In September 2015 we had a technical paper published at the XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in Edinburgh. The paper is based on work undertaken in support of URS (now AECOM) in the design of a coastal protection scheme. Titled “The design of an anchored pile retaining structure to control landslide regression at Lyme Regis, UK”, the authors are Corrado Candian (formerly URS, now COWI), our Andy Goodwin, and Dimitri Daskalopoulos (URS). We are very pleased to have worked with our partners on this paper and look forward to working with them further.
Category Archives: courses
ENGINEERING GEOLOGY LECTURING SUPPORT TO SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY CONTINUES
Our Dr Andy Goodwin was invited back for the third year running to deliver a short course on engineering geology to third year students in Civil Engineering at the University of Sheffield. Over three weeks he helped the students understand the relevance of engineering geology to civil engineering through the use of case studies and anecdotes from his thirty years of experience. On the way he taught them too core aspects of geology including rock types and their characterisation, geological structures, and geological mapping and sectioning. The students all seemed to enjoy the course even though they had to do an on-line test afterwards to summatively assess their learning!
NEW STANDARDS FOR GEOTECHNICAL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
Important updates to British Standards commonly used by geotechnical and structural engineers have been published:
- BS 8002: 2015 Code of practice for earth retaining structures. This revised and updated standard conforms to the latest EN and EN ISO standards and provides recommendations for the design, construction, monitoring, and maintenance of earth retaining structures. It provides additional information to the recommendations in EC7 for surcharges, unplanned excavations and prop loads, and provides detailed recommendations for the content of Geotechnical Feedback Reports in accordance with EC7.
- BS 8004: Code of practice for foundations. Providing recommendations for the design of both shallow and deep foundations to meet the latest EN and EN ISO standards, the new standard provides additional information to EC7 recommendations for spread foundations, provides recommendations for the design of piles that reflect modern practice, and and provides detailed recommendations for the content of Geotechnical Feedback Reports.
All related courses offered in 2016 by our sister company Surepath Training will make reference to the new standards and provide guidance on their use in practice. Please contact us for the details of the revised course details.
SLOPE APPRAISAL SERVICES CONTINUE TO DEVELOP…..
Surepath has been commissioned to undertake a range of slope stability assessments across the UK recently by several different Clients. Though details are subject to confidentiality restrictions, the projects illustrate the breadth of expertise available to Clients generally. For example:
- One project requires the appraisal of an existing road embankment over a culvert. It requires the integrated appraisal of the site, planned highway improvements and vegetation effects, with the aim being to secure adoption of the highway in due course.
- At another site excavation works at a hard-rock quarry are potentially impacting on adjacent infrastructure. We are assisting the Client to appraise the effects.
- At a third site, complex superficial geological conditions and flooding concerns have lead to design issues that we are helping to address in a review role.
We hope to be able to showcase these and other projects in more detail in due course.
SPECIALIST GEOTECHNICAL SERVICES TO LITHOS CONSULTING
Surepath Consulting is pleased to announce that it has established a collaborative relationship with Lithos Consulting to provide them with specialist geotechnical design and appraisal services on a call-off basis to supplement their in-house expertise in ground investigation, interpretative report writing and other matters geotechnical. We have bid for several projects together already, and current commissions mainly comprise soil and rock slope stability assessments. We are looking forward to working with them going forward and to many future joint bid successes.