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Geotechnical News • June 2018
COMPUTING IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
From the GS Board
History of the development of the Canadian Foundation
Engineering Manual/
Manuel Canadien d’Ingénierie des Fondations
Part 2 of 4
Doug VanDine
Introduction to Part 2 of the
Series
In Part 1 of this series, published in
the March 2018 issue, the background
to, and the ‘1975 First Draft’ of the
manual were covered. In this issue,
the ‘1978 First Edition’ and the ‘1985
Second Edition’ are chronicled. If you
can’t wait to read Parts 3 and 4, the
entire article is on the CGS website
(see
manual_overview.php?lang=en
)
1978 First Edition of the
Canadian Foundation
Engineering Manual (CFEM)
In 1976, the Canadian Geotechnical
Society (then only in its fourth year
as a society) assumed responsibility
for the manual. The Society formed
a “Foundations Committee” for this
purpose that consisted of the follow-
ing geotechnical engineers, with their
identified associations as of 1978:
W.A. (Bill) Trow (Chair),
Trow Group (and also the only
member of the early 1970s NRC
Subcommittee on Foundations)
W. (Bill) Birmingham,
Birmingham Construction
J. Burgess, Morrison Hershfield
Burgess Huggins
J.D. (Don) Scott, (Editor) RM
Hardy & Associates
K. (Ken) Shelby, Ontario
Ministry of Transportation and
Communications
D.H. (Don)
Shields, RM
Hardy &
Associates (and
CGS President
1977-1978), and
N.E. (Nyal)
Wilson,
McMaster
University.
Between 1976
and 1978, the
CGS Founda-
tions Committee
revised, updated
and reorganized
the
1975 Draft
Edition
(NRC,
1975) and took
“into account the constructive criti-
cism and suggestions that were made
of the NRC draft”. The result was
the CGS Foundations Committee’s
Canadian Foundation Engineering
Manual (CFEM)
, published in 1978
(CGS, 1978; Figure 1). Note the
slight change in the title from the 1975
Draft Edition, the Canadian Manual
on Foundation Engineering.
In its work, the CGS Foundations
Committee was assisted by Arthur
Heidebrecht, from McMaster Uni-
versity, who contributed significantly
to the topic of earthquake resistant
design.
The
1978 First Edition
was produced
as four stand-alone parts (booklets).
The complete manual accompanied by
a binder could be purchased, or any of
the four booklets could be purchased
separately. The document was sold
through the, then, CGS office in Mon-
treal, QC.
The four parts consisted of:
Part 1: Properties of Soil and Rock (77
pages)
Introduction; Definitions, Sym-
bols and Units; Identification
and Classification of Soil and
Rock; Subsurface Investigations;
Unusual Site Conditions; Earth-
quake Resistant Design
Part 2: Shallow Foundations (99
pages)
Introduction; Bearing Pressure on
Rock; Bearing Pressure on Soil;
Stress Distribution; Settlement;
Design Procedure; Swelling and
Shrinking Clay; Frost Action
Part 3: Deep Foundations (108 pages)
Introduction; Geotechnical Design;
Structural Design and Installa-
tion; Load Tests; Inspection; Pile
Driving Formulas; Piles Subjected
to Horizontal Loads; Vibro Pro-
cesses, and
Figure 1. Covers of the stand-alone parts of the 1978
Frist Edition.
