Sustainable infrastructure: when geotechnical engineering becomes strategic
This was the key question raised during a panel discussion at GEODAYS 2026 on Tuesday 16 June 2026, attended by several representatives from ABO ERG Géotechnique and ABO GROUP France, alongside the’Geotechnical Trade Union.
What are the benefits of incorporating geotechnical engineering at the earliest stages of a project?
- Minimising risks
- Managing risks
- Optimising the design
- Reducing the carbon footprint
- Extending the structure’s service life
This Balancing sustainability, performance, safety and overall cost is THE key to all infrastructure projects, whether we are talking about roads, railways, dykes, quarries, engineering structures, or even energy or transport networks.
It is all the more so at a time of major events :
- Energy transition
- A new focus on critical materials and minerals,
- Land pressure
- Adaptation to climate change
Because soil management, it also involves managing risks such as their instability, the shrinkage and swelling of clays, groundwater…
Risks that are becoming more acute as a result of climate change.
A talk to remind us that Although its works are invisible, geotechnical engineering IS crucial to ensuring the long-term durability of infrastructure, and, more broadly, any planning, construction or regeneration project.