TfNSW (formerly RMS) Geoscience challenges

Michael Hughes

Geotechnical Science is within the Pavements and Geotechnical section of the Engineering Services branch of Transport for NSW (formerly RMS). In addition to providing geotechnical services associated with road infrastructure construction projects Geoscience is involved in other technical aspects within the roads space. This presentation will include an overview of:

• RMS slope risk assessment program; discussing the challenges of working in a high risk environment and how quality and training are managed. It will discuss the future direction of the slope program and present opportunities for collaboration.
• Challenges RMS has experienced with weak rock with a focus on sampling. Discussion will provide a broad overview of a recent collaboration with UNSW and the development of a constitutive model (FLAC).
• RMS developed “Safety DCP”. In 2018 the operator of a Dynamic Cone Penetrometer required micro-surgery to a finger that was crushed between the DCP hammer and anvil on one of our projects. RMS has re-designed a standard DCP to eliminate this risk.

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