Geotechnical Engineers, Wake-up—The Soil Exploration Process Needs Drastic Change

The usual process for obtaining subsurface soil and rock information is to obtain bids for soil borings on a cost per foot basis and awarding the contract to the lowest bidder. Thus, there is no incentive to do good quality work and there is every incentive to somehow get a hole down as quickly as possible without regard to obtaining the best soil, rock, water levels and collateral information. As a result, perched water tables and important soil layers and other important information are often missed. In general the equipment, techniques, and procedures for obtaining better quality samples and other subsurface information has long been available, but there is no incentive on the part of the drilling contractor to make use of them. Many new techniques for geophysical prospecting have been developed but the geotechnical engineer seldom uses them except for large or special projects. The geotechnical engineer often fails to use his knowledge of geology in laying out an exploratory program and interpreting the borings and soil test results.