Makes me want to scream!

[fattdad]

Here's an architect's perspective on why we have a slope stability failure:

"The soils on the site are sands and clays so sand tends to compact and shift when wet and clay expands when saturated."

So, how then would an embankment dam ever work?

end of rant. . .

f-d

¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

 

[PEinc]

Sounds like the architect is practicing engineering without a license (as usual!).

 

[kslee1000]

I guess it had occurred after a rain storm, and would like to give the Architect some credits on been not off too far from a highly technical/specialized issue.

 

[dgillette]

Unfortunately common, in engineering, medicine, groundwater geology, etc.

My expertise in architecture consists of

"That building looks nice. The architect did a good job."

and

"That building is ugly because the portions are wrong and the details are incompatible with the rest. The architect ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail."

I'm sure they don't consider me competent to judge that.

 

[BigH]

fattdad - LET IT OUT, LET IT OUT!!! RANT ON !!

I agree - I have seen every Tom, Dick and Harry know EVERYTHING there is to know about compaction testing (lab and field) - yet, they were accountants, mechanical engineers and more often than not, arseholes. I used to tell my Indian contractors to put an archery target at the door of the lab . . . One guy - the client bigwhig - came in and asked what the specific gravity of the material being tested was. The contractor lab man told him about 2.65. The guy blew up - ranting that only an Indian bureaucrat could do . . . told the guy it couldn't be more than 1.9 and directed that the lab man be fired. He thought he was asking the MDD but got the correct answer to the actual question. Needless, I think the contractor put a beard on the guy, changed his name and life went on!

 

[fattdad]

BigH: Funny story. My original example is just the tip of the ice-burg when it comes to stupid misconceptions about our chosen field, eh?

I'm supposed to get the "geotechnical engineer's" final report today and I'm afraid it may be full of misconceptions too. Time will tell. . .

f-d

¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

 

[oldestguy]

It all started in the bible, building on sand versus rock.