This editorial marks the drawing to an end of my three-year term on the editorial panel of Geotechnical Engineering. Working as part of the panel has been an eye-opening experience. I now appreciate the effort (much of it voluntary) that goes into reviewing, assessing, editing and publishing the papers for each issue (and there is six of these every year). I've enjoyed my involvement and am pleased to have been able to give something back to the industry in this way.
What I most like about Geotechnical Engineering is that it is a publication aimed at practitioners as much as academics. Geotechnical Engineering has always been popular with practicing engineers because of its focus on application. This is evident in the numerous case histories that have been published over the years and is demonstrated further in the papers presented in this issue.
If you would like to get involved with the Geotechnical Engineering editorial panel, please contact the Editorial Coordinator (Sohini Banerjee) at sohini.banerjee@ice.org.uk.
Four papers are published in this issue. Two deal with pile installation and performance, one discusses different methods of test for investigating the one-dimensional consolidation characteristics of soft clays in Japan and the fourth compares design calculations with field observations made during the construction of cut-and-cover tunnels for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (now known as High Speed 1) near Ashford in Kent.
Roohnavaz (2010) presents a case history relating to the installation of prestressed, precast piles which formed the foundation of the depot for the M.R.T Chaloem Ratchamongkhou Line in Bangkok. The piles were designed to support the depot and to deal with negative skin friction caused by the ongoing consolidation of the Bangkok Clay. The paper describes the pile design and sets out the construction control procedures that were adopted for the installation of the piles (all 17 000 of them).
The paper by Wang (2010) also deals with pile behaviour. In this case, the paper relates to the three-dimensional finite-element modelling of the observed performance of a 75 m long (over-length), 2·5 m diameter pile installed as a test pile for the Sutong Bridge in China. This paper is an interesting insight into the problems faced when designing foundations on extremely thick layers of soft to firm clays.
In contrast to the papers which relate to field behaviour, Jia et al. (2010) present a laboratory study on the one-dimensional consolidation characteristics of the Ariake Clay. This study is based on a large number of constant rate of strain (CRS) and incrementally loaded (IL) oedometer tests; it reminds us of the high rate of dependency of many soft clays and highlights the importance of selecting appropriate testing regimes when designing a programme of laboratory testing.
Finally, Roscoe and Twine (2010) present a comparison between design calculations for propped retaining walls and field observations. The retaining walls were constructed as part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) project near Ashford, Kent. The paper describes the walls and sets out the basis of design. It then compares the field observations made during and after construction with predictions that came out of the design process. On the basis of comparisons between predictions and observations, the authors make recommendations for improving the accuracy of future design calculations.
I hope that readers will find these papers to be both instructive and stimulating; I would like to think that something presented in these pages will inspire practitioners to adopt new techniques and produce more innovative designs.
