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After years of unprofitable underwriting as a result of broad cover and low premiums combined with large claims, the professional indemnity (PI) insurance market has gone through a period of profound change over the last 18 months. These changes are ongoing, which creates problems for a number of industries. Construction…

A decade ago I was co-author of a report entitled “Sustainable Geosystems in Civil Engineering Applications”; which was commissioned by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap). The document highlighted alternative “geosystems” which could be used instead of more traditional engineered solutions such as the use of reinforced concrete, steel…

One of the key challenges regarding specification of geocomposite drainage products is misleading data. Specifiers can get lost in the manufacturer’s data, forgetting that the most important function of a geocomposite drain is that it drains! The term geocomposite drainage is used to describe products commonly featuring one or two…

The current version of Eurocode 7 is written in line with industry practice of a single value of peak angle of friction design approach for granular soils. A single partial factor of 1.25 is applied to the peak angle of friction to derive a design angle of friction without distinction…

I was lucky enough to be asked to chair the recent GE Basements and Underground Spaces conference held at Olympia in London. One of the sessions we had during the day was on “Putting data into action” which included presentations by Rory McCully from Arup, Alison Wiles from WSP and…

The Connecticut State Department of Housing in the US has announced that the concrete foundations of over 35,000 homes are at risk of degradation at least in part due to the presence of pyrrhotite within the aggregate. The oxidation of pyrrhotite, an iron sulfide mineral similar in composition to pyrite,…

As the campaign for gender balance in in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), we set an ambitious target to have 1M women working in core STEM roles by 2020 and I’m very pleased to say that we’re on target to achieve it. However, that doesn’t mean that there is…

Cement and chemical stabilisation is not the only green and cost-effective alternative to dig and replace for delivering a robust and long-lasting roads network. Two of the central pillars of the UK government’s Road Investment Strategy are to reduce maintenance costs by 30% to 50%, compared with current levels, as…

Despite the turmoil around the Brexit negotiations, Britain’s exit from the European Union seems likely. This will certainly result in the end to free movement, making EU migrants wishing to work in the UK face the same barriers to entry as people from outside the Union. This is set to…

The number of BAME – black, Asian and minority ethnic – persons in the UK is just below 13% but, according to available statistics, BAME persons make up only 2% of the construction industry. With this poor representation, which is clearly evident within the geotechnical industry, why is it not…