L&T Lab Sets Record

Setting and breaking records is a way of life at L&T. One of its recent achievements has entered the Asia Book of Records and the India Book of Records.

L&T GeoStructure’s Geotechnical Laboratory at Surat, set up for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR), aka the Bullet Train, has become the record-holder as Asia’s largest geotechnical testing laboratory in terms of soil test types and volume.

Mr Shailesh Patel (Adjudicator - Asia Book of Records)presented the medals and certificates to Mr R Nakkiran (Head - Special Projects), Mr S N Rajan, (Head - Quality), Ms Ratna Mishra (DGM - HR) and team in a felicitation ceremony held at the Soil Testing Laboratory in Surat on 8 June.

The record-breaking laboratory undertakes geotechnical investigation along the 237-km stretch of the MAHSR C4 package. It covers 2,450 boreholes across five sections under difficult terrain conditions and testing of the soil samples.

The laboratory is equipped with automatic and digital testing equipment with accuracies meeting all the mandated provisions.

A typical geotechnical testing laboratory incorporates a single triaxial and consolidation set-up each for testing engineering properties. This lab, on the other hand, has 100 times that capacity! Housing 140 automatic triaxial and 350 automatic consolidation equipment, it is designed and equipped to conduct 3,500 tests a day.

The lab is manned by 180 specially trained technicians who conduct and record the test data that is evaluated, interpreted, and reported by 20 qualified and experienced geotechnical engineers to ensure accuracy and reliability.

Established in July 2021, the lab has tested over 3-lakh disturbed and 14,000 undisturbed soil samples. Disturbed soil samples are those whose natural structure gets changed during the sampling process; undisturbed soil samples are those that retain their natural structure and water content during sampling.

Run in a factory mode, the laboratory’s activities are largely mechanised and standardised to ensure optimum usage of manhours and reduce human error.

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