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Foundation Decarbonization & Reuse Workshop

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Overview

  • GeoManitoba is planning this full-day workshop to be held on the Sunday before the conference starts.

  • Lunch is included.

  • The workshop is open to those not attending the conference.

  • The price for the workshop is $450 per participant and $250 for students. 

  • Student participants must provide a valid student ID.

  • Registration will open in March 2025.

Background

The deep foundation industry, as part of the construction industry, contributes significantly to CO2 emissions. Our profession must take proactive steps to reduce our carbon footprint as sustainability becomes increasingly crucial to address global climate change.

Decarbonization is a vital strategy, which focuses on more efficient designs that reduce the volume of concrete and steel used, and incorporating materials with smaller carbon footprints. However, we must also prioritize the reuse of existing foundations or foundation materials as the most sustainable option.

An annual conference on Foundation Decarbonization and Re-use has been organized to emphasize these topics since 2023. The conference consists of four sessions focusing on:

  • Session 1: The decision-making process regarding foundation decarbonization and reuse.

  • Session 2: The inspection and testing of existing foundations to assess their suitability for reuse.

  • Session 3: The design process when foundations are decarbonized or reused.

  • Session 4: The construction phase when foundations are decarbonized or reused

 

The papers and presentation slides presented at past conferences are freely available on the conference website (www.foundationreuse.com), which aims to be a resource center for practitioners dealing with foundation reuse.

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While the third conference will be held in March 2025 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, the conference organizers have collaborated with the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS) to hold a one-day workshop on September 21, 2025, just prior to GeoManitoba 2025.

Workshop Co-Chairs

The focus of this workshop will be on:

  • the decision-making process regarding foundation decarbonization

  • the inspection and testing of existing foundations to assess their suitability for reuse

  • the design process when foundations are reused.

 

Abstracts for presentation on any of these three topic areas can be submitted under the option “Reuse of Foundations Workshop”. The deadline for abstract submission is January 15, 2025, and the process will follow that of GeoManitoba 2025. The best paper of the workshop will also be given a presentation slot during GeoManitoba 2025.

Workshop Keynote

Reuse of Foundations – Challenges, Successes and Lessons Learned

Abstract

Many countries are facing and addressing challenges with the need for rehabilitation and/or retrofits to rejuvenate aging infrastructure, and with a mandate to reduce carbon footprint.  Since about the early 2000s, reuse of existing foundation systems has become an increasingly popular means of effectively addressing the issues, while satisfying financial, schedule, and other constraints on structure replacement

projects.  Reuse of foundations presents several significant design and construction challenges, primarily related to assessing the ground conditions, together with the physical conditions, capacity and reliability of the existing foundation system, including the potential for unknown defects.

 

The presentation interrogates the key risks associated with reuse and remediation of existing foundation systems from the perspective of a geotechnical practitioner. Projects involving the reuse of existing foundations have had successes and challenges. Some of these challenges and lessons learned are shared using project examples. A common challenge is lack of documentation on design and construction, including incomplete or in some cases almost no construction record drawings and unknown deviations from design intent and from good construction practice. Consequently, there can be a high degree of uncertainty in the physical characteristics, capacity and reliability of existing foundation systems and, as such, the confidence in achieving desired performance decreases.  The use of reliability-based design has inherent advantage in addressing and resolving the uncertainties and associated risks.

 

There are also constructability challenges when placing new infrastructure on existing foundations and/or upgrading existing foundation systems to safely support increased loading conditions.  The presentation highlights that successful reuse of existing foundation systems and effective geotechnical risk management are enhanced through close collaboration amongst the owner, consultant(s) and contractor(s). In addition, the key importance of having good understanding of ground conditions, fundamental ground-structure interaction behaviour, and potential failure modes and mechanisms, all tempered with good engineering judgement and experience is highlighted.

 

Biography

Dennis Becker, Ph.D., FEIC, FCAE, P.Eng. is a Fellow, Senior Geotechnical Engineer in WSP

with 48 years of national and international experience on numerous large-scale resource

development and civil engineering projects. Dennis has substantial experience with all aspects of

geotechnical engineering and has many areas of expertise, including foundations for bridges and buildings, tunnels, embankments, landfills, water retention dams, tailings dams, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), and risk assessments.

 

Dennis is active in many key engineering and professional societies. He was the Editor of the

Canadian Geotechnical Journal, President of the Canadian Geotechnical Society, Vice-President

(North America) of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

and involved in the ASCE Geo-Institute's initiative to produce Guidance Document on Risk-

Informed Decisions in Geotechnical Engineering. Dennis also served on technical committees of

the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), National Building Code of Canada, Canadian

Highway Bridge Design Code and CSA Offshore Code (Foundations), extensively involved with

the development of Limit States Design and Reliability Based Design for foundations. He was Co-

Editor of the 4th Edition (2006) of the Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual.

 

Dennis has received several senior awards from the Canadian Geotechnical Society, Engineering

Institute of Canada, Canadian Dam Association, and Canadian Society of Civil Engineers. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and Engineering Institute of Canada.

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