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Geotechnical News • September 2013
www.geotechnicalnews.com
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
Heritage Committee
The history of the local chapters
of the Canadian Geotechnical
Society
The Heritage Committee believes that
the history of the local chapters of the
Canadian Geotechnical Society to be
valuable part of the Society and its
members. The CGS Heritage Com-
mittee would like to assemble if at
all possible, a collection of historical
summaries of all the chapters. As an
example, the CGS Heritage Commit-
tee is pleased to provide the history of
two prominent local chapters, the Van-
couver Geotechnical Society and the
Geotechnical Society of Edmonton.
This month, we present the history of
the Vancouver Geotechnical Society.
In December, we will highlight the
history of the Geotechnical Society
of Edmonton. Hopefully these stories
will encourage other local chapters of
the CGS to gather their archives and
write their own history.
If you have any questions or have
other historical information that you
wish to share or know of any opportu-
nities to acquire material that is at risk
of being lost, please contact the Chair
of the CGS Heritage Committee,
Dr.
Mustapha Zergoun
, at
A Brief History of the Vancouver
Geotechnical Society
The Vancouver Geotechnical Society
(VGS) was formed in 1953 under the
original name of the “Vancouver Soils
Group” by Charles F. Ripley, P. Eng.,
founder of one of the first geotechnical
engineering consultant companies in
Vancouver. He formed the group at the
urging of Dr. Robert F. Legget of the
National Research Council of Canada.
Starting in 1947, Dr. Legget organized
an annual meeting of profession-
als involved in soil, ice, and snow
mechanics that was sponsored by the
Division of Building Research under
the National Research Council of
Canada. These annual meetings were
first held in Ottawa and later at vari-
ous locations across the country. Mr.
Ripley was asked to represent Brit-
ish Columbia at the annual meetings
when he moved to British Columbia
in 1951.
The 9th Canadian Soil Mechan-
ics Conference (later known as the
Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS)
Conference, was the first national
conference that was held in Vancouver
in December, 1955. The conference
was organized by the Vancouver Group
and chaired by Charles Ripley. In time,
the annual conferences have evolved
to become part of a national organiza-
tion, the CGS, which continues to have
an annual general meeting each fall,
combined with a three-day technical
conference. Vancouver has also hosted
the annual CGS Conferences in 1966,
1976, 1983, 1995 and 2006.
The original participants in the VGS
included practitioners in engineering,
soil mechanics, agronomy and geol-
ogy. Initially informal meetings were
typically held several times a year at
the University of British Columbia.
Today, the VGS membership includes
geotechnical engineers, engineering
geologists, geoscientists, and oth-
ers interested in the many facets of
geotechnical engineering. Members
include professionals employed by
consulting firms, local and provincial
governments and agencies, industry,
academics and students of geotechni-
cal engineering.
Currently, the VGS meetings are
held in the evenings approximately 8
to 9 times a year, with presentations
by local practitioners and visitors.
Themes range from engineering of
foundations, dams, slope stability of
both soil and rock slopes, tunnelling,
as well as earthquake engineering,
geology, and environmental engineer-
ing. The meetings also include the
distinguished Cross-Canada Lectures
supported by the Canadian Founda-
tion for Géotechnique - a charitable
organization independent of the CGS.
One of the highlights of the year for
the VGS is an annual one-day sym-
posium, which typically attracts well
over 100 registrants and is held in the
late spring. Proceedings of the sympo-
sium are published and distributed to
all registrants, with additional copies
made available to the public through
BiTech Publishers Ltd. of Richmond,
British Columbia. Nowadays, most of
the VGS Symposium proceedings are
available freely in the VGS web site.
Available archives indicate that the
“Peat Symposium” held on Febru-
ary 27, 1967 may be the first of such
events.
In 1996 the VGS replaced the annual
$400 Vancouver Geotechnical Society
Prize at the University of British
Columbia, and instituted an annual
$1,000 Vancouver Geotechnical
Society Scholarship at the Univer-
sity of British Columbia for a post
graduate student studying in the field
of geotechnical engineering. Also, in
1996 the VGS initiated the Vancouver
Geotechnical Society Award, which
is given annually to a VGS member
that has contributed significantly to
the Vancouver Geotechnical Society,
and the practice of géotechnique in
the Vancouver area. The VGS Award
is accompanied with a lifetime VGS
membership for the recipient.
Another major initiative by the VGS
was the coordination and sponsor-
ship of the Commemorative Issue of
the Geotechnical News magazine as
part of the Jubilee celebrations at the
50th CGS Conference held in Ottawa
in 1997. The Commemorative Issue
featured the history of geotechni-
cal engineering in Canada and was
entitled “Geotechnical Engineering in
Canada – An Historical Review”. The
articles on the history of geotechnical
engineering in the 150 page Com-
memorative Issue were written by
eminent Canadian geotechnical engi-
neers, and the document was edited by
Cyril E. Leonoff, P. Eng. The Com-
memorative Issue was sent, free of
charge, to all members of ·the CGS in
1997 as a contribution by the VGS in
recognition of the 50th anniversary of
the CGS Conferences.