Understanding How Consultants Help Startup Company Owners

How To Fit Geotechnical Engineering Into A Project

30 August 2022 by Byron Johnston

Geotechnical engineering services can help you understand how the ground under a building or piece of infrastructure is likely to behave in a range of circumstances. It is important to understand where geotechnical engineering will fit into a project, though. Let's look at how these ideas typically figure into projects.

Civil Engineering

Lots of organizations utilize geotechnical engineering services to augment their civil engineering efforts. Notably, the geotechnical side of the ledger differs because it focuses on the geological formations that are present. Conversely, civil engineering tends to focus on how to shape an area to meet project needs. There is an understandably high degree of overlap since you often have to figure out geotechnical issues before moving forward with excavation, building earthworks, land grading, and similar jobs.

Structural Engineering

A structure can never be stronger than its weakest connection to the ground. However, the issue of structural strength doesn't stop at ground level. Structures are also highly dependent on the geological features beneath them. If you're dealing with soil that stands a high risk of liquefying during an intense earthquake, for example, the survival or failure of the structure depends on the bedrock. Many project plans end up calling for sinking anchors deep into the bedrock to provide sufficient structural support. Even that solution will only work if the bedrock is going to be up to the task, and a geotechnical engineer can tell you whether that's possible.

Testing

You may have noticed that lots of these questions are ones that you'll want to answer as early in a project as possible. While you can certainly use geotechnical engineering services to try to remediate problems after the fact, the best approach is to anticipate them long before a single shovel goes into the ground.

Consequently, testing is a major part of most geotechnical engineering analyses. Engineers will sample soils and conduct surveys of the bedrock using deep-penetrating imaging systems. They will then perform practical tests in labs to see how the different layers are likely to interact.

Modeling

Once a geotechnical engineer has a good idea of what the ground is like, they will try to model as many expected scenarios as possible. This means modeling events like earthquakes, floods, structural collapses, and even fires.

Reporting

Ultimately, a geotechnical engineering firm will supply a report for your project. Civil engineers, architects, designers, and contractors will need to understand the reports so they can make decisions about construction or renovation efforts. You will also want to file the reports for legal, compliance, and insurance purposes. 

For more information about geotechnical engineering, contact a local company. 

Share

Search