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The Geo-Institute (G-I) of the ASCE provides the Cross-USA Lecture Tour to local G-I chapters and Graduate Student Organizations as an ongoing program to enhance the prestige of the Geoprofession and local events. The Cross-USA G-I Lecturer is a nominated distinguished geoprofessional that has to visit at least five different U.S. locations during the tour. Dr.Stark provided the host groups with a choice of thirty lecture topics and each group selected the topic to be presented at their location.

Timothy D. Stark, Ph.D.,P.E., a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with an expertise in geotechnical and geosynthetics engineering, was selected by the G-I Local Involvement Committee to be the 2022–2023 Cross-USA lecturer. Dr. Stark says all geoprofessionals are invited and encouraged to attend the meetings because the lectures are geared toward practicing geotechnical engineers and include recommendations for best practices as well as some lessons learned from major projects. He has been involved in a number of projects on these topics, which has facilitated the transfer of his research results to practice.

Dr. Stark says one of the highpoints of the tour for him has been “traveling to many G-I chapters and meeting hundreds of practitioners, students, academicians, contractors and other geoprofessionals. A couple of interesting developments during the Cross-USA Tour include attracting 138 geoprofessionals to the first in-person meeting of the Louisiana G-I chapter and serving as the keynote speaker for a number of regional conferences.”

The Cross-USA Lecture Tour started on September 19, 2022, and continued through early November 2023. The 23 tour stops included Blacksburg, Va.; Hershey, Pittsburgh and Valley Forge, PA.; San Diego, Calif.; Seattle, Wash.; metropolitan New York, N.Y.; Atlanta, Ga.; Ames, Iowa; Jackson, Miss.; New Orleans and Baton Rouge, LA.; Columbus, OH; Tampa, FL, Smithfield, VA, Louisville, KY, and three G-I virtual presentations that are available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAw_li-bQfAWRso-1OwNebw.

During the tour, Dr. Stark discussed case histories such as: fill placement on a slope, toe excavation and deep bedrock landslide, 3D analysis of the Yeager Airport reinforced soil slope failure, and 2014 Oso, Washington Landslide: failure mechanism and runout analysis. He also covered technical topics that include 3D slope stability analyses, design geosynthetic interface strengths for landfill stability, drained soil shear strengths for static slope stability analyses, behavior of textured geomembrane/nonwoven geotextile interfaces, importance of design peer review, drilled shaft integrity testing, a new flow failure assessment procedure for dams and embankments, and the effect of liquids on geosynthetic interface strength and landfill slope stability. Some of these topics will be coming to the FGI Webinar Series in the near future.

Top FGI Headlines for Fall 2023:

- FGI Embarks on Hydropower Foundation Research Project

- FGI Sets Dates for Third Annual Live Online CQA Course & Certification Exam

- Project Spotlight: Hinkle Reservoir Replacement Bottom Liner System, Baffle, and Floating Cover

- Upcoming FGI Webinars

Tim Stark traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina to give a presentation at the periodic geosynthetics conference organized by Chesapeake Containment Systems, Incorporated. This year’s conference is titled: “Geosynthetics 201”.Ryan Kamp opened the conference with a welcome and his presentation titled:“ What are Geosynthetics and What Do They Do?” (see Figure 1). Dr. Stark followed Ryan Kamp with a presentation that outlined the advantages of factory fabricated geomembranes, Columbus Upground Water Reservoir case history, and various design calculators developed by the FGI. Some of the calculators discussed are the factory fabricated Panel Weight Calculator, Pond Leakage Calculator, Geomembrane Defect Leakage Calculator, Installation Cost Comparison Calculator, and anchor trench design calculator.

Dr. Stark’s presentation was followed by an excellent presentation by Ken Daly of WSP and an Illinois alumni titled: “CCR Landfill Reclamation for Beneficial Reuse -Lessons learned and Practical Considerations”. There were a total of ten presentations and a Panel Discussion titled: “Considerations and Constructability for a Waste Containment Facility involving Geosynthetics”. The other presentations were:

·        Performance Examples of a Geomembrane with Integrated Drainage Capabilities-Containment & Closure – Chris Eichelberger of Agru-America

·        Exposed Geomembrane Cover System Applications Utilizing the Wind Defender Ballast System – Elliott Pugh of Wind Defender and Brad DeArment of ICS (see Figure 2)

·        Electrical Leak Location (ELL) – Planning and Preparation – Andrew Colby of BLE (see Figure 3)

·        Best Practices and Considerations for the Infill Components of the Closure Turf System – David Scherbaty of Air Pump East

·        Geosynethetic Performance Testing: Considerations and Analysis – JP Kline of Geotechnics Inc.

·        The Need for Mitigation in Your Containment Project – Andrew Plowman of Varicore Technologies

·        Innovative and Sustainable Engineering Solutions using Huesker Geosynthetics – Vona Ojaruega of Huesker

Dr. Stark tries to regularly meet with members and/or visit the facility of FGI members to better understand each member’s business and how the FGI can provide additional benefit to them. The FGI is an exciting advancement in the geomembrane industry and allows the Institute to focus on flexible geomembranes.

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Summer 2023 Newsletter Features:

FGI Creates New EIA Geomembrane Guideline

Project Spotlight: Tank Liner Replacement for Demineralized Water Storage

Women in Geosynthetics (WIG) Develops New Website

FGI Offering Online CQA Course & Certification Exam Monthly

FGI's Website - #1 Resource for Fabricated Flexible Geosynthetics

The Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) is pleased to welcome its newest manufacturer member, Megaplast USA Inc. Megaplast USA Inc. is a leading supplier of high quality PE films like geomembranes and specialty films including LLDPE & extra flexible films. Megaplast is committed to provide its customers with tailor made solutions that maintain global standards across a plethora of industries. Megaplast USA Inc. is part of the Mega Group based in India, an industrial film and textile manufacturing conglomerate. Megaplast was established in 2007 and expanded its footprint in North America with a warehousing facility in Houston, Texas. The FGI liaison is Dhananjay Phadke, Marketing Manager, who can be reached at dhananjay.phadke@mega-group.inor www.megaplast-us.com. Please help us welcome Megaplast USA Inc. to the FGI!!!!

This month, we’re launching our new ✨Member Spotlight✨ program. Every month, we will honor one of the awesome women in the Geosynthetics industry. This months nomination is Amy Woods with Titan Environmental Containment & Titan USA ! Amy is a Technical Product Manager at Titan Environmental Containment. She has over 20 years of experience working in the geosynthetics field in both public and private sectors including municipal government, consulting and construction supply. She has spent the last 8 years focused on stormwater management and green infrastructure working with Contractors, Engineers and Owners to design solutions for low impact development projects. She is particularly passionate about protecting and enhancing the natural environment and using engineering techniques and new technologies to optimize this. She has managed projects in just about every region within Canada and the US and currently resides just outside of Toronto, Canada with her husband, two children and their new puppy.

Amy was nominated by a fellow WIG member. When asked why we thought she would make a great spotlight, the individual said “Amy was integral to my growth in the geosynthetics industry and really nurtured the idea of maintaining assertiveness in order to achieve growth within the company. I’ve seen Amy handle all types of situations and personalities with extreme grace. She’s such a talented and experienced Stormwater industry leader. The amount of projects that Amy has tackled single handily blows my mind, and she always took the time out to speak with me on a personal level, and get me the material I needed in a timely manner on a professional level.”Awesome work Amy! We’re so lucky to have you a part of our industry and a key WIG member!

If you would like to nominate someone for our member spotlight, please email Jordan Wiechmann at jwiechma@itape.com or Jen Miller at fabricatedgeomembrane@gmail.com.

Spring 2023 Newsletter Topics Include:

• Report from FGI BIennial Meeting
• FGI Online CQA Certification Offered Monthly
• New Carbon Footprint Calculator
• Women in Geo Quarterly Meeting
• Upcoming Webinars

Earth Day officially takes place on Saturday, April 22, 2023. Viaflex, a member of the Fabricated Geomembrane Institute, (FGI) charged each of their locations to participate in Earth Day this year. Therefore, Colorado Lining International, (CLI) a subsidiary of Viaflex located in Parker, Colorado, decided to participate in the Adopt a Flower Bed Program.  Several members of the CLI team adopted a low water use xeriscape garden.  CLI has already completed a thorough cleanup of the site and now plans to plant the flower bed.  In addition, the team has committed to spreading mulch and keeping the garden free from weeds.  Way to go, CLI!!

The Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) is pleased to welcome its newest fabricator, GeoSolutions. GeoSolutions was founded in 1999 on the premise that the market would respond favorably to a solution-centric, customer-driven offering versus a simple material supply house. GeoSolutions is focused on the client’s needs to solve site construction problems with the most recent technologies and products that will save time and money and improve performance. GeoSolutions provides our customers with unmatched geotechnical products and engineering solutions that allow them to successfully complete projects of any size and level of complexity. Their solutions offer value-added answers to traditional problems associated with sitework, stormwater management, erosion & sediment control, and grade separation/earth retention. The company headquarters is in Austin, Texas and their FGI liaison is Tonya Switalski, General Manager of Fabrication, who can be reached at tonya.switalski@geosolutionsinc.com or www.geosolutionsinc.com. Please help us welcome GeoSolutions to the FGI!!!!

On March 2, 2023, Tim Stark visited the replacement liner and floating cover system for the El Toro Reservoir in Mission Viejo, California. This is a joint reservoir project between three water districts that is providing emergency water supply, storage, and cost savings to south Orange County water customers. The reservoir holds 275 million gallons (1.04 billion liters) of potable water.  The reservoir was originally constructed in the 1960’s as an open reservoir.  The first geomembrane floating cover was installed in the early 1980’s. In 2001 a composite geosynthetic liner and reinforced polypropylene floating cover was installed.  After 20 years, the existing liner is being augmented with a new 60 mil (1.5 mm) CSPE geomembrane that is being placed on top of the existing 70 mil (1.8 mm) reinforced polypropylene (rPP) geomembrane, which is still in intimate contact with the underlying subgrade (see Figure1). The resulting bottom liner system is shown in Figure 2.  

The main impetus for the project is replacing the 45 mil (1.1 mm) rPP floating cover system, which had exceeded its service life. The old cover system is being discarded and replaced with a 45 mil (1.1 mm) CSPE geomembrane based floating cover based on a requirement for an extended 30 year weathering warranty and long term material history. The project involves installing about1.1 million square feet (102,000 square meters) of geomembrane for the bottom liner system and about 1.15 million square feet (107,000 square meters) for the floating cover system as well as updating the reservoir interior valves, site drainage piping, and electrical upgrades. Douglas Hilts of Hilts Consulting Group is the design engineer, and the Layfield Group is the fabricator and installer of the liner and floating cover system geosynthetics. This project illustrates the advantages of factory fabricated panels because one panel extends from the top of the reservoir to the floor down slope over 325 feet where it is seamed with floor panels.

Dr. Stark hopes to visit the facilities of all FGI members to better understand each member’s business and how the FGI can provide additional benefit to them. The FGI is an exciting advancement in the geomembrane industry and allows the Institute to focus on all geomembranes that can be factory fabricated.