Posts Tagged: geotechnical consultants

Nowadays, the city of Dubai is known for its billionaire visitors and its eclectic mix of old Arabian culture with new Western ideas and buildings. It was not until the past decade that the city of Dubai became known for these two things. In the early to mid 1990s, the government of Dubai hired a lead geotechnical consultant, who then started to hire a group of other geotechnical consultants to begin work on restructuring the city itself from an old Arab city to a new, partly westernized city. This Arabian land is continuing to grow at a rapid rate and it shows no signs of stopping any time soon.

The city of Dubai is located on the coast of the Persian Gulf in the country which is now known as the United Arab Emirates. The government is a constitutional monarchy, which is the much like many countries in Europe. The area was known for ease of trade by the sea, especially, in recent years, of oil. However, this all has changed since the after the Persian Gulf War.

Although still focused on oil trade, the city of Dubai began to also focus on tourism and build up their trade with wealthy nations. In the mid 1990s the government of Dubai decided to start making some really big changes to the city. The Burj Dubai skyscraper, which is currently still under construction, is now the tallest building in the world with its unique design, it is one of the most modern buildings in the world. The city also boasts a winter-themed indoor ski-resort where tourists and locals are able to go to play in the snow by building snowmen and skiing or snowboarding down large hills. The city also revamped its local transportation to include newer, more luxurious buses and subways and to have more cab service. The city has also modeled a beach resort after the famous Atlantis resort which is located in the United States. In Dubai, the resort is called Atlantis The Palm because it has been situated at the top of land that looks like a palm tree. The resort is one of the most posh vacation spots in the world. The city is also now home to a famous tennis tournament and has plenty of visitors every year from the tennis community and other extremely wealthy individuals. In fact, a mini tennis match was played on a grass covered helipad at the top of a luxury, sail-shaped hotel located 692 feet in the air.

While Dubai officials have focused on attempting to revamp the city and attempting to make some changes towards westernization, the old culture of Dubai has not been lost. Camel herders can still be seen herding camels while very modern vehicles speed by on the highway. And, the social culture of the area is still very much the same, even though the buildings and infrastructure may have changed.

It is really interesting to watch such a city that wants to mix their unique social culture with some of the elements of western culture. The city of Dubai is one of the first to try to make such a radical change to the city, while still attempting to maintain its original social culture. It will be extremely exicitng to see how the city grows over the next few decades because this city does not plan on stopping its renovations any time soon.

Whenever something big or dangerous has to be built, it takes more than the usual civil engineer to decide on the best way forward. geotechnical consultants have to work out how the area will stand up to incredible forces. With a geotechnical consultant on site, the work outlined will surely proceed in a logical way.

Typically, this engineer will survey the site and work out exactly what types of material and mechanisms must be put into operation. They will examine all the materials already on site, like soil and rocks etc to see how these will react to several different forces. This is done to assess any risk to the environment and humans alike and when it is not done, disaster could easily strike those who try to skip this stage.

Once the site is assessed, the engineer can then design certain foundations which will take into account any anomalies which must be contended with at all odds. Of course, where bridges or high rise buildings are being constructed, this is an absolutely vital section of the work if the building is to be safe.

But it is not necessarily on the land that these kinds of work go on. Tunnels for trains, dams and levees all bring their own particular problems so having a great engineer to work out all the stresses and strains will be absolutely necessary.

At the coast of any country, wharves and jetties have to be built to facilitate deliveries from other countries. Not only is the land inspected, but the currents in the ocean as well. The sea is a particularly strong opponent when it starts to eat away at foundations and with the constant tidal movements, it can easily destroy something which has a weakness within the structure. Even offshore platforms will have to be engineered so that they do not slip their anchor points which could be very dangerous.

Although people have been building foundations for buildings for thousands of years, there have been disasters over time. The Leaning Tower of Pisa for example whose foundations started to subside and gave the building that distinctly drunken look that tourists love to photograph. This building has been shored up now, thanks to modern methods, but the locals decided to leave the lean because the town is known for that one building for sure.

But it is not only the site itself that engineers have to look at. They often survey the surrounding areas too to understand the lay of the land. After all, it would be no good building very firm foundations next to underground caves or places where water is has a causeway nearby. Sometimes they have to build foundations far beyond the parameters of the structure they are supposed to build so that the whole will be very stable in the future.

Therefore, anyone who is planning to build something, maybe a house or warehouse for example, where none existed before, these engineers must have access to all levels to make sure that it is suitable. It would be unwise to start the build without them for sure.