1 CIC Workshop – New developments in Ground Engineering Keith Gabriel MSc DIC CGeol FGS UK Registered Ground Engineering Adviser Past Chairman, The Ground Forum • 10th October 2012 CIC Workshop – New developments in Ground Engineering •1 Courtesy of Geotechnical Engineering Ltd, A Milne Presentation outline • Sector overview • Drivers for change • Resultant changes - new developments • UK RoGEP : context, objectives and benefits • Summary •2 • 10th October 2012 CIC Workshop – New developments in Ground Engineering Ground engineering sector overview – Key UK Statistics Geotechnical Services File 2010 showed: • 230 firms employing between 1 and 307 geotechnical staff • 54% consultants • 29% contractors • Approaching £1 billion annual turnover (£869 million by top 35 firms) • Turnover of largest contractor = £92 million • Turnover of largest consultant = £35 million •3 • 10th October 2012 CIC Workshop – New developments in Ground Engineering
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CIC Workshop – New developments in Ground Engineering
Keith Gabriel MSc DIC CGeol FGS
UK Registered Ground Engineering Adviser
Past Chairman, The Ground Forum
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Courtesy of Geotechnical Engineering Ltd,
A Milne
Presentation outline
• Sector overview
• Drivers for change
• Resultant changes - new developments
• UKRoGEP : context, objectives and benefits
• Summary
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Ground engineering sector overview – Key UK Statistics
Geotechnical Services File 2010 showed:
• 230 firms employing between 1 and 307 geotechnical staff
• 54% consultants
• 29% contractors
• Approaching £1 billion annual turnover
(£869 million by top 35 firms)
• Turnover of largest contractor = £92 million
• Turnover of largest consultant = £35 million
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Ground engineering sector overview Ground engineering skills - required on an unusually wide range of construction activities: • Design of foundations and retaining walls • Transport infrastructure: cuttings, embankments and tunnels for roads
and railways, as well as pavement design and bridge foundations • Earth and rock dams • Flood defences - barriers and embankments • Offshore structures • Coastal protection • Landslide mitigation • Mine/natural cavity stabilization • House subsidence • Contaminated land clean-up • Landfill design • Renewable energy, in particular ground source heat pumps • and site investigation for all the above!
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Ground engineering is everywhere!
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Ground engineering is often hidden
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How is the London Eye supported?
Few appreciate the all-important ground anchors…
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London Eye – anchor headworks
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Drivers for change
• ‘Without site investigation ground is a hazard’ (SISG, 1993)
• ‘… ground conditions are often the cause of very large cost and time overruns’ (Managing Geotechnical Risk, Clayton, 2001)
• DTI/Strategic Forum ‘Sustainable Construction Strategy’ (2008)
• Perhaps the greatest challenge is how we can deliver a built environment that supports the creation of a low carbon economy for the UK. (Constructing Excellence, 2009)
• ‘….. very substantial savings are achievable – at least 15 per cent, or an estimated £2 to 3 billion annually, on the costs of building and maintaining the UK’s infrastructure [compared to its European peer group].’ (H M Treasury and Infrastructure UK, 2010)
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Drivers for change – Law
• Contaminated land legislation and regulation
• Plethora of new environmental law
• Planning regime
• Pt 2A Environmental Protection Act
• Building Regulations
• Consequences
• Some clients and their advisers have focussed on contamination issues to the exclusion of geotechnical matters
• Opportunities
• Re-focus balance between contamination and geotechnical hazards
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Drivers for change – Standards
• European Standards – Eurocode 7 : Geotechnical Design
• EC7 Pt1 – General Rules • 12 Execution codes for ‘special geotechnical work’
• Pre-contract site trials crucial to justifying design
• Max. height: 22m
• Max. angle: 90°
• Value engineering:
• Fully grouted nails
• Bespoke nail lengths & diameters
• Result: Land take minimised and nail sizes optimised
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Photo courtesy DywiDag Systems International
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Soil nailing – Reaching new heights
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Photo courtesy NCE
The Risk perspective
….. of course no construction project is free of geotechnical risk ….
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Risk, Hazard and Vulnerability
Risk results from a combination of hazard and vulnerability
• Hazards = Anything with the potential to do harm
• Materials/substances (eg the nature of the ground below our feet)
• adverse geometry (eg: of a slope, joint system or cavity), or
• a person (eg: an incompetent professional)
• Vulnerability = Factors which determine the likelihood that a hazard will have unfavourable consequences (including cost).
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UK Register of Ground Engineering Professionals – UKRoGEP
Objectives:
1. UKRoGEP will assist clients (including other professionals) to find competent ground engineers
2. Simplification of pre-qualification
3. Pre-empt EU action
4. ‘Signing off’ foundation designs
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Courtesy of Geotechnical Engineering Ltd,
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What is UKRoGEP?
A Register that identifies individuals who are technically competent and experienced in ground engineering
• Post-charter - CGeol or CEng is a compulsory pre-requisite
• Initiated by The Ground Forum and sponsored by:
• Launched June 2011
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• The Geological Society of London (GSL)
• Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
• Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IoM3)
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UKRoGEP grades & competencies
• UK Registered Ground Engineering Professional
• UK Registered Ground Engineering Specialist
• UK Registered Ground Engineering Adviser
Attributes applicants must address:
1. Innovation
2. Technical Solutions
3. Integration with other disciplines
4. Risk Management
5. Sustainability
6. Management
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Courtesy of Geotechnical Engineering Ltd,
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Key features of UKRoGEP?
• Sponsors: Critical role to vouch for an applicant’s competence in six attributes
• Registration based on formal assessment by their peers with interviews for borderline cases
• Registrants bound by the Code of Conduct of their host professional body
• Compulsory recording of appropriate CPD
• Five yearly reviews
• The Register is run by a Panel of two nominees from each of:
• Ground Forum, BGA
• ICE, GSL, IoM3
• Administrative services provided by the ICE
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What are the benefits of UKRoGEP?
Pre- UKRoGEP:
A Brown CEng, MICE B Green CGeol, FGS
C White CEng, MIMMM
Which is the competent ground engineering specialist?
You cannot tell without reading CVs and obtaining references.
The Solution…?
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Courtesy of Geotechnical Engineering Ltd,
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The UKRoGEP Solution
Go to: www.ukrogep.org.uk
Download the Register and Check UKRoGEP for:
UK Registered Ground Engineering Professional/Specialist/Adviser
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Endorsements Formal endorsements of UKRoGEP have been received from:
From the Welsh Government:
“On behalf of the Welsh Government, I would to commit our support for the Register. It is essential in promoting best practice, raising standards and supporting government construction objectives. As a major client body which utilises ground engineering services we are only too pleased to support the Register.”
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To conclude – What can UKRoGEP achieve?
UKRoGEP enables clients and other professionals to identify easily:
• professionals with expertise in ground engineering • those ground engineering professionals with the competence and
skills to add most value to their projects
Effective implementation of UKRoGEP mitigates the risks associated with the work of incompetent or inappropriate practitioners offering services outside their expertise.
UKRoGEP identifies: technical competence, professional attitude and
experience in ground engineering
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Summary
• Ground engineering skills required for a wider range of construction activities than any other sector
• Focus in recent years on contamination issues has resulted in geotechnical hazards being overlooked; both must be addressed appropriately to ensure satisfactory project outcomes
• Introduction of Eurocodes requires new approaches, resulting in: • Increased cost
• Improved quality and reliability for ground investigations
• Improved transmission of ground investigation data to specialist contractors in AGS format is strongly recommended:
• Avoids un-necessary re-entry of data
• Enables less conservative pricing of tenders
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Summary
• Examples of new developments in ground engineering include:
• Sonic drilling:
• High quality core recovery from materials which could not be drilled
• Geosynthetics:
• Increasingly sustainable re-use of on-site materials
• Larger structures being built more cost efficiently, often in places with challenging access
• Soil nailing:
• Higher and steeper slopes being stabilised sustainably by using detailed pre-contract trials and bespoke nail design.
• UKRoGEP enables clients and other professionals identify technically competent ground engineers who can add most value to their projects
