Soil Engineering Open Day

Soil Engineering, part of VINCI Construction UK Limited, and one of the UK’s leading geotechnical contractors, hosted an open day event on the 18th June at their Leeds office.

The event, attended by over 100 guests, was themed around changes in site investigation practices driven by the new Eurocodes together with technological developments within Soil Engineering.

With the publication of BS EN ISO 22476-3, Technical Director, Mathew Baldwin addressed the standard penetration test. This provides information on the geotechnical engineering properties of soil and the need to ensure uniformity of testing by tightening up the calibration. A summary of the requirements of the European Standard was presented and Mathew also explored BS EN ISO 22475-1 and the implications for tube sampling in the UK, questioning the future of the U100 sample. The re-examination of quality issues surrounding sampling will have implications for contractors and the specifiers of ground investigations.

Paul Hodgson from Bachy Soletanche looked at changes in piling practice as a result of Eurocodes, more specifically how Eurocode 7:2004 changed the approach to pile design and for bearing piles and bored pile retaining walls.

Finally, Soil Engineering’s Principal Environmental Scientist Christiaan Wilkinson looked at the absence of environmental considerations within the Eurocodes, where this leaves practitioners in the UK, and current UK legislation.

Soil Engineering continually strives to innovate and develop new equipment and techniques for application within the ground engineering and geotechnics sector. On display at the open day was the core scanner, used to capture 360 degree digital images of core and Drilling Parameter Recording (DPR) equipment which Soil Engineering has fitted to a number of its rotary rigs. Each of the rigs has also been fitted with a data logger to record five drilling parameters, thrust, torque, flush pressure, rotation speed and drilling rate. The equipment enables production in real time, a continuous profile of the nature of the soil and rock being penetrated.

Guided laboratory tours of the newly refurbished UKAS accredited soil and rock laboratories allowed visitors to appreciate the capabilities of the laboratory.

Peter Redford, Managing Director of Soil Engineering, said:
“Success within the geotechnical industry lies in forming good working relationships and partnerships. This open day allowed us to welcome our friends, colleagues and customers from around the industry to a informative and enjoyable day which we hope will give them a better insight into the capabilities of Soil Engineering”

Published: 8/07/2009