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Doing It Everywhere Does Not Make It Right in Engineering

There is something about engineering. I deliberately say “in engineering” because I do not want arguments from people who are not grounded in engineering practice.

Some matters are beyond general opinion. If you do not follow civil engineering principles, certain practices will naturally not make sense to you.

In engineering, the fact that something is commonly done, or that many people are doing it, does not make it right.

Once a practice is wrong by engineering standards, it is 100 percent wrong. There is no middle ground. No matter the short-term outcome, you cannot achieve a reliable or optimal result from a wrong process.

A clear example is soil compaction.

There is a standard method for achieving proper compaction in roadworks and foundation works. Compaction is governed by three critical factors:

• The layer thickness

• The moisture content of the material

• The nature of the soil

Yet what do we see on many sites?

People fill a foundation from the bottom to the top, sometimes 900 mm, 1.2 m, or even 1.5 m in one operation, and then bring a small compactor to compact it.

That is not compaction. You are compacting zero.

No compactor, not even a large one, can effectively compact a single layer of that height. Engineering standards are explicit. Fill material must be placed in layers of 200 to 300 mm, compacted properly, and then the next 200 to 300 mm is placed and compacted again. That is how optimal compaction is achieved.

Some will argue that adding water and compacting at once works. Yes, you may achieve some level of compaction, but not optimal compaction. And in engineering, some is not good enough.

Engineering is about accuracy, control, and maximized performance. We design and execute to eliminate uncertainty, not to manage failure later.

So when I say a method is wrong, I am not speaking from opinion. I am speaking from engineering principles, codes of practice, and real site experience. This is what I studied. This is what I practice. This is what I know.

The fact that many people do it does not make it right.
Arguing with an engineer does not make it right.

Go back to your code of practice. Check the standards. If what I am saying is not there, then come and debate with me.

I am even willing to host a technical discussion where anyone can explain how optimal compaction can be achieved by compacting 1.0–1.2 m of fill at once with added water.

You cannot.

In engineering, we do not argue with standards.
We go back to the codes.

Let us go back to the code of practice. Period.

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