Summary

Many major cities are built on stiff sedimentary clays and the increasing demands for large earthworks, major foundations, deep excavations and tunnels, often in close proximity with each other, stretches our scientific understanding and engineering skills to their limits. The fourteenth Geotechnique Symposium in Print, returned to geo-materials, focusing on the genesis and engineering behaviour of stiff sedimentary clays and was divided into four sessions - Formation and engineering geology of stiff clays; Laboratory and in situ techniques and their interpretation; Engineering characterisation of stiff clay formations and material models; and Engineering in stiff clays. This book includes all the related papers, by leading international researchers, published in Geotechnique along with keynote speeches, informal discussions on key submissions that were presented at the Symposium at the Institution of Civil Engineers on 14 May 2007 and additional papers, published in Geotechnique between 2000 and 2006, which add further insights on the major topics of the Symposium.