One of my goals with getting involved in blogging is to educate others about the fascinating field of geotechnical engineering. Geotechnical engineering has to be the most misunderstood divisions of the branch we call “Civil Engineering”. With a name like "geotechnical", who wouldn't get confused?
When I first started college and was asked “What type of Civil Engineer do you want to be?” I would reply “I definitely don’t want to play or test dirt all day, so no geotechnical engineering for me.” Little did I know at that moment that I would land my first job at a geotechnical firm (purely by chance) and be completely enamored with the field.
As I go on with my career, I realize that many people, including those in the Civil Engineering field, don’t truly understand what it is we do. Well, I’ll tell you what we do; every day we try to predict how Mother Nature will behave (I don’t know about you, but no matter how hard I try, I can't predict how women think/behave.) With that being said, our profession is extremely challenging in that we are dealing with something we cannot see and rely heavily on judgement, testing and experience to guide us during design and construction.
Yes, it is a bit more complicated than you think. I recently came across an article titled “Radar Used in Stealth Bombers Could Find Potential Sinkholes in Streets” which can be accessed by clicking here. To go along with my point that our profession is widely misunderstood, this article conveys the message that some new radar technology (which is really Ground Penetrating Radar that has been around for some time) will aid to discover sinkholes due to leaking pipelines in roadways before they cause damage. First of all, sinkholes are natural depressions or holes that occur in the Earth’s surface due to karst processes (i.e. chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks like limestone). This is a complex process and an extremely important consideration for foundation design of any structure. Erosion caused by a leaking pipeline underlain by granular/fine-grained soils is not a sinkhole! Also, ground penetrating radar does not work below the groundwater table, which is one of the most important limitations of the technology. From the looks of the photo in the article, the water table is very near the ground surface. Who are they kidding? Additionally, the mere fact that they call soil “dirt” (yes, I know it’s silly, but to a Geotechnical Engineer it’s blasphemy) implies that they really don’t have any clue about the subsurface conditions, which is an important consideration for applying an investigation technique.
The result of uneducated people using this type of technology leads to wasting of tax payers money over and over again. Geotechnical engineers play an important role in the design and construction of civil works which is mainly done for government agencies. With better understanding of this field and maximizing the use of a geotechnical engineer in projects, reducing costs and construction delays can be realized. One of my goals through blogging will be to spread the word on how useful we Geotechnical Engineers can be.
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
http://www.edgedrilling.com.au/
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