David Eley, PE, GeoEngineers’ Baton Rouge group leader and associate engineer, presented a talk titled “Estimating Consolidation Settlement for Coastal Fill Projects” at the American Shore and Beach Protection Association (ASBPA) 2011 Coastal Conference, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, October 18-21, 2011. The ASBPA is an organization dedicated to combatting erosion, restoring eroded beaches and furthering the overall planning and management of shores and beaches. It holds national and regional events to benefit those who work in this specialized area.
In areas with soft compressible soils, one of the most challenging tasks for a geotechnical engineer is to estimate magnitude and time rate of settlement for fill projects. These two estimates are often essential in evaluating the cost-versus-benefit for coastal restoration projects. Many tools are available to estimate settlement, but it is critical to understand which tools are appropriate and what their limitations are.
In his presentation, Eley reviewed methods commonly used in South Louisiana to evaluate settlement for coastal restoration projects, along with data collected from many projects that reinforce established correlations.
David is a registered professional engineer who has practiced in Louisiana and Texas for 20 years. At GeoEngineers, David is part of a team that supports state and federal agency, multi-year geotechnical engineering services contracts for Louisiana coastal protection and restoration projects. This GeoEngineers team was recently selected to design and implement a two-year monitoring program for a marsh creation project to field validate settlement-estimating methods.