Geotechnical News • September 2017
29
THE GROUT LINE
anne in 1986 and Milan in 2004. Head
high, he looks directly forward, and
deeply, to the horizon. He gives over
the (little) spare time he has to the
family, to reading, study and reflec-
tion. And often to public, artistic and
economic issues. A cocktail of profes-
sionalism and humanity”. Ref. 1.
I should add a missing phrase, in my
opinion: a “real gentleman” that some-
times, in the construction industry
jungle, is missing.
For anyone who is interested, in the
Grout Line web page
you can find the link to the
movie that Dr. Lombardi recorded,
due to the impossibility to travel,
expressing his thanks, after receiving
the GREATS award in 2012.
Ref. 1. Giovanni Lombardi - Ingeg-
nere - Studi ed Opere 1950-2005
(SKIRA).
And now some personal words from
Maren Katterbach, member of the GI
Grouting Committee and instructor at
the Grouting Fundamental Course in
Austin, who started her engineering/
grouting carrier with Dr. Lombardi.
Grazie Dottore!
Giovanni Lombardi is no longer with
us, but his work and his memories will
last. Countless are the good moments,
the experiences and insights we are
now taking with us. Apart from his
excellence as an engineer it was his
lively, open-minded and unbiased
interest all around, and his mental
vigor, that made a profound impact.
But there was so much more to and
behind him!
To limit this article to a reasonable
length, I would like to give you an
idea about my personal impression
of Dr. Lombardi and how our getting
together positively influenced my
future as an engineer – and above all,
my passion for grouting.
I first met Dr. Lombardi about 8
years ago, when I started my career
at Lombardi Engineering in Southern
Switzerland. Highly motivated, full
of ambition and admittedly quite sure
of myself and the knowledge I had
gained previously in my intensive
studies, I had the chance to be, from
the beginning, actively involved in
major international projects. For me
this was the big opportunity to get the
final touch. Only afterwards I real-
ized that what was to come was, of
course, much more than that. And that
the diplomas I had worked so hard to
achieve, were actually nothing more
than just pieces of paper.
As such, as not much more than a half-
baked engineer, I remember I went
with Dr. Lombardi in the first year to
a dam site in Sardegna. I had studied
this site in detail over the previous 3
months, including various geotechni-
cal and dam stability analyses – trying
to achieve, in accordance with the
applicable standards, a safe and still
economically feasible design. Con-
sidering the unfavorable foundation
conditions, it was a task that caused
quite a few headaches and additional
working hours. Finally, on this day of
joint inspection, I was standing there
apparently well prepared in the brutal
heat of the construction site, hoping
to explain to the great Dr. Lombardi
the outcome of my intensive previ-
ous evaluation. But where was he? I
saw only later that the correct ques-
tion here actually should have been
“Where was I?”. Because, the “wise,
grey-haired Dottore” had meanwhile
climbed high up on the abutment,
visible just as a small grey dot, while I
was still standing down there mentally
preparing for any questions to come –
however, the supposed question was
not raised. After carefully listening to
my information overloaded presenta-
tion, Giovanni Lombardi took in a
very humble way, a crumbled piece of
paper out of his pocket. And he out-
lined on less than half a page his idea
and design proposal, based on what he
saw and heard in 15 minutes and after
climbing a 60 m height difference in
this unbearable heat. Admittedly, in
this moment my self-confidence was
less than or equal to zero. Looking
back on 3 months of complex evalu-
ations with a final admittedly, quite
compromised design suggestion, he
arrived in a couple of minutes and by
means of a simple hand calculation
at the same foundation stresses and
a completely consistent design. So,
there I was – not more and not less
than a graduate engineer, maybe able
to correctly use standards and apply
calculation methods, but still missing
the main point: an engineering sense
together with detached, critical think-
ing. In retrospect, this awareness and
the self-assessment, even if sobering
but still realistic, I largely owe to
Giovanni Lombardi. I’m sure all of
us can think of a similar experience
starting our careers, which finally laid
the foundation stone for improvement
and for our professional development.
For me personally, this particular situ-
ation represents the beginning of my
immense admiration for Dr. Lom-
bardi, his outstanding intelligence, the
absolute dedication to work as well as
his charisma, which altogether have
enabled him to achieve the results that
we all know.
In the following years, I had the
chance to further learn and literally
absorb Lombardi’s great technical
knowledge and also his engineering
sensitivity, which I cannot put into
words. In a very clear, and at the same
time by no means presumptuous way,
he managed to convey his funda-
mental philosophy of
engineering as
being the search for the best solu-
tion to all intents and purposes, and
this not only in civil engineering.
This search starts with the question-
ing of the past and the willingness
of a continuous improvement, from
a deep conviction that nothing can
be taken for granted and that every
achieved result might be improved.
This philosophy characterized and
hopefully always will be reflected in
the engineering activities of the com-
pany Lombardi Ltd. which he founded
more than 60 years ago.
His striving for continuous improve-
ment together with his unstoppable
