Surface and borehole seismic imaging with both P and S waves enhance site assessments and reduce risks at difficult and complex geotechnical sites. These technologies increase the effective radius of investigation of boreholes alone and provide improved site parameters such as dynamic elastic modulus. Case…
Rock falls and lining failures are potential hazards in tunnels. The current paper presents three case histories of the management of tunnel risks in the Wellington Region. Rock fall inspections are required by Land Transport New Zealand in the Orongorongo water supply tunnel to allow…
This paper discusses how debris flows, a commonly occurring natural hazard in mountainous regions of New Zealand, may be recognised and identified from field and desk studies for sites that are being considered for development. Use is made of a particular case study from the…
The Tauranga Harbour Link project represents a major upgrade of the existing harbour crossing and approaches. It comprises a two lane incrementally launched bridge and major viaduct structure spanning road and rail links. This paper presents the details of the pile construction methodology using bentonite…
The design of piles is typically undertaken using empirical or semi-empirical methods developed for ‘regular’ silica sands or clays. The application of such methods to geological materials whose physical characteristics are unlike those on which the conventional design methods were derived can result in unconservative…
Repeated observations from recent earthquakes show that the vertical ground acceleration can be amplified significantly and even become greater than its horizontal counterpart in certain situations, raising great concern over the potential effect of vertical acceleration on engineering structures. This paper addresses this issue for quay…
This paper presents a brief case study investigating the performance of the Kalamata quay wall that exhibited permanent displacement following a Mw 5.9 earthquake. The aim of the investigation was to attempt to predict the observed damage to the wall using available analysis techniques – chiefly simplified analytical…
It is estimated that about 88% of 104 million scrap tyres generated in Japan in 2006 were either reused or recycled. Because of this, attention has been paid on scrap tyres as new ground material, and recent researches have been moving towards this direction. One…
Arapuni Dam, located on the Waikato River 55 km upstream from Hamilton New Zealand, has a history of seepage incidents, relating to its rock foundation, since first filling in 1927. The latest seepage event led to a comprehensive investigation to determine the extent of the foundation features requiring…
Three different approaches for assessment of seismic performance of pile foundations (and soil-structure systems in general) are discussed in this paper. These approaches use different models, analysis procedures and are of vastly different complexity. All three methods are consistent with the performance-based design philosophy according…