We apply state-of-the-art technology to obtain the most efficient design for geotechnical and tunnelling projects. We are specialist in the field of applications of 2D and 3D Finite Element Method for tackling complex soil-structure interaction problems. We have experience of more than 35 years in the field of geotechnical and tunnel engineering, leading design teams for major challenging projects in The UK, Europe and Middle East.

1. UUrr--GGeeooTTeecchh
Geotechnical Consultations
November 2015

2. Ur-GeoTech
We apply state-of-the-art technology to obtain the most efficient design
for geotechnical and tunnelling projects. We are specialist in the field of
applications of Finite Element Method for tackling complex soil-structure
interaction problems. We have a solid reputation in finding innovative
solutions for complex geotechnical and tunnelling projects.
We have experience of more than 35 years in the field of geotechnical
and tunnel engineering. We are proud of leading design teams for major
challenging projects in The UK, Europe and Middle East. Our experience
and academic qualifications should enable us providing our clients the
most efficient solution and the value engineering. Our fundamental
business strategy is building long-term client relationships.
Ur-GeoTech offers highly specialized services in geotechnical engineering
design fields such as Foundations of Buildings and Bridges, Deep
Excavations and Retaining Structures, Railways and Highways
Embankments, Tunnels and Micro Tunnelling, Deep Shafts and
Underground Structures, Soil-structure Interaction problems, Assessing
impact of engineering activities, such as deep excavation in urban areas,
on the existing adjacent structures, Geotechnical Forensic Investigation
and Independent Geotechnical Review (Second Opinion).
Thank you for your interest in Ur-GeoTech. Please contact us if you have
any questions or need additional information regarding our services.
For more details see our website: www.Ur-GeoTech.com
Email: mazin.alhamrany@ur-geotech.com
Registered in Holland: KvK-number 63738627

3. Who we are
Dr Mazin Alhamrany, BSc MSc PhD CEng MICE
Dr Mazin Alhamrany, chartered engineer, has over 35 years consultancy
experience in a wide variety of geotechnical problems, leading
geotechnical design teams in the UK, Europe and the Middle East,
including all types of foundations, deep excavations, earth retaining
structures, railway projects, soil-structure interaction problems and
Tunnel design (NATM, TBM and Cut-and-Cover). These have included
leading geotechnical teams in designs for challenging projects in Holland
such as the High Speed Line Project between Amsterdam and Paris,
Metro Line underneath Amsterdam Central Station Building as well as
Project in United Kingdom such as East London Line, upgrading of
Tottenham Court Road Station, Blackfriars Bridge and most recently the
biggest project in Europe Crossrail Project. In addition, we have
intensive experience in Middle East leading teams for design of projects
in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Alhamrany is specialist in the field of applications of the finite element
technique for tackling geotechnical problems. He is a highly experienced
in 2D and 3D finite element modelling.
Dr Alhamrany has undertaken research and teaching in the field of
advanced numerical methods (finite element method) for solving
geotechnical problems and has published several papers on this topic.
Academic qualifications:
1983 – 1986
•Ph.D. Civil Engineering; Soil Mechanics
•Dept. of Civil and Structural Engineering
•University of Sheffield, England
1979 – 1980
•M.Sc. Civil Engineering; Soil Mechanics
•Dept. of Civil Engineering
•University of Baghdad, Iraq
1968 – 1972
•B.Sc. Civil Engineering
•College of Engineering
•University of Basra, Iraq

4. Services
We work with Civil/Structural Engineering Firms to broaden their
technical capability, provide external independent design/design review
and independent checking services; simply to provide flexible resources
capable of dealing with complex soil-structure interaction problems. Our
strength lies in the breadth and depth of our technical expertise which
enables us to provide practical solutions to the most complex challenges
for clients.
Solid theoretical background and engineering judgment together with
our intensive experiences in the applications of 2D and 3D Finite Element
Models should enable us to fulfil our commitment in providing our clients
with the most efficient design and value engineering.
Our services include Design Analysis (and/or Design Review) of the
following:
 Shallow and Deep Foundations, in particular, pile-raft foundation
design,
 Retaining Structures and Deep Excavations,
 Tunnel (TBM & NATM) and micro tunnelling,
 Deep shafts; Circular and trapezoidal shafts,
 Assessing impact of engineering activities, such as deep
excavations, on the existing adjacent structures,
 Earth Embankments of Railways and highways,
 Stability and Settlement Analysis,
 Soil Improvement Techniques,
 Geotechnical Forensic Investigation, and
 Independent Geotechnical Design Review (Second Opinion).
Inviting us for proving you Design Consultancy Services will form the
first important milestone of our strategic long-term business
relationship.

5. Experience
A) United Kingdom
Crossrail Project (Farringdon Station)
Farringdon Station is one of the major central stations to be built and
involves the construction of two 400m long platform tunnels and
associated cross passages with a ticket hall at either end. The West
Ticket Hall (WTH), which will house both Thameslink and Crossrail
Services, includes a Circular Shaft of 15m diameter, a Rectangular Shaft
of 24m by 28m, an Escalator Shaft 9m x 25m and individual 1.2m and
2.1m diameter piles to support the ticket hall and over-site development.
The East Ticket Hall (ETH) includes a Trapezoidal Shaft of approximately
32m by 28m and a further Double Basement with individual 1.2m
diameter piles supporting the ticket hall and another over-site
development as well as works that link with London Underground
Barbican Station. The excavation depth of these shafts is 25 to 30m.
The works include the challenge of installing the 2.1m diameter piles of
the oversite development at the WTH among the tight constraints set by
the new tunnels. The piles have also been designed to carry the negative
skin friction and the bending moments induced from the construction of
the future Crossrail tunnels and the adjacent Shafts.
The impact of constructing deep shafts on existing buildings in the
surrounding area, using 2D and 3D finite element models, has been
thoroughly investigated. Design of Diaphragm walls, secant pile walls
and deep excavations is part of the works.
Our experience can be summarised in leading geotechnical design teams
defining the most appropriate approach of analyses, liaise with wider
project team, define the technical aspects that need to be checked,
ensure delivering optimum design in terms of quality, costs and
constructability, assessing impact of construction on adjacent structures
and services, ensure having the required resources to get job done on
time within the budget.

6. Tottenham Court Road Station Upgrade / Category 3 Check
Leading geotechnical team for carrying out Independent Design Check
involved carrying out 2D and 3D finite element analyses for the design of
the Double Basement, Escalator shaft and Falconberg Shaft as well as
assessing impact of the construction on the existing tunnels and London
Underground assets. A key challenge of this project was the need to limit
deflections in the secant pile walls in order to avoid damage on the
adjacent buildings and roads.

7. East London Line (Dalston Junction)
Leading geotechnical team carrying out foundation design for Dalston,
Hoxton and Shoreditch Stations of the East London Line. The work
included, in addition to the pile foundation of Dalston Station, assessing
impact of constructing Dalston foundation on existing listed buildings as
well as impact of Dalston station as a whole on the proposed future
Crossrail tunnel. Piled-raft foundation has been designed so that
differential settlement between this part and the rest parts of the station
maintained with the tolerable limit. The design involved two rows of
bored piles on each side of the tunnel, topped with pile caps that support
walls carrying the podium slab, the station concourse and the multi-
storey development above. This solution was adopted by the client after
being reviewed and supported by an independent well-established
geotechnical consultancy firm.

8. Blackfriars Bridge 407
Leading geotechnical team for carrying out Independent Design Check
for assessing impact of the construction of a new concrete box structure
on the existing South Abutment of Blackfriars Bridge using 3D Finite
Element Model. The problem under consideration is quite complex
involving a piled raft foundation for the proposed structure as part of the
structure will be founded on the existing abutment of the bridge.
Gerrard’s Cross
Geotechnical Team leader for the independent checking for the design of
the anchored contiguous piles walls to be installed on both sides of the
existing tunnel. Advanced modelling was required to assess the stability
of the anchored contiguous piles, their deflections as well as the bending
moments and the shear forces.
Thames Link Borough Viaduct
Responsible for assessing impact of the construction of the Borough
Viaduct on the existing Northern and Jubilee lines tunnels. The work
included also impact moving loads on existing buried services and LUL
assets.

9. B) Holland
High Speed Line between Amsterdam-Paris, Holland
This was one of the largest European rail projects of recent times. This
project provided the Dutch with a 300-kph railway from Amsterdam
southward to the Belgian border, a distance of 125km at total cost of
around 6.7billion Euros. The strict requirements for this project
regarding the maximum allowable long term settlement including
secondary compression, considering the highly compressible organic soil
of the Netherlands, made the design process of this project a real
challenge.
Key member of the engineering design team for this large European rail
projects of recent times. Assigned to lead the geotechnical design team
for all aspects of project, including tunnelling (Rotterdam Tunnel), deep
excavations and retaining structures using 2D and 3D Finite Element
Modelling.

10. Metro Line Amsterdam, Holland
Responsible for the design work including the metro line underneath
Amsterdam Central Station Building. Beneath the Amsterdam Central
Station an excavation was created for the proposed tunnel. The
excavation width is 18m to a depth of 23m along the whole longitudinal
section of the Station. The design concept was characterised by the need
to apply an innovative technology in the form of the so-called ‘sandwich
wall’. This is a composite wall consisting of two rows of steel piles with a
body of jet grout columns in between. This wall needed to act both as an
excavation retaining wall and also as a vertical bearing wall. The
installation of the wall, within certain specific conditions (limited height,
sensitive historical building, and train station in service), within the
design requirements set in terms of construction tolerance and water
and soil retention, may be regarded as being a pioneering achievement.
Responsible for leading the design team for this challenging project. This
included Finite Element Analysis to predict settlements, deformations
and stresses in the sandwich walls in order to demonstrate that the
proposed works would not damage the historic Amsterdam Central
Station Building.

11. Vertical
force
Horizontal
force

12. Dikes improvement
This project involves taking every necessary measures to improve and reinforce
the existing embankments as well to design new dikes along Waal and Maas
rivers. The rate of construction is specified so that reasonable safety factors for
stability are ensured. The build-up pore water pressures during construction and
also the time required for the dissipation of the excess pore water pressures are
calculated. In many sites and due to the limited time available for construction,
geotextiles and/or soil improvements are applied in order to improve the shear
strength against sliding.

13. C) Middle East
Iraq
A project of 13 berths in Umm Qasr, South of Iraq
The study was focused on, (i) if there is a need to use sand-drains in
order to accelerate the rate of consolidation and so to reduce the time
required for consolidation settlement, (ii) if there is a need for soil
improvement in order to improve the allowable bearing capacity and (iii)
How long should the preloading be applied in order to eliminate all the
primary consolidation settlement, expected under the proposed
permanent loading, plus such amount of secondary compression in order
to reduce a post-construction settlement to tolerable values.
Babylon project, Iraq
The study involved predicting the behaviour of three (30 meter high
earth fill) “mountains” in Babylon ancient city. Two main aspects were
thoroughly investigated; the stability and the settlement. In addition to
these two aspects, the influence of such constructions on the adjacent
ruins was also assessed. Due to the importance of the ruins, suggestions
were given to install inclinometers to monitor the lateral displacements
during construction. It is worth mentioning that the reading-records
were very close to the predicted values which have been calculated by
using a computer program based on finite element method.

14. Qatar
Doha Metro
Geotechnical design team leader responsible for carrying out
geotechnical services for the two packages form the core of the Doha
Metro in the old part of the city. The Red Line South runs from the
Musheireb development south along Al Matar Road to E-Ring Road and
the golden line starts at Airport City North Station, a double width station
runs west to the Musheireb development; on the other side of Musheireb
Station
Abu Hamour
Abu Hamour Surface and Ground Water Drainage Tunnel, Doha –
Geotechnical Director for tender design of a stormed water tunnel and
associated access shafts. TBM segmental lining (main tunnel) and pipe
jacking with micro-tunnelling (connection tunnels) comprise the tunnel
works along the route of the drainage system. Work included feasibility
studies and advance numerical analysis (Strand7) of main tunnel – shaft
junctions. Also responsible for the technical design reports and tender
drawings.

15. Bahrain
Muharraq
Geotechnical Technical Manager responsible for the design and build
project for Muharraq STP and Flow Conveyance project which comprises
construction of a new Deep Gravity Sewer (DGS), 97 shafts and Waste
Water Connection Network (WWCN) extending approximately 16km in
length and will collect flows from the island of Muharraq and future
developments on new land reclamation projects off the East Coast of the
Kingdom of Bahrain.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Riyadh Metro
Riyadh Metro project, a six-line driverless network which will eventually
encompass 177km and 96 stations in the Saudi capital.
Responsible for leading design team for the geotechnical and tunnel
design of the tunnel and the stations, which have been subdivided into
Shallow, Deep and Transfer Stations.

16. United Arab Emirates
Etihad Railway
Etihad Rail’s 1,200 km network will extend across the United Arab
Emirates, from the border of Saudi Arabia to the border of Oman. The
network will run from Ghweifat to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Northern
Emirates with major connecting points in between, including Al Ain and
Madinat Zayed. Etihad Rail will have an extensive national network with
freight terminals, distribution centres and depots located close to major
transport hubs, warehouses, and storage facilities across the UAE,
including Mussafah, Khalifa Port, Jebel Ali Free Zone, Port of Fujairah and
Saqr Port.
The Etihad Rail network will also connect with the GCC network and this
– once fully established – will cover the five GCC countries of The
Kingdom of Bahrain, The State of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, The Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia and UAE.
Responsible for leading design team for the geotechnical works
associated with this project.