Update: September 2023-February 2024

Since the last blog on August 10, 2023, the following notable activities have occurred:

“Staying Sharp” Article for ASCE’s Civil Engineering Magazine

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) invited Naresh to develop an article for its new “Staying Sharp” section of its flagship Civil Engineering (CE) Magazine. The intent of the “Staying Sharp” section is to introduce new technologies in civil engineering. Naresh developed an article titled “Optimizing Deep Foundation Designs in Ephemeral Streams to Significantly Reduce Costs.” This article was published in the January/February 2024 edition of the CE Magazine and describes an innovative new infilration based approach for optimizing designs of deep foundations in ephemeral streams. A free copy of this article can be found here.

The optimization process presented in the article results in significant cost reductions. An example of such an application can be found in an earlier blog post dated June 1, 2022 where signficant cost reductions of over a million dollars were realized for the Arizona Department of Transportation. Ephermeral streams occur worldwide in arid to semiarid regions. Such regions cover almost 40% of earth’s land surface. Thus, the innovative new approach has worldwide application. Within the US, many parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Texas, and California have ephemeral streams.

After the publicaton of the article, a one-hour webinar was developed and delivered through ASCE by Naresh on January 24, 2024, to further explain the concepts in the article. This webinar had 166 registrants from 10 countries. A recording of this webinar is available at the eLearning website of ASCE that can be accessed for free by ASCE members here. Several requests for similar follow-up presentation have been made by various state Departments of Transporation (DOTs) and international organizations who are eager to start applying this innovative approach to their projects and achieve cost savings for the tax-payers. These follow-up presentations have already been scheduled from March to December 2024!

Expert Consultation Services

Naresh continues to provide expert consultation services to several local, national, and international firms and agencies. These have included peer reviews, expert opinions, forensic evaluations, design guidance, construction trouble-shooting, and training designers, construction inspectors and contractors on a variety of geo-structural topics. Examples include evaluation of fill and cut slopes in challenging mixed soil and rock geologic setting, continued evaluation of a settling MSE wall, providing criticial reviews of a chapter titled “Role of Performance Data in Data-Centric Geotechnics” in a forthcoming book edited by Phoon and Tang titled “A Database Approach for Data-Centric Geotechnics – Geotechnical Structures” to be published by CRC Press of Taylor & Francis Group, setting up new and more interactive practioner based education programs, etc. Contact us to find out how Naresh and NCSG can help your projects in a similar manner and enhance your team and work products. Visit About Us to explore our services and Testimonials.

Virtual Workshops for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

Naresh developed and delivered the following 4-hr virtual workshops for ASCE. The following topics were addressed:

1. Design of Drilled Shafts in Soil and Rock – Geotechnical Design Aspects
2. MSE walls – Understanding Fill Properties and Good Practices for Details

Both workshops were well attended by participants from within and outside the United States.

Instructor Led Training for Construction Inspection of Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) Walls

Naresh developed and delivered an in-person project specific training workshop for construction inspectors of Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). This workshop was related to Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls. This was attended by consruction personnel from both ADOT and the general contractor for a project.

Annual Lecture at the University of Arizona

On January 25, 2024, Naresh delivered his annual lecture at the Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering & Mechanics (CAEM) at the University of Arizona (UA) titled “Geotechnical Services – Some Considerations for a Construction Manager.” Naresh developed this lecture for the CE381 course organized by Dr. Dean Papajohn, PE, Professor, CAEM, UA, and has been delivering the lecture with updates annually since 2018. This year the primary instructor for teh course is Ian McDowell, Vice-President and Regional Director, Building, of Sundt Construction in Tucson, Arizona. In this lecture Naresh teaches undergraduate juniors and seniors the importance of geotechnical engineering from the perspective of a construction manager. The class had 58 students this year.

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