Welcome to the Geotechnical Engineering Homepage!

New Class Winter/2010 - Design of Earth Retaining Structures

Instructor: Erica Koss PE, City of Portland
2 credits as a CE410/510 with perquisite requirements of your undergraduate geotechnical classes.


Trevor D. Smith, Ph.D., PE (TX)
trevor@cecs.pdx.edu
503-725-3225
Engineering Building 202N
Brief Bio

Link to CEE Homepage
IN THE NEWS

(1) An underground garage was being dug on the south side, to a depth of 4.6 meters.
(2) The excavated dirt was being piled up on the north side, to a height of 10 meters.
(3) The building experienced uneven lateral pressure from south and north.
(4) This resulted in a lateral pressure of 3,000 tonnes, which was greater than what the pilings could tolerate.
Thus the building toppled over in the southerly direction!

Discipline Overview for Geotechnical and Foundation Engineering: This civil engineering discipline entails the solution of all subsurface engineering problems. Geotechnical engineers are responsible for conducting and interpreting site investigations, the measurement of the soil's hydraulic and physical properties, and all subsurface design for civil structures. These include: dams, harbors, bridges, levees, retaining walls, tanks, tunnels, highways, and all major structures. The geotechnical discipline is now multi-discipline, skilled in traditional foundation engineering and in the maturing geo-environmental discipline to demonstrate sustainability. Geotechnical engineering calls for the blend of qualitative judgment with analytical solutions to meet the subsurface challenges in today's infrastructure.