The Geotechnical Group’s Sixth Annual William Barclay Parsons Lecture was held at the CUNY Graduate Center Recital Hall in Manhattan on April 17, 2008 and was presented by Dr. Gerhard Sauer, a noted tunnel engineer. Dr. Sauer was introduced by Dr. George Munfakh of Parsons Brinckerhoff. The sponsor for this lecture was Allentown Shotcrete Equipment.

On March 25, 2008, the Geotechnical Group held a lecture at the CUNY Graduate Center Recital Hall in Manhattan focusing on the reconstruction of the ancient library of Alexandria, which was destroyed more than 2,000 years ago and rebuilt in the late 1990s. Amr Ragy, currently chief engineer and estimator for Treviicos Corporation and formerly senior geotechnical engineer for the Alexandria Library project, gave the lecture to the group. The sponsor for this lecture was Treviicos Corporation.

The Geotechnical Group returned to the CUNY Recital Hall in Manhattan for its fifth lecture of 2007-2008 on February 20, 2008. The lecture introduction by Dr. Terry Holman included a brief moment of silence in memory of the recent passing of Dr. Ralph Peck, one of the founding fathers of the field of geotechnical engineering. The lecture focused on dynamic testing of deep foundations installed by non-impact methods, and included a summary of dynamic testing theory, examples of load testing on drilled and cast-in-place foundations, and a brief discussion on integrity testing.

Presented by:  Dov Leshchinsky, Ph.D., P.E.
University of Delaware   

Presented January 17, 2008

The Geotechnical Group held its 33rd Annual Martin S. Kapp Dinner Lecture at the Il Campanello Restaurant in Manhattan on January 17, 2008. The lecture took place after a buffet dinner attended by a full house of more than 100 attendees. It focused on the design and construction of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls and the lessons learned from three specific case history failures, each due to unique conditions.

Dr. Leshchinsky began the lecture by describing several MSE walls that had failed due to a build-up of water pressure behind the walls and the progressive block failures that ensued. Such shallow failures were described as common and often result in loss of fascia blocks without compromising the stability of the geo-reinforced soil.