The coastal town of Wollongong in Australia’s state of New South Wales was host to the International Conference on Ground Improvement and Ground Control from 30 October to 2 November. This was an opportunity for world experts and geotechnical engineers to gather at the University of Wollongong to share their experiences and research.

Among the presenters of this conference was Serge Varaksin from Menard and the current chairman of ISSMGE TC211 Ground Improvement Committee. Serge, together with his co-author Babak Hamidi, GFWA’s marketing manager, presented the special guest lecture titled “Ground Improvement Case Histories and Advances in Practice“. Babak who is also a member of TC211 and Australian Geomechanics Society (Western Australia) committee member presented two other papers with Serge titled “Construction of Raw Sugar Silos using Dynamic Replacement” and “Application of Dynamic Compaction in a Project with Smart Acceptance Criteria“.

Philippe Vincent, technical manager of Menard Bachy, and Kenny Yee, Regional Director of Menard Asia, were also at the conference. Kenny presented an invited paper titled “Ground Reinforcement in Deep Water“. Philippe presented another invited paper titled “A Case Study of Ground Improvement using Semi-Rigid Inclusions for Breakwater Road Bridge” (a CMC project in Victoria).

Menard Bachy who has historically been a strong supporter of geotechnical research and events supported this conference as well by becoming a platinium sponsor. Michal Krzeminski, Menard Bachy’s design manager, was personally at Menard Bachy’s stand and replying the technical questions that were asked by the conference participants.