Geotechnical Engineering
Derek is a peer recognised leader in Geotechnical Engineering and provides expert witness and expert advisory services.
Derek is the Director and founder of the specialist geotechnical consulting company Remedy Geotechnics and prior to this gained over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry including being a Technical Director for the specialist geotechnical contractor Keller Ltd., Principal Geotechnical Engineer for the global consulting firm Atkins and past chairman of the Technical Committee of the Federation of Piling Specialists (the UK industry body for foundation contractors).
He has published nearly 30 technical papers covering a wide range of geotechnical engineering topics. He was a Principal Author for the 3rd Edition of the Institution of Civil Engineers’ Specification for Piling and Embedded Retaining Walls (2017). Between 2011 and 2015 was the Federation of Piling Specialists’ representative on British Standards Committee, B/526 Geotechnics and the Lead UK representative on the European standards committee for Execution of Special Geotechnical Works (CEN TC/288). Derek also sat on steering groups for two CIRIA guides, ‘Infrastructure embankments condition appraisal and remedial treatment’ (2003) and ‘Unexploded ordnance (UXO): a guide for the construction industry’ (2009).
As well undertaking expert work Derek practices as a consulting geotechnical engineer. His professional skills centre on strong geotechnical analytical and design abilities, complemented by a thorough understanding of the influences that construction methods have on final foundation performance.
UK Piling – Piling Expert for second defendant, settled in favour of client at mediation
Scotland, Quay Wall Sheet Piling construction dispute – Expert advice to Principal Contractor on failure of their designer to identify variation in ground conditions which led to significant delay and cost overrun (>£1M). Expert advice used in contractual negotiations.
Kazakhstan, Concrete Pre-cast Piling tolerance non-compliance – Expert advice to piling contractor on causes and mitigation of out of position piles on an oil field development (>£1M). Advice led to technical resolution of the site issues encountered.
London, Piled Retaining Wall construction/design dispute – Expert advice to the piling contractor on the causes of retaining wall deflection which resulted in a claim (~£55k). Advice used to the piling contractor’s advantage in final account negotiations.
London, West Hendon, Ground Anchors – Expert advice for client on testing and use of ground anchors to support a contiguous pile basement retaining wall.
Offshore Wind Farm Sub-station, Lancashire, Deep Soil Mix Columns – Expert advice on quality control testing of soil mix columns for client and Principal Contractor (~£1M). Advice used by the client in contractual negotiations with sub-contractor relating to defective workmanship.
Dockyard, Plymouth – Expert advice for Contractor on design and testing of temporary ground anchors to support a dock wall refurbishment for a contract dispute claim. Expert report used to substantiate a successful claim for additional time for this element of the overall project.
River Severn Intake Structure – Expert advice for the Principal Contractor regarding a dispute with a Sheet Piling Sub-contractor relating to the faulty design and construction of a cofferdam located within the River Severn. (>£1M). Expert report provided for dispute resolution, where the sheet piling contractor and client reached a mutually acceptable settlement.
London, Deep Sewer Interceptor Chamber – Expert advice to the Contractor regarding a dispute with their sheet piling Sub-contractor relating to their defective workmanship in construction a steel sheet pile cofferdam. (~£1.3M). Adjudication found in favour of client and that the sheet piling Sub-contractor was deficient in their workmanship.
Columbo, Sri Lanka – Expert advice for an Indian Contractor on the drivability of sheet piles to form 8m to 19m deep excavations for deep sewerage pumping chambers. (~£10M). Expert report and cross examination for Arbitration Tribunal.
Derby, Secant Pile Basement for Nuclear Manufacturing Facility – Expert advice to the Contractor regarding a dispute with their Client relating to the design and suitability of continuous flight auger piling to form a basement construction (~£1M). Dispute ongoing.
Northumberland Industrial Site – Expert advice for litigation where my client (Defendant) was required to defend their method of creating a development platform arising from the placement of 250,000m3 of earthworks. Production of Expert’s report, joint Expert’s meeting and joint report. Parties agreed to settle before final litigation proceedings.
2009 – Institution of Civil Engineering, Crampton Prize for best geotechnical paper, ICE Journal Geotechnical Engineering.
1996 – Royal Academy of Engineering/British Council scholarship for secondment to Japan studying Japanese Construction Industry business practices.
1992 – RM Davies memorial prize awarded for work during industrial training with Anglo American Corporation, South Africa.
Egan, D., Merrifield, C M. “Modelling of High Pressure Grouted Compaction Anchors” Proc. Int. Conf. Ground Anchorages and Anchored Structures, Anchors ICE, 1997.
Egan, D “The Modelling of Compaction Ground Anchors” PhD, University of Manchester, 1997.
Egan, D, Snell, T “Cost Effective Design and Construction of Embankment Stabilisation Schemes to a Performance Specification”, Proc. 1st. Int. Conf. Railway Engineering, Engineering Technical Press, 1998.
Egan, D, Merrifield, C M “The Use of Miniature Earth Pressure Cells in a Multi-Gravity Environment” Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Centrifuge Modelling, Tokyo, A.A Balkema, 1998.
Egan, D. Rudrum, M.D. “The Performance of Embankment Stabilisation Measures”. Proc 3rd Int. Conf. Railway Engineering, Engineering Technical Press, 2000.
Egan, D “Earthworks Management: Have we got our designs right?”. Proc. Conf. Earthworks Stabilisation Techniques and Innovations”. Network Rail 2005.
Egan, D “The Disadvantages of Designing to a Blanket Factor of Safety” Proc. 9th Int. Conf. Railway Engineering, Engineering Technical Press. 2007(a).
Egan, D. “The Ground – How Structural Engineers can Manage the Risk”. The Structural Engineer. Vol 85, No. 22 November, 2007(b).
Egan, D. “CPT Testing for the Design & Implementation of Vibro Replacement Ground Improvement” Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Site Characterization, Taipei, Taiwan, 2008.
Egan, D., Bell, A.L., & Gavins, M.R., “Factors Affecting the Design and Construction of High Capacity Minipiles”. Proc. 2nd BGA Int. Conf. Foundations. Vol 1. pp 101-111. 2008.
Egan, D., Scott, W. & McCabe, B. “Observed Installation Effects of Vibro Replacement Stone Columns in Soft Clay” Proc. 2nd. Int. Workshop Geotechnics of Soft Soils. p.p23-29. 2008.
Egan, D. “The Ground: Clients Remain Exposed to Unnecessary Risk” Proc. ICE. Geotechnical Engineering 161, August. 2008.
McCabe, B.A., Killeen, M.M & Egan, D. “Challenges Faced in 3-D Finite Element Modelling of Stone Column Construction” Proc. Symposium on Bridge & Infrastructure Research in Ireland. 2008.
McCabe, B.A, Nimmons. G.J. & Egan, D. “ A Review of Field Performance of Stone Columns in Soft Soils” 2009 ICE Geotech Eng. December.
Egan, D., & Slocombe, B.C “Demonstrating the Environmental Benefits of Ground Improvement”. ICE Ground Improvement, January, 2010.
Slocombe, B.C. & Egan, D., “The Costs Benefits, Constraints and Opportunities in the Provision of Sustainable Ground Improvement”. Int. Conf. Geotechnical Challenges in Urban Regeneration. DFI. London. 2010.
McCabe, B. and Egan, D. “A Review of the Settlement of Stone Columns in Compressible Soils.” Ground Improvement and Geosynthetics: pp. 197-204. ASCE. 2010.
Flynn, K.N., McCabe, B.A. & Egan, D. “Residual load development in cast-in-situ piles – a review and new case history”. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Testing and Design Methods for Deep Foundations. IS-Kanazawa. 2012
Flynn, K.N., McCabe, B.A. & Egan, D. “Axial load behaviour of a driven cast-in-situ pile in sand.” Proc. 7th Int. Conf Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. Chicago. 2013
Egan, D. “The Load Capacity of Driven Cast In-Situ Piles Derived from Installation Parameters”. Proc. Int. Conf. Installation Effects in Geotechnical Engineering. CRC Press. 2013.
McCabe, B. A., Kamrat-Pietraszewska, D. & Egan, D. “Ground heave induced by
installing stone columns in clay soils.” Proc. Geotechnical Engineering, Vol.166 Issue GE. ICE. 2013.
Flynn, K.N., McCabe, B.A. & Egan, D. “Driven cast-in-situ piles in granular soil: applicability of CPT methods to pile capacity estimation.” Proc. 3rd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing (CPT’14). http://www.cpt14.com/cpt14-papers. 2014.
Egan, D. “Real-time validation of driven cast in-situ piles.” Proc. Int. Conf. Piling and Deep Foundations. Stockholm, Sweden. 2014.
Egan, D,. & Mothersille, D. M. “The design of high performance anchored retaining walls within the Eurocode framework”. Proc. 16th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. Edinburgh. 2015.
Raison, C.A. & Egan, D. “Design of piles – United Kingdom Practice.” United Kingdom Delegate Report. Proc. 3rd International Symposium on Design of Piles in Europe. ISSMGE-ETC 3. Leuven, Belgium. April 2016.
Egan, D. “Working platforms for tracked plant – experience from 13 years of best practice”. Proc. DFI-EEFC Int. Conf. Deep foundations & Ground Improvement. Rome. Italy. June 2018.
Egan, D. & Zarharescu, A. “Ground information for pile design in London Clay – A review of current practice”. Proc. British Geotechnical Association, Conf. Piling 2020.
Egan, D., Feest, J.P. & Horgan, G.J. “Comparison of design approaches for working platforms used for piling plant”. Proc. British Geotechnical Association, Conf. Piling 2020.
Egan, D., Zarharescu, A. & Williams, I. “Case study – Development of a practical design for a landslip site using advanced geotechnical software”. Proc. Rocscience Int. Conf. The Evolution of Geotech. 25 Years of Innovation. April 2021
Keller Ltd. 2013-2015 Technical Director
Technical Director for Keller UK, with an annual turnover of £70M, and 500 employees of which 80 were engineers. Responsible for providing up to date technical leadership within Keller UK and through the Engineering Team which provided the full range of geotechnical products and services offered by the company. This role also included responsibility for technical training, production of design guidance, coaching and input into quality procedures for a further twenty or so design-estimating engineers in the operating divisions. Responsible for running the Keller UK Graduate Development Programme (GDP), aimed at recruiting and developing the brightest engineers to take future leading roles within the company. This role included being lead Supervising Civil Engineer for the ICE Training Scheme, supported by another three SCEs and five Delegated Engineers.
As Technical Director I was frequently called upon to represent Keller’s design and engineering strengths to client organisations, by speaking at conferences and seminars, writing technical papers and representing Keller UK to the worldwide Keller community.
Keller, Foundations Division 2005-2013 Chief Engineer
Providing the technical lead in embedded retaining wall, bearing pile and ground improvement design and execution for Keller Foundations Division (annual turnover ~£20M). Directly leading three designers with the added responsibility to set technical standards and provide support to a wider team of six estimator-designers across the division.
Key Achievements: Developing a suite of approximately 25 in-house design guidance notes, integration of EC7 design practice into the company and development of a new piling rig instrumentation and telemetry system to record in real time the installation of Driven Cast In-situ Piles (see Egan, 2013 and Egan, 2014).
Atkins Geotechnics, Leeds. Division 2002-2005 Principal Geotechnical Engineer
A member (later Term Leader) of a 13 strong geotechnical/geo-environmental design group based in Leeds (annual fee income ~£750k). I was responsible for managing the team, bidding for new work and ensuring its completion to agreed timescales and budgets.
Additionally, due to my breadth of knowledge of geotechnical products and their execution, I was asked to take up the position as Atkins Rail as Head of Technology Geotechnics (HOT Geotechnics), providing a nominated point of contact to facilitate cross discipline working between railway engineers and geotechnical engineers throughout Atkins UK.
Key Achievements: Running a 13 strong team of geotechnical and environmental engineers, developing a sustainable work stream through building relationships with key clients (notably Network Rail and the Environment Agency). Breaking down barriers and opening up pathways of communication between project managers and engineers in Atkins Rail and Atkins Geotechnics to facilitate the provision of the right level of geotechnical support into Atkins Rail, strengthening Atkins’ multi-disciplinary offering to its clients.
Keller Geotechnical Division 2001-2002 Design Manager 1997-2001 Senior Design Engineer
Responsible for the division’s estimating and design team for micro pile, soil nailing and anchor solutions (annual turnover ~ £17M). This role involved the evaluation of tenders, allocation of work to the team of estimating engineers, and monitoring work flow against timescales to ensure deadlines were met.
Responsible for the design of competitive design and build solutions for micro piles, soil nailing, anchor and grouting applications.
Key Achievements: Developing my skills and knowledge to undertake appropriate and efficient design work to demanding timescales, along with a strong awareness of the influence of commercial pressures and practical factors on the development of winning solutions.
University of Manchester 1994-1997 Research Assistant & Hazama Corporation, Japan
Responsible as project manager to deliver a 3-year fixed term, EPSRC funded research contract to investigating the behaviour of ground anchors in the large geotechnical centrifuge at the University of Manchester (project budget ~£125k).
Key Achievements: Obtaining a PhD in geotechnical engineering, being awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering/British Council scholarship to undertake research in Japan.
Alfred McAlpine Construction Ltd. 1992-1994 Graduate Engineer
Working as a site engineer for a number of pipeline and long sea outfall projects, and in the office assisting in the preparation of new project tenders.
Key Achievements: Contributing to the safe and timely completion of projects.
Anglo American Corporation of South Africa 1990-1991 Assistant Geotechnical Engineer
Industrial Training placement in the Johannesburg geotechnical design office providing technical support for the operations of the Anglo American and DeBeers Group.