Feb 6, 2020
Geotechnical Observations has been a Measurand distributor in the United Kingdom for over 10 years, providing “structural and geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring services for civil engineering projects.”
In this video, Measurand talked to Dr. Andrew Ridley, managing director at Geotechnical Observations, a company that he helped form in 2000, about his more than 35 years of experience in the geotechnical sector.
“We’ve been involved in installing ShapeArrays into tunnels, into retaining walls, into slopes and doing quite a few of the innovative developments within the product such as convergence,” Dr. Ridley said, noting that feedback from Geotechnical Observations lead to the development of Measurand products like the SAA Field Power Unit.
Dr. Ridley explained that while it was his academic research in slope stability monitoring that initially drew his interest in Measurand’s ShapeArray, he realized that construction monitoring applications were where ShapeArray’s real-time shape sensing could be extremely useful.
“Slopes move fairly slowly, but in the construction environment, you’re dealing with real-time measurements that matter,” Dr. Ridley said. “That’s where it’s really mushroomed and they’re quite exciting projects to work on because they’re big construction-type projects.”
Geotechnical Observations is passionate about collecting, analyzing, and presenting data, which led Dr. Ridley to develop a innovative, cloud-based software platform, Geodaisy®. Conceived as a way to give engineers all the power of a database along with the flexibility of a spreadsheet, Geodaisy® takes full advantage of ShapeArray’s real-time monitoring capabilities with intelligent alarms, convergence graphing for tunnels, and several visualization options.
Construction of the new Western Ticket Hall: ShapeArray measured retaining wall deflection, reduced construction time and costs
Ranelagh sewer: Effective convergence and settlement monitoring in confined, hazardous space
Read an in-depth Q&A with Dr. Andrew Ridley.
Watch Dr. Andrew Ridley’s John Mitchell Lecture at the Institution of Civil Engineers in London.
Meet the Distributor is a video series that introduces a valued Measurand distributor and shares their company’s work. Subscribe to Measurand on YouTube to make sure not to miss a video.