Category Archives: Geotechnics

LEEDS LEP TRAINING FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

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.

‘CRUSHED BRICKS’ PAPER SUCCESS….

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.

RETAINING WALLS – PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE, NEW DATE: 13 MAY 2015

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.

NEWS ON NEW STANDARDS & STANDARDS UNDER REVIEW

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.

EARTHWORKS – PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE, 18 MAY 2015

Earthworks form part of most development projects, for example development platforms and highways. Design and construction must be considered holistically if a successful earthworks scheme is to be delivered that cost-effectively delivers the required performance. This course will provide delegates with a good grounding in the theory and practice of earthworks. Starting with the typical forms of earthworks and design philosophy, the course will progress to cover key elements including the range and nature of specifications, defining appropriate acceptability criteria to achieve the required performance, monitoring and control in the field, and reporting and certification requirements. With easy access from the M1 or public transport, the course is running in Chesterfield on 18 May at a cost of just £220 plus VAT. If you require any additional information before making a booking on this or any other course then 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.

RETAINING WALLS – PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE, 27 APRIL 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 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.

LAST CALL – SHALLOW FOUNDATION DESIGN TO EC7

We have a few places left on our Shallow Foundation Design to EC7 course on 23 March. This one-day course will begin with a refresher on the various forms of foundation and failure modes, before moving  to the main focus of the day – the use of EC7 in practice. Delegates will be guided through the code and guided examples will be used to provide delegates with the opportunity to apply their learning. The course costs just £220 + 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.

LAST CHANCE FOR FEBRUARY COURSE ON GEOTECHNICS….

We have a few places left on our Mentoring for Engineering Geologists on Geotechnical Engineering course on 26 February. This ever-popular course provides engineering geologists and those that do not specialise in geotechnics with an introduction to the design of foundations, retaining walls and slopes based on a core understanding of how soils behave in principle; the course delivers the equivalent of 1.5 days training in a single ‘long day’ format to make it both cost and time effective, and costs just £295 + 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.

FREE CPD ON SLOPE STABILITY

For those interested in slope instability issues and embankment failures, an expert report has recently been published on the Mount Polley Tailings storage facility breach in British Columbia on September 4th 2014. Compiled by N. Morgenstern amongst others, it makes for interesting reading. The report may be found here. We consider study of the report an excellent free CPD opportunity as it affords learning on the importance of the integration of ground investigation, geological appraisal, analysis and construction. For those wishing to deepen their understanding of slope stability issues please feel free to contact us for details on public or bespoke courses we run, or contact us for technical support on your projects.

BSI SNIPPETS – NEW FROST SUSCEPTIBILITY STANDARD & ISO 14001 REVISION

Following on from our latest news on papers to be published in 2015, we thought some may wish to learn of a new BSI publication, PD CEN/TS 13286-54:2014 , that deals with the frost susceptibility of unbound mixtures. Details of the document may be obtained direct from BSI. In passing, others may wish to know that a revision to ISO 14001 is underway within BSI. An updated version is due to be published in early 2015.