This course provides a deep dive into geosynthetic specifications, their rationale and use, with meaningful recommendations for their successful adoption and the continued education regarding updates.

Why This Course?

Geosynthetics are used in every sector of environmental, civil and geotechnical engineering. They represent the only major class of construction materials invented in the 20th century. Over the past 50 years, the performance, economic and sustainability-related benefits of geosynthetics has made them attractive construction material; yet, they remain underutilized in many applications. Some of this underutilization is related to a lack of experience on engineering teams with how to design with geosynthetics, but one of the true struggles rests with how to properly specify the materials. With many product options in the field, all of which are highly specific to an application, the product selection and contract requirement side of a project can seem daunting. It doesn’t have to be. 

While the procurement of geosynthetic products is based upon strategically selected geosynthetic materials, poorly selected or misguided and unresponsive specifications cause confusion and project delays.  This is further complicated by new and continually developing specifications that are updated due to technical advancement and field experience, while the awareness of these specifications is unknown to the specifier.

The independent, not-for-profit Geosynthetic Institute (GSI) has led the way in the global geosynthetics field by developing material specifications based on their intended application—often advancing these initiatives before consensus-based standardization committees have initiated related work items. Importantly, while GSI’s specifications have historically been developed for manufacturing quality control (MQC), these specifications are often used to inform project-specific material quality assurance (QA) test requirements for engineers and commercial testing laboratories. Additionally, “living specifications” continue to evolve as new geosynthetic materials and applications are developed.

Learning Objectives

Attendees will benefit from:

1. Description of how GRI specifications are developed and maintained
2. Details covering the most utilized GRI specifications, their development and updates
3. Descriptions of the newer GRI specifications and the internal “debates” about required material measurements and criteria.
4. Summaries of related ASTM International and AASHTO specifications and how they relate to GRI specifications
5. The dangers of “copy and paste” when adopting a specification
6. How to stay informed about new and developing specifications
7. The difference between a manufacturer’s certification and a project specific test results
8. A “tour” through specialized specifications for electrical leak location, fire resistant and biodegradable geosynthetics
9. How laboratory proficiency testing and durability research informs geosynthetic material specifications
10. What to do when there isn’t a specification that is responsive to your application