SYNOPSIS

Over recent decades there have been significant advances in the geotechnical design of underground railways and as such the profession has made available a vast amount of experience. However we should ask ourselves whether we are using the experience gained to produce more economical designs without sacrificing safety.

Time scales for the designer to develop their design have compressed and we rely more now on the vast array of computer programs to assist in our work. However I am not convinced that designs are more economical and in many situations I think the reverse is true. Similarly more and more site investigation data (generally resulting from competitive tendering) is being produced but do we really look at the data in detail in the rush to put into the spread sheet to produce the “design line“ whether it be the mean or moderately conservative!! There is also evidence that the key interaction between the geologist and engineer is being lost in the rush to produce “the design”.

This talk will outline some of these issues and give examples of how perhaps by focusing on a more limited but high quality investigation and testing, real gains in economic design can be achieved at no additional cost to our clients.


BIODATA OF SPEAKER

John is resident in Kuala Lumpur and a Senior Consultant in the Arup Singapore Infrastructure Group. He is currently Project Manager for the reference design for the underground portion of the KVMRT Line 2. He has been Project Director on Land Transport Authorities Detailed Design Consultancies for a number of metro projects including the initial 5kms section of the Downtown 3(DTL3) through the centre of Singapore, approximately 11kms of the Thomson Line (packages TSL A & D) and 5kms of the Eastern Region Line (ERL). He is currently Project Director for the advanced consultancies for the proposed North South Expressway (NSE) passing though the centre of Singapore. Previously he lead the geotechnical design for part of the first underground metro system in Bangkok.

John has provided geotechnical advice for a wide range of projects in Asia, Africa & Europe, including projects involving innovative foundations and basement designs as well as, slopes, reclamations and geotechnical processes. The projects have included advice on all the major metro railways in Hong Kong as well as underground railway projects in Taiwan, Canada, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

He is a past chairman of the HKIE Geotechnical Division and has published widely on geotechnical aspects of design.