Slope stability assessment along the Hai

Haibat Sultan road represents one of the main and most important links between the two main cities in the Kurdistan region, namely Erbil and Sulaimaniya, passing through Koya city. It goes through two of the tourism and resort places, Kosar Resort Compound on the south western flank and Chenarock resort on the north eastern flank of the mountain series. The strategic importance of this road necessitates the appraisal of the driving safety on this road in order to secure a safe driving environment along it. Throughout the history of this road, many incidents of dangerous rock falls and landslides have happened which have endangered the driving on it. In addition to these problems, a big danger exists regarding the existing trees which have been affected by these slides and failures leaving a big negative impact on the environment and the greens zones in this area. In spite of the closure for few months during last spring and summer in order to do some maintenance works on this road, we still think that a big element of danger and unsafety still exists. This has motivated us to do some assessment of the slope stability through examining 14 stations along this road where we have tried to assess the stability of slopes and evaluate the existing dangers at these stations through photographic documentation, personal inspections and onsite observations. We have also tried to suggest some remedies and solutions to these problems and risks. This work was finalised with some suitable conclusions and relevant recommendations.