Important updates to British Standards commonly used by geotechnical and structural engineers have been published:
BS 8002: 2015 Code of practice for earth retaining structures. This revised and updated standard conforms to the latest EN and EN ISO standards and provides recommendations for the design, construction, monitoring, and maintenance of earth retaining structures. It provides additional information to the recommendations in EC7 for surcharges, unplanned excavations and prop loads, and provides detailed recommendations for the content of Geotechnical Feedback Reports in accordance with EC7.
BS 8004: Code of practice for foundations. Providing recommendations for the design of both shallow and deep foundations to meet the latest EN and EN ISO standards, the new standard provides additional information to EC7 recommendations for spread foundations, provides recommendations for the design of piles that reflect modern practice, and and provides detailed recommendations for the content of Geotechnical Feedback Reports.
All related courses offered in 2016 will make reference to the new standards and provide guidance on their use in practice. Please contact us for the details of the revised course details.
Those pursuing professional qualification with the ICE, whether on a formal training scheme or not, may not be aware that the ICE has over recent months been updating its suite of guidance documents. The main documents we feel may be of use are listed below, all of which are available to download for free if you are a membe:
We appreciate that if you are not on a training scheme with a Supervising Civil Engineer then you may not be familiar with the routes and may need some support. If you have any such mentoring support needs or feel a course wold assist you then feel free to contact our Andy Goodwin on 01246 807808 for some free initial guidance . Alternatively you can contact us via the contact page on the web site.
We recently ran a bespoke version of our ever-popular ‘Mentoring on Geotechnics for Engineering Geologists’ course for a major consultancy in one of their regional offices. What was different about that course? By working with them we found a way to deliver it cost-effectively for us both even though they only had two staff needing training. Quality was not compromised, and as ever feedback from the course was excellent.
If you have just two or three people needing training then contact us to discuss how we may be able to bespoke a course to suit your needs whilst making it cost-effective too.
July and August are set prove interesting as we continue to provide our mentoring support to engineers from across the UK who are pursuing chartership with the ICE. In addition to running an open course on preparing for your professional review (and running a bespoke version of it in London for a major consultancy) we will be travelling across the UK seeing our mentees. Our travels will take us to places such as Aberdeen, Loughborough and Slough. We are pleased to announce too that we have recently taken on support to a Derbyshire based senior engineer. We are really looking forward to challenging and guiding them all to achieve success as soon as possible.
To find out more about the mentoring services we can provide to you or your staff please contact Andy Goodwin on 01246 807808. Alternatively contact us via the contact page on the web site.
We are pleased to confirm that Surepath Training is now registered to deliver training for the LEP skills service.
Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has launched a service that provides skills support to small and medium sized businesses. The LEP skills service helps businesses to identify their skills needs based on their business growth objectives and then find the right training solution. Small and medium sized business based in the Leeds City Region that have a budget to put towards training could be eligible for funding of between £500 and £50,000. To find out more about the LEP skills service and apply, visit: www.the-lep.com/skillsservice
The LEP skills service will provide funding to those businesses that are poised for growth and will support collaborative proposals too. A grant will only be granted if an employer cash contribution is provided. The contribution must be a least equal to the level of grant. The minimum amount of grant that a business can apply for is £1,000, unless the business is a micro SME (less than 10 employers and has a turnover of less than 2 million EUR). The maximum grant amount that any one business can apply for is £50,000, cumulatively (multiple applications are allowed as long as the maximum grant amount is not exceeded).
Please note that all skills service applications are subject to approval panels and are assessed on a case by case basis.
To find out more about the above funding for training courses, please contact Andy Goodwin at Surepath Training, on 01246 807808. Alternatively contact us via the contact page on the web site.
Though the summer break is almost upon us we have a selection of courses coming up from July to September that we hope you will find useful and interesting:
LAST CALL…Retaining wall design to EC7 on 20 July 2015, costing £220 + VAT per person
The ICE Professional Review – Preparing for the Interview on 7 August 2015: this is an intensive course for a maximum of 4 candidates looking to sit their ICE professional review in Autumn 2015; delegates receive feedback on their draft reports and will undertake a mock interview, all for £295 + VAT per person
CDM 2015 for Designers on 7 September 2015, costing £220 + VAT per person
Slope Stability – Principles & Practice on 21 September 2015, costing £220 + VAT per person
Please contact us to book onto any of these course or for more information. All are running in Chesterfield. Discounts are available for group bookings or delegates attending more than one course.
We are pleased to confirm that the final version of a paper by our Dr Andy Goodwin and colleagues has just been accepted for publication later this year in the Proceedings of the ICE – Construction Materials. Titled “Use of crushed brick in reinforced earth railway structures”, it draws together expertise of Mott MacDonald (Simon Ellis & Dr Chris Hurst), Sheffield Hallam University (Prof Liz Laycock) and Surepath to look at the innovative use of crushed bricks as engineered fill within railway embankments.
This paper follows up Andy’s success in having another paper accepted for publication in the proceedings of the XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in Edinburgh in September 2015. That paper was the result of our support to URS (now AECOM) in the design of a coastal protection scheme. Titled “The design of an anchored pile retaining structure to control landslide regression at Lyme Regis, UK”, the authors are Corrado Candian (URS), our Andy Goodwin, and Dimitri Daskalopoulos (URS).
We are very pleased to have worked with our partners on these papers, and look forward to further successes in the future.
We have a selection of geotechnical and health & safety related courses coming up from May to July 2015 that are designed to provide practical guidance for delegates:
LAST CALL…Earthworks – Principles and Practice on 18 May 2015
Introduction to Health & Safety Law on 8 June 2015
Mentoring for Civil Engineers on Engineering Geology (1.5 days equivalent) on 22 June 2015
Introduction to Contaminated Land Assessment on 13 July 2015
Retaining wall design to EC7 on 20 July 2015
All these courses are running in Chesterfield unless stated and cost just £220 + VAT per delegate for full day courses, or £295 + VAT for the 1.5 day equivalent course. Discounts are available for group bookings or delegates attending more than one course.
Course Date Change….. from 27 April to 13 May 2015
Most developments require some degree of ground profile modification, and where space is at a premium the ground will be retained rather than sloped. The aim of this course is to develop the abilities of delegates to understand the principles and practice behind retaining structures. Starting from a review of how walls fail, it will examine the principles behind earth and water pressures, and look at the form of movements behind and around walls. The main focus though will be on the analysis and design of both gravity and embedded walls, with delegates having to practice their skills with the aid of worked solutions. The course will close with a brief review of the contrasting design code requirements of BS8002 and EC7.
The course is next running in Chesterfield on 13 May (rather than the original 27 April) at a cost of just £220 plus VAT. If you require any additional information before making a booking on this or any other course, please contact us at enquiries@surepathtraining.co.uk. Note too that all courses can be run bespoke for your company if there are sufficient numbers – just contact us by phone (01246 807808) or using the enquiries email address above for more details.
For those interested in geosynthetics and geotextiles we thought you may wish to know (if you weren’t aware already) that a suite of updates to the current British Standards have been published:
– BS EN 13249:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13250:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13251:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13252:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13253:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13254:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13255:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13256:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13257:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13265:2014+A1:2015
The following standards are also under review:
– BS EN ISO 11058:2010
– BS EN ISO 12236:2006
– BS EN ISO 13431:1999
– BS EN ISO 13433:2006
Readers are referred to the BSI for further details about the standards.
