Transportation Geotechnique Committee

Meeting Minutes for October 1, 2013, 17:33 EST

Hilton Montreal Bonaventure Hotel – Fontaine Room H

Chaired by Roger Skirrow

Minutes Prepared by Don Lewycky

Attendees: Roger Skirrow - Committee Chair

Don Lewycky – Secretary

Paul Lach – Committee Member

Dave Gauthier – Committee Member

Don Proudfoot – Committee Member

Dan Colwell – Committee Member

Tom Edwards – Committee Member

Melissa Ruel – Committee Member

Sean Mac Eoin – Committee Member

Tom Uquhart – Committee Member

Victor Sowa (partial attendance) – CGS Guest

Introduction

Roger welcomed everyone at 5:33 in a noisy hallway at the conference hotel. Halfway through the meeting, everyone moved into a vacated presentation room to finish off the meeting in a less distracting environment. Roger gave a brief overview of what has transpired over the last year related to the Committee.

Executive Committee

The 2013 - 2014 Committee Members of the Transportation Geotechnique Committee (TGC) consists of the following members:

Chair: Roger Skirrow

Secretary: Don Lewycky

Past-Chair: Tim Keegan

Members: Roger Skirrow, Heidi Evensen, Tim Keegan, Chris Bunce, Baolin Wang, Marolo Alfaro, Tony Ng, Guy Doré, Anne Poschmann, Neil Kjelland, Priscilla Desgagnes, Tae Kim, Kim Johnston, Jorge Antunes, Serge Bourque, Mario Ruel, Mark Pritchard, Carol McQuarrie, Mustaopha Zergoun, Tom Edwards, Pete Quinn, Rod Ramage, Wim van Gassen, Keith Kosar, Dave Cruden, Jean Hutchinson, Paul Lach, Don Lewycky, Simon Cullum-Kenyon, Victor Cui, Jacque Locat, Sean Mac Eoin, Don Proudfoot, Dan Colwell, Melissa Ruel

List of Activities

·  At the CGS 2012 Conference in Winnipeg, Roger reported that there was one technical session for Transportation Geotechnique. Tim Keegan chaired the session and a TGC meeting was also held during the conference.

·  Roger Skirrow is the Transportation Geotechnique stream coordinator for the 2013 Montreal CGS conference. There will be one Transportation Geotechnique themed session at the conference and TGC members participated in the technical review of the submitted papers. Roger reminded everyone in attendance about the Transportation Specialty Session which was to be held Tuesday afternoon at the Montreal conference. He encouraged everyone to attempt to attend all or part of the session as a show of support for the work of the Committee.

·  Roger reported that the Railway Ground Hazard Program Technical Committee, chaired by Tom Edwards, continues to offer full support in the form of abstracts an collaborative initiatives.

·  Roger indicated that members of the TGC were also active members of the CGS Landslide Committee, Professional Practice Committee and the Soil Mechanics and Foundation Divisions. He also noted that several TGC members were also involved in the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Materials Standing Committee. These members were pushing to have awareness and appreciation of geotechnical issues elevated within the broader transportation community.

Future Activities

·  Tom Edwards reported that the Railway Ground Hazard Program Technical Committee would have a numbers of papers ready for the Regina conference. He indicated that they were possibly interested in a separate Transportation Geotechnique Specialty Session dedicated to RGHRP content.

·  Everyone was encouraged to solicit papers from colleagues so that we could sponsor at least one full session at the Regina Conference in 2014. Some of the topics that were suggested revolved around the use of the Falling Weight Deflectometer, LIDAR and issues regarding ground movement and transportation infrastructure. Don Proudfoot suggested papers regarding high definition imaging of road landslides. After the brainstorming, it was felt that there may be enough material to sponsor two sessions at the Regina conference. Don Proudfoot and Sean Mac Eoin both volunteered to help review papers for the next conference.

·  Roger indicated that he will talk with Wayne Gibson to see if we can get drop down button for a separate stream for the Transportation Committee on the CGS website.

·  Roger noted that several TGC members were also involved in the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Materials Standing Committee. As this group allows one member from each participating group to act as a standing member, he was going to discuss with them to see if the TGC could cooperate on various research projects that would benefit both organizations.

·  Roger indicated that he would be willing to prepare a short piece on the TGC for inclusion on a future issue of the Geotechnical News. Don Lewycky (Geotechnical News Editor) indicated that would ensure that it got published before the next conference, once Roger submitted it. This could also be used as seed content for the TGC section on the CGS website.

·  Dave Gauthier gave a brief presentation on the 6th Geohazards Conference he was chairing in Kingston on June 15 – 18, 2014. The conference would focus on risk and risk management.

Financial Status

The committee has no operating budget of its own.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:14.