How did I get into the ground engineering industry? I was originally planning a career in an entirely different field of work, and engineering geology/geotechnical engineering isn't particularly a well-known career. It is one that I didn't even know existed! However, after having a conversation with a neighbour, who explained the career that they had as a civil engineer turned geotechnical engineer, describing the roles they had in projects in the UK and around the world! I was inspired to see how I could get into this profession. I recall having a phone call with Nick Koor (course lead for BEng Engineering Geology and Geotechnics) from the University of Portsmouth, and after a long discussion about the degree and its career prospects, Nick offered me a place which I accepted straight away!

Since opening up our Manchester Office in March 2019, Martin Cooper – Technical Director – has been bringing GEA’s expertise to the north of England and Scotland on a range of projects. Building long term partnerships has, despite temporary disruption caused by COVID, resulted in growth in this region for GEA.

I have recently seen a couple of blog posts highlighting the different approaches that are required for contaminated land investigations to obtain planning consent in London boroughs. All well and good, and helpful for developers and other stakeholders to know some of the pitfalls, but I believe we are doing our clients a major disservice by blithely reporting and not challenging these requirements.

I have spent most of my career with small and medium sized ground investigation / geotechnical specialists, and one of the benefits of how we work has always been that the geotechnical engineer writing a report for us is the same engineer that was on site or in the lab logging the soil from the boreholes. On most projects we usually have some shallow sampling, using something like a window sampler or other drive-in sampler, or some trial pitting. This might be a couple of days work to provide good coverage and it makes sense to have a geotechnical engineer on site logging the boreholes and directing the work as information is gathered. Clearly if we are drilling say ten boreholes in a short timeframe we want to make sure they are put in the best locations, and that can only be achieved by having the engineer on site. With deeper boreholes, drilled using cable percussion or by rotary coring, where progress is slower, it is generally more practical to provide part-time supervision and to keep in touch with the lead driller by phone.