r/Geotech

Early to mid career and have been working mostly in consultancy mostly and am absolutely burned out, working very long hours staring at a screen constantly. There are not enough hours in the day.

I started out with GI contractor sampling and logging etc. The occasional bad weather and isolation weren't great but I don't remember feeling this mentally destroyed all the time. I only did it for a year or so before moving into more of a design role and have worked at a few big consultancies since you probably know the ones. Not sure if I just have rose tinted spectacles. I just know I can't continue like I am now.

I have been accepted for an MSc in geotechnical engineering while my bsc was in geology with physical geography. I am considering a switch to geological engineering, as I am mainly interested in bedrock rather than soils. Would it be beneficial to swap or would having a geology background with a geotechnical masters open up more doors. I am very early in my career and I do not want to pigeon hole myself into one route, but I do want to become a chartered geologist. Currently I am thinking that the geotech route will still allow me to do work in bedrocks and hazards. I would love some advice on this subject!

Our team is starting to hit a wall with how we manage our 811 utility tickets, and I’m looking to see how other mid-sized operations handle this. Currently, our workflow involves exporting tickets from the state portal, logging them into a master spreadsheet, and setting up manual Google Calendar reminders for expiration dates. It works fine when things are slow, but during peak season, those alerts just get buried. We actually had a couple of tickets expire on active job sites recently because the renewal dates slipped through the cracks. Is anyone using a dedicated 811 ticket management system that actually automates this tracking, or is the standard still just building your own internal spreadsheet workflow?

I recently transitioned from the geotechnical department of my firm into an administrative role in the drilling department, and one thing my boss really wants me to do is overhaul how we do our drill rig schedule and management. Currently, we keep track of our upcoming jobs on a rudimentary excel spreadsheet, and every job is deleted after completion. We don't have any way to keep track of metrics, like average footage per day for each driller, and overall the system is clunky. My boss sent me a list of scheduling websites to look into, but so far they're all geared toward a traditional office-based team. Trying to adjust this stuff for my techphobic drillers feels like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. How do other firms handle this? We have seven drill rigs and about 15 drillers/helpers in the department.

Hello rock doctors,

Just out of curiosity if theres any instances of mech engineers working in the field of geotech? How transferable are the skills?(if at all) is it even something that happens? Im undergoing a bachelors in mech engineering and im happy with my choice but prior to that I worked 6 years in geotechnical rope access, so lots of landslip remediation, drilling, grouting, tensile testing, capping beam, retaining walls, shotcrete etc etc I actually loved the work and gained a lot of great experience. Just wondering if that experience would help me if it was possible/ever decided to look into working as an engineer in geotech? For example one of company engineers was a materials engineer by trade. Thanks guys, appreciate your work!! Honest feedback appreciated

We’re trying to get a feel for how common it is in practice, especially around slope stability studies, topo, boreholes, geology, groundwater, cross-sections etc.

Would be interested to hear how people are using it.

How would people approach this usually?

Timber pile retaining wall, cohesive soils (max retained height about 1.8m). Soils routinely manage a 90 degree cut (a lot of our historical roads have this batter all over the place, sidle fill construction) and only come undone during extreme storm events where the top layers (1m or so) lose suction.

Using slope stability software to get a design action for a modified broms (a la caltrans) style equation gives me a very high load that would require hefty steel sections.

WALLAP is fine until I go to do seismic checks and switch to wedge stability. Switching to wedge stability gives even my pre excavation stages metres of movement. Modelling backslope as a surcharge as per their guidance. Using a boussinesq method to derive a resultant force from the retained backslope causes the model to fail even before wedge stability is turned on.

I'm at a small regional design consultancy so I only have limited software available.

I hear this said fairly often. I don’t have a civil degree, but I do have a PE and 5 years of experience in geotech.

I’m just wondering how much it’s holding me back.

Are there any specific industries that are more likely to require a masters? Or is it more about the size of the company?

Hi everyone,
I’m currently working on a project where we performed Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) tests and obtained DCPI values (mm/blow). I would like to estimate equivalent SPT N-values from the DCPI results.
I understand that:

1. DCPI ↔ CBR correlations are fairly well established in pavement/subgrade evaluation.
2. Direct DCPI ↔ SPT N correlations are less common and appear to be soil-specific.
3. Some researchers suggest site-specific regression if paired DCP and SPT data are available.

My questions are:

1. Are there any well-cited studies or published correlations directly relating DCPI to SPT N?
2. Is it more defensible to go DCPI → CBR → SPT N using existing empirical relationships?
3. From a practical standpoint, would you recommend developing a site-specific correlation instead of relying on published equations?

I’m mainly looking for a defensible approach for reporting purposes (preliminary evaluation, not final foundation design).
Any references, papers, or field experience would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

I'm currently investigating the possibility of building a house here in the the UK, but with foundations (and heavy frame) designed to be as long-lasting as possible. *Certainly hundreds of years, maybe even a thousand or more. So far my reading has taken me to a method outlined on the Construction Physics website of unreinforced concrete pilings down to bedrock, topped with an unreinforced concrete slab. (Not sure if I can post a link but the page is titled "How to design a house to last for 1000 years (part III)")

My question is about choosing the location for the house within the UK. Looking at the British Geological Survey website they have interactive maps and downloads showing the bedrock type across the UK. There are many types of bedrock from "very weak" mudstone and chalk, "strong limestone", to "very strong" Gneiss. This is an engineering map I'm looking at so not sure what the strengths are relative to. Are all of these bedrock-types suitable for supporting a thousand-year foundation, or are things like the wet-sounding mudstone going to allow subsidence or shift over time?

The map is on a page titled "Engineering geology (bedrock) map of the United Kingdom" at NORA NERC. I'll attempt to post links in a follow-up reply. Thanks!

I have an interview coming up for a Geotechnical Engineering internship. My major in college is not directly related, but I am interested in the field and think it could be good experience- was looking for tips for the interview.

Also was wondering what the expected attire is for the interview and also for the actual internship if I get it (hopefully). I am a girl by the way.

Hey everyone! We have an ongoing conflict in our office regarding compressive resistance of piles in rock. It seems that when piles are driven or drilled to rock, most of the time, the structural compressive resistance of the pile dictates the factored resistance of the pile. So Factored Resistance = Minimum (Factored Compressive Resistance, Factored Geotechnical Resistance) = Factored Compressive Resistance (aka pile structural capacity).

It appears that typically in driven H-Piles for example, Factored Compressive Resistance = factor(compression) * fy *A = 0.5 * fy * A

Or if drivability is applied it is 0.9*factor(compression)*fy*A

Now, here is the tricky thing. All the structural engineers we talk to say Factored Compressive Resistance for the same H-Pile driven to rock is 0.5*0.5*fy*A

Where is this extra factor coming from? Are they applying the geotechnical factor to the compressive resistance or something else? Why?

We’re working on a downtown streetscape bid package with a ton of existing utilities packed into a small area. I suggested adding a requirement that contractors provide weekly updates showing active 811 tickets and status before excavation work. One of my partners thinks that’s going too far and says contractors will just raise pricing because of the extra admin work. I can see both sides honestly.

So as a software developer, SEO was where we need someone with good knowledge in SEO, still we need it but we can handle AEO and GEO at some extent. Not an expert but trying to get some traffic and impressions on my portfolio. I'm trying to build an lead magnet kind of stuff.

I wrote blogs and content which actually someone needs like developers or any business owner which can lead to gain some gig work. So I started learning the stuff and after almost a month results are actually good. I have good impressions on my website and AI bots are actually sharing my content, which actually made me win a war, but this is just baby steps. I would love if anyone want to learn or share any feedback on my work.

I still struggle at SEO and backlinks, and I'm pretty sure I can't handle this by myself there is always some SEO guys stuff needed, But what I'm trying to convey here is AEO and GEO is something like bot understands and as a software engineer we know what they look for and how we write a content that they need.

My portfolio looks like this, open for any suggestions. Sharing some screenshot how it looks from my Cloudflare analytics on AI crawlability.

Last 24 hours analytics.

I'm building a new home and need a geotech report. I got 2 quotes to choose from, one geotech will use hand augering, the other will use a drill rig. The hand guy is cheaper, and he was highly recommended by 2 unrelated builders.

Is there value in paying the more expensive guy to use a drill rig? My build is heavy - concrete slabs, brick, etc. How can a hand tool investigate the difference between class V and class IV III etc sandstone?

I am planning to pursue a Senior Geotechnical Engineer position in Upstate New York. I have approximately 10 years of solid experience in geotechnical engineering. What would be a reasonable salary expectation to discuss during the interview? I appreciate your input.

Anyone planning to join PPI2PASS live courses for the PE Geotechnical exam starting in May 2026? I’m considering enrolling and wanted to see if anyone else is planning to take it.
Any experiences/suggestions from students who have taken it recently would also be appreciated.

I’m trying to model foundation soil using an undrained strengh ratio (shansep) and then have a traffic load on top of my embankment.

I wanted to use a B-bar function to model the increased pore pressure from the surcharge load but this does not seem to be possible. Am I missing something?

In my head the added surcharge load should affect the pore pressures and decrease the strength mobilized in the material?