6.4
Topics Left for Later
6.4.1 Geotechnical Engineering Topics are Endless
In New Mexico, we have a monthly geotechnical group meeting that we call the Albuquerque Soil Mechanics Series, ASMS. Most groups have a presenter or a lecturer to entertain the members with a slide presentation. Our ASMS group has a different philosophy; we normally have short presentations and then have open discussions of the topic by all of the members present. About every fourth or fifth meeting, we have an open discussion topic for the group without having a speaker. Today was our monthly meeting, and we chose the open topic of compacted fills to discuss without a speaker. All geotechnical and geological engineers have an opinion about how fill soils should be compacted and tested, and most have plenty of horror stories to share about compacted fill projects that went sour. I was amazed at the depth and breadth of our discussion today. We discussed how many compaction tests to perform, what kind of tests to perform (nuclear densometer, sand cone, SPT, or CPT), the role of the geotechnical engineer, and so on. One hot topic was the difference between testing, inspection, and testing with inspection services. One engineer quoted Ralph Peck, who said that the most important inspection tool was a knowledgeable engineer with eyes to see and a mind to evaluate what he or she was seeing. At the end of today's meeting, all in attendance agreed that we needed more than an hour and a half to discuss compacted ...
