The 2007 Specialty Seminar entitled “Engineering of Geo-Hazards” was presented by the ASCE Metropolitan Section Geotechnical Group and the Geo-Institute of ASCE on May 16th and 17th, 2007 at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City to an audience of over 175 registrants. Twenty-six exhibitors demonstrated their civil engineering products and services during the event. The seminar was chaired by Paul Pizzimenti and Eric Wang of the Geotechnical Committee. Eighteen technical papers were given in 6 sessions on topics such as Hurricane Katrina, legal considerations for geo-professionals, failed rock cut stabilization, geoseismic hazard assessment, mine stabilization, and serpentinite rock masses. Two keynote lectures were given to begin and end the seminar.

The first day of the seminar began with the opening keynote lecture by Professor Edward Kavazanjian of Arizona State University on evaluation and mitigation of large and small natural hazards. Two sessions were conducted on the first day of the seminar in which 7 papers were presented. Professor Joseph Wartman, reported on the IPET committee evaluations of the New Orleans levee failures during Hurricane Katrina. Professor Anirban De discussed geotechnical modeling of explosions using a centrifuge. Dr. Logan Brandt illustrated the uses of the geotechnical centrifuge to model lateral impacts to deep foundations. Andrew Cianciagave a presentation on manmade geohazard threats to historic structures, and Dr. Frank Clemente discussed scour-related failure of cofferdams in the Delaware River. Richard Berry spoke on the failure of salt caverns used for storage of crude oils. Finally, David Corkum provided his expertise on the legal considerations faced by design professionals in geo-hazard-related situations. The seminar participants enjoyed a reception following the end of the first day.

The second day of the seminar contained 4 sessions and 11 papers and ended with a closing keynote lecture by Professor Herbert Einstein on decision making for natural threats. Dr. Prapa Haran presented his piece on the jet grout stabilization of berms. The topic of landslide stabilization for a highway embankment was covered by Dr. Vishnu Diyaljee and followed by a talk on failed rock cut stabilization by Mark Stier, P.E. A session on seismic geohazards contained three papers on GIS-based hazard assessment by Sissy Nikolaou, rocking of large caissons by Ayman Sharma, and SPT-based liquefaction assessment by Professor Hany Mostafa. Dr. Aly Mohammed and Anthony Crincoli presented the geotechnical design challenges at the new JetBlue Terminal, followed by a report on geo-hazards of deep excavations in soft clay by Dr. Chu Ho. Chris Hall gave a very interesting paper on abandoned mine stabilization for US Route 30 in Ohio. The last session contained lectures by Mala Ciancia on hazards associated with serpentinite rock formations in the New York region and Alireza Ayoubian on collapse of deep compacted fills due to wetting.

The Met Section Geotechnical Committee thanks all of the seminar registrants, speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, and the Geo-Institute for their participation and support of this very successful event.