I debated in my mind whether to post this question here or geotechnical and ultimately decided this is the best location because I am more wanting input from other structural engineers.
I have started seeing more and more questions from the geotechnical engineers asking how many boreholes and the locations of these boreholes for the preparation of their geotechnical reports. I am curious if any of you have any recommendations or resources that provide more information on determining minimum number of boreholes, etc.
As I understand it, two triggers for more boreholes would be varying soil conditions and higher seismic zones. As I am not a geotech, I am not as familiar as they would be with the soil conditions in most locations off the top of my head so it would seem to me that they would know better on number of and locating bore holes on a site to provide the most accurate results.
Is this a common question you see? As it hasn't been common in my area for as long as I can remember (other engineers in my areas also noted that they are seeing this request more and more frequently), my pessimistic side suggests there may be an ulterior motive, such as shedding more liability and being able to point more fingers at the structural engineer should something happen. This gets into the discussion of if the geotech report is part of the construction documents, which more often than not, regardless of what the report says in regards to this is made part of the construction documents by referencing and submitting the document to the jurisdiction and it being a condition of the permit.
I have started seeing more and more questions from the geotechnical engineers asking how many boreholes and the locations of these boreholes for the preparation of their geotechnical reports. I am curious if any of you have any recommendations or resources that provide more information on determining minimum number of boreholes, etc.
As I understand it, two triggers for more boreholes would be varying soil conditions and higher seismic zones. As I am not a geotech, I am not as familiar as they would be with the soil conditions in most locations off the top of my head so it would seem to me that they would know better on number of and locating bore holes on a site to provide the most accurate results.
Is this a common question you see? As it hasn't been common in my area for as long as I can remember (other engineers in my areas also noted that they are seeing this request more and more frequently), my pessimistic side suggests there may be an ulterior motive, such as shedding more liability and being able to point more fingers at the structural engineer should something happen. This gets into the discussion of if the geotech report is part of the construction documents, which more often than not, regardless of what the report says in regards to this is made part of the construction documents by referencing and submitting the document to the jurisdiction and it being a condition of the permit.