Interface Friction / Direct Shear Testing & Slope Stability Issues

Richard Thiel, PE is an engineer with 30+ years experience specializing in containment design applications for geotechnical projects, waste containment, secondary containment of fuel, and leach mining applications. He has participated extensively in the feasibility evaluation, permitting, design, and construction of waste facilities and surface impoundments. He is experienced at being an expert witness, performing design peer reviews, economic evaluations, failure analyses, design of liner systems with soils and geosynthetics, leachate management systems including pipelines an pump stations, geotechnical site reconnaissance and resource inves­tigation programs, construction quality assurance (CQA), and assistance in developing state solid waste regulations. He is currently the instructor for the ASCE seminars on containment liner and cover systems design, as well as other courses related to geosynthetics and liner system design. Before his specialization in containment system design, Mr. Thiel participated in the design of several large rock-fill clay-core dams.

Dr. Jeffrey Kuhn, P.E., is the Geotechnical Laboratory Director for TRI/Environmental, Inc. His doctoral work principally focused on alternative/evapotraspirative cover design and evaluation for the EPA, and he performed research with expansive clays for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Prior to joining TRI, he served as a consulting engineer, where he worked on the design and installation of the Circuit of the Americas Formula One Race Track over expansive clays with tight differential movement criteria. Since 2012, he’s led the expansion of TRI’s geotechnical laboratory capabilities and reach within the geotechnical community.