ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MINUTES

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1 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MINUTES Subject: The Geotechnical Society of Ireland AGM Date & Time: 24 th April 2014 Location: Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Prepared by: Paul Quigley and Fintan Buggy 1. Welcome & Apologies Paul Quigley from Arup) (PQA) (outgoing Chairman) welcomed those present 2. Minutes of Last Committee Meeting The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed 3. GSI Membership The following GSI committee members are stepping down after the 2012/13 season. David Green Wyatt Orsmond Prof. Mark Dyer The Chairman extended his thanks to all of the above for their efforts and contributions to the Geotechnical Society. Ciaran Reilly (JB Barry) and Derek Luby (SLR Consulting) agreed to join the committee. The following officers and committee members were elected for the 2014/15 season: Fintan Buggy (Roughan and O Donovan) Chairman, CPD & Liaison Committee Paul Quigley (Arup) acting Secretary Michael Robinson (Test Consult) Treasurer Maurice Ryan (Byrne Looby Partners) Public Relations Officer. Cormac Reale (UCD) Third Level Liaison Officer Brian Byrne (Carlow IT) Dr Ciaran Reilly (JB Barry) Dr David Gill (AGL Consulting) Derek Luby (SLR Consulting) ACTION Page 1 of 3

2 ACTION Gerry Stanley (Geological Survey of Ireland) Dr Kevin Flynn (NUI, Galway) Mark Condron (RPS) Dr Paul Doherty (GDG) Paul Quigley (IGSL) 4 Finances The prepared statement on the finances prepare by Michael Robinson (Treasurer) were appended to the Chairman s statement. Outlays were ISSMGE fees, speaker expenses and sponsorship of two students attending international conference in Paris. A modest income was received from Engineers Ireland, subscriptions for ISSMGE membership and sponsorship for Irish Tar for the seminar. The balance sheet remains positive thanks to the success of the 2012 Roads Conference. 5 Ground Investigation specification Progress on the new ground investigation specification had been slow. Calls for submissions had met with little response. A call was issued for those with an interest in ground investigations to engage with the working group headed by Paul Quigley from IGSL. 6. Programme PQA thanked all those present for the excellent turnout for the half day event. Following a brief discussion it was decided to proceed with the half day format in Suggestions for topics for future talks are welcomed. Please contact any of the committee members. 7 NSAI Paul Quigley from IGSL provided an update on developments at NSAI on specifications for aggregates. Eric Farrell provided an update on a working group on modifications to the National Annex ground anchor specification. 8. Geotechnical Newsletter The Geotechnical Society published a newsletter during the year and intended doing so again in Autumn / Winter. Contributions from the geotechnical community are welcome. S Page 2 of 3

3 ACTION 9. International Business The GSI is in the process of clearing membership invoices for ISSMGE. PQA noted that authors submitting abstracts to XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in September 2015 must ensure that one author is registered with ISSMGE through the Irish chapter. MR 10 Any Other Business Dr Eric Farrell encouraged more technical papers to be published by the Geotechnical Society, rather than just a copy of presentation slides. Dr Farrell noted that papers previously were published in the Transactions of the IEI. PQA noted the request and encouraged presenters to consider publishing papers at the Civil Engineering Research in Ireland conference at Queens in August Further means of encouraging presenters to publish their work in a paper would be considered. Page 3 of 3

Chairman s report - April 2014 Dear colleagues, As our lecture series for 2013 / 2014 draws to a close I think it would be useful to highlight some of the activities and progress made by the

4 Chairman s report - April 2014 Dear colleagues, As our lecture series for 2013 / 2014 draws to a close I think it would be useful to highlight some of the activities and progress made by the Geotechnical Society during the past year. Events Firstly, I hope you managed to attend one or more of our lecture events. Owing to falling numbers at the traditional evening meetings at Clyde Road we have grouped a number of talks together and presented them at half day events in the autumn and spring. We would appreciate any feedback you may have on the format of the talks. Our autumn event was the Professor Eamon Hanrahan memorial organised by UCD on the topic of the mechanics of peat. The event featured speakers from the Netherlands (Prof Evert Den Haan) and Sweden (Peter Carlson) in additional to a wide variety of speakers from Ireland. It is encouraging to see the progress being made with this difficult material. The presentations are available on the Geotechnical Society s webpages. Great credit is due to Dr Mike Long and the organising team for this event. Our spring event features a wide variety of projects. Dr Chris Menkiti (Geotechnical Consulting Group), a familiar presence in Ireland from his Dublin Port Tunnel work and current Chairman of the British Geotechnical Association, is our invited guest lecture. Additional talks are provided by Dr David Gill (AGL Consulting) on the geotechnical properties of Dublin Port clay, Dr Paul Doherty (GDG) and John Donohoe (Bord na Mona) on geotechnical challenges for shallow foundations supporting wind turbines, and John O Connor (Byrne Looby Partners) on Geotechnical Risk Management on STEP Project in Abu Dhabi. We are grateful to sponsorship provided by Irish Tar Geotechnical Division for this event. We hosted a joint talk with the Civil Division by Úna Fitzgerald (RPS) on the fate of surplus soil and stone arisings on construction projects in January. We also hosted a joint lecture with

5 the IAH presented by Mike Cambridge on The Role of Water in the Failure of Mine Waste Facilities from Initiation to Degradation at the Geological Survey of Ireland. Young Geotechnical Engineer events Following an improvement in the Society s finances we were once again able to sponsor young geotechnical engineers at attending international conferences. Shane Doohan (AGL Consulting) and Luke Prendergast (UCD) were sponsored to attend the ISSMGE Young Geotechnical Engineers conference in Paris in September We recently held a competition for the upcoming Young Geotechnical Engineers European conference in Barcelona. Seven entries were received and the standard of presentations was excellent. After a difficult judging decision Brian Sheil and Martin Timoney (both from NUI, Galway) were selected to attend. Many thanks to David Green (IGSL) and Prof. Mark Dyer (TCD) for assisting with the judging. Ground investigation specification The ground investigation specification is being updated based on the recently revised edition published by Thomas Telford. We have an opportunity to modify the specification to suit our needs. The standard of ground investigation specifications received by contractors vary in quality and in some cases are very poor. The revised specification outlines what an engineer expects from the ground investigation in a manner that is readily transparent. It is hoped that the revised ground investigation specification will be used more frequently and on all State and semi state projects. NSAI The Geotechnical Society is involved with NSAI on a number of fronts. Dr Eric Farrell and Prof. Trevor Orr continue to represent Ireland on a number of Eurocode 7 committees. NSAI TC015 SC7 has been established to review Eurocode 7 in Ireland. The current members are Eric Farrell, Andy Wilkins, Carl Brangan, Ciaran Reilly, David Gill, Fintan Buggy, Mark Peters, Patrick Casey, Paul Quigley (Arup) and Trevor Orr. If you are interested in contributing to this group please contact Eric Farrell. S.R. 21:2014 was developed by the Aggregates Panel of NSAI's Roads Standards Committee. I.S. EN 13242:2002 +A1:2007 specifies the properties of aggregates for use in unbound and hydraulically bound materials. S.R. 21:2014 is a complete revision of S.R. 21:2004+A1:2007 and provides advice on the use of I.S. EN 13242:2002+A1:2007 in Ireland where guidance is deemed necessary. Paul Quigley (IGSL) and Michael Robinson have represented the Geotechnical Society on this group. Public works contract Engineers Ireland and the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland are consulting with the Department of Public Procurement on a review of the Public Works Contract suite. The Geotechnical Society has passed on comments on some issues with the contracts.

6 Finances The Treasurer s report is appended to this report. I m happy to report that the finances of the Society remain in a healthy position following the success of the Roads Seminar last year. Expenditure greatly exceeded income due to the payment of late ISSMGE fees, sponsorship of students to two international conferences and expenses relating to the autumn and spring events. Sources of income included a stipend from Engineers Ireland towards our expenses, subscriptions for international societies and the Geotechnical Society for non-members of Engineers Ireland and sponsorship from Irish Tar Geotechnical Division for our spring seminar. International societies Ireland has 15 members of ISSMGE. A large number of abstracts were received for the upcoming XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in September 2015 in Edinburgh. In order to be accepted at least one author must be an member of ISSMGE through the National Society (i.e. Geotechnical Society of Ireland). The ISSMGE is seeking an update on Irish membership numbers for Under ISSMGE rules, membership of ISSMGE through an alternative National Society such as the BGA or ASCE does not permit you to submit a paper through the Geotechnical Society of Ireland. This affects anyone submitting an abstract for the upcoming conference in Edinburgh in 2015 or any other ISSMGE sponsored event through the National Society. The Geotechnical Society offers membership to two other international societies: International Association for Engineering Geology (IAEG) and International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM). Subscriptions for these societies are minimal and probably insufficient to sustain a National Group for these societies. The ISSMGE International Conference was hosted in Paris and the Irish papers were presented by Mike Long, Frank O Leary, Maurice Ryan and Michael Looby (Deep excavation in Irish glacial deposits) and Fintan Buggy (Deformation Performance and Stability Control of Multi-stage Embankments in Ireland). Awards There was considerable success for Irish geotechnical engineers at the ICE 2013 Publishing Awards. Professor Trevor Orr (TCD) was awarded the Crampton Prize for his paper The effect of Eurocode 7 on geotechnical design: a review, which was published in ICE Geotechnical Engineering. The prize is awarded annually by the ICE for the best paper on practical geotechnical engineering. The paper describes some of the issues that have arisen and difficulties that have been encountered with the introduction of Eurocode 7, and the plans for the future development of Eurocode 7. Dr Michael Long (UCD), Dr Carl Brangan (AGEC), Michael Looby (Byrne Looby and Partners) and Patrick Casey (Arup) along with Dr Christopher Menkiti (GCG) received the

7 John Mitchell medal for their paper Retaining Walls in Dublin Boulder Clay, Ireland published in ICE Geotechnical Journal. The John Mitchell medal is awarded annually for the best paper in Geotechnical practice, site-based innovation, or geotechnical safety. The paper presented a series of case histories which suggest that the behaviour of the walls in Dublin Boulder Clay is very rigid and much stiffer than comparable systems worldwide. There appears to be scope for developing more efficient designs and in particular for reducing propping requirements. For temporary works, the use of undrained parameters in serviceability limit state calculations together with implementation of the observational approach on site could be considered for future schemes. Martin Timoney (NUI, Galway) and Dr Bryan McCabe (NUI Galway) along with Dr Alan Bell (Keller Ground Engineering UK) were awarded Telford Premium Prize 2013 for their research paper on 'Experiences of dry soil mixing in highly organic soils' published in ICE Ground Improvement. A large database of stabilised strengths suggested that cement and a cement/ground granulated blast furnace slag combination are the most suitable binders for peat soils, and that the ratio of mass of water to mass of binder and the von Post classification H value are important indicators of stabilised strength. Paul Quigley (Arup) and Alan Phear were shortlisted for best paper or presentation at the Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards for their presentation Some geotechnical aspects of the A30 Montreal. Paul Quigley (IGSL) was shortlisted for Volunteer of the Year in recognition of his work with the Geotechnical Society, NSAI and Engineers Ireland. Future events We hope that you can provide us with some feedback on the events held this year and what events you would like to attend. We are considering an event to launch the revised ground investigation specification later this year. We are also considering doing a masterclass series of talks on various topics such as laboratory testing and scheduling, pile design, aggregate testing and earthworks. Please check your Engineers Ireland account settings to ensure that you are included on our mailing list. We have created a Linkedin account and will provide updates on our activities on both this page and the Engineers Ireland events calendar. The Geotechnical Society has a good track record providing events that leaves our audience wanting more. Your contributions to the on-going success of our society would be welcome. Paul Quigley Chartered Engineer Chairman, Geotechnical Society of Ireland

8 Main Organising Group in association with Event Topic Date Time Venue alert sent to on attend fig We b LV CTRs (EB) No (EB) memb Geotechnical society UCD Seminar ET Hanrahan Memorial Symposium full day UCD n/a / n/a Geotechnical society IAH Tech The Role of Water in the Failure of Mine Waste Facilities from Initiation to Degradation Geological Survey of 6.00pm Ireland, Beggars Bush n/a / 44 3 x Geotechnical society Competiti on Irish Qualifying competition for the 23rd European Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference (EYGEC) - call for abstracts pm Engineers Ireland n/a / 0 0 x Free half day seminar on Geotechnical 403 x Engineering pm Engineers Ireland n/a / x Geotechnical society Civil division Seminar Geotechnical society AGM Annual General Meeting pm Engineers Ireland n/a / n/a No of events: 5 (9 in ) No of attendees: 64+ (380 in house and 61 on line in ) No of presentations eligible for nomination in the Best Paper/Presentation category in the Excellence Awards: 2 (4 in ) No of Engineers Ireland members affiliated to the Geotechnical society at : 489 Breakdown by grade: Associate Engineers (8); Chartered Engineers (190); Engineering Technicians (1); Fellows (29); Members (212); Students (45); Technicians (4) Breakdown by Regional branch: An Ríocht (15); Cork (40); Donegal (12); Dublin (158); GB (27); Middle East (1); Midlands (22); North East (36); Northern Ireland (25); North West (13); Overseas (30); South East (34); Thomond (26); West (50)

9 Date Cheque number Details Note Debit Credit Balance 15/04/ , /04/2013 Engineers Ireland Outstanding sponsorship from Roads Conference , /04/2013 ISSMGE payment FOR 2012 and , , /05/ Cheque Speaker and printing expenses , /05/2013 Engineers Ireland Annual allowance from Engineers Ireland to the Geotechnical Society , /06/2013 membership payment , /06/2013 Bank charges & stamp duty , /07/ Cheque in Paris , /09/ Cheque in Paris , /09/ Cheque in Paris , /09/ Cheque in Paris , /09/2013 Bank charges & stamp duty , /10/ Cheque Prof. E.T. Hanrahan Memorial Sympoium at UCD , /12/2013 Bank charges & stamp duty , /03/ Cheque in Barcelona , /03/2014 Bank fees , /03/2014 ISSMGE payment , Gov stamp duty , /04/2014 ISSMGE membership for , /04/2014 GSI membership for 2013/ , /04/2014 IAEG membership with journal for 2013/ , /04/2014 IAEG membership without journal for 2013/ , /04/2014 Irish Tar Sponsorship , Expenditure 3, , Opening Balance 15/04/ , Income 1, Expenditure 3, Closing Balance 13,578.50

CEN/TC 151 N 800. N 800 CEN TC 396 Activity report. Date of document Expected action

CEN/TC 151 N 800. N 800 CEN TC 396 Activity report. Date of document Expected action CEN/TC 151 N 800 CEN/TC 151 Construction equipment and building material machines - Safety E-mail of Secretary: rene.kampmeier_vdma.org@livelink.din.de Secretariat: DIN N 800 CEN TC 396 Activity report