Collaborations In Geotechnical Engineering: Lessons From The Ballina Bypass And The National Soft Soil Field Testing Facility

Collaboration assists both academics and industry partners to achieve innovations, scientific advancement, and maintain technical competencies. The Ballina Bypass is used here to demonstrate collaboration via an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage project on vacuum consolidation, and to discuss how the lessons learned from the Ballina Bypass led to establishing a national facility in Ballina to field test soft soils. The outcomes of the work at the field testing facility have been transferred back to the industry via an international numerical prediction symposium. The project background, roles, and responsibilities of researchers and industry members are discussed and explained, as are the innovative outcomes, stakeholder benefits, and cultural impacts.