International Society of soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE)

ISSMGE Interactive Technical Talk (IITT)

Technical Committee (TC) 206 – Observational Methods

Application of Observational Methods in

Developing Countries: Ghana’s Experience

M I C H A E L YAW A N YA N G
RM ENGINEERING LIMITED
Observational Method (OM)

IIITT 2024 - OBSERVATIONAL METHODS 2

Observational Method (OM)

Requirements
▪ Continuous
Benefits monitoring (time)
▪ Assurance of design ▪ Engineering
assumption Skill/judgement
▪ Cost Saving ▪ Equipment/Tool
▪ Client/Beneficiary
involvement

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Conditions for OM Application
Project Scale and Risk Levels Cost Benefit Analysis

Red
Book
COST

Yellow
Book TIME

Silver
Book

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Geotechnical Design
Site Conservative Design Approach
Investigation
Field & Pavement – Soaked CBR
Laboratory
Foundation – Lower Bound
properties in addition to high
FS (3).
Design Values
Estimate
Problem Soils - Spot
Ground Improvement, cut and replace,
Engineering geosynthetic approach
Properties

Design
Theoretical
formulae and
engineering
judgement

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Geotechnical Construction

Design Engineer
The engineer undertakes
Supervising Engineer some design confirmatory
Supervisor is responsible for test such us pile capacity
ensuring construction is testing and plate load
executed per design. testing.
Occasionally, with knowledge The engineer may also be
in geotechnical engineering, invited during construction
supervisor may permit where complex ground issues
minimal alterations to design. other than expected from
the design document are
encountered.

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Future of Construction

• With the ongoing infrastructural uplift in the capital city,

Accra, characterized by deep foundation excavations
within a built environment The need to apply OM in the
execution of engineering projects is expected to pick pace
in the engineering practice in a few years to come.

• In a typical project run by RM Engineering, a

groundwater drawdown monitoring system was set up to
monitor and ensure ground water levels do not go below
the safe zone for neighboring structures.

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Capacity Building
Awareness Creation
A significant number of engineers are not aware of
OM, its applications and its benefits.
Skill Set & Exposure of Engineers
Engineers have very minimal exposure in working
with OM and therefore have not developed skill set
in handling complex mechanics on live projects.
Equipment deficiency
Owing to the above factors there is little
investment in monitoring equipment and tools to
execute such observational procedures during
construction.

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