Mark Beastall of Socotec, the recently elected new leader of the Laboratories Working Group, has provided an update on the top issues the Laboratories Working Group discussed at a recent meeting which took place in May 2019.

Validation of a suitable calibration procedure for the Filter Paper used in the BRE4/93 Soil Suction Test
Dimitris Xirouchakis has written a new procedure for the calibration of Filter Papers. This method has been sent to the members of the Laboratories Working Group to trial at their laboratories. The group are looking to discuss the outcomes of trialling this method at their next meeting.

The transition from BS1377 to BS EN17892 & BS EN 13286 (Earthworks testing)
Although a number of laboratories have now been granted accreditation to the BS EN methods, the industry outside of the laboratories seems very slow in the take up; i.e. not appearing in specification / testing instruction. The Laboratories Working Group are concerned about this and are trying to push out information to industry groups that BS1377 methods in their current form will soon be obsolete.

Increasing member participation
The core members of the Laboratories Working Group are all of the opinion that the participant numbers are far too low and attendance at the meetings rarely reaches double figures. It is essential for the future of this Working Group that numbers increase and that a broader (not just labs) attend these meetings to ensure the group are capturing the wider Geo-Environmental sector. The Laboratories Working Group are looking for new participants from AGS members who have a direct interest and influence on specifying / scheduling testing as well as AGS members with laboratories. The Laboratories Working Group are concerned that they are not getting a full picture of issues that AGS members are coming across and as such points of discussion and content of meetings can be limited.

If you do wish to join the AGS Laboratories Working Group, please contact the AGS Secretariat at ags@ags.org.uk.