Forensic Mining Engineering

Abstract

A High School constructed in the late 70s was suffering structural deterioration. The buildings site was on an area where coal had been deep and surfaced mined. The architect/engineer who designed the facility and was the School Boards technical adviser attributed the deterioration to mysterious forces which he eventually defined as subsidence and/or blasting. The School Board hired the author after a wall failed during a wind storm. The author uses the litigation events as a vehicle to discuss aspects of a Mining Engineers forensic work.