30
Geotechnical News • September 2017
THE GROUT LINE
ambition, as well as the necessary
creativity and imagination allowed
Dr. Lombardi to make his name also
by developing several internationally
accepted engineering concepts. Here,
just to mention the Grouting Intensity
Number (GIN), well known to most
of the grouting folks. His fundamental
motivation for this: Introducing, next
to the commonly considered maxi-
mum pressure, P
max
, and maximum
volume, V
max
, a third limiting crite-
rion, which is the combination of P
and V, called GIN. With this additional
parameter, higher grouting pres-
sures can be safely applied without
any unwanted hydrojacking and/or
–fracturing. The result: A significant
increase in the efficiency of the grout-
ing works.
Fascinated by the simplicity and at the
same time ingenuity of this concept, I
finally made it in the field of grouting.
Here, I appreciated the opportunity to
work by Lombardi’s side in a field,
which he in his humble way consid-
ered just as his hobby. It was also he,
who preached again and again the
importance to fight against the “rules
of thumb” in the grouting design,
which unfortunately even today can
still be found an ongoing struggle.
Looking back, I’m very glad, Dr.
Lombardi still managed to pass in
this way not only his unbiased and
detached general way of thinking, but
also his enthusiasm for grouting to
the next generation – and with it he
created the basis for any future suc-
cess we are committing ourselves to,
something that is nowadays in many
companies too often forgotten.
Regrettably, we did not make it on
time to conclude our book on grout-
ing, that we planned to write together
– an open issue that might be dealt
with soon.
However, Dr. Lombardi did not
just leave technical footsteps to be
followed. Impressive also were his
unfailing integrity and his modesty,
which allowed him to remain always
an open and down-to-earth person.
Many more positive memories will
remain. Anecdotes about travel adven-
tures, meetings, excursions – about
shared moments. Undoubtedly, in 30
years from now I will still have his
voice in my ear not only when dealing
with challenging projects – and this is
a good thing!
Finally, I’m unspeakably grateful to
have had the chance to experience
just two weeks before his death, a still
cheerful and very charismatic, posi-
tive and joking Dr. Lombardi. During
a breathtaking helicopter flight, the
company organized for him, we had
the chance to look together both, down
and back to several projects he leaves
behind.
Thank you, Giovanni, for far more
experiences and stimuli generated!
You exemplified the passion and
enjoyment of work and we will try to
keep this spirit in the future!
Faithfully,
Maren
GROUT 2017
The 5
th
International Grouting Confer-
ence was held July 9-12 in Honolulu,
Hawaii and here are a few words from
Mike Byle, conference chair.
Grouting 2017 was an amazing suc-
cess. With over 330 attendees from 24
countries diversity of experience and
culture gave the event its characteristic
atmosphere. The sharing of technolo-
gies for grouting, deep mixing, and
diaphragm walls was exciting and
interesting. New developments in
shaped jet grouting drew a lot of atten-
tion as did increased and novel uses of
MWD. Newer bigger and deeper deep
