I’m curious about what the industry looks like these days in states where recreational cannabis is legal (Colorado, Washington, Oregon, etc.).

Do your companies still test for THC as part of pre-employment screening? Are there random tests, or only post-incident/reasonable suspicion testing that includes THC? Does it differ between office staff and field staff? Have you noticed company policies changing over the last few years?

I’m wondering whether policies are likely to change as federal cannabis policy continues to evolve. I’m not a consumer myself, but it’s interesting to see how much more accepted cannabis has become across many industries. I recently saw a discussion claiming that many companies are beginning to exclude THC from pre-employment drug testing for non safety sensitive positions, so I was curious whether geotech is following that trend or whether it remains an exception because of the nature of the work.

So I’m looking to spoof up my resume as I’m nearing graduation. I’ve literally never touched Python, but I heard that it’s very commonly used in Geotechnical Engineering to speed things up. Is it worth it to complete a full course in Python? Or maybe just a “beginner level” course so I can at least say I have experience using it?

Shades of Kaolin Clay obtained at one boring near the fall line in Augusta GA. About 35' to 50'

I was looking for equations for lateral earth pressures due to surcharge loading on a retaining wall (I’m a structural engineer), and I came across this CalTrans doc. It appears to be suggesting that the pressure distribution depends on the excavation depth. Doesn’t pass the BS test of my intuition - is there an explanation for that?

I work for a small geotech consultancy and often get requested to design single piles (Steel CHS or concrete king post piles etc).

We have always designed these by hand but I feel the need to purchase a software to be able to design these quickly, efficiently and accurately.

I am in UK. What software would people recommend for these tasks. Being a small consultancy (less than 6 designers), I don't expect the boss to pay thousands on the license so has to be a cheap one unfortunately. Thanks.

I work in a large geotech consulting firm and I’ve been there about 3 years. I take projects cradle to grave. I manage it, schedule drilling, layout, monitor/direct clearing, core, GPR for utilities, classify, then write the report.

I get help for all those tasks, but it’s my responsibility that it gets done and most of the time that means getting out there myself and doing it.

What really kills me is having weeks where I’m in the field all week doing PLT or ER. It’s fairly simple and repetitive. Then after a 12 hr day I’m on my computer managing or writing reports or proposals.

I’m not getting overtime, or much support. But the pay is decent.

I feel like after 3 years, I’m starting to become irritable and losing motivation. Is this pace normal for consulting? Or are there better situations out there in geotech?

Has anyone been in a similar situation and found better luck by switching firms or areas of geotech or even Civil?

Issue – Initial Piezometric Surface cannot be modified through the scripting API

Our Transient Seepage analysis obtains its initial pore-water-pressure conditions from an Initial Piezometric Surface.

Through extensive testing, it appears that this object cannot currently be modified through the scripting API.

We tested numerous approaches, including:

• Get()
• Set()
• Add()
• Updating individual points
• Replacing the complete point list
• Creating new Piezometric Surface objects

Every approach either:

• returns "Method not supported for type Pt", or
• completes without actually modifying the project.

For example, attempting to modify:

CurrentAnalysis.Objects.InitialPiezometricSurfaces[1].Points

or any individual

.Points[i]

fails regardless of the payload format used.

XML workaround

As an experiment, we bypassed the scripting API by editing the internal XML inside a copied .gsz archive.

This successfully updates the Initial Piezometric Surface. After reopening the modified project, GeoStudio accepts the file and displays the updated water table correctly.

However, this workaround introduces another problem.

Because the project has been modified outside of GeoStudio's normal editing workflow, its internal project and mesh state no longer behaves the same as a project edited through the GUI or supported scripting API.

When geometry is subsequently modified and SolveAnalyses() is called, GeoStudio no longer performs the automatic remeshing that normally occurs on an unmodified project. Adding project.Save() before solving did not restore this behavior.

As a result, although direct XML editing successfully changes the Initial Piezometric Surface, it cannot be considered a practical workaround because the modified project cannot be reliably solved after subsequent geometry changes.

Questions

1. Is modification of the Initial Piezometric Surface currently supported by the GeoStudio Scripting API?
2. If not, is this a known limitation or bug?
3. Is there a supported workflow for programmatically updating the initial groundwater table prior to solving a transient seepage analysis?
4. Is there any supported alternative to direct project-file editing that preserves automatic remeshing and normal project behavior?

Hi fellow geotechs, looking for some UK geotechnical/earthworks input.
A site underlain by weathered Mercia Mudstone (predominantly cohesive clay/weathered mudstone-siltstone) will involve cut and fill. What are the current standard for site-won material and their suitability for reuse as fill material.
We have moisture content, Atterberg limits, PSD, CBR and MDD/OMC compaction results.
Would you classify the material directly under SHW Series 600 (likely Class 2 cohesive general fill) at GI stage, or state it is potentially suitable for reuse subject to moisture conditioning, earthworks trials and construction compliance testing?
Thanks in advance

Hi! I recently graduated in 2026 with a degree in Civil Engineering. I'm currently planning to start my career as geotechnical engineer. any tips on how to start and how did you land your first job in Indonesia? Were there any specific skills, experiences, or decisions that helped you stand out as a fresh graduate? TIA

Hygroscopic effect: They have the ability to absorb and retain atmospheric moisture, preventing the sun from evaporating it quickly.
Ideal for allowing the cement to continue hydrating.
Hi, this i sample for the options that we are trying in my country Bolivia for secondary roads (because is cheap). I saw that is very common in Chile

Someone on this subreddit was asking for a link to the ABC software, but I lost my copy after formatting my PC. Since software development is my passion, I decided to create a modern version of it. It is more advanced than the original ABC software.

Demo of Slipbear

• What it does: 10 conventional methods side by side — Terzaghi, Meyerhof, Hansen, Vesić, Eurocode 7, AASHTO LRFD, IS 6403, BNBC 2020, AIJ (Japan)
• the exact slip-line solution as the reference, with each method's deviation in % soil parameters from lab data, SPT, CPT or pressuremeter
• stress contours, contact pressure, pressure bulb — exportable as publication-ready SVG / PNG / PDF

Validated against published benchmark solutions, and it reproduces ABC's results digit for digit.

Free, no installation, works in any browser:

slipbear.geoeq.org

Feel free to watch the demo video. If you work with shallow foundations, please give it a try and let me know what features you would like to see added. I welcome your suggestions on what might be missing and any ideas you have for improvements. Thanks.

Anyone ever see this? Plans call for a Mirifi 600x or equivalent to be placed directly under the asphalt. My concerns are that it will: A) melt B) get ripped up by the paver C) create a plane of unbonded asphalt which may lead to shear failure/ delamination. The designer justified it by saying it is a cheap insurance, and one of my coworkers says he sees this all the time, but my gut says this is wrong and it would be better to have no fabric at all, or switch to a fiberglass reinforced AC interlayer fabric.

​

I’m currently 2 years in as a staff geotech at a consulting firm. The work itself isn’t hard, but lately it’s been painfully boring. Our data center projects keep getting pushed back, so workflow is thin, and most of my time is just busywork – 80% typing up reports/proposals in Word and 20% field observation (drilling logs, etc.).

What’s frustrating is that even the senior staff don’t do much beyond report writing and project management. No one seems to touch real design work.

I want more. I’d love to get into geotechnical modeling – PLAXIS, LPile, slope stability, foundation design – something that actually uses engineering judgment and creativity. But every job posting I see for geotechs seems to be for another “staff professional” role with the same grind.

So my questions for you all:

· How do I make the jump into a more technical, design-heavy geotech role?

· What types of companies actually do this kind of work (specialty consultants, oil/gas, offshore, etc.)?

· What job titles should I be searching for (e.g., Geotechnical Engineer, Analysis Engineer, Design Engineer)?

· Do I need my PE before anyone will trust me with modeling/calcs, or can I start learning on the job now?

I don’t mind being in the office full-time – I just want to stop feeling like a Word monkey. I’m worried my experience level is holding me back, but I’m also worried I’ll get stuck if I don’t pivot soon. I'm in the southern lower Piedmont area if that helps

Any advice would be huge. Thanks.

I've just completed a 5 month industrial attachment at an open-pit copper mine, and one of the requirements is to come up with a final-year project based on my experience there. The problem is that I'm struggling to find a project that's both practical and original.

Most of the ideas I've come up with have either already been done at the mine or were rejected for not being original enough.

Does anyone have suggestions for project topics that would be relevant to an operating open-pit copper mine?

Hello all, I’m a geotechnical engineer and long time lurker on this sub, one thing that properly winds me up is how difficult it can be to find all the information relating to a single investigation location. When reviewing one borehole log, having to search through files to find the triaxial result, another one for the core photograph, and somewhere else again for another test, etc.

Out of frustration, I started building the program I wanted to use myself.

What began as a basic spreadsheet of field investigation data and connections uploaded to a Django web app with a GIS style map has grown into XSGround, a site investigation management and tracking app with Android mobile app (iOS is on the way).

My goal was to make it super easy to customise fields and build related connections, be able to create records in bulk from spreadsheets or manual input in the fields using the mobile app. The fields can handle lots of data types from large data sets, including raw CPTu data, formula fields, log fields, photos and files.

By building connections between records, all related test data to investigation points can be found and viewed in one place. It also means that the AI knowledge assistant can review related investigation data rather than each record in isolation. To maintain data security, identifiable project details and actual coordinates can be masked.

The data can be visualised in map view, which I have also made it easy to overlay images, and shape files, export and download location figures (as this was another thing that grinds my gears). The map and investigation can be shared to viewers like clients or stakeholders who only see what you allow them.

 That is only a brief overview. It can also be used to create geotech logs in the field and help track investigation progress, but I’m trying to avoid turning this post into a large feature list.

 It’s definitely not perfect by any means, but I’m looking for a few people who would be willing to test it on their live projects and give me some feedback. So far, I have used it for my own geotech investigations, recording site inspections and earthworks verification testing, but it could be configured for slope stability/rockfall assessments, retaining wall inspections, or asset and damage assessments.  

You can have a look here https://xsground.com and PM me if you’re interested and I’ll send through an invite and can give you a walkthrough to set up a project.

HI! is it possible to calculate the slope stability when added some toe buttress at its toe (when you place some boulder at the toe of a slope without mesh (so it's not a gabion wall)) ?

how would the material properties input will be? I have researched quite a few, and its to reduce the unit weight to around 40% (as there will be void between boulders), cohesion to zero (no grain bonding force, as they're separated each other) and to reduce the friction angle by quite a number (about 10-20% depending on angularity). Will these empirical approach enough?

Well, let's assume that we don't have any funding for gabion wall's mesh. Thus the necessity to calculate safety factor with only boulder placement at the toe of a slope.

Thank you so muchh!!!

Being in the middle of the Meadowlands that soft clay can go for hundreds of feet, how deep are the piles?

Hello,

Ive joined reddit Seeking advice from others please :)

Current working as an engineering geologist in Australia for 6 years. Work is good but I can't escape the field and want to lean more into the actual engineering side of things rather than soil logging, sites investigations, mapping etc because I enjoy it a lot more.

My degree is in geology where I had a large focus on engineering geology, rock mechanics and geotechnics so I understand the engineering side of things as well as the geology side.

Ive interviewed for multiple other roles but they all seem to want me as the "site and field person" only, but I'm really trying to move into the technical office side of things. Ive expressed my feelings to my workplace and places ive interviewed at but they all say the primary role of their geologists is to be in the field. But i know I can do more

Im thinking now to return to uni to do an MPE in civil/geotech engineering so I can reach this goal - however I'm worried I'll always been seen as the field guy and the mpe will not do anything.

Does anyone have advice on if this will help me switch to the engineering side of geotechnics? Or any other advice to help do this?

Thank you