This year’s AGS Annual Conference, returned to the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham. The Annual Conference was the first AGS face-to-face event since January 2020. The day was a great success and well attended by 132 delegates.

The presentations covered a range of geotechnical and geoenvironmental topics which were well received. The conference was chaired by AGS Chair, Sally Hudson.

The keynote speaker, Luke Swain of Network Rail presented on the importance of Geo Engineers in the response to the symptoms of a changing climate, including looking at climate change and why Geo Specialists are so critical to the response.

Julian Lovell of Equipe Group provided an update on the Third Edition of The UK Specification for Ground Investigation (Yellow Book) and the major changes involved within the third edition. The third edition is due to be published within the first quarter of 2022. Helen Townend of Amey Consulting gave a presentation on building inclusion, showing how it can appeal to the next generation and the benefits experienced of operating in an inclusive way. Duncan Scott of Vertase FLI provided a presentation on landfill reclamation, looking at landfills in the UK and how old landfills can be reclaimed. Ian Webber of Coffey Geotechnics discussed misuse of monitoring and testing. Ian used case histories to provide details on lessons learnt.

The final talk of the day was provided by Clare Brint of Network Rail, who presented on Earthworks Asset Management at Network Rail (Eastern Region). Clare provided details of how the team operate to fully understand the risks from different hazards and how they mitigate the risks by predicting, preventing and responding.

All the AGS Working Group Leaders delivered updates on what they have been working on over the past year.

Special thanks to this year’s speakers; Sally Hudson (AGS Chair and Coffey Geotechnics), Luke Swain (Principal Route Engineer (Geotech), Network Rail), Julian Lovell (Managing Director, Equipe Group), Helen Townend (Technical Director, Amey Consulting), Duncan Scott (Technical Director, Vertase FLI Ltd), Ian Webber (Manging Director, Coffey Geotechnics Limited) and Clare Brint (Route Engineer, Eastern Region, Network Rail).

Special thanks also to this year’s sponsors and exhibitors.

The speaker presentations can be viewed on the AGS website HERE.