Geobulletin alpha

London's Crossrail Cores Going to Salt Mine 

London't mega-project known as Crossrail that involves the construction of 118 km (73 mi) of new rail line with 42 km (26 mi) of new tunnels. The geotechnical investigation for Crossrail included rock coring, and some 561 pallets of core are going to be stored inside the mined out portion of a salt mine in Cheshire. The temperature and humidity levels remain consistent year-round making it an ideal place to store the core. According to the NCE article, this material is less than half of the [...]

Unconservative designs with AASHTO LRFD for deep excavations 

Dimitrios at Deep Excavation LLC wrote this article a couple of months ago for his monthly newsletter. He contends that for multi-level braced excavations, the AASHTO LRFD code could produce unconservative results. From his article: The currently adopted design methods for AASHTO (2010) LRFD appear to produce inconsistent and possibly unsafe designs for many multi-level braced excavations. Limit-equilibrium analyses combined with LRFD methods appear to severely underestimate benchmarked [...]

Weekend CUP for May 10, 2013 

Happy Friday! If you need a break today, here are some interesting stories from the past month or so that I didn't get to blogging about. Enjoy! A call for landslide photos for the USGS library archive - Source: The Landslide Blog Massive landslide stops production at Bingham Canyon Mine - Source: Deseret News Caltrans Completes Devil’s Slide Tunnel Construction - Source: Caltrans News Release ASFE Becoming GBA - Source: ASFE: The Geoprofessional Business [...]

Video: NY Second Ave Subway Project on CBS News 

This news story aired a few weeks back.  It has some great views of the tunneling process but also focuses on some of the social issues, such as complaints about Rats, as well as noise and dust.  I guess you can’t please everyone.  Check out the video below.

Norway wants to build world's first tunnel for ships 

The Norwegian government wants to build a tunnel linking two fjords that would be large enough to pass 16,000 tonne cargo and passenger ships. The treacherous stretch of waterway has seen 46 accidents and 33 deaths since World War II. The 1.7 km Stad maritime tunnel would cost about 1.6B kroner ($274M USD). [Source: The Courier-Mail via ASCE SmartBrief. Image:

International Collaboration Delivers Pioneering Geotechnical Carbon Calculator 

Foundation Industry Launches Standardized Open Source Tool to Compare the Sustainability of Different Foundation Techniques Hawthorne, NJ (May 1, 2013): The European Federation of Foundation Contractors (EFFC) and the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) are urging the geotechnical sector to make immediate use of their jointly-developed, pioneering carbon calculator tool, the Geotechnical Carbon Calculator. Developed using internationally recognized standards, the Geotechnical Carbon Calculator [...]

Landslide Insurance Very Rare 

There were just a few sentences in this article/blog post about landslide insurance. Most geoprofessionals realize that home-owners insurance does not cover landslides, floods or most other geologic hazards. But what I found interesting in this article was a quote from an insurance agent that gave a rough estimate of the cost of "very rare" landslide insurance. He gave an estimate of $1,000 per year for a $300,000 house. I'm sure it depends on lots of factors, but at least that could get [...]

Kurt R. Fraese, L.G. Is New ASFE/GBA President 

ASFE, The Geoprofessional Business Association has elected a new president, Kurt R. Fraese, L.G. Kurt is the CEO of GeoEngineers, Inc. Click on over to the ASFE/GBA website to read more about him and the other officers for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. [Source: ASFE: The Geoprofessional Business Association. Image:

Keynetix Expands KeyLAB Functionality for Concrete Testing, ATSM and Australian Standards 

22nd April 2013, Redditch, UK - Keynetix are pleased to announce that an upgrade to KeyLAB has been released today that includes a number of new features requested by users to help them manage their geotechnical and concrete laboratory. The new build expands the functionality of the system to assist laboratory managers who are conducting concrete testing, working in a NATA accredited laboratory or with the ASTM standards and is available free of charge to all users who have an in-date [...]

Geophysics successfully detects void beneath Missouri Taxiway 

Airport authorities at the Charles B. Wheeler airport in Kansas City, MO were concerned about a leaking CMP joint 22-feet beneath the taxiway. The sand that was coming through the joint was detected on a video inspection of the culvert. They were concerned about possible voids above the leak and commissioned a geophysical survey. Two geophysical methods were used, ground penetrating radar and multi-channel analysis of surface waves (MASW). The void was detected using the methods, and [...]

Is the Bingham Canyon copper mine landslide the most expensive single mass movement in history? 

Dr. Dave has some financial analysis of the Bingham Canyon Mine Landslide in Utah. His interpretation of some of the financial data being thrown around is a financial loss of $770M, ouch! [Source: Read the full post at The Landslide Blog. Image: The Landslide

Amazing aerial photos of the Bingham Canyon Landslide 

There is a great collection of aerial photos and other photos from last week's Bingham Canyon Mine Landslide at Kennecott Utah Copper's Flickr Photostream. Thanks to my colleague Wolfgang Knudson at Golder for sending the link. There's a great couple of shots of the radar monitoring equipment that allowed the mine to monitor the slide with great accuracy, and safely evacuate the areas prior to its triggering. [Source: Kennecott Utah Copper's Flickr Photostream. Image: Flickr Page of Kennecott [...]

Video: Accelerated bridge construction Iowa DOT project 

This video for the Massena Lateral Bridge Slide from Iowa DOT shows a very nice 3D rendering of the entire accelerated bridge construction process. They are using a lateral slide method to construct the bridge adjacent to the existing one and then slide it into place within 9 days.  From a geotechnical perspective, this bridge will be founded on driven piles, and then pre-cast abutment caps with CMP block-outs will be placed over the piles and the block-outs grouted up.  The [...]

DC Water Christens TBM ‘Lady Bird’ 

The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) recently christened a new Tunnel Boring Machine 'Lady Bird' in honor of former first lady Claudia Alta 'Lady Bird' Taylor Johnson. The roughly 23-ft diameter TBM will tunnel a total of over 24,000 feet at a depth of 100 feet below the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers as part of a DC Water project aimed at reducing combined sewer outfalls. I first posted about this project, including a Google Map of the route a few years back. [Source: [...]

Video: WSDOT Rock Blasting on I-90 Snoqualmie Pass 

This is a great video montage of rock blasting for Washington State DOT's I-90 Snoqualmie Pass project. It's not clear from the description if this blasting actually occurred on this project or its from other projects meant to give Washington drivers a preview of what will be going on this summer on the project. All that's missing is a little classical music, perhaps 1812

Guidelines for Geofoam Applications in Slope Stability Projects 

A new publication was released from the TRB's NCHRP program on Geofoam Applications in Slope Stability Projects. TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 380: Guidelines for Geofoam Applications in Slope Stability Projects explores the use of expanded polystyrene-block geofoam for slope stabilization projects. For the purpose of the report, slope stabilization projects include new roadways as well as repair of existing roadways that have been [...]

Massive landslide at Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah 

A large landslide last week at Kennecott Utah's Bingham Canyon copper mine has stopped poduction and could result in furloughs or layoffs. The landslide occured on April 10, 2013 at around 9:30 pm in the northeast pit wall. The slide had been actively monitored for some time, and prior to the failure, the rate of movement did increase significantly and all employees were safely evacuated. No word on volume estimates at this point, but the flow of ore has stopped until the cleanup has taken [...]

Weekend CUP for April 12, 2013 

 It's time for a little spring cleaning! Here are some articles I didn't get to posting about over the last month or two.  Have a great weekend! San Francisco 49er’s Find EPS Geofoam Useful in Future Home - Source: Insulfoam.com Technical Paper: 1/18/13 Describing Geopier GP3 System Support of Two 18-Story Buildings - Source: Ground Improvement Engineering 2013 Tunneling Industry Forecast - Source: Tunnel Business Magazine Video: Sinkhole swallows four [...]

Bertha tunnel-boring machine arrives in Seattle 

The world's largest Tunnel Boring Machine or TBM just arrived in Seattle last week from Japan. Hitachi Zosen Corp built the 57 foot diameter TBM and tested it before disassembling it for the journey by boat to the Port of Seattle. Bertha will soon begin it's 16 month journey to bore a tunnel to replace the famous Alaskan Way Viaduct along Seattle's waterfront. [Source: Puget Sound Business Journal via ASCE SmartBrief. Image:

Geopier ground improvement supports plant to turn cheese byproducts into green energy 

Green energy from cheese? That's right, whey is not just for Miss Muffett I guess. In 2011, Foundation Service Corporation, the licensed installer of GeoPier GP3™ systems in Wisconsin installed over 1,600 GeoPier elements to stiffen the poor subgrade soils at a GreenWhey Energy plant under construction in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin. Upon completion this summer, the plant will take byproducts from cheese production and use it to create biogas, heat and clean water. According to GreenWhey [...]