GE's autumn events: "Geotechnical engineers have a responsibility to rethink basement spaces"

"Geotechnical engineers have a responsibility to rethink basement spaces" - Tim Chapman,?director net zero carbon for infrastructure,?Arup

Ground Engineering?is delighted to bring you two essential, co-located autumn gatherings on 6 October 2022: GE?Smart Geotechnics,?aimed at anyone looking for up-to-date insight into digital technologies and the use of cloud and AI; and the GE Basements and Underground Structures conference, the only event which explores the design and delivery of underground spaces.

To give you a taste of what to expect, we've asked?some of our GE Basements speakers?what they would like the delegates to take away from the conference:

Tim Chapman,?director net zero carbon for infrastructure,?Arup:

"As ever, one of the best aspects of all industry conferences is?refreshing the network?– we have all suffered a world with much less social interaction for the past 2.5 years, and?it is great to be able to meet people again in real life.

"The biggest thing I hope delegates take away from the conference is that we live in a time of huge change – and all the old certainties are gone.?Until very recently, it was entirely rational that when you were asked to design a new project, it would tend to follow the form of solution that had been done before.

"Now when faced with a challenge, it is likely that the solution will be radically different from before – as it needs to also promote a world that is much lower in carbon, far better at supporting social value, does far less damage to nature and uses fewer resources generally – and in most cases should be part of a system that uses the Circular Economy.??

"My presentation will cover?how a need to radically reduce carbon means we need to reconsider the purpose of basement spaces. Basements tend to be very resource and carbon intensive – expensive in terms of the scarce currencies of cost and carbon.

"Geotechnical engineers have a responsibility to rethink such spaces, in some cases, the purpose may be so compelling that it remains well worth it – eg when the spaces are for metro stations or bicycle parting – or perhaps to provide more ground source heat pumping.?

"Sometimes they may be less so – we will need radically fewer car parks and much plant space should be put in less carbon intensive spaces. Plus of course, we need to change the embodied carbon in materials – concrete and steel especially.

"The talk will explain a bit about PAS2080 and the Construction Innovation Hub’s Value Toolkit can support such better and different decision making."

David Baxter, senior technical manager, ArcelorMittal:

"I always look forward to?GE conferences.?It's?an opportunity?to hear the latest best practice and the state-of-the-art from industry leaders and innovators. I am excited to hear how ground engineering professionals?are rising to the various often conflicting challenges?whether they be technical, environmental, time or materials based, concerned with people or skills or related to social impact or working around operational assets.

"Ideally delegates would go away with the knowledge that their approach to?solving ground engineering problems can have a significant impact on the environmental performance of their projects?and that?savings can be made and measured?in terms of environmental impact as well as cost?and that the two do not necessarily need to conflict."

"I hope to be covering?how low carbon steel can help the industry to achieve net zero targets, starting with examining how sheet piles and structural sections are produced from recycled material with renewable energy and then going on to look at how they can be designed and used in real life projects to minimise resource use and emissions."

In the previous issue, we introduced you to some of our GE Smart Geotechnics speakers, and you can read their interviews here.

We look forward to seeing you next week!