Gordon Elliott, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, an independent consulting engineer in Western Pennsylvania, has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Elliott has over 40 years of experience in the engineering field. After graduating top of the engineering faculty at King’s College, University of London, he started his career with six years of research into the mechanical, thermal and hydraulic properties of rock under Professor E.T. Brown at Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, using state-of-the-art laboratory testing equipment.
Since moving to the U.S. in 1985, Elliott has provided technical and management support and leadership on projects as diverse as the geologic disposal of high-level radioactive waste; slope stability analysis; retaining wall design using ground anchors, soil nails and geosynthetics; design of braced excavations and other SOE structures; rockfall hazard and risk evaluation; foundation design; hard rock tunnel design and rehabilitation; hydrogeologic investigations; landfill design and permitting; health risk evaluation; and other risk assessment studies. Elliott has completed a variety of field assignments involving subsurface investigations, geotechnical field testing and instrumentation, and construction inspection and construction management, and has served as an expert witness in several legal disputes involving slope failures and differing site conditions.
With the establishment of his consulting practice in Western Pennsylvania, Elliott has focused on tunneling, geotechnical engineering, and on the application of risk and decision analysis techniques. He has undertaken projects involving tunnel rehabilitation and ice prevention, tunnel design and construction, temporary shoring and braced excavations, large permanent retaining walls (including anchored walls and soil nail walls), micropile foundations, slope failure investigation and remediation, and risk and decision analysis approaches to siting studies, alternatives evaluations, and probabilistic cost estimating studies.
He is an active member of the ASCE Pittsburgh Section and was invited by the Geo-Institute to be a member of the inaugural group of D.GE recipients. He maintains an informal open-door policy toward young engineers and construction professionals seeking advice on practical aspects of ground support design and construction, and has helped several small communities in Pennsylvania and neighboring states convert underground liabilities into community assets.
His list of notable projects include the Steubenville Retaining Wall in Ohio (on its completion the largest anchored retaining wall in the world); the West Frankfort Storm Drainage Project in Kentucky (winner of an APWA Kentucky Chapter Project of the Year Award, and a $6.2 million tunnel project that was completed on budget and with no construction claims); the Big Sandy Tunnel Rehabilitation Project near Franklin, Pennsylvania (winner of an Innovative Design Award by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy); Voisey’s Bay Tailings Basin Siting study in Newfoundland; Pennsylvania Clearance Project; Consulate Hillside Improvements in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania; David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh; National Road Tunnel in St. Clairsville, Ohio; West Area CSO Project in Atlanta; and Gateway Station S.O.E. in Pittsburgh.
