LMS AGM & May Lecture - Thursday 20th May 2010
AGM starts at 6.30pm
Lecture starts at 6.45pm
Liddiard Memorial Lecture A Tale of Two Towers – Rescuing Pisa and Big Ben
Professor John
Burland CBE, DSc(Eng), FREng, FRS
Imagine a tower, founded on very soft
material and slowly inclining to the point at which it is about to fall
over. Worse still, the masonry is so fragile that it could
explode at any time. This was the state of the Leaning
Tower of Pisa at the time that the Italian Prime Minister set up a
Commission to stabilise the Tower in early 1990. After
years of study and trials, stabilisation measures started in February
1999, using a controversail method of soil extraction from beneath the
high side of the foundation, which brought the Tower back to its
inclination in 1838. Meanwhile
the inclination of the Big Ben clock tower has been influenced by a
number of construction activities. These include the construction of the
underground car park beneath New Palace Yard in the 1970’s and, in the
1990s, the construction of the London Underground Jubilee Line extension
tunnels and the New Westminster Station. The stability of
the clock tower has been controlled by a different but equally novel
method of injecting grout beneath the low side of the foundation.
The two stories intertwine in a fascinating way as Professor
Burland travels between London and Pisa supervising
the stabilisation works on these two famous towers
Venue: Institute of Materials,
Minerals & Mining, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5BD, UK.
Tea & Coffee will be available from 6pm. Free buffet will follow the lecture.
