‘Foundations! Whether they are related to women’s make-up; or the birth of institutions or countries; or primary education of the children; or the construction of buildings/ bridges/ towers, foundations are essential to support everything that is visible to the eye and stands on the ground. Foundations must remain hidden from the eye, forever buried, and keep supporting the structure. They don’t have the luxury to come out and be on Facebook.
This day is celebrated as the World Geotech Day. The word ‘GEOTECH’ refers to engineering and technology related to the earth – the ground – as the prefix ‘geo’ indicates. Geotechnical professionals – civil geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists – assess the ground strength and stiffness, and accordingly design and construct the foundations of structures. The heavier and/or higher the structure, the heavier and deeper must be its foundation, which is analogous to humans who aspire to grow tall in terms of their stature in life.
Due to the (unglamorous) nature of their work and heavy responsibility, with significant liabilities (as it is a matter of scores of lives who use a structure at one given time), geotechnical professionals are intrinsically shy and humble; their work remains buried in the ground so that the structures keep remaining standing and functional. Overtime, as their work requires them to be deep thinkers, with a fair bit of imagination, many experienced geotechnical professionals develop into philosophers, accompanied with a distinct change in their general outlook and approach to life. Habitually, therefore, they tend to go deep into the root /source of problems for identifying possible solutions. It is this reason that the author of this post delves deep into the roots of various issues that the world and, in particular, India are currently facing – without getting distracted by the outwardly glamour of new shopping malls in India or the glamourous lifestyle of celebrities and neo-rich in India, both of which don’t reflect the ground reality in the country. Such glamour can be likened to a cheap lipstick which is trying to mask a beautiful face, but poverty stricken.
All structures, including off-shore structures, stand on the ground and, therefore, the ground must be competent to support them. If the ground is not naturally competent, e.g. if it comprises a swamp or is inundated, it must be engineered to achieve its desired level of competency. That is where the geotechnical professionals come in. They are responsible for keeping structures – building, towers, dams, bridges, roads – standing and prevent tunnels from collapsing.
The shape and size of structures – in view of their intended functionality – residential, public infrastructure and industrial – are conceived and designed by architects. Civil structural engineers undertake the necessary structural design to render a practical shape to that structure, whilst ensuring it serves its engineering purpose and does not collapse during its life time. It is the responsibility of geotechnical professionals to ensure the structure stands on the ground over its intended life, which is 50 to 100 years for most public structures.
There are striking parallels between geotechnical engineering and human behaviours and life, in general. Natural laws don’t change! One reason could be that the human bodies, similar to the soils, are parts of the Mother Nature; both comprise a 3-phase system – solids, air and water. At the end of their journey, all humans go back to the soil where they come from. So, the laws related to the soils must also be similar to the laws affecting the humans.’… Bill K Koul