GEOSTRATA Magazine

About six years ago, I began researching geotechnical engineering applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones. My initial efforts were encouraged by most of my colleagues, but were criticized by some. “Since when did playing with a toy constitute serious scientific research?” I was asked by one particularly honest friend of mine. I don’t fault my friend for his opinion because I understand his point of view. After all, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck, right?

During the last four decades, China has made significant improvement in various sectors of its infrastructure, including high-speed railways, long-span and cross-sea bridges, large dams, long- and large-diameter tunnels, and land reclamation. Many new soil-improvement technologies have been successfully developed, improved, and implemented on these major projects.

Lotte World Tower is a 123-story, 555-m supertall skyscraper with a 6-level basement for retail and car parking located at Jamsil-dong in Seoul, South Korea. (Editor’s Note: For additional information, see “Supertall in Seoul” in the July 2018 issue of CE Magazine, pp. 44-53.) The tower’s footprint is approximately 72 m x 72 m, and its structural form consists of a concrete core wall with eight peripheral 3.5 m x 3.5 m square-shaped mega-columns to resist both the gravity and lateral forces. To enhance structural rigidity, two belt trusses are positioned at levels 218 m and 347 m from the base of the foundation raft. The total serviceability gravity load is around 6,700 MN. The skyscraper opened to the public in April 2017 and is currently the tallest building in South Korea and the fifth tallest building in the world. A structure of such proportions demanded a foundation to resist immense loads and problematic subgrade.

The South Florida beachfront is awash with an ever-increasing number of high-rise condominiums. As land becomes scarcer and increasingly expensive, and building regulations change to require above-grade floors to be commercial or residential units, developers must locate parking below grade. However, given a subsurface profile consisting of highly porous limestone, together with a shallow groundwater table, maintaining a dry excavation for underground basement construction is a significant challenge.

The design, construction, and maintenance of safe and comfortable habitations are some of humankind’s oldest and most important activities. Millennia of experimentation and planning have led to earthly habitats with a high degree of sophistication. But as humanity looks to explore and inhabit other worlds, it is now faced with new and unique challenges beyond Earth’s relatively benign environment.