Time Capsule

Dr Leonard Cooling is widely regarded as the ‘Father of British Soil Mechanics’ after he set up the first proper soil mechanics laboratory at the Building Research Station (BRS) in 1934.

Leonard Cooling – Father of British Soil Mechanics

Sir Alec Skempton was instrumental in establishing soil mechanics as an academic discipline and became one of its leading figures. Skempton joined the BRS as a geotechnical engineer and was appointed to the Imperial College staff in 1946. At the link below you can view:

• A video of Skempton’s last technical presentation given at the ICE in 1994
• A powerpoint presentation by Professor Richard Jardine given at the ICE in 2014 to commemorate Professor Skempton’s birth 100 years earlier.
• An article written by Prof R E Gibson on ‘Working with Skempton’
• His biography, ‘A Particle of Clay’ written by his daughter Judith Niechcial, kindly made available by her publisher (Keith Whittles).

Skempton resources (Video, ppt and Biography) – Thanks to Professor Richard Jardine for providing this resource.

Professor John Burland is one of the UK’s most eminent geotechnical engineers. He has made major contributions to critical state soil mechanics including development of the Modified Cam Clay Model and to unsaturated soil mechanics, but his name is often linked with his work on the stabilisation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Big Ben’s clock tower.

Professor Burland also played a key role in the launch of Ground Engineering (GE) in 1968. GE is the official magazine of the British Geotechnical Association.

Professor John Burland’s towering achievements

Professor John Burland providing industry insight

Professor John Burland remembers the crisis due to the sudden death of the ISSMGE Secretary General, Professor Kevin Nash, in April 1981

The Road Research Laboratory (RRL) was established in 1933 and was a government research facility, like the BRS. The laboratory changed its name to the Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL) in 1972, became TRL and was privatised in 1996. Geotechnical engineering was a major part of TRL’s work from 1945 to the late 1990’s. The links below provide a history of the laboratory and 3 key publications that highlight the contributions made to geotechnical engineering:

History of TRL

Study of the efficiency of site investigation practices (PR 60)

Compaction of soils and granular materials

Survey of slope condition on motorway earthworks in England and Wales (RR199)

Polymer meshes were invented by Dr Brian Mercer, who patented the Netlon process of extruding molten plastic into grids, rather than weaving polymer fibres, in the 1950s. They proved popular in many industries, including civil engineering. In the 1970’s, Dr Mercer invented integral punched and drawn geogrids through what is known as the ‘Tensar process’. In 1978 Dr Mercer filed for a patent on his first integral oriented polymeric mesh, which he called Tensar.

Tensar poster

Tensar booklet

Although lime stabilisation of clay soils had been practiced for decades the exact nature of the the physico-chemical properties remained poorly understood. Research into lime stabilisation, including the use of lime piles, started at the University of Loughborough in the 1990s and has continued at Birmingham and Newcastle Universities since that time.

Lime Stabilisation

The AGS Data Format provides a standard way to transfer geotechnical and geoenvironmental data between the contributing parties of a project The first version of the data transfer format was published in 1991 and further versions have been published at intervals since. The format has been adopted throughout UK industry and world-wide and has had a hugely significant impact on how geotechnical data is exchanged between organisations.

AGS Data Format