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Geotechnical engineering is now a fundamental component of construction projects. The first volume of this book therefore paves the way for the development of a lasting partnership between soil and foundations. Applied Geotechnics for Construction Projects 1 first defines, identifies and classifies soils, exploring their complexities and weaknesses, and then outlines the basic principles of stresses and strains that establish and develop within soils. The third chapter of the book introduces and develops methods of soil investigation in order to experimentally determine the geotechnical parameters that are useful in the design stage of construction projects. Each chapter of this first volume is illustrated with photographs of example construction sites and concludes with concrete examples of real projects. The result is a combination of geotechnical expertise and lessons learned from experience, both of which are highly valuable in the field of applied geotechnics for construction projects.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Foreword
Entrepreneur’s Tribune: Geotechnics is at the Heart of Our Projects
Preface
Acknowledgments
Symbols and Notations
Introduction
1: Soil: Definition, Identification and Classification
1.1. Definition of a soilx
1.2. Soil types
1.3. Laboratory identification tests
1.4. Examples of soil identification and applications
1.5. Soil classification
1.6. Illustrative samples
1.7. Roads and carriageways fact sheet
1.8. Railway platforms fact sheet
1.9. Appendix 1.1: Classification of soft soil and rock
1.10. References
2: Stresses, Deformations and Behavioral Laws of Soils
2.1. Basic concepts of mechanics of continuous media
2.2. Behavioral laws
2.3. Soil creep phenomenon
2.4. Mechanics of continuous media applied to soils
2.5. Practical applications to construction projects
2.6. References
3: Determination of the In-situ Geotechnical Parameters of Soils
3.1. Introduction
3.2. General methodology of geotechnical studies
3.3. Inventory of field tests in France
3.4. On-site parameter determination tests
3.5. French conventional soil classification
3.6. Correlations between parameters
3.7. Practical analysis of typical tests
3.8. Scope of application of on-site testing
3.9. Test results in typical soils
3.10. Wise conclusion
3.11. Appendix 3.1: Correlations between net creep pressures and net limit pressures
3.12. References
French, European and ISO Standards in the Field of Geotechnics
Index
Summary of Volume 2
Summary of Volume 3
Summary of Volume 4
Other titles from ISTE in Civil Engineering and Geomechanics
Chapter 1
Table 1.1.
Order of magnitude of the total specific weight of soils and some other typical materials
Table 1.2.
Dimensionless parameters of typical soils
Table 1.3.
Orders of magnitude of the characteristic parameters*
Table 1.4.
Orders of magnitude of the characteristic parameters
Table 1.5.
Laboratory test results (parameters defined and commented on below)
Table 1.6.
Clay soil consistency class
Table 1.7.
Nature of the soil in terms of clay content
Table 1.8.
Consistency range of clays
Table 1.9.
Soil classes according to the GTR guide in France
Table 1.10.
Design and execution of roads and carriageways
Table 1.11.
Example of the thickness of the layers of railway platforms of new high-speed lines (TGV)
Chapter 2
Table 2.1(a).
Order of magnitude of deformation parameters: soil and other materials
Table 2.1(b).
Soil deformation modules (Leroueil et al. 1985)
Table 2.2.
Geo-mechanical data (mean section)
Table 2.3.
Compressibility and shear parameters
Table 2.4.
Phases of the works that are taken into account in the PLAXIS-2D calculations
Table 2.5.
Different soil layers and their thickness
Table 2.6.
Geo-mechanical data
Chapter 3
Table 3.1.
Field of application of the vane test and characteristic values of undrained cohesion of typical soils
Table 3.2.
Values of the N
c
factor given by several authors
Table 3.3.
Values of lateral friction (q
s
) and point resistance (q
c
) measured with a cone penetrometer (Sanglerat 1971)
Table 3.4.
Nature of soils and typical values of point resistance (q
c
) and friction ratio F
R
Table 3.5.
Ratios of Ménard pressuremeter modulus (E
M
) to net limit pressure (p
l
*) and rheological coefficient (“ αMénard”)
Table 3.6.
αvalues for rocks
Table 3.7.
Typical soils and the most suitable tools for a better drilling quality for the pressuremeter test
Table 3.8.
Effective shear characteristics correlated from on-site phicometer measurements (Philipponnat and Zerhouni 1993)
Table 3.9.
“Common” values of the Westergaard K
W
modulus for some typical materials
Table 3.10.
Platform type according to modulus E
v2
(according to the GTR Guide)
Table 3.11(a).
Conventional soil categories (according to Fascicle 62, Part V)
Table 3.11 (b).
Conventional classification of soils according to the Eurocodes (Appendix B of Standard NF P94-262)
Table 3.11 (c).
Classification of soil types according to PS 92 (AFNOR 1995)
Table 3.11 (d).
Soil class according to Eurocode 8
Table 3.12.
Summary of correlations between mechanical parameters measured on site, according to Cassan (1988) (unit in MPa)
Table 3.13 (a).
Relations between q
d
, q
c
, p
l
and E
M
(Waschkowski 1983)
Table 3.13 (b).
Practical connections between K
w
and E
V2
Table 3.14.
Other types of summary correlations (in MPa)
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Begin Reading
Index
End User License Agreement
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To my mother, Fatima Ezohra.
To Leïla-Marie, Michaël-Hassen,
To Hajer, Thérèse, Siwar, Catherine and Yannick.
To my brothers and sisters.
To all my friends
from Dieppe to Velaux,
from Tunis to Gabès.
This book is dedicated to the memory of my father Salem Dhouib, Hassen Ben El Hadj Salem Dhouib (my grandfather, the wise one), Hélène Dyerick-Urbanski (my second mother in France, the generous one), Pierre Bertin, the Oranais, my friend and brother always, and to Christiane Bertin-Guigues, friend and mother for eternity.
Series EditorGilles Pijaudier-Cabot
Ammar Dhouib
English edition first published 2022 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
French edition published by Presses de l’École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, France
1st edition © Presses de l’École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées 2016
2nd edition (revised and updated) © Presses de l’École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées 2021
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:
ISTE Ltd27-37 St George’s RoadLondon SW19 4EUUK
www.iste.co.uk
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030USA
www.wiley.com
© ISTE Ltd 2022The rights of Ammar Dhouib to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s), contributor(s) or editor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of ISTE Group.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022941482
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78630-775-0
Cover images: Photo 1 (background image): VINCI Construction Terrassement (VCT) earthworks site on a railway line. Photo by Pascal Le Doaré (supplied by photographer for a fee). Photo 2 (top center): Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas vertical-lift bridge in Bordeaux, France. Photo by Richard Nourry (courtesy of photographer). Architect: Cabinet Lavigne (MM. Charles and Thomas Lavigne), Groupement entreprises (VINCI) – Representing Jean-François Roubinet. Project owner: Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux (CUB). Photo 3 (middle right): Institut Gustave Baguer, Asnières sur Seine, France. Photo by Augusto da Silva (courtesy of photographer). Entreprise: GTM BATIMENT VINCI – Representing Jean-Yves Cojean, President. Photo 4 (bottom right): Pavilion of Michel and Camille Richaud, Velaux, France. Photo by the author. DR M. & Mme Richaud. Photo 5 (bottom center): Shielded trench with horizontal struts. Photo by the author. VINCI Construction France site (DR VCF). Photo 6 (bottom left): CMA Tower, Marseille, France. Photo by Govin Sorel (courtesy of photographer). Architect: Zaha Hadid.
This book is the work of a practicing engineer who has spent more than 30 years in the field of geotechnics applied to construction works. It is therefore already the result of a whole range of experiences, made up of numerous studies and works, as well as research, university chairs and publications in this discipline.
Ammar Dhouib, who received his doctorate in soil mechanics from the University of Lille in 1987, has since acquired extensive experience from design offices and companies specializing in geotechnics (Terrasol, Fondasol, Louis-Ménard, Solen and Keller Fondations Spéciales). He is currently chief engineer and geotechnical expert at VINCI Construction France, assisting and consulting for subsidiaries of the VINCI Construction group.
In addition to all of the studies he has carried out for foundations or other geotechnical works, he is also known for having jointly published a book in 2004 with Jean-Pierre Magnan and Philippe Mestat, on the improvement of soils in situ and another book in 2005 with Francis Blondeau, on stone columns.
The present work by Ammar Dhouib has the advantage of being both comprehensive and detailed while remaining quite traditional in its presentation. It includes 12 chapters ranging from the definition of soils, their surveys and the determination of geotechnical parameters to the design of structures (foundations and retaining walls in particular, tunnels do not come under such scrutiny). It is worth noting that there is an important chapter devoted to the effects of water in soils, which we know can lead to damage and failure when not all aspects of a geotechnical structure have been properly studied. As for the chapter on soil improvement, it was only natural that it should be included, given both the author’s knowledge in this field and the importance that this aspect now has in the foundations of construction works.
This book also presents very instructive elements for all those interested in geotechnics. These are the practical applications and examples given at the end of each chapter to illustrate and explain the principles, as well as the difficulty of geotechnical sizing. The author presents real cases that have been measured, which allow the sizing to be compared with reality.
This method is not new, it is the so-called “observational method”, generally reserved for complex or large structures, for which it is necessary to avoid any disruption. The author also shows cases of excessive deformations, or even the beginnings of failure in structures and gives the causes.
Ammar Dhouib’s book therefore appears to us to be of interest to a wide range of geotechnical scientists, from students to qualified engineers, including building owners, project managers and court experts.
Philippe Guillermain†1
François SCHLOSSER
1
Philippe suddenly passed away on May 7, 2016, without being able to attend the presentation ceremony of the first edition of the book on September 16, 2016, at the FNTP.
“Geotechnics is at the heart of our projects” – is this just an idea or an irreversible “truth” of the moment? It is indeed the current “reality” because, nowadays, “good” soils are becoming rare, projects are more complex and regulations are more developed.
Good sites are rare. Between industrial wastelands and marshy grounds, the soil is often aquiferous, soft or compressible, and its significant deformations under the weight of the works often become, in this context, incompatible with the allowable displacements of the structure.
The projects are complex, ranging from towers of several dozen or even several hundred meters in height, sometimes located in the middle of sensitive existing structures, to deep excavations (70 m for the open excavation of the ODEON tower in Monaco), bridges in aquatic sites (Normandy Bridge in France, Charílaos Trikoúpis Bridge in Rion Antirion Greece) and tunnels in soft soils and sensitive urban environments (the tunnel under the city of Toulon is a perfect example).
Regulations have undergone considerable development and are becoming more and more demanding because of the new French and European standards, such as the standardized geotechnical missions and the “Eurocodes”.
Limiting ourselves to sizing the foundations within this framework, both with rigor and common sense, is no longer sufficient in the face of today’s requirements of quality, conformity and respect for deadlines and budget, on the one hand, and safety and environmental imperatives on the other hand.
The geotechnical engineer must think of alternative foundation solutions, size them and optimize them with four points in mind: to ensure the quality, solidity, stability and durability of the structure. The geotechnical engineer will seek substantial savings on the foundations for the company and the client, and will be concerned with societal and sustainable development criteria.
This book is dedicated to students, engineers in design offices and companies, legal experts in geotechnics, insurers and financiers. It exposes the fundamental bases of soil mechanics, and illustrates and develops practical examples in the fields of geotechnics, in the broadest sense. In these fields, the geotechnical engineer can propose, study and justify foundation variants by replacing, for example, piles by soil improvement, in order to make the best use of the properties of the ground, and therefore of natural resources. The man of art will propose alternative design solutions to retain structures and ensure the stability of the excavations and existing constructions. These alternative solutions are calculated, optimized and justified by various approaches of analytical calculations and numerical modeling in deformation, which are undergoing major developments. The geotechnical engineer must also understand better risk management, whether related to soil defects or to the new requirements of modern projects.
Pascal LemoineEric Durand
In the foreword to this book, Pascal Lemoine of the Fédération Nationale des Travaux Publics (French National Federation of Public Works, FNTP) and Eric Durand of the Fédération Française du Bâtiment (French Building Federation, FFB) wrote: “Geotechnics is at the heart of our projects”!
The term “Geotechnics” is new, but geotechnics itself is not, as our ancestors have always known how to “integrate” soil and foundations together in order to build bridges to cross rivers, roads to bring cities closer together, dams to irrigate plains and buildings to house the peoples of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
Without looking in the “Grand Larousse” or the “Petit Robert”1, geotechnics can have many definitions and is based on many rules. We happily acknowledge some of them:
– Geotechnics is a “marriage” between soil and foundation; this marriage can only be successful when the soil is “healthy” and in good condition, and the foundation is not overly constraining, so as to ensure the quality, solidity, stability and durability of the structure.
– Like medicine, geotechnics requires targeted and adapted investigations, where the soil must be examined well and carefully identified geologically, and mechanically characterized well. The geotechnical engineer can then establish an accurate diagnosis and suggest basic rules to design and size their project, like a doctor who issues a prescription in order to cure their patient.
– Geotechnics is directly related to the place where the geotechnical engineer is located, like the farmer who loves their land, meditates on it, ploughs it and sows it. The engineer is attached to their projects to establish them in the ground, while seeking to optimize the foundations of their project, keeping in mind the safety of the men and women during construction (the work phase), the stability and durability of the work over time and the safety of people who will live there from far or near (the service phase).
– Geotechnics is not an exact science; it resembles the art of “cooking”, a very refined and elaborate cooking, rich enough to be the most beautiful of practical sciences that allow engineers to excel over time, like how soil strengthens by “aging” and how cooks become real “chefs” after trying many recipes, concocting new dishes and serving many meals.
That being said, there is no geotechnics without soil mechanics, continuous media mechanics and resistance of materials. Like human beings, soil is very complicated and complex, in other words, “vicious”2, because:
– soil has many parameters to be identified, recognized and classified: its moisture content, plasticity, grain size and surrounding voids, compressibility, creep, cohesion and friction;
– soil has several behaviors: inelastic, viscoelastic, plastic, dilatant and contracting, swelling and shrinking and subject to creep over time under constant stress;
– it is sensitive to the water that circulates within it and to external agents (chemical aggression, frost and water circulation) that can destabilize its structure (gullying and collapse) and cause it to evolve over time (swelling, shrinking and creep);
– the soil is subject to all kinds of anomalies. Natural anomalies include pockets of dissolution (e.g. gypsum, which dissolves like sugar3), karsts, “collapsible”4 soils, etc. Examples of artificial anomalies are underground quarries, marl pits in Normandy, catiches in the North of France and so on.
Through studies and the elaboration of projects, university chairs, conferences and national and international congresses, we noticed that practicing engineers, students, pupil-engineers, beginners and even young experienced engineers have difficulty in understanding the meaning of geotechnical parameters. They do not master the methods which are used to determine these parameters, nor the way to use them in simple methods of calculation and dimensioning. They have not mastered how to introduce them in more complex models using, for example, modeling and calculations in finite elements (“CESAR-LCPC”, “FLAC-3D” and “PLAXIS”), in finite differences, by the boundary method, or even in software of traditional rupture calculation like “TALREN”, or in retaining structures software based on the principle of the coefficient of reaction like “RIDO”, “PAROI”, “DENEBOLA-LCPC” or “k-Réa”. Some young people, with their infatuation with computers, have good mastery of computer software and great speed in building complex geometric models, and use results that are sometimes erroneous because of a bad choice of parameters or the models are inadequate to accurately describe and follow the behavior of the soil, which can indeed be very difficult, very complex and very “vicious”.
Works dealing with geotechnics are relatively numerous in France. The four volumes of this book constitute, first and foremost, a practical and useful guide for beginners or experienced engineers, for students and student-engineers, for project managers and for insurance and justice experts specialized in Geotechnics: Section C125-SOL (soil).
Resulting from conferences in national and international congresses and symposiums, at multiple university chairs of its author, at the Ecoles polytechniques de Lille, d’Orléans et de Paris Sorbonne (Polytechnic Schools of Lille, Orleans and Paris Sorbonne), at the Ecole centrale de Lille (Central School of Lille), at the Ecole Nationale des Ingénieurs de Tunis (Higher National Engineering School of Tunis, ENIT) and the universities of Tunis, at the Hassania School in Casablanca, Morocco, and at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, this book in four volumes is largely enriched by several practical applications, generally resulting from concrete projects studied by the author and his collaborators and/or his students in end-of-study works, from TERRASOL, via FONDASOL and SOLEN, to VINCI. Applications and projects are marked by the the author’s own practical experience, since 2007, of judicial expertise before judicial and administrative courts.
Developed between 2008 and 2021, and then taken up again before being further enriched by a specific chapter related to Geotechnical Expertise for its re-edition, this book in four volumes is articulated in four main themes:
– Definition of the soil, choice of the geotechnical parameters and methods of their determination, mainly from tests and investigations on site, and incidentally from laboratory tests.
– Fundamental relations and laws of soil behavior, ranging from elastoplasticity (simplistic hypothesis because the soil is not elastic) to soil creep, making it possible to understand the formulations introduced in the calculation and numerical modeling software that continues to develop in the field of “modern” geotechnics.
– Applications to foundations, retaining structures, backfill and embankment, soil improvement and underground structure projects, with a reminder of the simple physical rules and an introduction to the various standards, references and rules in place: from the DTU, via the leaflets, to the Eurocodes; references are compared, analyzed and commented on, particularly in Volume 3, Chapters 1 to 3, which is dedicated to the foundations of construction projects.
– Feedback: by means of “what not to do” where, at the end of the chapter, as well as in the new Chapter 3 in Volume 2, entitled “Geotechnical expertise”, some cases of litigation and claims due to several factors are presented: bad studies, unfinished or even erroneous design, lack of follow-up and control of the execution, bad execution, not to mention in some, fortunately relatively rare, cases encountered in particular in judicial expertise, “fraudulent execution (poor workmanship and/or non-execution)”.
First of all, we wanted to present all the geotechnical parameters involved in the calculation and dimensioning of structures, as well as simplify the basic principles and fundamental relations of soil mechanics, then to present and comment on an overview of practical project examples that is as complete as possible, in order to best cover the field of geotechnics applied to construction projects. This is a vast field that is both simple and complex, and is not simplified by the recent European codes, called “Eurocodes”, and the new national application standards (NAN) of Eurocode 7, which are deliberately only referred to in the applications in order to make using this book as easy as possible. We consider that a student, a beginner or even an experienced engineer, as well as a project manager or a building expert focused on geotechnics, will easily understand the meaning of a safety coefficient of 3 on the point and 2 on the skin friction when sizing a pile, before encountering Eurocode errors and the NAN of Eurocode 7 where “partial” weighting factors and “partial” safety coefficients are linked together, often without any basis. This complicates the approaches, methods and traditional references related to geotechnics.
After the edition and publication of the book on September 16, 2016 by the Presses de l’Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, under the aegis of the FNTP and the IREX (Institute for Applied Research and Experimentation in Civil Engineering), the FFB, the Compagnie des Experts près de la Cour d’Appel de Versailles (Company of Experts at the Court of Appeal of Versailles, CECAV) and the Conseil Pont Formation, we have received feedback from various readers and users of the book, including observations and opinions that are, on the whole, very positive. We therefore considered it beneficial to re-edit the book, correcting a few “typos” and taking into account some very useful comments. Naturally, the new edition retains the entire framework of the book, but it includes several illustrations and enriches the appendices in almost every chapter.
Thus, at the request of some geotechnical colleagues from design offices and judicial and insurance experts, whose kind messages have delighted us, we have written and completed the book with a new chapter (Volume 2, Chapter 3) that is simple, rich and well-illustrated, entitled “Geotechnical Expertise”. The purpose of this detailed chapter is to:
– Present, analyze and comment on examples of concrete projects with or without disorder in the context of geotechnical construction projects, and how to search for simple foundation solutions with an objective of “economic realism”.
– Define the bases and focus of the geotechnical expertise ordered by a competent court (known as “judicial expertise”) and the role of the geotechnical expert appointed by this same court, formerly called the “judicial expert” and more recently the “justice expert”.
– Conclude with some general geotechnical information, lessons and rules to remember.
Volume 2, Chapter 3 is intended to enrich and give the book a truly practical aspect. It is a repository for feedback from daily geotechnical work and expertise that deserves to be exposed to the young engineers and geotechnical experts of the current and future generations.
Contrary to the first version, each volume of the new edition concludes with an index in order to make the use of this book, and the search for technical information in the 12 chapters and 1,100 pages, easier and more convenient.
1
These are the two most well-respected French language dictionaries, the equivalent of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary.
2
The term “vicious soil” or “soil defect” is particularly used by judges and lawyers to designate an anomaly, a hazard, a “new fact” detected in the soil by the project actors. The term “defect” is often an argument put forward by lawyers to defend their clients in legal expertise in order to specify that, for example, the anomaly encountered in the soil is a hazard, and therefore a “defect” inherent in the soil.
3
Gypsum glows in the sun (
Figure 1.12
in Volume 1,
Chapter 1
) and dissolves in water within minutes like sugar, hence the term “saccaroid gypsum”.
4
“Collapsible” soils are a recent discovery in the big disaster (without end) of the Grand Littoral in Marseille where, following the collapse of the foundation piles, it was noted that the soils, applied under the same loading constraint, undergo deformations by the imbibition effect.
Our first thanks go to VINCI, in particular VINCI Construction France, its management and staff throughout France and around the world, who have enabled us to work, from the call for tender to the “turnkey” handover, on diverse and varied, and sometimes exceptional, projects with men and women who count.
The Entrepreneur’s Tribune, which introduces the book, testifies to the interest shown by the FNTP, represented by Pascal Lemoine, and the FFB, represented by Eric Durand, in the completion and publication of this work. To these two federations, pioneers of the construction industry in France, and to their representatives Pascal Lemoine and Eric Durand, we extend our sincere thanks.
The Compagnie des Experts près la Cour d’Appel de Versailles (Company of Experts at the Court of Appeal in Versailles, CECAV) has warmly accompanied us in the presentation of the book. We extend our deepest thanks to its president, Anne-Marie Pruvost-Paris, and to all of its members.
We would also like to thank Professor François Schlosser, our ENPC “Master” at TERRASOL since 1984, and Philippe Guillermain, our sponsor at the courts since 2007, for writing the preface for this book and enriching the text with their valuable advice.
Mr. Louis Demilecamps, former director of the Direction des Ressources Techniques et Développement Durable (Technical Resources and Sustainable Development Department, DRD) at VINCI Construction France, has encouraged us since 2008 and has energetically contributed to the publication of this book. We would like to send our warmest thanks.
A special thought goes out to Michel Khouri, who advised us for a long time to deepen the relations between soil and structure through the reinforcements to be introduced in the concrete of piles, footings, rafts and retaining walls.
Many people have contributed in one way or another through their end-of-studies work, internships and direct collaboration. We give our sincere thanks to all of them here: Cécilia Guibert, Sophie Jacquemin, Thomas Defoy, Olivier Payan, Grégoire Priol, Benjamin Leroi, Lina Bawji, Marilyse Dupraz, Sophie Lelièvre, Ludovic Boucaux, Anne Cotte, Isabelle Decker, Joan Mimica, Karim El Jouhari, Jihane Laboudi, Hélène Roulet, Fabienne Magnon, Laurence Oettli, Laurent Soyer, Bilge-Beryl Aksoy, Annouar Siala, Paul Lacrampe and Jese Andriamboavonjy.
ISTE’s translation, production and editing teams have shown great professionalism in the work accomplished in close collaboration and synergy with the author for the preparation of the four volumes of this book. The author would like to thank them very warmly and sincerely.
There are many warm and kind testimonies, spoken and/or written, received after the publication of the 2016 book. We would like to thank (in alphabetical order): Mr. Alba Jean-Michel (SOL-ESSAIS), Mr. Bataille Arnaud (ESIRIS), Mr. Brulé Stéphane (Ménard), Mr. Caporali Pascal (SOL CONSEIL), Mr. Delhomel Alain (SNCF), Mr. Fourmentraux Hugues (President of VINCI Construction France), Mr. Gallet de Saint-Aurain Jean-Marc (SEMOFI), Mr. Gambin Michel, Mr. Guichet Richard (BEFES Fondations & Structures), Mr. Huillard Xavier (President of VINCI), Mr. Llobet Lionel (COFEX-VINCI), Mr. Schmitt Pierre (SOLETANCHEBACHY), Mr. Jérôme Stubler (President of VINCI Construction), Mr. Tadbir Eric (GINGER CEBTP), Mr. Henry Thonier, Mr. François Vahl and Mr. Jérôme Varillon (VINCI Construction Terrassement).