I have three years experience out of college in a consulting firm. Didn’t know I was interested in Geotech so I held off on getting a masters degree right after college. I’m at the point where I do like geotech at times, but I’m feeling extremely burnt out in consulting. About to take my PE, I work in a midsize firm like Terracon and I’m just constantly churning out projects. Going out to the field last minute working 12 hour days every day two hours away doing PLT ER, etc. Not to mention coming home after that and staying on top of project management and report writing. management is constantly promising to hire more help, but just churning through that help. Since I get bits and pieces of moments where I do enjoy the aspect of Geotech, I wonder if I should continue to get my masters or switch careers altogether. My current environment, it’s hard to see long-term contentment. Also trying to figure out how to afford my masters without committing a ridiculous amount of time to my company.

I also have a boss that is abrasive and will not mentor me. I’ve been given pats on the back by upper leadership they like the work I’m doing. They’re even involving me in leadership training courses and networking events. but I just can’t sustain this long-term. My motivation is running thin and I feel like it would’ve lasted much more than three years. And all these new engineers are coming in super eager. I just can’t match that anymore.

Is Geotech consulting like this, or are there better firms out there? Also highly considering the fellow program in the army corps, does anyone have any insight of what that transition looks like?

Someone on this subreddit was asking for a link to the ABC software, but I lost my copy after formatting my PC. Since software development is my passion, I decided to create a modern version of it. It is more advanced than the original ABC software.

Demo of Slipbear

• What it does: 10 conventional methods side by side — Terzaghi, Meyerhof, Hansen, Vesić, Eurocode 7, AASHTO LRFD, IS 6403, BNBC 2020, AIJ (Japan)
• the exact slip-line solution as the reference, with each method's deviation in % soil parameters from lab data, SPT, CPT or pressuremeter
• stress contours, contact pressure, pressure bulb — exportable as publication-ready SVG / PNG / PDF

Validated against published benchmark solutions, and it reproduces ABC's results digit for digit.

Free, no installation, works in any browser:

slipbear.geoeq.org

Feel free to watch the demo video. If you work with shallow foundations, please give it a try and let me know what features you would like to see added. I welcome your suggestions on what might be missing and any ideas you have for improvements. Thanks.

Anyone ever see this? Plans call for a Mirifi 600x or equivalent to be placed directly under the asphalt. My concerns are that it will: A) melt B) get ripped up by the paver C) create a plane of unbonded asphalt which may lead to shear failure/ delamination. The designer justified it by saying it is a cheap insurance, and one of my coworkers says he sees this all the time, but my gut says this is wrong and it would be better to have no fabric at all, or switch to a fiberglass reinforced AC interlayer fabric.

I've just completed a 5 month industrial attachment at an open-pit copper mine, and one of the requirements is to come up with a final-year project based on my experience there. The problem is that I'm struggling to find a project that's both practical and original.

Most of the ideas I've come up with have either already been done at the mine or were rejected for not being original enough.

Does anyone have suggestions for project topics that would be relevant to an operating open-pit copper mine?

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I’m currently 2 years in as a staff geotech at a consulting firm. The work itself isn’t hard, but lately it’s been painfully boring. Our data center projects keep getting pushed back, so workflow is thin, and most of my time is just busywork – 80% typing up reports/proposals in Word and 20% field observation (drilling logs, etc.).

What’s frustrating is that even the senior staff don’t do much beyond report writing and project management. No one seems to touch real design work.

I want more. I’d love to get into geotechnical modeling – PLAXIS, LPile, slope stability, foundation design – something that actually uses engineering judgment and creativity. But every job posting I see for geotechs seems to be for another “staff professional” role with the same grind.

So my questions for you all:

· How do I make the jump into a more technical, design-heavy geotech role?

· What types of companies actually do this kind of work (specialty consultants, oil/gas, offshore, etc.)?

· What job titles should I be searching for (e.g., Geotechnical Engineer, Analysis Engineer, Design Engineer)?

· Do I need my PE before anyone will trust me with modeling/calcs, or can I start learning on the job now?

I don’t mind being in the office full-time – I just want to stop feeling like a Word monkey. I’m worried my experience level is holding me back, but I’m also worried I’ll get stuck if I don’t pivot soon. I'm in the southern lower Piedmont area if that helps

Any advice would be huge. Thanks.

Hello all, I’m a geotechnical engineer and long time lurker on this sub, one thing that properly winds me up is how difficult it can be to find all the information relating to a single investigation location. When reviewing one borehole log, having to search through files to find the triaxial result, another one for the core photograph, and somewhere else again for another test, etc.

Out of frustration, I started building the program I wanted to use myself.

What began as a basic spreadsheet of field investigation data and connections uploaded to a Django web app with a GIS style map has grown into XSGround, a site investigation management and tracking app with Android mobile app (iOS is on the way).

My goal was to make it super easy to customise fields and build related connections, be able to create records in bulk from spreadsheets or manual input in the fields using the mobile app. The fields can handle lots of data types from large data sets, including raw CPTu data, formula fields, log fields, photos and files.

By building connections between records, all related test data to investigation points can be found and viewed in one place. It also means that the AI knowledge assistant can review related investigation data rather than each record in isolation. To maintain data security, identifiable project details and actual coordinates can be masked.

The data can be visualised in map view, which I have also made it easy to overlay images, and shape files, export and download location figures (as this was another thing that grinds my gears). The map and investigation can be shared to viewers like clients or stakeholders who only see what you allow them.

 That is only a brief overview. It can also be used to create geotech logs in the field and help track investigation progress, but I’m trying to avoid turning this post into a large feature list.

 It’s definitely not perfect by any means, but I’m looking for a few people who would be willing to test it on their live projects and give me some feedback. So far, I have used it for my own geotech investigations, recording site inspections and earthworks verification testing, but it could be configured for slope stability/rockfall assessments, retaining wall inspections, or asset and damage assessments.  

You can have a look here https://xsground.com and PM me if you’re interested and I’ll send through an invite and can give you a walkthrough to set up a project.

HI! is it possible to calculate the slope stability when added some toe buttress at its toe (when you place some boulder at the toe of a slope without mesh (so it's not a gabion wall)) ?

how would the material properties input will be? I have researched quite a few, and its to reduce the unit weight to around 40% (as there will be void between boulders), cohesion to zero (no grain bonding force, as they're separated each other) and to reduce the friction angle by quite a number (about 10-20% depending on angularity). Will these empirical approach enough?

Well, let's assume that we don't have any funding for gabion wall's mesh. Thus the necessity to calculate safety factor with only boulder placement at the toe of a slope.

Thank you so muchh!!!

Being in the middle of the Meadowlands that soft clay can go for hundreds of feet, how deep are the piles?

Hello,

Ive joined reddit Seeking advice from others please :)

Current working as an engineering geologist in Australia for 6 years. Work is good but I can't escape the field and want to lean more into the actual engineering side of things rather than soil logging, sites investigations, mapping etc because I enjoy it a lot more.

My degree is in geology where I had a large focus on engineering geology, rock mechanics and geotechnics so I understand the engineering side of things as well as the geology side.

Ive interviewed for multiple other roles but they all seem to want me as the "site and field person" only, but I'm really trying to move into the technical office side of things. Ive expressed my feelings to my workplace and places ive interviewed at but they all say the primary role of their geologists is to be in the field. But i know I can do more

Im thinking now to return to uni to do an MPE in civil/geotech engineering so I can reach this goal - however I'm worried I'll always been seen as the field guy and the mpe will not do anything.

Does anyone have advice on if this will help me switch to the engineering side of geotechnics? Or any other advice to help do this?

Thank you

I can link to the masonry sub where I posted photos if useful. I am a homeowner looking for any help with next steps to protect my family and property from a retaining wall that fell and was rebuilt (but I’m not sure if it was done safely/correctly).

Today, I took one of my vendor supplied calibration sheets and performed my own regression analysis of Digits vs. psi. For those of you who don't know, Digits is the Frequency squared divided by 1,000. Supposedly, this gives a "better" linear correlation to pressure. The R-squared was 0.999997. I then back figured the frequency and performed a second regression. The R-squared was 0.999259. Now I'll admit Digits gives a better linear correlation than frequency. But is the extra precision worth it? Any thoughts?

Hi all,

I'm confused about whether to use the gross or net allowable bearing pressure from the geotechnical report for:Raft foundations and Individual spread footings

Currently, I'm using gross allowable bearing pressure for both, with the reasoning that in a basement, the excavated soil weight is replaced by the foundation/superstructure load.

Is this the correct approach, or should I be using the net allowable bearing pressure instead? I'd appreciate any explanation.

Thanks!

I'm fairly new in this business. I'm about to start a digging job and I want to make sure I'm not about to hit a gas line, water main, or buried cable I didn't know was there. I've heard I'm supposed to request an 811 ticket a few days beforehand so the utility lines can get marked, but I'm not totally sure how far in advance I need to call or how long the ticket stays valid. I also don't know what happens if my crew is still working once that window closes. Do I need a new ticket every time the project drags on, or is there some way to extend the one I've already got?

Hey everyone, bridge engineer here. My states DOT is requiring the bridge consultant to perform LPile runs for projects. Up until this year, the geotech on the project handled this task. My supervisors haven’t learned LPile because they never needed it and other offices in my company know it but are out of state and can’t offer comprehensive training on the software.

After some digging, I’ve found a course on The Geotechnicals website taught by Dr. Ahmed ElMouchi that seems to cover everything that I’d need to handle LPile on our projects. It’s only $250 and offers 24 PDHs so I’m considering it. Does anyone have experience with this course or have other recommendations? Thanks for any input.

Happy Sunday!

GF and I purchased our first home in the Seattle area about 6 months ago. One of the first-year tasks we had was to get this hillside behind our home stabilized. You can see 1 of 2 existing retaining walls in the image built sometime in the 90's we believe. We also believe the geogrid/rock was placed in the image - wall length is ~35-40'.

GIS Map says we are in a potential landslide area, and there's a creek (far right side of image). Either item on their own seems to drive mandatory permitting regardless of height, already talking to 1 geotechnical firm, and one permit consultant.

• Only 1 of 4 geotechnical firms have responded to my emails/calls. Is this fairly normal, or should I keep poking? Given the area, I'm kinda curious if your profession is extremely busy.
• The 1 firm who responded is extremely communicative, and estimated ~$7500 for the report. Seems reasonable, based on what I've read, since it includes drilling.
• Engineering for the wall not included in above pricing - I assume because they need the soil report? Assuming no surprises, any thoughts as to how much I should expect the drawings to run?
• Any other thoughts on general situation appreciated!

I'm a welding engineer, but had to work with geotechs on occasion professionally for large equipment I've installed - never residential when the $ comes out of my pocket, so just trying to understand what I should expect overall.

Appreciate your time/thoughts very much!