The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Seminar to focus on engineering soils

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Friday, Sep 28, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Seminar to focus on engineering soils

Correspondent

Flyover collapse was a geotechnical problem
Failures possible in foundations, earth structures

Kakinada: ‘Geotechnical engineering is a specialised area in civil engineering which was unfortunately not recognised by the powers that be. It deals with foundations of all structures-buildings, bridges, earthen dams, roads and pavements that are made by compacting soils.

Many engineering marvels such as construction of airports in seas like the ones in Hong Kong and Kansas in Japan is made possible only due to the advances made in this area of specialisation,’ said Ajjarapu Sreerama Rao, Chairman Indian Geotechnical Society, Kakinada chapter.

Briefing to newsmen here on Thursday on the salient features of the seminar on ‘case studies in engineering soils’ to be held here on October 2, he said, geotechnical engineers play a vital role in invention of new systems such as reinforced earth techniques.

This technique, he said, one of the recent innovations adopted in construction of flyovers without resorting to massive concrete retaining walls, construction of earthen embankments to retain viscous liquids like oil are only a few of the marvels of geotechnical engineering.

He claimed that the rectification and partial restoration of the verticality of the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy was the contribution of geotechnical engineers only.

Pointing out that the collapse of the flyover in Panjagutta area in Hyderabad was essentially a geotechnical problem, Sreerama Rao regretted that not a single geotechnical engineer found a place on the committee constituted to go in to the causes of the collapse.

‘If a building or a bridge fails, a structural engineer is called up on. If a dam fails, an irrigation engineer is consulted.

That is the reason why Karl Terzaghi, the father of the social mechanics said, there is no glory attached to foundations because the sources of success or failure are hidden inside the ground ‘he remarked.

Sreerama Rao said that failures were possible in foundations and earth structures.

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