ABSTRACT With the significant growth currently being experienced in the foundations market it has been recognized by many of the leading geotechnical contractors that collectively they lacked a voice and ability to shape the industry in terms of quality, Health and Safety and general best…
ABSTRACT Resilience of our built environment is important for our societies faced with a range of natural hazards, anthropogenic hazards and climate change. This requires a fundamental rethink of our traditional established and codified design approaches. A focus on resilience is required from early…
ABSTRACT System response using dynamic effective stress modelling can capture the holistic behaviour of a potentially liquefiable soil deposit, including interaction between different soil layers. Compared to a conventional liquefaction triggering analysis, a system response assessment can either predict more or less damage depending…
ABSTRACT In September 2013 what was described as one of the most extreme rainfall events in New Zealand, hit the West Coast of the South Island. The storm claimed the lives of two Canadian tourists, closed State Highway 6 for two weeks and disrupted…
ABSTRACT Significant portions of land east of Great South Road in Takanini have been progressively rezoned for development since approximately 2004. With the introduction of the Auckland Unitary Plan, additional land has been identified for future urban development. This land is typically underlain by…
The past is key to the future; Collating historical cases of liquefaction to supplement liquefaction hazard assessments ABSTRACT Historical records indicate that consequential liquefaction has occurred during upwards of 11 earthquakes in New Zealand since European settlement and prior to 2010. Post-event…
ABSTRACT Regional-scale liquefaction susceptibility assessments have been completed for the Otago region. The assessment used an office-based evaluation of existing information, equating to a ‘Level A’ basic desktop assessment as per MBIE guidelines for liquefaction-prone land. Information sources included geological maps, landform and soil maps,…
ABSTRACT For sites with shallow soil layers consisting of loose sand and/or potentially liquefiable soil, timber compaction piles (TCP) can be driven into the ground to improve the geotechnical performance of the site, particularly for land supporting residential and lightweight commercial or industrial buildings….
ABSTRACT Previous studies have shown that pumice particles are highly crushable, compressible and lightweight as a result of their vesicular nature. Hence, they are problematic from an engineering viewpoint. Currently, there is limited information on the geotechnical characteristics of pumice deposits. To address this,…
ABSTRACT The Jeffreys water supply pump station comprises replacement of the earthquake-damaged 200m3 concrete suction tank with a new 500m3 tank. Ground conditions at the site predominately comprise interbedded alluvial silt and sand in the surficial 8.75m, underlain by dense sandy gravel. Surficial soils…