Lauderdale site visit with John Fuggle Portsmouth University Placement Student

During my time at GEA, I have learned new skills and created a deeper understanding of the engineering side of geology, which I have learned in class. During my week I have got to comprehend what happens in a geotechnical engineer's job from the preliminary reports to the site and lab work. I have enjoyed it all as I want to get into something geology-based for a career and it helps me better understand the engineering geology topics in my A-Level.

On my first day, I started with an exercise on ‘Desk study and ground investigation preliminary findings’ centred around my school. I looked at historical maps to see what was on the ground before and after it was constructed. We then used geological maps to deduce what geology the school grounds would be sitting on. During this exercise, we designed a new building for the school and planned what foundations would be suitable and what issues might arise. After this, we had a seminar on site description and history which allowed me to understand what to do before any work has been done on site. Lastly, we had a workshop on preliminary risk assessment which can be used to discover if there is a high risk of contamination on the site.

On Tuesday, I had a seminar on-site work first on the different types of sampling and what to do if you encounter contamination. Then I had another workshop on the role of standpipes, I found out that they can monitor; gas, vapour and groundwater flow. We then had a seminar about piling and how important it is they are placed correctly so the buildings can be supported by them. Finally, we had one last seminar about sampling, logging and field tests. I learnt how to correctly log and sample a borehole which I used on Wednesday. I learnt about SPT and CPT to work out the density. I learnt about the rising head test and the falling head test to work out the rate of infiltration into a hole and how quickly the water can get out of the hole and into the soil. I worked out how to use the pocket penetrometer which I used on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to visit a site on Lauderdale Road in London. When I arrived I completed a site description, logged three boreholes and sampled two. I examined the clays that were extracted and measured if they had desiccation by using the pocket penetrometer. We then sampled the clays at 0.3m intervals and sampled the made ground to check for contamination. I enjoyed this, It put the skills I had been learning in the seminars and exercises in the week into practical work.

On Thursday I did trial pit logs which help you get the footprint of a foundation, it gives you the materials and measurements that the foundation will go into. I found this difficult at the start as I couldn't get my head around the designs but after it was explained to me I found it interesting as I understood that it is a key part of the desk study process of being a geotechnical engineer.

On Friday, I travelled to Geolabs at Watford to log London Clay samples taken from a site. We logged 3 different boreholes each going from 2m-30m. I enjoyed this as it showed me the full cycle of going from desk studies to site work to the final lab testing which helped me understand a geotechnical engineer's full process of their job. I enjoyed my time at GEA and hope to be back in the future.

At Geolabs with Cerys Long & John Fuggle, both undergraduates studying Engineering Geology at Portsmouth University