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Chapter 14 — Applications & The Chain of Success

14.1 Putting it together

The preceding chapters are ingredients. This chapter shows how they combine for common project types and closes with Dunnicliff's unifying idea — the chain of 25 links.

14.2 Braced excavations

Typical instruments: strut load cells, wall-deflection inclinometers, ground-movement survey, and piezometers. The goal is to confirm the wall and struts stay within allowable movement and pressure.

14.3 Embankments on soft ground

Settlement (embankment and foundation), pore pressure (to check consolidation and stability), and lateral spread are monitored to confirm the embankment is stabilizing as predicted.

14.4 Embankment dams

Pore pressure (Chapter 6), deformation (Chapter 8), seepage quantification, and — increasingly — automated systems confirm safe performance. See also the Monitoring Dam Performance and Tailings Dam Safety books.

14.5 Excavated and natural slopes

Inclinometers (deep shear), piezometers (pore pressure), tiltmeters, and surface survey track stability; early movement triggers evaluation.

14.6 Underground excavations

Convergence (Chapter 8), rock-bolt load cells (Chapter 9), crown displacement, and groundwater monitor support performance and warn of instability.

14.7 Driven piles and drilled shafts

Load cells, telltales, and strain gages support static load tests and integrity assessment; downdrag and tip load are among the monitored quantities.

Dunnicliff's enduring metaphor: monitoring success is a chain of 25 links from defining the project's need to a reading that informs a decision. The links span planning, procurement, installation, calibration, reading, maintenance, data handling, and people. Break any link and the chain fails. The recipe (Chapter 10) is the chain made operational.

Figure: dunnicliff-chain-25

Figure. Dunnicliff's chain of 25 links - from defining the project need to a reading that informs a decision. Break any link and the chain fails (Dunnicliff, Ch. 10 and 14).

14.9 Key takeaways

  • Instruments combine differently for each project type.
  • Dams, slopes, excavations, tunnels, and piles each have a characteristic set.
  • The 25-link chain unifies the discipline: any broken link defeats the purpose.
  • People, process, and hardware are all links in that chain.