With the rapid advances in various aspects of geotechnical engineering, it is often difficult for agencies and owners to be aware of current state-of-the practice practices and setup technically correct and reasonable policies to address them. With its wide experience in practical application of advanced geotechnical engineering, NCS has been helping agencies setup their geotechnical standards and policies. These agencies range from local townships (e.g., Town of Oro Valley), counties (e.g., Pima County), states (e.g., Arizona), to federal agencies (e.g., Federal Highway Administration, FHWA).
Some of the topics for which NCS has developed current standards and policies include soil nail design and construction, MSE wall design and construction, deep soil mixing, jet grouting, geofoam and lightweight (foamed) concrete fills, micro-piles and ground anchors. NCS is currently in the process of implementing the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) methods for geotechnical engineering for the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT).
NCS fully recognizes the far-reaching impacts of new standards and policies on government agencies and their consultants. Therefore, NCS takes utmost care in advising the agencies and owners of the tenuous balance between theory and practice and, while developing new standards and policies, considers other factors such as the agency’s procurement procedures and project delivery methods on a case to case basis. For example, the requirements for an investigation program on a conventional design-bid-build project may differ from those for a design-build project or a CM@Risk type of project.
To help an agency properly implement new standards and policies, NCS can develop comprehensive checklists to provide a handy reference for the agency/owner engineers and their consultants. An example of such a checklist is the comprehensive 135-question checklist that NCS prepared for ADOT to support the implementation of a new specification for MSE wall design (which NCS also developed for ADOT) and construction. A partial copy of the MSE wall design checklist is available on this site. To obtain a full copy of the checklist please contact us.
With its experience in teaching courses on a wide range of geotechnical topics to transportation agencies nationwide, NCS has accumulated a unique perspective on the latest geotechnical practices. We leverage that teaching experience to provide training courses for the staff of agencies/owners to better understand and implement the policies and standards. Please contact us if you are interested in developing design and/or construction standards and policies on any aspect of geotechnical engineering. |
