The Three Stages Of Geotechnical Engineering

On large scale building and engineering projects there is often a need to investigate the actual site that is to be developed in terms of its soil properties. This branch of civil engineering that deals with the investigation of subsurface conditions; finding out their physical and chemical properties, determining what risks there may be due to site conditions and monitoring earthwork and foundation construction accordingly is called geotechnical engineering.

The process of geotechnical engineering is complex and relies on precise measurements and a high level of accuracy for its findings and recommendations to be relevant and beneficial to any particular project. The process determines how a structure, or how the start of a project will be dealt with, so the need to get it right, with no room for error is paramount. The whole process can be broken down into three stages.

Review - The geotechnical engineering review stage is the first step to ensuring that any project can actually take place. The review highlights all the material properties of the soil that covers a site. At this stage any fundamental problems could be highlighted. Most reviews are just indicators as to what approach to take during the next phase and it is not often that something is found this early on that cannot be overcome.

Investigation - The investigation of the site takes on board any findings or recommendations that were flagged up in the review and pursues them further and much more rigorously. Soil, rock, fault distribution and bedrock studies are undertaken to determine the viability of a site for any proposed engineering project.

This stage of geotechnical engineering must be carried out with a high degree of precision no matter what the proposal is but it will also only have to investigate areas that are specific to the project. The bigger and more complex the project the more investigation needs to be done. It's also at this stage that issues such as health and safety start to surface and have a bearing on other more physical areas of the project.

Any findings in the investigation stage will determine how a site is treated. The engineering properties that are found in the soil and rock will directly influence how the foundations of any construction are created. Some foundations will need to compensate for failings in the natural earth and some will benefit from qualities that are already to be found in the ground.

Whatever the findings are they will have had to take on board factors such as earthquakes, landslides, sinkholes, soil liquefaction and the surrounding environment. Considerations about the risk to humans, property and the environment have to be dealt with as well.

Foundation Design - There are many different types of foundation design, some are straightforward, some more complex because they need to support larger structures. The process of geotechnical engineering ends at the stage where the foundations are designed based on the results and findings from the review and the investigation.

All constructions need to go through the geotechnical engineering process and all man made structures need foundations designed based on the process's findings. Skyscrapers, bridges, large and small buildings all rely on foundations for their strength and longevity.

Geotechnical engineering is a specific are of engineering that stands independent of other disciplines but it does also have bearing on other areas including coastal engineering, ocean engineering and engineering geology where it can be useful in the design and construction of marinas, oil platforms and jetties.

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