On January 22-23rd, 2020 in Barcelona, Spain the second technical workshop of the IGS Technical Committee on Barriers was held. Approximately 80 attendees witnessed a two-day series of presentations and discussion periods on new developments and important topics relative to the geosynthetic barrier industry. Led by Event Chairman Kent von Maubauge, the four sessions and discussions captured the current trends and interest items within the industry, presenting cutting edge research and provided a forum for discussion and identification of future research topics. Please contact Boyd for additional information and summaries.

Boyd made a series of visits on South Africa recently visiting engineering and mining firms including Jones and Wagener, Golder, Exxaro and others. The tour included a presentation for the South African IGS chapter, GIGSA and the presentation of a paper at the 17th African Regional Conference of the ISSMGE, and IGS Council meeting was also on the agenda. One of the focuses of the tour was geosynthetic installation quality control – several firms in South Africa are leading the charge to advance the geosynthetics industry with the use of digital QC records. Boyd will return to South Africa in November 2019.

.Boyd Ramsey will deliver a Keynote Lecture and hold two workshop sessions at the upcoming South African Landfill 2019 Conference & Exhibition. The conference will be held at, The River Club Western Cape, South Africa on the 6th and 7th of November 2019. The conference website is linked here: https://iwmsa.co.za/event/landfill-2019-conference-exhibition

The keynote, titled: “Only the strong survive”: Advances and Modernization of Construction Quality Control and Assurance for Civil and Geosynthetic Construction of a modern, durable and sustainable landfill, will be presented in the opening session of the conference. On the second day, two workshops will be held, one focused on case histories and forensic exhumations of geosynthetic materials and a second workshop on geosynthetic capping and closure of landfills.

In late April, Boyd attended a one day geosynthetics seminar presented by the Association Tunisienne Géosynthétiques. The event was held in the capital of Tunis and drew over 100 attendees. This Tunisian organization is a prime candidate for development of a new IGS chapter, part of an IGS initiative to expand the IGS presence in Africa. The one-day seminar was well attended with high quality technical presentations.

Boyd Ramsey lectures at Australian Waste Management event

In late March Boyd gave a set of three lectures at the Australian Landfill and Transfer Station conference held in Brisbane and sponsored by the Australian WMRR association. The talks covered advances in géomembrane barriers, new technologies in geosynthetic installation and a series of case histories, including his recent work on strain hardening as a predictor of geomembrane stress crack performance. All of the talks were well received and it was a very educational and useful conference.