Soft soil engineering in Southeast Queensland

Soft soil engineering has advanced rapidly in Southeast (SE) Queensland in the past half century with collaboration from academics, researchers and practising professionals. Geotechnical engineers in SE Queensland have been a part of this journey which has progressed to the current State-of-the-Art. This paper discusses the evolution of soft soil engineering over the last three decades in SE Queensland, especially field investigations, laboratory testing, instrumentation and monitoring. Most importantly, assessment of geotechnical parameters in setting up of geotechnical models is critical if any design is to be carried out covering soft soil sites. It is the intention of this paper to identify the critical design parameters to deal with compressibility and stability and suggest methods of parameter derivation.