Taylor DaCanal, Timothy D. Stark, George Chammas and Nick Melvin after the presentation at Penn Brewery North Shore.

The Pittsburgh Geo-Institute Chapter held its February 23, 2023 meeting at the historic Penn Brewery. The dinner event was attended by 43 practitioners. The meeting featured G-I 2023 Cross-USA lecturer Timothy D. Stark, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE, from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who spoke on “3D Slope Stability Analyses in Practice”. Dr. Stark presented an overview of 3D limit equilibrium slope stability methods, slope width/height ratios where 3D analyses are significant (greater than 6), new 3D software, and four examples of practical uses of 3D stability analyses. In particular, field case histories were presented to illustrate the use of a 3D analysis in inverse stability analyses of slope failures, modeling variable shear strength conditions, accommodating anisotropic geosynthetic reinforcement in factor of safety (FoS) calculations, and slope stabilization techniques using drilled shafts and shear walls. The audience asked many questions throughout the presentation and shared their slope stability experience, which brought a fresh appreciation of the intricacies of slope stability analyses.