Sports Stand on Liquefiable Ground

We completed a geotechnical investigation for a new spectator stand to be built at Lansdowne Park in Blenheim. The site was identified as being potentially vulnerable to liquefaction, so a suite of test pits and cone penetration tests were completed to help quantify this risk. The report was delivered less than a week before the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, which initiated widespread ground shaking through Blenheim. Liquefaction was observed to have occurred at the park, with sand boils observed at the surface - one of which had come up through one of the CPT test holes! What a privilege to be able to check your predictions and find they were on the mark!