Summary of the 1st International Workshop 23 – 24 November 2016

Abstract

NGI and its partners, NTNU, SINTEF, UNIS and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA), have received funding from The Research Council of Norway (RCN) to develop a new Norwegian GeoTest sites research infrastructure. From 2016 to 2019, five benchmark sites will be established. The research infrastructure is unique in its wingspan, and the benchmark test sites will be available for at least 20 years. The five test sites developed as field laboratories in Norway, will cover a wide range of typical soil conditions: soft clay, silt, sand, quick clay and frozen soil (permafrost). The sites will be available to industry, public authorities, research organizations and academia worldwide so that they also can use the sites as benchmark to test new soil investigation methods, new foundation solutions, test new and old equipment, do long term observations such as creep behaviour and perform specialized testing to develop soil models. The project will also establish a network of specialists working on test sites abroad. In this way it will be possible to exchange information for a wide range of soil conditions worldwide. As part of the NGTS project an international workshop was arranged at NGI in Oslo on November 23rd and 24th, 2016. The aim of this workshop was to i) discuss with national and international expert on the best approach for characterization of each NGTS sites, ii) gather experience and learn from other similar Geotechnical Experimental Site abroad, iii) pinpoint at an early stage in the infrastructure project the potential challenges to come. The support, encouragement and advice from the 24 workshop attendees are greatly appreciated: Karl Ivar Volden Kvisvik (NTNU) Vidar Gjelsvik (NGI) Samson Degago (NPRA) Tom Lunne (NGI) Sigurdur Valsson (NPRA) Laura A. Henderson (NGI) Frode Oset (NPRA) Zeynep Ozkul (NGI) Arne Instanes (UNIS) Herman Farbrot (RCN) Arne Aalberg (UNIS) Gisle Håland (Statoil) Anatoly Sinitsyn (SINTEF) Tor Inge Tjelta (Statoil) Stein Olav Christensen (SINTEF) Don DeGroot (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) Jean-Sebastien L'Heureux (NGI) Mike Long (University College Dublin, Ireland) Stein Strandvik (NGI) An Bin Huang (National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan) Roselyn Carroll (NGI) Thomas Ingeman-Nielsen (Technical Univ. of Denmark) Øyvind Blaker (NGI) Jedrzej Wierzbicki (AMU., Poland) This report gives a summary of the two-day NGTS workshop. It includes a short presentation of the NGTS project with its goal, framework and timeline, and compiles technical information and plans for each of the five Norwegian GeoTest sites at Onsøy (soft clay), Halden (silt), Tiller (quick clay), Øysand (sand) and on Svalbard (permafrost). Also included is a summary of discussions and recommendations for each sites. All presentations from the international workshop are reproduced in the appendices of this report.