The scientific conference TGG-2017 ”Transportation Geotechnics and Geoecology” was held in Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University, St. Petersburg, Russia on 15-19 May 2017 to give an up-to-date picture of the field of design, construction and exploitation of transport facilities and to share the latest experience.
The Conference was organized by the Emperor Alexander I Petersburg State Transport University under auspices of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering – ISSMGE and the International Geo-synthetics Society -IGS. The conference was supported by TC202 “Transportation Geotechnics” (chair – Erol Tu-tumluer) and TC 215 “Environmental Geotechnics” (chair – Malek Bouazza).

The Conference, which was devoted to 150th anniversary of Professor Alexander Liverovsky, included a short course “The pressuremeter and foundation design”, 9 keynote presentations, 21 concurrent sessions with 144 presentations, a technical exhibition, IGS meeting and 141 papers.

The conference had a total amount of 282 registrations deriving from 17 countries.
Before the conference opening, a two days’ short course “The pressuremeter and foundation design” took place, held by Prof. Jean-Louis Briaud, Prof. Anna Shidlovskaya and Dr. Anna Timchenko on 15-16 May, 2017. A total of 23 participants including engineers, contractors, academics and manufacture specialists attended the short course about the state-of-the-art of the use of pressuremeter, theory and research, as well as key issues in practice and perspective. This short course included a pressuremeter field test.

Prof. Jean-Louis Briaud delivering his short course	Organizers of short course Prof. Anna Shidlovskaya, Prof. Jean-Louis Briaud, and Dr. Anna Timchenko

The opening ceremony took place in the Assembly Hall of the university. Doctor Andrei Petriaev, the Organizing Chairman, delivered the opening address, highlighted the importance of geotechnics and geoecology for transpor-tation infrastructure and wished the participants a fruitful and successful work.
Vice-Rector Prof. Lyudmila Blazhko delivered her speech to the participants. She pointed out, that the significance of the issues of the Conference was proved by a broad geography of its participants.

Conference program included presentations from nine keynote speakers who are industry experts and recognized authorities in the field of Geotechnical Engineering and Geoecology.

Keynote lectures had the following topics:
Prof. Valentin G. Kondratiev, Zabaikal State University, Chita, Russia“Main geotechnical problems of railways and roads in kriolitozone and their solutions”
• Prof. Satoshi Akagawa, Cryosphere Engineering Laboratory, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan
“Frost heaving in ballast railway track”
• Prof. Jiankun Liu, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
“Thermal-mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced soil under multiple freeze-thaw сycles»
• Prof. Erol Tutumluer, Chair of TC202, ISSMGE, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
“Granular layer stiffness enhancement provided by geogrid-aggregate interlock”
• Prof. Jorge G. Zornberg, Immediate Past-President of International Geosynthetics Society (IGS), University of Texas at Austin, USA
“Functions and applications of geosynthetics in roadways”
• Prof. Antonio Gomes Correia, Immediate past Chair of the TC202, University of Minho, Portugal
“Analysis of nonlinear soil modelling in the subgrade and rail track responses under HST”
• Prof. Ivan Vaniček, Vice-president ISSMGE for Europe 2009–2013, Chech Technical University, Prague, Chech Republic
“Application of large volume waste for earth structures of transport engineering”
• Prof. Jean-Louis Briaud, President of FedIGS, President of the ISSMGE 2009–2013, Texas A&M University, USA
“High speed trains geotechnics”
• Prof. Askar Zhussupbekov, President of the Kazakhstan Geotechnical Society, Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan
“Pile foundations of megaprojects: new railway station and LRT in problematical soil ground of Astana”

Conference opening ceremony	Awarding ceremony of Keynote Lecturer Prof. Jorge G. Zornberg by Chairman of Plenary session Prof. Jean-Louis Briaud
Discussion during the session	Discussion at break
Discussion at technical exhibition	Conference Secretary Dr Anastasia Konon

Technical sessions concerning using of geosynthetics had the following themes:

• Use of geosynthetics for stabilization of transportation infrastructure I. Chair – Jorge G. Zornberg
• Use of geosynthetics for stabilization of transportation infrastructure II. Chair – Zikmund Rakowski
• Geoecoprotective materials, structures and constructures for transportation III. Chair – Antonina S. Sakharova
• Stability of slopes. Chair – Alexey F. Kolos
• Advances on the use of geosynthetics in transportation infrastructure. Chair – Erol Güler

The IGS meeting was attended by 31 participants including 11 members of the RCIGS (6 members of the RCIGS attended the meeting in person and 5 attended by proxy) and 9 members of the IGS outside of Russia. There were three Council members attending the meeting: Erol Guler (Turkey), Jacek Kawalec (Poland) and Jorge Zornberg (USA).

Jorge Zornberg provided background information on the structure of the IGS, on IGS activities and initiatives as well as on the structure of the RCIGS according to the current bylaws, as approved by the IGS at the time of for-mation of the chapter (in 2008). He also presented the information on the upcoming activities of the IGS.
For further information, Jorge Zornberg announced that the meeting of the IGS Council will be held in October 2017 in Morocco and that it would be important for the new Executive Committee of the RCIGS to be formed be-fore the IGS Council meeting.

Participants at the meeting and the members of the RCIGS supported the Jorge Zornberg idea about completing the current RCIGS Board and electing members at large to complete the current Executive Committee and act on a temporary mandate until the new RCIGS Executive Committee will be elected.

A motion was proposed and seconded to elect Andrey Petriaev as Vice-president of the RCIGS, Konstantin Vachnadze as Treasurer of the RCIGS and Anna Timchenko, Anna Shidlovskaya, Aleksey Iakovlev, and Igor Os-trovskiy as Executive Committee members at large. After some discussion, the motion passed unanimously.
The elected Board members noted that a subsequent election would be necessary because it had been more than four years since the last election. A date of 1 September 2017 was choosen for the new Executive Committee to take pose, so elections of the new RCIGS Board should be held before that date.

The discussion subsequently focused on two additional issues: new RCIGS members and future plans. Many par-ticipants in the meeting expressed their interest in joining the RCIGS. Finally, everyone was excited about what could be accomplished in the future under the auspices of the RCIGS.

Prof. Jorge Zornberg delivering his message	Audience at the IGS meeting

The conference proceedings contain 141 peer-reviewed papers resulting from 196 accepted abstracts from 17 countries and more than 300 authors. The indexed SCOPUS papers are in open access and free for downloading on Procedia Engineering’s website: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18777058/189/supp/C.

Following the first day of the TGG-2017 program, the bus trip to Peterhof, the residence of Russian emperors, and Welcome Reception at the Usupov Palace was held for all conference participants and their accompanying per-sons. The conference’s Gala Dinner took place the next day in the Oak hall.

At the end of the Conference Chairman, Prof. Andrei Petriaev thanked all the participants and announced that the upcoming TGG-2021 ”Transportation Geotechnics and Geoecology” would be held in Saint-Petersburg in May, 2021.

After closing ceremony the river cruise «Rivers and canals of St.Petersburg» allowed participants to relax and enjoy the views of St. Petersburg and saxophone music.

Bus trip to Peterhof	Surprise from Organizers
Prof. Antonio Gomes Correia, Prof. Erol Tutumluer and Sinem Tutumluer at the boat trip	Saxophone relax

The conference was intended to reveal the most significant geotechnical engineering aspects from a local to a global level. Worldwide cooperation of geotechnical and geoecological engineers will open new horizons in geotechnics and give sustainable support for future research.
Reported by
Andrei Petriaev, Chair TGG2017