London't mega-project known as Crossrail that involves the construction of 118 km (73 mi) of new rail line with 42 km (26 mi) of new tunnels. The geotechnical investigation for Crossrail included rock coring, and some 561 pallets of core are going to be stored inside the mined out portion of a salt mine in Cheshire. The temperature and humidity levels remain consistent year-round making it an ideal place to store the core. According to the NCE article, this material is less than half of the core drilled during the investigation phase of the project. [Source: New Civil Engineer. Image: New Civil Engineer]

Dimitrios at Deep Excavation LLC wrote this article a couple of months ago for his monthly newsletter. He contends that for multi-level braced excavations, the AASHTO LRFD code could produce unconservative results. From his article:

The currently adopted design methods for AASHTO (2010) LRFD appear to produce inconsistent and possibly unsafe designs for many multi-level braced excavations. Limit-equilibrium analyses combined with LRFD methods appear to severely underestimate benchmarked wall bending moments. For this reason, analyses in this paper suggest that limit-equilibrium methods should not be used to design the wall bending resistance for multi-level-braced excavations.

[Source: Read the full article at Deep Excavation LLC. Image: NTT Stroy]

Happy Friday! If you need a break today, here are some interesting stories from the past month or so that I didn't get to blogging about. Enjoy!

• A call for landslide photos for the USGS library archive - Source: The Landslide Blog
• Massive landslide stops production at Bingham Canyon Mine - Source: Deseret News
• Caltrans Completes Devil’s Slide Tunnel Construction - Source: Caltrans News Release
• ASFE Becoming GBA - Source: ASFE: The Geoprofessional Business Association
• Subway Sea Wall Of Steel Rising Between A Train And Jamaica Bay - Source: Transportation Nation via AGC SmartBrief
• Nicholson Part of Award-Winning Team for Chevron Science Center - Source: Nicholson Construction Company
• BNSF railway has plans to mitigate rising landslide risks - Source: NWCN.com
• ADOT's geotechnical investigation on US 89 landslide enters final stages - Source: ADOT
• NYC's subway, still under construction - Source: CBS News Video via ASCE SmartBrief
• Uphill tunnel breakthrough in Switzerland - Source: New Civil Engineer
• Utah mine landslide brought 165 tons or rock, dirt - Source: Businessweek
• East Side Access Project Passes Major Milestone as Blasting Concludes Under Grand Central Terminal - Source: Tunnel Business Magazine
• Pile Buck Magazine Issue 29-2 Has Arrived! - Source: Pile Buck Magazine
• Judge chides Army Corps of Engineers over ‘tragically flawed’ levees that failed in Katrina - Source: The Washington Post via ASCE SmartBrief
• BNSF railway has plans to mitigate rising landslide risks - Source: KING5.com Seattle
• Notes on Importing DXF Files in gINT - Source: Be Communities by Bentley
• GeoComp CEO, Marr, provides pivotal expert witness testimony in Hurricane Katrina litigation - Source: GeoComp
• Landslide Hazard Maps for California - Source: California Geological Survey via Geology.com
• Salt Lake town hall to explore seismic risks and readiness - Source: The Salt Lake Tribune via AEG Insider
• Geotechnical Activity Index April Update - Source: Deep Excavation
• URS Wins IDIQ Contract with K.C. District of the Corps for Dams and Levee Work - Source: CE News
• Free Downloadable Simulator for Seismic CPT Data Acquisitio - Source: Baziw Consulting Engineers Ltd. via LinkedIn Geotechnical Data Hub
• Exposing the Wasatch Fault – A Source of Large Earthquakes along the Wasatch Front - Source: Utah Geological Survey via AEG Insider
• Old landslide delays dam, leaves SF sans water source - Source: SFGate Blog
• Wolf Creek Dam Project Delivers Peace of Mind Ahead of Schedule - Source: National Driller
• Time-lapse video shows digging of Crossrail tunnels - Source: London - ITV News via LinkedIn Geotechnical Engineers group
• California Engineering Geologists Urged to Take Survey - Source: California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists via AEG Insider
• Homeowners Insurance and Geologic Hazards - Source: Geology.com via AEG Insider
• Mapping Voids, Debonding, Delaminations, Moisture, and Other Defects Behind or Within Tunnel Linings - Source: SHRP2 via TRB
• Crossrail Photo Gallery in the Independent - Source: See the gallery at The Independent (UK) via LinkedIn
• Alaska Hydropower Dam on Susitna River Moving Forward - Source: Alaska Dispatch via ASCE SmartBrief
• Tunnel-boring machine Bertha will be felt under Seattle;... - Source: www.kirotv.com

This news story aired a few weeks back.  It has some great views of the tunneling process but also focuses on some of the social issues, such as complaints about Rats, as well as noise and dust.  I guess you can’t please everyone.  Check out the video below.

The Norwegian government wants to build a tunnel linking two fjords that would be large enough to pass 16,000 tonne cargo and passenger ships. The treacherous stretch of waterway has seen 46 accidents and 33 deaths since World War II. The 1.7 km Stad maritime tunnel would cost about 1.6B kroner ($274M USD). [Source: The Courier-Mail via ASCE SmartBrief. Image: AFP]

Foundation Industry Launches Standardized Open Source Tool to Compare the Sustainability of Different Foundation Techniques

Hawthorne, NJ (May 1, 2013): The European Federation of Foundation Contractors (EFFC) and the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) are urging the geotechnical sector to make immediate use of their jointly-developed, pioneering carbon calculator tool, the Geotechnical Carbon Calculator.

Developed using internationally recognized standards, the Geotechnical Carbon Calculator is believed to be one of the construction industry’s first standardized and collaboratively produced carbon calculator tools at the European and international level.

Carbon measurement is at the core of the construction industry’s approach to sustainability. The Geotechnical Carbon Calculator uses a standardized emission factors database to make the analysis of the carbon footprint of a foundation project consistent and comparable across the foundation industry.

[Editor] Click through for the rest of this interesting press release from the Deep Foundations Institute! [/Editor]

There were just a few sentences in this article/blog post about landslide insurance. Most geoprofessionals realize that home-owners insurance does not cover landslides, floods or most other geologic hazards. But what I found interesting in this article was a quote from an insurance agent that gave a rough estimate of the cost of "very rare" landslide insurance. He gave an estimate of $1,000 per year for a $300,000 house. I'm sure it depends on lots of factors, but at least that could get you in the ballpark. [Source: Central Illinois Proud. Image: USGS Landslides Page]

ASFE, The Geoprofessional Business Association has elected a new president, Kurt R. Fraese, L.G. Kurt is the CEO of GeoEngineers, Inc. Click on over to the ASFE/GBA website to read more about him and the other officers for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. [Source: ASFE: The Geoprofessional Business Association. Image: ASFE/GBA]

22nd April 2013, Redditch, UK - Keynetix are pleased to announce that an upgrade to KeyLAB has been released today that includes a number of new features requested by users to help them manage their geotechnical and concrete laboratory. The new build expands the functionality of the system to assist laboratory managers who are conducting concrete testing, working in a NATA accredited laboratory or with the ASTM standards and is available free of charge to all users who have an in-date maintenance agreement.

As well as the new features in this release, KeyLAB have produced a large number of free test definitions and input and report sheets for companies who are implementing KeyLAB within a laboratory, conducting tests to BS or ASTM standards. These worksheets and reports have been designed by Peter Keeton from Keynetix, who has over 30 years experience of managing large geotechnical laboratories.

[Editor] Click through for the rest of the press release from Keynetix. [/Editor]

Airport authorities at the Charles B. Wheeler airport in Kansas City, MO were concerned about a leaking CMP joint 22-feet beneath the taxiway. The sand that was coming through the joint was detected on a video inspection of the culvert. They were concerned about possible voids above the leak and commissioned a geophysical survey. Two geophysical methods were used, ground penetrating radar and multi-channel analysis of surface waves (MASW). The void was detected using the methods, and subsequent excavation of the airport taxiway confirmed the presence of the voids with about the same dimensions as what was indicated by the geophysics. The work was performed by the St. Louis office of Geotechnology, Inc. [Source: CE News. Image: CE News]

Dr. Dave has some financial analysis of the Bingham Canyon Mine Landslide in Utah. His interpretation of some of the financial data being thrown around is a financial loss of $770M, ouch! [Source: Read the full post at The Landslide Blog. Image: The Landslide Blog]

There is a great collection of aerial photos and other photos from last week's Bingham Canyon Mine Landslide at Kennecott Utah Copper's Flickr Photostream. Thanks to my colleague Wolfgang Knudson at Golder for sending the link. There's a great couple of shots of the radar monitoring equipment that allowed the mine to monitor the slide with great accuracy, and safely evacuate the areas prior to its triggering. [Source: Kennecott Utah Copper's Flickr Photostream. Image: Flickr Page of Kennecott Utah Copper]