Geomechanics.io

Two engineering consortia have been shortlisted by the New South Wales Government to design and deliver a fix for Mitchells Causeway on the Great Western Highway at Victoria Pass, closed since March after substantial cracking and ground movement were detected. The move follows an industry briefing and on-site inspection involving 20 Australian and international firms, signalling complex geotechnical and structural stabilisation requirements on this steep Blue Mountains section. Outcomes will directly affect detour durations, heavy vehicle access and long-term slope and pavement performance on this key freight and commuter corridor.

Mexico City’s subsidence has been mapped in new detail by the NASA–ISRO NISAR L-band radar mission, revealing metropolitan zones sinking by more than 50cm per year over clay-rich former lakebed deposits. Interferometric SAR time-series show differential settlement across key infrastructure corridors, with some districts exhibiting cumulative subsidence of several metres over recent decades, far exceeding typical building serviceability limits. The data set offers geotechnical engineers block-scale deformation rates to refine foundation design, tunnel and metro monitoring, and groundwater extraction management.

Brownfield infrastructure projects are seeing geotechnical and environmental teams urged to integrate ground investigation, contamination data and 3D ground models from the outset, rather than running parallel site characterisation workflows. The piece stresses unified digital datasets combining borehole logs, in situ test results and contaminant plumes to refine ground risk registers, optimise foundation and earthworks design, and avoid late-stage remediation surprises. Case experience shows that early joint modelling of variable made ground, buried obstructions and legacy industrial pollution can materially cut unforeseen ground conditions claims and programme delays.

Rock & Alluvium, part of Van Elle, has installed its deepest continuous flight auger piles to date, reaching 40m, for the Bow Green development in East London. The record-depth CFA piles indicate challenging ground conditions and high load or settlement performance requirements typical of dense urban sites near the Thames. Contractors and designers may need to consider comparable pile lengths, rig capabilities and spoil management strategies for future high-rise or mixed-use schemes in similar London alluvial and made-ground profiles.

Helical piles are presented as displacement deep foundations that can be installed with small hydraulic drive heads on mini-excavators or skid steers, generating minimal spoil and vibration compared with driven piles. The FAQ addresses load capacity verification via torque correlation (e.g. kN-m per kN of capacity), corrosion protection options such as hot-dip galvanising and increased sacrificial thickness, and suitability in soft clays, fills, and below groundwater. Design is framed around ICC-ES AC358, with emphasis on tension, compression, and lateral performance for underpinning, boardwalks, and utility structures.

Settlement prediction in layered soils is shown to depend strongly on how vertical stress increments are computed, comparing classical Boussinesq-based methods with numerical analyses in Settle3, RS2, and RS3. The piece contrasts 1D influence-factor approaches against 2D/3D finite element and finite difference models that capture stiffness contrasts, non-linear behaviour, and complex load geometries. For practitioners, it signals when simple elastic solutions become overly conservative and when full numerical stress redistribution is needed to refine serviceability settlement estimates.

Quaise Energy is advancing Project Obsidian in Oregon, aiming to build the first superhot geothermal plant by drilling into rock above 300°C and delivering a baseload 50 MW from only a handful of wells by 2030. A modelling analysis presented at the 2026 Stanford Geothermal Workshop by senior mechanical engineer Daniel W. Dichter indicates higher subsurface temperatures could ultimately support 250 MW in phase two, with a regional goal of 1 GW. The confirmation well is due online later this year, with lab work at Oregon State University recreating extreme downhole geochemical conditions.

Keller has appointed Scott Nichols as President of Keller North America and promoted Curtis Cook to President of its US Foundations business unit, reshaping leadership at one of the region’s largest geotechnical contractors. Nichols will oversee a portfolio spanning ground improvement, grouting, deep foundations and earth retention across Canada, the United States and Mexico, while Cook will focus on US piling and shoring operations. The changes signal continuity of in-house leadership and may influence procurement, partnering and design–build delivery on major foundation and ground engineering projects.

Former Keller Group chief executive Michael Speakman has died, with the ground engineering contractor announcing his death on 9 April following his passing last week. Speakman led Keller, one of the world’s largest specialist geotechnical contractors with operations across piling, ground improvement and grouting, through a period of major infrastructure delivery in transport, energy and urban development. His death removes a senior industry figure with deep experience in large-diameter piling, complex ground stabilisation and international project delivery.

Groundforce Shorco has installed nine modular hydraulic props to brace a 4m-deep, 50m by 40m basement excavation for a new six-storey, 108-bed Clore Manor care home with underground parking in Hendon, north London. A secant-piled retaining wall is supported by six MP150 raking props (7.3–10.3m) along the northern edge and three high-stiffness MP375 props on the eastern side, adjacent to the Great North Way and a deeper attenuation-tank excavation. Deflection was limited to ±10mm, driving the choice of MP375s for stiffness rather than their 375t (3,677kN) axial capacity.

Strabag UK has agreed to acquire Van Elle Holdings, one of the UK’s largest specialist geotechnical contractors, in a deal valuing the business at £58.8M. The takeover brings Van Elle’s piling, ground improvement and rail geotechnics capability into the Austrian Strabag Group’s UK portfolio, strengthening its in-house delivery for major infrastructure such as HS2 and National Highways schemes. Contractors and consultants can expect a better-integrated design-and-build offer on complex foundations, retaining structures and track-bed works, but also increased competition in the UK ground engineering market.

NASA’s Artemis II crew has completed a geology‑focused lunar flyby, using high‑resolution imaging and LiDAR to map candidate Artemis III landing zones across the South Pole–Aitken Basin and other polar regions. Astronauts conducted real‑time visual stratigraphy logging of crater walls up to several kilometres deep and coordinated spectral observations of suspected pyroclastic deposits and boulder fields larger than 5 metres. The resulting datasets on regolith thickness, block size distributions and slope angles are expected to refine bearing capacity models, excavation strategies and ground‑anchor design for future lunar surface infrastructure.

Budimex has been selected as preferred contractor for deep foundation works on the passenger terminal of Poland’s planned Centralny Port Komunikacyjny (CPK), part of the £27bn Port Polska hub between Warsaw and Łódź. The package will focus on large-scale piling and ground improvement for the main terminal superstructure, a critical early works phase on the greenfield site’s challenging alluvial and glacial deposits. Geotechnical contractors and designers will be watching for CPK’s chosen pile types, installation methods and monitoring regimes, which are likely to set benchmarks for subsequent airside and rail interfaces.

Construction of a 6km offshore breakwater with Europe’s deepest foundations is pushing marine geotechnical limits, with caissons and foundation elements installed in exceptionally deep water using heavy-lift vessels and precision positioning systems. Complex offsite fabrication of large concrete units, likely in a dedicated casting yard with slipform or match-cast techniques, is being coordinated with narrow marine weather windows and high-capacity barges to maintain programme. For designers and contractors, the project stresses accurate seabed characterisation, robust scour protection detailing and tight control of tolerances during submerged placement.

Excavation is under way 1.5km below ground at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility in South Dakota to create three caverns, each roughly cathedral-sized, to house the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment’s liquid-argon detectors. The 1,300km-long beamline from Fermilab to the former Homestake gold mine demands tight control of rock mass behaviour, with extensive pre-grouting, cable bolting and shotcrete linings in complex, stressed Precambrian formations. Construction sequencing, spoil handling through deep shafts and long-term groundwater management are central geotechnical risks for the multi-year programme.

Immediate load capacity of helical anchors and piles at installation is being challenged by data showing significant “aging” effects, with shaft resistance and overall capacity increasing measurably over days to months in clays and some sands. The discussion contrasts torque-correlated design methods with time-dependent capacity gains, referencing field load tests where post-installation capacity growth alters factor-of-safety assumptions and serviceability performance. For practitioners, the key issue is whether to rely solely on installation torque or to incorporate waiting periods and ageing factors into design for temporary works, tiebacks and lightly loaded foundations.

JP Giroud’s legacy site consolidates more than 400 technical documents, including his 1977 geomembrane liner leakage formulation and 1982 composite liner concept, which underpin modern landfill and heap leach barrier design. The archive spans Terzaghi Lecture materials, ASCE Geo-Institute Hero content, and International Geosynthetics Society presidential work from 1986–1990, plus design charts, case histories, and conference keynotes. Practitioners gain a single reference point for Giroud’s methods on leakage control, stability of geosynthetic-lined slopes, and geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures.

Britain’s first continuous geothermal power plant has begun commercial operation in Cornwall, supplying baseload electricity to the grid for 24/7 generation rather than heat-only or pilot‑scale output. The project uses deep geothermal wells drilled several kilometres into hot granite, circulating water through a closed-loop system to drive a surface power plant via binary-cycle technology. For civil and geotechnical engineers, the scheme tests high‑temperature casing design, long‑term borehole stability in fractured rock, and integration of geothermal infrastructure with existing grid and planning frameworks in the UK.

Numerical modelling of deep underground excavations using RS2 and the Confinement-Dependent Visco-Plastic Model (CVBM) is used to capture spalling in jointed rock masses where confinement drops and tangential stresses concentrate around excavation boundaries. The approach contrasts brittle spalling in massive, low-porosity rock with more ductile behaviour in highly jointed rock, explicitly representing joint orientation, spacing, and strength. For design, this enables more realistic prediction of depth of failure, damage zones, and support demand around tunnels and caverns at high stress ratios.

GeoStruxer’s digital twin of a 12,000‑square‑metre grain warehouse in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, enabled a redesign of the original slab‑on‑grade foundation to a piled solution that cut pile numbers by 70% and CO₂ emissions by 44%. Using Bentley’s PLAXIS 3D and Leapfrog, the team integrated geotechnical models with structural analysis to optimise pile length, spacing, and layout while maintaining bearing capacity and settlement criteria. The approach reduced concrete and steel quantities, shortened construction time, and provided a reusable geotechnical model for future port developments.

A levee stability example models a flood event over a confined aquifer, comparing pore-water pressure definitions under different PLAXIS licensing options (2D, LE, and LE Advanced). The case contrasts simple hydrostatic assumptions with transient seepage and confined aquifer responses, including delayed pressure dissipation and uplift at the levee toe. Results show how choice of pore-pressure model and licence level materially changes calculated factors of safety and potential slip surfaces, directly affecting design decisions for flood defence embankments on artesian foundations.

Pile Dynamics, Inc. and GRL Engineers, Inc. will run a one-day 2026 “State of Practice” seminar focused on quality control for deep foundations, covering benefits, methods, interpretations, risks and implementation. The programme centres on modern testing and monitoring approaches for driven piles and drilled shafts, including practical guidance on data interpretation and risk management. Geotechnical practitioners can expect applied content directly relevant to foundation load testing, integrity assessment and construction QC procedures.

Helical piles are being positioned as an alternative to traditional drilled or spread concrete foundations for lattice and monopole communication towers, particularly where uplift, lateral loads and variable soils control design. Screw-in steel piles with helix plates can be installed with smaller rigs, generate minimal spoil, allow immediate loading and are removable at decommissioning, contrasting with large-diameter drilled shafts or pad-and-pier systems that require curing time and substantial excavation. The comparison focuses on sites with constrained access, weak or layered soils, and projects needing rapid deployment or future relocation.

Thames Water has launched procurement for a multi‑lot framework worth up to £177M (excluding VAT) to deliver site investigation surveys across its asset base. The framework will cover intrusive and non‑intrusive ground investigations, including boreholes, trial pits, in‑situ testing and laboratory analysis to support major water and wastewater infrastructure works. Geotechnical and environmental consultants and drilling contractors can expect long‑term programmes tied to pipeline renewals, treatment works upgrades and resilience schemes across the Thames Water region.

Persimmon Homes has partnered with ground engineering technology firm Ecofill to re-use site-won excavated soils as engineered fill in adoptable roads, retaining walls, piling mats, embankments and trench backfills, displacing imported primary aggregates. Ecofill’s process allows classification and treatment of cohesive and granular arisings to meet highways and structural fill specifications, reducing soil sent to landfill and cutting lorry movements for aggregate haulage. The move signals wider potential for specification-compliant reuse of marginal soils on large housing schemes under UK earthworks and highway adoption standards.

Aarsleff Ground Engineering is promoting an integrated ground solution offer that combines vibro stone columns, rigid and hybrid inclusions, and driven precast piles into a single engineered package for each site. The firm targets projects with variable or weak soils, using mixed systems across a footprint to manage differential stiffness and keep floor slabs flat and frames within tolerance without multiple specialist contractors. For geotechnical and structural teams, the pitch is one design responsibility, coordinated load paths and programme certainty on brownfield or heterogeneous sites.

Dennis Boehm has received the Wallace Hayward Baker Award from the Deep Foundations Institute for more than three decades of work on deep foundations, starting with Hayward Baker (now Keller) in 1990. He is recognised as an expert in both wet and dry soil mixing, applying these methods on complex ground improvement and deep foundation projects across North America. For practitioners, his work reinforces the role of soil mixing in controlling settlement and improving bearing capacity where conventional piling or mass excavation is impractical.

Thames Water has begun procurement for a £5.7bn design-and-build contract to deliver the proposed Abingdon strategic reservoir in Oxfordshire, covering full design, construction, testing and commissioning under a single main contractor. The utility describes the selection as an “extensive” multi-stage process, signalling a long lead-in for bidders needing capability in large earthworks, major water-retaining structures and complex commissioning. For civil and geotechnical contractors, the scale and integrated scope point to significant opportunities in reservoir embankment design, seepage control and long-term performance monitoring systems.

Disaster recovery has started on the Bruxner Highway at Mallanganee, where Transport for NSW is repairing and stabilising two failed downslopes damaged by a landslip between Willock Street and Bulmers Road, about 40 kilometres west of Casino. Works include installing soil nails to reinforce the slope mass and control further movement, alongside reconstruction of the affected pavement and drainage. Geotechnical teams will need to manage access and traffic staging on this constrained highway section while drilling and grouting operations are underway.

A collaborative project to maintain the Victorian Bateman Dam has secured the 2025 Fleming Award for excellence in geotechnical engineering. The team focused on improving dam resilience, likely involving upgrades to the embankment, foundation seepage control and spillway performance to meet current reservoir safety standards for extreme flood and seismic loading. For practitioners, the award signals continued industry emphasis on extending the life of ageing UK dams through targeted ground engineering and risk-based asset management rather than full replacement.

ISSMGE’s International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories recorded 138,733 paper downloads in 2025, an 18.32% increase on 2024’s 117,260, signalling growing use of detailed case records by practising geotechnical engineers. Open-access case histories on foundations, embankments, ground improvement and slope stability are increasingly being used for benchmarking designs, calibrating numerical models and validating observational methods. The trend points to stronger reliance on documented field performance data, construction records and back-analyses to refine design parameters and risk assessments.

Helical tieback anchors are presented as tension-only elements installed beyond the active wedge to support vertical or near-vertical walls, typically using grouted or screw-in steel shafts with load-tested working capacities and corrosion protection. Helical soil nails are shown as shorter, more closely spaced inclusions installed within the failure mass to create a reinforced soil block, often suited to cut slopes or temporary shoring where access limits anchor length. Selection hinges on geometry, required wall deflection, available bond length, construction access for installation rigs, and tolerance for ground movement.

Repairing the Llangollen Canal breach near New Mills Lift Bridge, Whitchurch, is expected by the Canal & River Trust to cost several million pounds and occupy most of 2026, severely disrupting navigation on this key feeder from the River Dee. Engineers will need to dewater and stabilise the affected pound, reconstruct the failed canal bank and towpath, and reinstate clay lining and embankment drainage to prevent further leakage. The scale and duration signal significant geotechnical investigation and temporary works to manage soft ground and maintain adjacent infrastructure.

Ground preparation is under way to tackle sub‑optimal geology ahead of Lower Thames Crossing tunnelling, with drives under the river not due to start until late 2028. Tunnels director Alastair Lewis is sequencing works to deal with weak alluvium and variable chalk, aiming to stabilise the alignment before launching large‑diameter TBMs for the twin road tunnels. Early treatment of poor ground conditions is intended to reduce settlement risk for the approaches and portals and to de‑risk TBM performance beneath the Thames.

A catastrophic breach on the Llangollen Canal near New Mills Lift Bridge, Whitchurch has drained a long pound and damaged the embankment, despite recent routine inspections reporting no visible defects. Engineers from the Canal & River Trust are now investigating potential failure mechanisms, including internal erosion, leakage paths and historic construction weaknesses in the canal lining and embankment core. The incident raises immediate questions over current visual inspection regimes for ageing UK canal earthworks and whether more frequent intrusive or remote condition monitoring is needed on high-consequence reaches.

Geoquest Australia is deploying turn-key geotechnical systems to reduce geo-risk and weather-related damage to transport infrastructure under rising sea levels, higher rainfall intensity and more frequent extreme heat and fire events. The company is focusing on sustainably produced ground improvement and erosion control products, including stabilisation solutions for road embankments and coastal assets, to limit scour, slippage and pavement failure during intense storms. For asset owners, the approach points to integrated design–supply packages that combine geosynthetics, drainage and soil reinforcement to extend asset life and cut maintenance interventions.

Soil nailing has been selected as the primary long-term stabilisation method for a failing section of Swanage seafront, with works expected to cost at least £4.5M. The scheme will address ongoing ground movement and slope instability affecting coastal infrastructure and promenade assets, where traditional retaining solutions have proved less viable. Designers and contractors will need to manage marine exposure, corrosion protection for nails and facing, and construction sequencing to maintain public access along this constrained shoreline.

The International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, via the International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories, has opened a call for papers for a Special Issue on “Geo-Hazards: Lessons from the Ground”. Submissions are sought on documented case histories of landslides, liquefaction, sinkholes, tailings failures and other geo-hazards, emphasising in-situ data, back-analyses and performance of mitigation works. The issue targets practice-oriented lessons for design, monitoring and risk management, with detailed ground investigation records and instrumentation results strongly encouraged.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is assessing options for a new floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and a strategic geological gas storage facility to bolster UK gas resilience. An FSRU would provide ship-based LNG storage and regasification at an import terminal, while geological storage would likely use depleted gas fields or salt caverns for high-volume, seasonal buffering. The work signals potential demand for large-diameter offshore pipelines, high-pressure injection wells and long-term integrity management of underground gas containment.

New research on Australian expansive clays warns that more frequent intense rainfall and drought cycles are accelerating differential movement and cracking in lightweight buildings, pavements and transport corridors founded on shrink–swell soils. The work points to heave and settlement driven by deep moisture fluctuations, with particular concern for lightly loaded slabs, shallow footings and low-volume roads where historical climate data underestimates design suction changes. Engineers are urged to revisit site classification, footing depth, drainage and moisture barriers, and to integrate updated climate projections into geotechnical design for new and existing assets.

Ground conditions at Sizewell C have forced the Civil Works Alliance to depart from the Hinkley Point C reference design for the offshore intake and outfall tunnels, driving new solutions for lining, support and construction sequencing. Contractors have had to re-optimise tunnel geometry and TBM drive strategy for the North Sea sediments and local stratigraphy, rather than the harder rock and different stress regime at Hinkley. The changes affect segment design, joint detailing and groundwater control, with direct implications for durability, settlement behaviour and marine interface works.

Keller has completed a ground improvement scheme for Encinal High School Stadium in Alameda, California, collaborating with the project geotechnical engineer to satisfy California Geological Survey seismic requirements. The solution, delivered as part of a larger stadium renovation, used ground improvement to mitigate liquefaction and lateral spreading risks identified in the site’s young bay mud and loose granular fills. For practitioners, the project shows how early contractor–engineer integration can tailor seismic ground improvement to school facilities on soft, seismically active coastal deposits.

AGS’s July update launches an Early Careers Video, “Discovering a Rewarding Career in the Geo-Industry”, for use by industry representatives in schools and universities, and reports 2023 geotechnical and geoenvironmental accident statistics based on a 127% increase in contributing organisations. A new two-part SiLC PTP series critiques the standard of land contamination reports submitted through the planning system, echoing regulator concerns about report quality and consistency. Forthcoming events include a 25 September EDI-focused webinar and a November Manchester meeting on groundwater impacts across design and construction stages.

AGS’s September issue centres on Fugro’s move to cut single‑use plastic in site investigation by recycling core liners, alongside guidance on structuring Employee Networks to support both staff and business performance. A new EC7 Next Gen bitesize guide stresses that BS EN 1991:2023 must be used to correctly apply FprEN 1997:2024 when assigning geotechnical risk categories to structures. Practitioners are also alerted to potential environmental law changes under the Retained EU Law Act 2023 and to upcoming AGS events on EDI, groundwater in design and construction, and the 2025 London conference.

AGS launches new Piling and Sustainability Roadmaps and confirms renewed collaboration with the British Drilling Association to target health and safety performance across geotechnical operations. The group backs wider adoption of the National Quality Mark Scheme (NQMS) in response to regulatory concerns over investigation and reporting quality, and flags upcoming technical events on cone penetration testing (29 January 2025) and effective procurement of ground investigations (26 March 2025). An in‑person AGS Annual Conference on 1 May 2025 will focus on “The Future” of ground engineering practice.

AGS’s March issue centres on women’s safety and wellbeing in geotechnics, including profiles of SiLC’s female leads and reflections on basic PPE gaps such as safety boots not available in smaller sizes. Technical content covers EC7-compliant ground model construction, Net Zero-focused rolling dynamic compaction, and current constraints in professional indemnity insurance identified by the Loss Prevention Working Group. Forthcoming CPD includes an April webinar on effective procurement of ground investigations and a May in-person Annual Conference themed “The Future”, with an early-career workplace innovation poster competition and networking reception.

AGS Magazine’s November 2025 issue focuses on analytical challenges in interpreting historical soil data, material management plans, and a rise in environmental disputes affecting geotechnical and geoenvironmental projects. The edition publishes the 2024 Geotechnical & Geoenvironmental Industry Accident Statistics, giving sector-wide safety performance data to benchmark site practices and risk controls. Early-career initiatives feature strongly, with an AGS Early Careers Poster Competition on “Top Five Industry Insights” and promotion of the Ground Forum Undergraduate Mentoring Programme for structured mentoring of future ground engineers.

Researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi report Curiosity rover evidence that liquid water once flowed beneath aeolian dunes in Gale Crater, forming cemented crusts and polygonal fracture networks in fine-grained sandstones. High-resolution Mastcam and ChemCam observations show cross-bedded units with indurated tops and moisture-related diagenetic features consistent with shallow subsurface flow rather than surface runoff. For planetary geotechnics, the work implies past groundwater-driven cementation, altered shear behaviour of dune-derived sediments, and more complex subsurface stratigraphy relevant to future drilling and in situ construction on Mars.

Central Alabama Water signalled it will stick with its existing Lake Purdy Dam stabilisation concept after its board heard conflicting expert recommendations on alternative designs. Vice Chair Phillip Wiedmeyer said the utility intends to proceed with the current plan, despite consultants presenting differing approaches to address the dam’s stability and safety margins. The decision keeps design assumptions and geotechnical investigation scope unchanged for now, affecting timelines for any foundation treatment, embankment works or spillway modifications.