Arup’s Dinesh Patel to dig deep into Claridge’s ‘megabuild’ at GE Basements next week

The 16^th GE Basements and Underground Structures conference will take place at Victoria Park Plaza in London on 5 October. It is co-located with the GE Smart Geotechnics event, which includes the inaugural Early Careers Challenge.

The keynote session for GE Basements – following the opening remarks from the event’s morning chair, TRC Companies technical director Christos Botsialas – will be titled “Digging deep: Claridge’s five-star basement extension”.

Arup fellow and geotechnics director Dinesh Patel, who recently won the first GE Lifetime Achievement Award, will discuss the key engineering challenges for the project and the importance of open collaboration.

The project involved building a five storey basement below a listed Mayfair hotel, while keeping the hotel open to guests. While construction was completed in 2019, the works have piqued people’s interest once again due the BBC series "The Mayfair Hotel Megabuild".

Other sessions during the conference will include:

• “How to ensure basements don’t go wrong” by Expanded Geotechnical business unit leader John Chick
• A panel discussion on “Supply chain collaboration and value chain optimisation” with Hewson Consulting Engineering major projects director Richard Scantlebury, Pinsent Masons associate Phil Newton and Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions managing director Yvonne Ainsworth
• “Elephant and Castle Town Centre Development: the many geotechnical challenges of constructing this large basement” by A-squared Studio Engineers director Tony Suckling
• “Enhancing resilience in Network Rail's CP6 Scotland earthworks and drainage framework” by Cowi regional director Lynn Masterson

To view the full event programme and to find out more information, please visit the conference website here.