The British Geotechnical Association (BGA) is the principal association for geotechnical engineers in the UK.
Past event: Please note this event information is displayed for informational purposes only.
This a Joint Evening Meeting of the British Geotechnical Association (BGA), British Tunnelling Society (BTS) and Engineering Group of the Geological Society.
This event is planned as an in-person event, and will also be webcast live.
Photographs may be taken at the event and used for BGA promotional purposes; if you have any objections please contact the BGA via email.
The British Geotechnical Association
18.04.2024
18:00 - 19:30
Telford Lecture Theatre, Institution of Civil Engineers, One Great George Street, London SW1P 3AA
BGA Meetings
Tea and Coffee will be available from 17:30.
All attendees are invited to Kendalls Cafe Bar (on the lower ground floor of the ICE) after the lecture, where food and drink will be available, courtesy of the event sponsors
The Kilsby
Tunnel, constructed in the 1830s under the direction of Robert Stephenson,
faced severe problems when a section of the tunnel, almost 400 m long, was
driven through water-bearing unstable ‘quicksand’ conditions. Contemporary
methods were not well suited to tunnelling through such conditions, and in
previous decades, several canal tunnels had been planned to specifically divert
around expected ‘bad ground’, and others took years to complete at great
expense. Stephenson’s team, drawing on their experience from the mining
industry, did not take this approach and ultimately worked through the unstable
ground, albeit with considerable delays and cost increases. This was achieved
in part by establishing a large-scale groundwater pumping system, unique for
the time, that lowered groundwater levels and stabilised the quicksand, which
resulted from a buried channel of glaciofluvial sands, cut into bedrock, that
had been missed by trial borings. Steam engines were used to pump from multiple
shafts (including four dedicated pumping shafts, off set from the tunnel
alignment), with a reported pumping rate of 136l/s for several months. The work
at Kilsby was two decades before Darcy’s law established the theoretical
understanding for groundwater flow. Despite the lack of existing theories,
Stephenson used careful observations and interpretation of groundwater flow in
the ‘quicksand’ to navigate the tunnel project to a successful conclusion
Institution of Civil Engineers
Coffey Geotechnics Limited
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