Published Resources Details
Journal Article
- Title
- The importance of site investigation
- In
- Civil Engineering Transactions
- Description of Work
- Opening address at The Institution's Site investigation Symposium held in Sydney on 1st and 2nd September, 1966.
- Imprint
- vol. CE9, no. 1, Apr 1967, pp. 1-
- Abstract
In the fullest sense, site exploration should demand the highest possible level of training and application. That it often does not is something which should command earnest and immediate consideration by the profession.
The consequences of foundation failure are, in general, more expensive and far-reaching than failure in super-structure units; the need to consider properly the invisible factors in foundation design is accentuated. The vagaries of soil and rock formations coupled with the variability in physical properties and drainage characteristics increase the probability that invisible factors will assume significance.
The opinion is often expressed that the professional designer should not have to be concerned with invisible factors. It is thought that he should be provided with a perfectly reliable visible factor - for example, a safe working stress or load - from some outside authority and be thereafter independent of any further concern for the integrity of the final structure. Such an attitude is proper in a building trade context but has no place in professional engineering activity.
Subsurface exploration is therefore indispensable in all civil engineering and building works. Even the humble domestic dwelling should be preceded by adequate investigation although, in this case, the extent of the investigation may only be that of digging two or three auger holes to four or five feet followed by visual classification of the soil materials.