The purpose of this chapter is to identify, either by reference or explicitly herein, appropriate methods of soil and rock property assessment, and how to use that soil and rock property data to establish the final soil and rock parameters to be used for geotechnical design. The final properties to be used for design should be based on the results from the field investigation, the
field testing, and the laboratory testing, used separately or in conjunction. Site performance data should also be used if available to help determine the final geotechnical properties for design. The Department Geotechnical Engineer’s responsibility is to determine which parameters are critical to the design of the project and then determine those parameters to an acceptable level of accuracy. See NYSDOT GDM Chapter 2, and the individual chapters that cover each geotechnical design subject area, for further information on what information to obtain and how to plan for obtaining that information.