INNOVATION January-February 2016

f ea t u r e s

“If you can change the impact angle, you can have a more efficient structure,” he says. “What I’m working on is an attenuator system, where the fence deflects the rock, absorbing only a portion of its energy. It’s not going to change the world, but it is an improved way of stopping rocks and it is more cost effective. Right now, you have to spend time and money to remove the rocks from the fencing.” With fences that deflect rocks, crews may not have to remove the rocks at all and maintenance costs would be lower. The savings over time could be significant. However, getting a patent approved is a long and tortuous process. Building a test model in his basement was relatively easy, but Wyllie says “it’s a huge amount of work to find someplace to do full-scale testing.” In 2013, the Ministry of Transportation let him use a quarry free of charge, and the first testing there went well. He is now testing his ideas further elsewhere, and then he and his Swiss development partner hope to have a commercial product to sell around the world. I f Wyllie’s invention is adopted widely here at home, the European rockfall experts he has driven along the Sea-to-Sky Highway may relax a little. “They are not used to our level of risk,” he says, “and have a far lower tolerance for highways without a lot of protection structures.” At our current rate of growth, we may soon get to that level, too. v

Chain-net fencing and curtains help stop or deflect falling rocks, leaving the highway or rail line clear. P hotos : top , BC M inistry of T ransportation and I nfrastructure , via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0; bottom , D uncan W yllie , P.E ng .

Dr. Duncan C. Wyllie, P.Eng., Likes Working Underground After a stint in the army and an undergraduate physics degree in Sea-to-Sky Highway), railways and industrial developments. “In British Columbia, a small but

Zimbabwe through the University of London, Duncan Wyllie decided it was time to look for new opportunities in Australia. A lucky introduction from a family friend led to a job at an underground mine in Broken Hill, an isolated, outback mining city in the far west of New South Wales, with one of the very first rock mechanics groups in the world. He discovered he likes working thousands of feet underground—and, thus, a career was born. From that first mining job, Wyllie went on to complete three engineering degrees —one from the University of New South Wales, Australia, another from University of California, Berkeley, and finally, a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia —and to work around the world on rock engineering projects. From BC to Turkey, Ethiopia to India, and for nearly 50 years, he has helped design and construct slopes, tunnels and bridge foundations, and to assess and remediate rock fall hazards, for countless highways (including the

technically strong community of rock engineering specialists has developed to tackle the wide range of challenges presented by our mountains and climate,” Wyllie says. “I am proud to be a member of this community, and I consider it to have an important role in the economy of the province. Transportation systems through the mountains, including tunnels, are a vital part of our infrastructure.” Beyond his obvious achievements in making roads and railways safer, Wyllie considers one of his most significant contributions to the field to be a series of three applied rock engineering textbooks now sold around the world. “There are only a few textbooks on the subject,” he says, “so these are widely read.” Wyllie, who was awarded APEGBC’s 2015 R.A. McLachlan Memorial Award for the contributions he has made to the engineering profession throughout his career, is also an inventor of some note, as described in the accompanying article.

Dr. Duncan Wyllie, P.Eng., was awarded APEGBC’s 2015 R.A. McLachlan Memorial Award.

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