Practical Rock Engineering

N.p., 2006. — 341 p.These notes were originally prepared during the period 1987 to 1993 for undergraduate and graduate courses in rock engineering at the University of Toronto. While some revisions were made in 2000 these were difficult because the notes had been formatted as a book with sequential chapter and page numbering. Any changes required reformatting the entire set of notes and this made it impractical to carry out regular updates.
In 2006 it was decided that a major revision was required in order to incorporate significant developments in rock engineering during the 20 years since the notes were originally written. The existing document was broken into a series of completely selfcontained chapters, each with its own page numbering and references. This means that individual chapters can be updated at any time and that new chapters can be inserted as required.
The notes are intended to provide an insight into practical rock engineering to students, geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists. Case histories are used, wherever possible, to illustrate the methods currently used by practicing engineers. No attempt has been made to include recent research findings which have not yet found their way into everyday practical application. These research findings are adequately covered in conference proceedings, journals and on the Internet.
It is emphasised that these are notes are not a formal text. They have not been and will not be published in their present form and the contents will be revised from time to time to meet the needs of particular audiences.
Readers are encouraged to send their comments, corrections, criticisms and suggestions to me at the address given below. These contributions will help me to improve the notes for the future.