Each year we get the geotechnical team from our various offices together to share knowledge, discuss plans for the direction of the team and just get to know each other a bit better. For the last couple of years, we have chosen the date to coincide with the annual Rankine Lecture, making it easier for our colleagues from other offices to attend the talk. The day is led by our associates, Kat, Emma and Tom.
This year we started off by discussing feedback from January’s career development appraisals. We looked for common themes in training requests or anything that suggested areas for improvement. We examined where our strengths and weaknesses lie and agreed where we need to bolster or share expertise. It was a reminder of how diverse our work is – everything from ground investigations and interpretive reports for our structural colleagues, to slope stability assessment and remedial design, earthworks and ground treatment, peer reviews and complex ground and soil structure interaction modelling.
Another topic during the day included a discussion of the prediction of ground movement and building damage due to underpinning (still no definitive answers!). And Rose shared the presentation she’s putting together for the GeolSoc scrutineers – the engineering geology of a really interesting site in the Midlands with faulting, historic coal mining and undulating topography.
Although we ran out of time to hear Sam talk about developments in Open Ground, there was time for pizza and a birthday cake before we headed off to the Rankine Lecture!
The lecture on Geotechnical Engineering for a Sustainable Future rounded off what had been a thoroughly enjoyable and informative day. The range of applications for numerical modelling in sustainable geotechnical practices was fascinating; from off-shore wind turbines and rail embankments to the deep underground burial of nuclear waste. It was another reminder of the vast range of projects to which geotechnical engineering is essential.
