The 2024 Kentucky Building Code, incorporating IBC Chapter 18, mandates specific geotechnical investigation for any development on slopes steeper than 15 percent. Lexington's Inner Bluegrass region presents exactly this challenge across much of the southern and eastern development corridors. Our laboratory processes soil samples from sites along Man o' War Boulevard and the Hamburg area where weathered limestone residuum creates complex stability conditions. The analysis determines factor of safety against rotational failure, translational sliding, and wedge failure modes using parameters derived from direct shear and triaxial testing. For deeper investigations where bedrock topography influences failure planes, we often pair slope modeling with seismic refraction surveys to map the soil-rock interface without excessive borings. The resulting geotechnical report provides the design parameters and recommendations that Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government plan reviewers require before issuing grading permits on hillside lots.
A slope stability analysis is not a template report. Every Lexington hillside has its own stratigraphy, groundwater regime, and failure history that must be understood before the first cut is made.
