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Geotechnical News • June 2014
19
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
Construction of the Husky Tower in 1967 (Glenbow Archives)
This month, the focus is on the history
of the Calgary Geotechnical Society.
Hopefully these stories will encour-
age 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 Calgary
Geotechnical Society
The birth of geotechnique in Cal-
gary - as in the rest of Alberta - is
closely associated with
Dr. R.M.
(Bob) Hardy
(1906-1985). Although
Hardy was based in Edmonton, he was
involved in a considerable amount of
work in southern Alberta dating back
to the 1940s, especially highway and
airport construction related to the
war effort. In 1951, Hardy and
Leroy
“Chick” Thorssen
(1916-1996)
established Materials Testing Labora-
tories (MTL) in Edmonton. In 1953,
Keith S. Goodman (
1921-2010
)
was
transferred from Edmonton to Calgary
to open its second branch. Despite its
name, MTL engaged in much more
than materials testing, undertaking
numerous soil investigations related
to foundation engineering and slope
stability. It was, in fact, Calgary’s
first geotechnical firm, and Goodman
likely has the distinction of being
Calgary’s first geotechnical engineer.
MTL remained active until 1972,
when its operations were consolidated
under its parent company, R.M. Hardy
and Associates.
The
Soil Mechanics Interest Group
,
which would later become the
Calgary Geotechnical Society
, was
formed in 1966. Its original partici-
pants included academics and practi-
tioners in geotechnical and structural
engineering, geology, groundwater,
geophysics, and geography. Key mem-
bers were
J.I. (Jack) Clark, P.Eng.
(1932-2010),
Henry H. Ricketts,
P.Eng.
(1917-2010), and
Peter Gre-
tener, P.Geol., P.Geoph.
(1926-2008).
Clark was well known in the geotech-
nical community and the recipient of
the Canadian Geotechnical Society
(CGS) R.F. Legget Award in 1983.
Ricketts was a structural engineer
involved with the design of the Husky
Tower, and Gretener (known amongst
his colleagues as “Pore Pressure
Pete”) was an academic who believed
strongly in inter-disciplinary dialogue.
The 1960s were exciting times for
those interested in soils. The Sixth
International Conference of the
International Society of Soil Mechan-
ics and Foundation Engineering
(ISSMFE) was held in Montreal in
1965, spawning interest in geotech-
nique across Canada. In Calgary, a
construction boom proved to be the
source of many foundation-related
issues that challenged established
beliefs and stimulated innovation.
Ongoing projects included new build-
ings at the University of Alberta’s
“Calgary Branch” (as the University
of Calgary was known prior to 1966),
the Foothills Provincial General
Hospital (now called the Foothills
Medical Centre), and the 626-foot-tall
Husky Tower (presently known as the
Calgary Tower).
The tower’s shallow, ring foundation
on Bow River floodplain gravels was
the subject of several advanced techni-
cal studies, and is reportedly the first
project in Calgary for which reliable
data on both in situ ground proper-
ties and settlement performance were
obtained. This provided the basis for
more economical designs in the city’s
downtown core.
The activities of the Calgary Geotech-
nical Group intensified in the 1970s.
The group, in cooperation with the
University of Calgary, was instru-