Geotechnical engineering is strongly associated with significant uncertainties and risks. Geotechnical issues are an essential part of the project for practically every civil construction works. Difficulties occur during the construction when the discovered conditions differ from the result of the earlier geotechnical investigations. Contractual arrangements are often clear about which party is responsible for unforeseen ground conditions but definitions of what ground conditions will be contractually considered as unforeseen are often vague; time-consuming and expensive disputes, claims, overwhelmingly higher costs, time delay in the construction, are the consequences. All stakeholders are increasingly interested in developing contractual tools to better manage and fairly allocate the geotechnical risks. The Geotechnical Baseline Reports (GBR) is a document which establishes contractual interpretations of expected geotechnical conditions. The main purpose of the GBR is to set clear representative “baselines” for geotechnical conditions expected to be encountered during construction, and thereby serve as a basis for administering the contract. The use of GBR to manage “geo” risks in tunnelling has developed over the course of three decades and has become a frequently accepted practice. Extension of the GBR model to non-underground projects has the potential to be an effective and impartial means of managing geotechnical risks.
Subjects: geotechnical uncertainties, geotechnical risk, baseline, risk allocation, contract
Author: Andrea Antiga
Publisher: DFI, EFFC