Geomechanics.io

Tasmania’s Government has let a contract to dismantle and compact the early‑20th‑century Goods Shed at Macquarie Point to clear the site for a $1.13 billion multi‑purpose stadium in Hobart. The former rail and port freight hub will be packed down to formation level, providing a prepared platform for the stadium’s deep foundations, services corridors and future transport interfaces. Geotechnical teams will need to manage demolition spoil, variable fill and potential contamination typical of historic industrial waterfronts before main works can proceed.

The British Geological Survey is advancing a national geotechnical data service to collate UK ground investigation records into a single, standardised digital platform for project teams. By aggregating borehole logs, in situ test results and laboratory data from multiple legacy sources, the system aims to give designers earlier visibility of variable strata, groundwater conditions and historical contamination. For geotechnical and civil engineers, this could reduce duplicate site investigations, refine ground models at concept stage and improve risk pricing for foundations, earthworks and underground structures.

A 93m-long bridge over the White Cart Water forms the core of the Amids South transport scheme, linking an existing industrial area to Paisley town centre and Glasgow Airport. Poor ground conditions along the river corridor drove a redesign of the substructure, with foundations and pier locations adjusted to avoid weak strata and reduce settlement risk. The scheme’s experience will interest geotechnical and bridge engineers dealing with soft alluvium and variable bearing capacity on constrained urban river crossings.

Gary L. Seider, P.E., is retiring after nearly 40 years with A.B. Chance, where he was instrumental in developing helical pile and anchor systems that became core to Hubbell’s foundation solutions portfolio after its 1994 acquisition. His work helped formalise design methodologies, installation torque–capacity correlations and training standards for contractors and engineers using screw anchors in transmission, distribution and commercial foundation projects. Seider’s legacy is a mature, codified helical foundation practice that many US geotechnical and structural engineers now treat as a routine design option.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.