The Fleming Award 2024

Dr Andrew Ridley

Dr Andrew Ridley is Chair of the British Geotechnical Association and managing director of Geotechnical Observations Limited which he founded in 2000.

With over 40 years’ experience within the geotechnical sector of the civil engineering industry, he is known for his work on the measurement of soil suction (in situ and laboratory) for which he received a PhD from Imperial College London.

Andrew is currently the UK's representative on ISO TC182 WG2, which is writing international standards for geotechnical monitoring, a member of the British National Committee for standards in geotechnics B_526_3, Chair of ISSMGE TC220 Field Monitoring in Geomechanics and was Chair of the local organising committee for the 11th International Symposium on Field Monitoring in Geomechanics held at Imperial College London in September 2022.

In addition, Andrew was a member of the Steering Committee for CIRIA 550 Infrastructure Embankments – Condition Appraisal and Remedial Treatment, on the Editorial Panel of Geotechnical Engineering (Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers) from 1998 to 2001 and was a member of the sub-committee to the Advisory Panel of Géotechnique for the 2011 Symposium in Print on Partial Saturation in Compacted Soils.

Thomas Riccio

Thomas is a PhD student at the University of Dundee, where his research aims to advance the understanding of installation and loading effects on pile foundations in soft rock.

Prior to commencing his PhD, Thomas worked in the offshore engineering sector, contributing to geotechnical design for various offshore wind farm projects by means of consultancy and offshore client representation work. His current work at Dundee has involved developing small-scale physical testing apparatus for integrate X-ray CT use, enabling new insights into soil-structure interaction problems.

Today, he will provide an overview of the new apparatus, followed by observations from its initial campaign, which paired X-ray radiography and CT with small-scale pile installation and load testing in soft rock. The focus will be on the modes of penetration that jacked or impact-driven open-ended pile foundations in soft rock may experience, and how the small-scale findings relate to full-scale pile foundations in the field.