must have geotech resources

[geoguy123]

hi, i'm new to the geotechnical field. looking for must have publications/resources
right now I have the

DM7.01 and 7.02
Foundation Engineering - Das
Geotechnical Engineering - Das
Shallow and Deep Foundations - Wang

Looking more for earth retention and foundation engineering resources

 

[geoguy123]

I also have copies of the ASTM for pile load testing

 

[Doctormo]

Bowles
Terzaghi & Peck
Spangler & Spangler
and so on.

There are a lots of good books, depends on what you are looking for.

 

[BigH]

Check out "Geotechnical Manuals State Highway Departments". Washington State has a very good one. Also FHWA has excellent publications. As for texts, I strongly suggest M.J. Tomlinson's Foundation Design and Construction as well as his pile book Pile Design and Construction. Older texts such as Peck Hanson and Thornburn are quite good to have as well. I am presuming that you don't wish to study books on Critical State Soil Mechanics (David Muir Wood or Malcolm Bolton). Terzaghi and Peck (including later addition with Mesri) is quite good on earth pressures.

 

[Mccoy]

'Foundation Engineering handbook' edited by Feng still is a very good practical handbook spanning almost all aspects of geotechnics. Much of it is in googlebooks.
More recently, Rodrigo Salgado's 'The engineering of foundations' is a good, updated and practical treatise.
Also, taking the hint from BigH, CSSM primers are found in some online publications, for example by Paul Mayne and collaborators (there is something like 'CSSM for dummies').

http://www.mccoy.it

 

[oldestguy]

All the books in the world in this field are not much good unless you can practice the work under the direction of an experienced geotech engineer. I've seen many a critical mistake by those barely out of college when they went ahead with decisions on the job and did not first run it by higher ups. Having a mentor is very necessary. Even old timers can miss things.

 

[BigH]

OG - agree totally but in such cases where there is no monitoring of work by others and especially more experienced engineers, it is a firm's reputation that is on the line. When I started as a youngster back in 1975 (I would have called OG "pops" back then), I worked for a Canadian firm, Geocon. I would write a simple report, say for a warehouse on clayey silt till. It would be reviewed by a 20 year experienced geotech who would "bleed" all over it. The typists would redo the report (time before word processors) and then it would go to the company's President - and it would be "red" again . . . the Company had a very good 'in-house' quality programme of monitoring, reviewing and checking all reports.

 

[oldestguy]

BigH: I hope your typists were more forgiving than ours. Gosh they could sure make you feel like crawling into a hole when they were informed to re-type it. It made for some careful attention to the first draft.

As to making a big job decision, I once told a contractor that we were no longer working for him, since he did not follow our recommendations for excavation edge bracing with a multi-story child care center located just beyond the property line. The boss said that was a good client in the past and he hated to lose them, but I made the right decision. Too much at risk.

 

[Melzar]

I would add the AASHTO Bridge Design Manual to the list.

 

[Ron]

BigH....exactly the process we used at Law Engineering (as dictated by George Sowers) and the same process used at Trow (my partner firm in the 80's).