Events & Courses

Innovative Geotechnical Slope Repair Techniques: Part of Highways England’s Geotechnical Resilience Programme

An evening meeting by the Engineering Group of the Geological Society (EGGS) and the British Geotechnical Association (BGA)

Speakers

Mike Winter (TRL), Ian nettleton (Coffey Geotechnics) and Oliver Pritchard (Arup)

Time

Tea/coffee from 17:30

Lecture start at 18:00

Venue

Burlington House

Further information

A brief overview of Highways England’s Geotechnical Resilience Research Programme will be presented by Arup, Highways England’s Programme Mangers, followed by a more detailed session describing recently published work on the evaluation of Innovative Geotechnical Slope Repair Techniques.

The techniques evaluated are the planting of live willow poles, Fibre Reinforced Soil (FRS) and Electrokinetic Geosynthetics (EKG). These techniques were used in place of conventional approaches in order to reduce the overall impact of various challenges including environmental constraints (habitat and visual), access and utility constraints, and the need to reduce the scale and/or cost of traffic management and traffic delays. Trials of the techniques have been undertaken over 20 years. The available data and information has been assessed, detailed site visits undertaken to determine the effectiveness of each technique with the objective of recommended future use and where appropriate, developing design and specification guidance. Life Cycle Assessment has also been undertaken of the three techniques and conventional rock fill replacement to provide an intriguing comparison.

Monitoring was generally limited to just a few years post-construction. Longer term evaluation has not generally been undertaken and this and other generic lessons regarding the planning, design and execution of future trials will also be presented.

The lecture is free to attend and will also be livestreamed at the following web address: http://geolsoc.adobeconnect.com/eggs1902/