotechnical Asset Management is an approach that has been adopted by civil infrastructure and state highway departments to assess the "value" of rock slopes and develop a tool to assess the cost-effectiveness and importance of prioritizing slope and ground improvement projects to enhance transportation corridor reliability. The Ground Support Asset Management program aims to adopt an asset management framework for the underground construction and mining sectors. The University of Arizona operates the San Xavier Mining Laboratory south of Tucson, Arizona. The mine has adits and openings over three levels, including shaft access. The S.X. underground mine will be the launch site and be used as a testbed for trialing the Ground Support Asset Management program. Key aspects that degrade the useful life of elements are corrosion and deformation due to excessive convergence yielding ground in weak rock, deep, and high-stress environments. The primary focus will be on utilizing systems that collect high-resolution point clouds and spectral data to assess deformation and corrosion based on the point cloud data. A secondary project aim is to assess the rock mass and ground conditions for rock reinforcement and ground support design. The research project aims to develop a framework to assess the remaining useful life of ground support and rock reinforcement elements. Then, using the tools and logic developed in this project, the U.A. San Xavier mine and other mining companies can make informed decisions on when to rehabilitate access drifts and critical openings based on proper safety and economic basis.