Grant M. Whitaker ← Back to profile

Geotechnical Engineering · Dam Safety · Foundations

Grant M. Whitaker, EIT

Geotechnical Engineer · Embankment Dams & Geostructural

Geotechnical engineer with field and design experience across embankment dam safety, seepage and slope-stability analysis, and shallow and deep foundation design. Colorado School of Mines M.S., Engineer-in-Training, sitting for the PE in 2025. Comfortable from the boring rig to the model to the report.

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Profile

Three years across geotechnical field investigation, laboratory oversight, and design support for water-retaining structures, transportation embankments, and building foundations. Day to day that means logging borings to USCS, sizing shallow and deep foundations, running slope-stability and seepage models, and writing the geotechnical recommendations that carry through to construction. I am drawn to dam and levee work because the analysis has consequences you can walk out and stand on.

Experience

Staff Geotechnical Engineer, Front Range Geoscience & Testing

Lakewood, Colorado · On-site & field

  • Logged and classified over 180 soil borings and 40 CPT soundings (USCS/AASHTO); supervised standard-penetration and undisturbed sampling on dam, roadway, and commercial sites.
  • Performed embankment slope-stability and steady-state seepage analyses (Slide2, SEEP/W) supporting Part 12 dam-safety inspections on two Front Range irrigation reservoirs.
  • Designed shallow spread footings and drilled-shaft foundations and authored the geotechnical recommendation sections for 15 project reports under PE review.
  • Installed and monitored vibrating-wire piezometers and inclinometers; reduced and trended instrumentation data for a slow-moving cut slope on a state highway.

Geotechnical Engineering Intern, Terracon

Denver, Colorado · Internship

  • Ran index and strength laboratory testing (Atterberg limits, sieve/hydrometer, direct shear, consolidation) and tied results back to field logs.
  • Drafted boring location plans and subsurface profiles in Civil 3D and gINT for a water-treatment-plant expansion.

Graduate Research Assistant, Colorado School of Mines

Golden, Colorado · Geotechnical Engineering Group

  • Thesis: transient seepage and internal-erosion susceptibility of zoned embankment dams under rapid-drawdown loading; calibrated numerical models against instrumented field data.
  • Supported an undergraduate soil-mechanics lab as a teaching assistant for four semesters.

Education

M.S., Geotechnical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines

Golden, Colorado · Thesis: embankment seepage & internal erosion

B.S., Civil Engineering (Geotechnical emphasis), Colorado School of Mines

Golden, Colorado · Tau Beta Pi · Geo-Institute student chapter officer

Licensure & Certifications

Engineer-in-Training (EIT), Colorado
Cert. No. EI.0043927 · 2021
Professional Engineer (PE), sitting Oct 2025
FE Civil passed 2021
OSHA 30-Hour Construction Safety
2022
Nuclear Density Gauge, Radiation Safety & Operation
2023
First Aid / CPR (field crews)
current

Technical Skills

Analysis & Modeling

Slide2 (RocScience) · SLOPE/W · SEEP/W · PLAXIS 2D · Settle3 · limit-equilibrium & FEM

Field & Lab

SPT/CPT interpretation · USCS & AASHTO classification · Atterberg, consolidation, direct/triaxial shear · piezometers & inclinometers

Design & Drafting

Shallow & deep foundations · MSE & cantilever retaining walls · gINT · AutoCAD · Civil 3D

Data & GIS

Python (pandas, numpy) · ArcGIS Pro · QGIS · instrumentation data reduction · report automation

Selected Project Experience

Irrigation reservoir, Part 12 dam-safety support

  • Steady-state and transient seepage modeling of a 42-ft zoned embankment; evaluated phreatic surface and exit gradients against internal-erosion screening criteria.

State-highway cut slope, remediation & monitoring

  • Back-analyzed a marginally stable clay-shale cut, sized a toe buttress and horizontal drains, and stood up an inclinometer and piezometer monitoring program.

Water-treatment expansion, foundation investigation

  • Subsurface exploration, settlement analysis, and drilled-shaft recommendations for structures bearing on variable weathered-bedrock profiles.

Professional Affiliations

ASCE Geo-Institute (member) · United States Society on Dams (USSD) (member) · Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) · Tau Beta Pi, Engineering Honor Society.