Geotechnical Engineering as a Career

Almost a year ago, Forbes published an article on geotechnical engineering, labeling it “the in-demand, high-pay, easy-entry job you’ve likely never heard of.” At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we think it’s only appropriate to ring in the New Year with a little reflection on the past one, and this article certainly brings up some points which are important for new geotechnical engineers to reflect on.

From our headquarters near Denver in Littleton, Colorado, we provide civil and geotechnical engineering services to all of Colorado as well as to states in the surrounding region. We believe that providing stabilization and shoring services to our surrounding communities is an important service and contributes to a fulfilling career. We care about geotechnical engineering for the sake of safety, but Forbes states some other good reasons for considering geotechnical engineering as a profession. These include:

  • As of January 2015, there was a general shortage in the geotechnical field in the U.S., so master’s degrees, in many cases, aren’t required to start working as a geotechnical engineer.
  • The nature of the earth, itself, guarantees geotechnical engineers will continue to have a job in the field. The earth keeps shifting through settlement, erosion and seismic activity, so structures will continually have to be shored up, reexamined and repaired, requiring the expertise of a geotechnical engineer.
  • It’s a field which merges engineering skills and communication skills which is a great benefit for civil engineers who have good technical writing skills.

 

If you are interested in joining our team of geotechnical engineers and shoring experts, get in touch with us today through our careers page. We are interested in talented team-players who are determined to work in a safety-focused environment. If you are in need of geotechnical engineering services, contact us today to get started on your shotcrete or shoring project!

Ancient Slope Stabilization Technique Alive and Well in Colorado

An interesting article appeared in The Watch section of the Telluride Daily Planet last week which we thought showcases the enormous challenge of geotechnical engineering. Here in Colorado, we at Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring love a good slope stabilization story, and since this one comes to us from Silverton Mountain, within our home state, we’re particularly excited to share it. Our offices in Littleton, Colorado (near Denver) might be a few hours away from Silverton Mountain, but we know all about slope stability engineering in this area and the surrounding states, and this one is much older than any of our technologies.

The article we’re referencing discusses a unique method to prevent avalanches and stabilize slopes known as “boot-packing”. Boot-packing is an ancient compacting technique which stabilizes the snow on a slope by literally stamping down the snow step by step. To execute this process, teams of volunteers hike up to avalanche starting zones throughout the mountains and stomp down the snow on areas too steep for machines to climb and too deep for skis to penetrate.

According to the writer, this boot-packing is just one step to cutting down on avalanche deaths, which have come to 270 since the fifties and account for “more than a quarter of all U.S. avalanche deaths.” So these boot packing expeditions are not only an interesting way to utilize an ancient technique, but they can also save lives.

Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring doesn’t use boot packing as a slope stabilization method, but we do offer soil nails, micropiles, slope erosion control, shoring solutions and more to keep slopes throughout the region stable and safe. Get in touch with us today to get started on your own geotechnical engineering project, done the right way by Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring.

Shotcrete Market to Increase Further by 2020

This week, Businesswire produced a press release referencing an interesting report from a few months ago, published in Markets and Markets. The report details projections for the shotcrete and gunite industry from 2015 on to 2020. At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we might only serve a portion of the global sprayed concrete market, but we are excited about the projections for the future of shotcrete around the world over the next few years. From our offices near Denver in Littleton, Colorado, we provide shotcrete and shoring contracting services to customers in the whole of Colorado as well as states in the surrounding area. Here are some of the more interesting forecasts facing the global shotcrete market, of which we are a proud part.

  • By 2020, it’s expected that the sprayed concrete market will be around a 7.6 billion dollar industry.
  • The largest shotcrete market in the world is currently Europe, although the Asian market is growing the fastest and is expected to continue growing rapidly as infrastructure gets built out.
  • One of the biggest increases in shotcrete and gunite use in the last couple years has been in underground construction, such as for traffic tunnels and mine operations.
  • Wet-mix concrete took up 80% of the market in 2014 and is expected to continue to dominate moving into the next five years.
  • Innovations in shotcrete and gunite mixing has directly contributed to such large market gains, particularly in new markets such as Asia.
  • Some innovations allow shotcrete to be applied on increasingly diverse projects, such as the explosion-resistant mixes used by some shotcrete contractors to protect infrastructure against violent activities.

 

For more information about new innovations in shotcrete, review our blog as well as images of our work in our online gallery. To get started on your own shotcrete, gunite, shoring or stabilization project, get in touch with us today!

Shotcrete Helps Science Researchers

Shocrete is making the news again, this time not in the name of history and culture, but in the name of science. We’ve written a number of blogs on the contributions of shotcrete, but none have had so much to do with scientific research as this current one. Coming to us from Space.com, today we learn that shotcrete is helping scientists tackle some of the biggest questions, like “how do we know dark matter exists?” and “where does matter come from?” At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we love a good shotcrete story, so once again we’re putting one of our favorite substances in the scope of human history.

In the Sanford Lab, scientists have been using the natural power of rock to block cosmic interference which affects all matter on the surface of the planet. In something called the Davis Cavern, researchers can tackle some of physics’ toughest questions. An old gold and silver mine, the cavern has been built on and enlarged since it’s birth in 1879. How are they stabilizing and supporting the cave walls when they enlarge the caverns? Shotcrete, of course!

The Space.com article on the Davis Cavern brings a unique perspective to this research. They wonder in the introduction if, when watching the lunar landing earlier in science’s history, they would have enjoyed the experience as much “if the news anchor had simply described this incredible moment.” The author continues to say that they don’t believe they would, as “it was seeing the story unfold that made it magical, that pulled me into the story.” Shotcrete is a part of that picture when it comes to the Davis Cavern, just like it is for the Chauvet caves replica and countless foundations and walls all over America. Whether it’s lending a hand to art or science, shotcrete can be used to be foundationally sound as well as architecturally and aesthetically pleasing.

We offer both foundational and architectural shotcrete and gunite services in order to shore trenches and tunnels as well as many infrastructure repair projects. Our headquarters are near Denver, Colorado (in Littleton) and we serve customers across Colorado and within states in the surrounding area. Our services may not always continue the forward march of scientific research, but we can help people enjoy safe roads and buildings right here in our home region. To get started on your shotcrete or shoring project, get in touch with us today.

Micropiles Save Time and Money

At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we believe in providing our customers with a variety of solutions for their shoring and foundation challenges which can fit every budget and time frame. To this end, we offer many slope stabilization options, including the ever-popular and increasingly affordable solution of micropiles. In previous blogs, we’ve covered the cost-effectiveness of micropiles and soil nails, and this month we’re happy to find a recent example of micropiles coming to the rescue in an engineering project.

It might just be a retail development in an Ontario town, but the Pearson Plaza  has made the news this month. It has been a multi-million dollar project in Elliot Lake which has been going on for three years. The project has faced delays due to the hilly terrain of the area and the flat nature of the design. The contractors also ran into trouble when digging the foundation because they encountered more rock than expected. However, the project was “able to make up some time by using microplies” for further structural construction. The development is set to open in the spring of 2016 according to NorthernOntarioBusiness.com.

Those kinds of flexible solutions are exactly the sort of possibilities we provide our clients. From our headquarters here in Littleton, Colorado, we assign valuable engineers to each project in order to offer customized solutions to our customers to meet their budgets and time frames. We service clients in the Denver area, all of Colorado, as well as states in the surrounding region. To get started on your stabilization, shoring, foundation or shotcrete project, get in touch with us today.

Safety Focused Work and Stabilization

When it comes to keeping people safe, nobody takes the job more seriously than Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring. We are safety-focused in our work policies to keep our workers safe and we are also dedicated to providing slope stabilization and infrastructure repair services to our clients to keep roads and tunnels safe. Our dedication to safety includes, but is not limited to, the following:

  • We work under several regulatory agencies, and we take those regulations very seriously. We currently work under OSHA, MSHA, BATF, DOT and the TSA.
  • We invest in training and professional development for our crew members and engineers to make sure that they feel empowered to keep their job sites and designs as safe as possible.
  • Each of our employees is given the title of Safety Director to contribute to their confidence and empowerment to stop a job if they ever see a safety issue.
  • Our engineers implement the latest techniques in slope stability engineering, shoring and construction to provide solid and safe solutions at whatever budget we have to work with.
  • On our gallery page, you can see examples of our quality work, which allows us to showcase our work to new and current customers. You can see our dedication to a quality job.
  • We provide infrastructure repairs to keep roads, bridges, tunnels, retaining walls and other structures safe for travelers.

Get in touch with us today to get started on your own safety-focused geotechnical project. We serve customers throughout Colorado and states in the surrounding area from our headquarters in Littleton, Colorado. Our team of engineers is looking forward to designing a custom project for your safety needs.

Soil Nailing and Micropile Solutions

Soil nailing and micropiles are vital techniques for slope stabilization, used to save money and increase safety within confined and restricted spaces. At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we implement both micropiles and soil nailing for our customers seeking custom slope stabilization solutions. From our office in Littleton, Colorado, near Denver, we design each project to meet the individual needs of our clients. To this end, soil nailing and micropiles give us safe and flexible options for a variety of stabilization solutions.

Here are a few details about soil nailing and micropiles which explain how they’ve become such a useful part of modern geotechnical engineering practices.

  • Soil nails can be used either for temporary purposes, such as to keep a worksite safe, or as a permanent stabilization solution.
  • Soil nails are technically “tension-resisting” bars which are usually inserted into holes of around three to six feet.
  • Flexible in their applications, soil nails can be installed even in restricted spaces, and they can either be inserted beneath standing structures or directly into newly constructed slopes.
  • Micropiles are also known as minipiles, pin piles, root piles or needle piles, though the first two names are the most common. All of the names hint at the small size of the steel elements used.
  • Micropiles are typically three to ten inches in diameter, and they are installed into deep foundation using drilling techniques.
  • Like soil nails, micropiles are resistant to compression and tension and can be installed in tight spaces, such as around underground utilities.

 

Thorcon can install a variety of slope stabilization techniques in order to ensure the safety of the public as they travel on roadways, through tunnels, and go through life in office buildings and homes. We provide these services to our customers throughout Colorado and states in the surrounding region. Contact us today to see what Thorcon’s engineers can do for your specific stabilization project.

More Geotechnical Engineering History

This week, we’re continuing our story of the history of geotechnical engineering. At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we think that this next bit of history is some of the most exciting, as it takes the ancient concepts and brings them into more recent centuries. At  Thorcon, we implement the most advanced methods available to service our clients in Colorado and states in the surrounding area. Here are the next few steps in the slope stabilization and geotechnical journey:

  •  Venice

Venice is a complicated city based on a series of canal networks. The shoring required to keep the land solid for the buildings is an impressive testament to early engineering practices.  Venice is also home to a number of impressive bridges, crossing the canals. Through the years, new generations of geotechnical engineers have had to chip in and continue to protect and shore up Venice’s old foundations to keep the city, itself, from sinking.

  • Mining and tunneling techniques

The precursors to modern mining techniques were invented between the 1500s and 1800s, when engineers began to focus on safe tunneling techniques, ventilation shafts, and tunnel shields which allowed tunnels to be dug even under rivers.

  • Soil mechanics

Geotechnical engineering got a whole new theoretical boost with the studies of several scholars during the 1800s. By the 1900s, a mass of work had been done on the elasticity, states of stress, and deformation of different soils. During the same century, the science of slope stability analysis entered its modern phase.

  • Modern mechanics

Projects such as the Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal and America’s expansive interstate system show the advancements that geotechnical engineering have made throughout the centuries. In our modern world, much of our lives take place on structures which have been shored, planned and set in strong foundations by civil and geotechnical engineers, working for the safety of the general public.

 

Get in touch with us today to get started on your own shotcrete, shoring or stabilization project. From our headquarters in Littleton, Colorado (near Denver), we provide custom, safety-focused solutions to life’s modern infrastructure problems.

Ancient Geotechnical Engineering Feats

To continue our historical theme this month, we’re diving into the long history of geotechnical engineering. As a civil engineering company, we here at Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring are thankful to the advancements in engineering which came before us and have enabled us to move into the future and provide our clients with safe, reliable shotcrete and shoring services. From our headquarters in Colorado, we provide a variety of engineering services to the Denver area, the whole of Colorado and states in the surrounding region.

 

  • Egyptian Pyramids and Mesopotamian Ziggurats

Ancient engineers used complicated math to shore up steep slopes with large load concentrations to honor their dead. We can’t imagine taking on such a project without modern machinery and tools. The ancients also used shoring techniques to build dams and irrigation structures.

  • Ancient Greece

The Greeks used solid foundations and sturdy columns to erect huge temples to their gods. They even used iron clamps to spread the heavy loads and provide rudimentary earthquake protection. To create their beautiful structures among their hilly terrain, the Greeks became experts at retaining walls and slope stabilization.

  • Ancient Rome

The Romans not only brought us huge, impressive structures like the Colosseum and their aqueducts, but they also invented the first concrete. Shotcrete couldn’t exist if concrete didn’t come before it, so this is one of the most important pieces of history for us here at Thorcon.  The Romans mastered many engineering feats, including hydraulic management, road networks, solid base foundations and massive structures.

 

We might be a long way from the ancient parts of the world, but here in Littleton, Colorado, we know we benefit from ancient advancements every day. The work of ancient engineers has helped us to keep the general public safer and better connected through infrastructure. Next week, we’ll continue our journey into the middle ages and beyond as we keep looking at the history of geotechnical engineering.