Geotechnical News • March 2018
37
GEOTECHNICAL INSTRUMENTATION NEWS
• Inclinometers with Giorgio Pez-
zetti, SMAK s.a.s., Italy
• Extensometers with Daniel Na-
terop, DNGeo Switzerland
• Total stations with Werner Lienhart,
Graz University of Technology,
Austria.
• Vibration monitoring with Vincent
Le Borgne, GKM Consultants,
Canada
• Terrestrial Radar with Paolo Maz-
zanti, NHAZCA, Italy
Each class will cover the following
main topics: installation, data acquisi-
tion, data processing, tricks and tips
from everyday experience.
During the main course we will again
have sessions on “New Monitor-
ing Trends” and “Case Histories and
Lessons Learned”, with presentations
given by registrants
Come and join us in magnificent
Rome - a city of huge historical and
cultural interest!
The care and feeding of individ-
ual consultants and their clients
About 15 years ago Harvey Parker
(then and now an individual consul-
tant who had previously worked for
an engineering design company that
contracted with individual consultants)
and I published in this magazine an
article with the above title. It included
our views on:
• General expectations of the client
and the consultant
• Issues before the client has the job
• Contractual issues
• Fees
• Miscellaneous day-to-day issues
• The client’s professional issues
• The consultants personal and pro-
fessional issues
The article generated significant inter-
est among our fellow professionals,
nineteen of whom submitted discus-
sions. Many discussers supported the
fact that these issues were “finally
put into print”, and made valuable
suggestions for improvement of the
article, which we summarized in our
closure. Both Harvey and I have used
the material to smooth our relation-
ships with our clients over the years,
and I’ve been wondering whether any
of you (as
Stephen King says: “con-
stant reader”
) might find it useful,
particularly individual consultants and
employees of companies who contract
with individual consultants. If yes,
please let me know by email (john@
dunnicliff.eclipse.co.uk), and I’ll send
you pdfs of the material from four
issues of Geotechnical News.
Closure
Please send an abstract of an article
for GIN to
co.uk—see the guidelines on www.
geotechnicalnews.com/instrumenta-
tion_news.php
Gezondheid (“To your health”). Neth-
erlands.
Fully grouted piezometers in a soft Champlain clay deposit.
Update on the article in the Groundwater section of September
2017 issue of Geotechnical News
François Duhaime, Vahid Marefat, Robert P. Chapuis, Vincent Le Borgne
The Sainte-Marthe test site in southern
Quebec was introduced in the Ground-
water section of the September 2017
issue of Geotechnical News (GN,
Marefat et al. 2017). This experimen-
tal test site was developed as part of
the instrumented watershed project
(BVE-Sainte-Marthe) at École de
technologie supérieure for the teach-
ing of hydrology and geotechnical
engineering. As part of this project, a
series of fully grouted and standpipe
piezometers were installed in collabo-
ration with GKM Consultants. Two
grout recipes were used to obtain con-
trasting grout permeability values. The
site also includes a bedrock well that
will allow the vertical hydraulic gradi-
ent in the clay layer to be changed to
look at the transient response of fully
grouted piezometers.
An improved version of the GN article
was submitted to the Geotechnical
Testing Journal (GTJ) in September
2017 (Marefat et al. 2018). A revised
version is currently under review.
Compared to the GN article, the new
paper puts more emphasis on numeri-
cal results. Parametric studies are pre-
sented regarding the response of fully
grouted piezometers to seasonal water
table fluctuations and an increase in
total stress.
The GTJ reviewers raised some inter-
esting questions about the paper that
should be mentioned in Geotechnical
News and, with John Dunnicliff’s
agreement we’re doing so in GIN.
First, the high-permeability grout
that was used in one borehole led to
significant segregation, as expected
from the low Marsh funnel viscosity.
As a result, the real grout permeabil-
ity is difficult to estimate. The ratio
between grout and soil permeability
values could be well over 1100, the
ratio stated by Marefat et al. (2017).
Reviewers also wanted to stress the
importance of adding bentonite to the
grout to reach a proper viscosity and
