By Paul Gorman
At the World Tunnel Congress (WTC) industry experts agreed: the future of geotechnical engineering blends digital tools with sound judgment and cross-discipline insight.
During the May WTC 2025 event, Dr Witold Bogusz, a geotechnical expert and leader in engineering standardisation, shared insights into the crucial links between soil, structure, and software.
His perspective offered valuable guidance for professionals navigating complex geotechnical challenges, and how Bentley and Seequent solutions can help.
At WTC 2025 Dr Witold Bogusz shared powerful insights displaying how Bentley and Seequent tools help tackle complex engineering challenges
Eurocode and design consistency
Dr Bogusz, previously with Jacobs—one of the largest engineering consultancies globally—and now at Bechtel Corporation, emphasised the consistent strength of Eurocodes, the European standards that provide a common approach for the structural and geotechnical design of buildings and infrastructure.
He noted how, in particular, the second generation of Eurocodes had effectively broadened the scope of the existing structural codes – a version that not only ‘enhances harmonisation between substructure and superstructure design’ but ‘fosters coherent modelling and collaboration among engineering teams.’
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Challenges in integration
Integration, however, still presented challenges. Problems could arise when changes made by one team affects another team.
This is especially true on large-scale projects, like a recent one Dr Bogusz was involved with in the United States. The project, a 10-kilometre-long sewage tunnel system, presented a unique set of obstacles.
‘The particular challenge and uniqueness of that project is that it’s constructed in a specific rock mass that locally provides unique challenges,’ he said, adding the ‘number of shafts along the way makes the design quite time-consuming’.
Navigating ground variability
The complexity was compounded by variable ground conditions including limestones of different qualities.
‘In part of the alignment we have a weak limestone, while generally the tunnels are constructed in stronger rock and the extent of that weak limestone affected our design quite a lot,’ said Dr Bogusz.
This is where the conversation turned to the critical role of modern digital tools. To navigate these challenges, his team turned to technology.
‘We used PLAXIS 3D, and I also implemented Python scripting to automate a significant part of that design to provide design optimisation during our work,’ he said.
This approach directly addressed a pitfall he sees among early-career engineers – being skilled in using tools while lacking awareness about input parameters. By automating the analysis of variable ground conditions, the team could rigorously test sensitivities and validate their design choices.
Efficiency and reusability
The benefits of using Bentley and Seequent products were immediate and tangible. ‘PLAXIS makes the work very convenient and intuitive on our projects,’ said Dr Bogusz. ‘The main advantage was time saving, especially on any analysis that required multiple runs to optimise the design.’
The investment in automation also paid future dividends. ‘The tool that we develop for automation can be reused later for future projects of similar magnitude,’ he said. ‘I would say that we shouldn’t be scared of automation, and I will try implementing Python scripting more often in my future works.’