Earthsoft, makers of the EQuIS geotechnical and environmental data management software, have posted a presentation titled ODOT Geotechnical Data Management System given by Kirk Beach of the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) Office of Geotechnical Engineering at the 2007 Ohio Transportation Engineering Conference. The presentation describes how the various team members and stakeholders have created an enterprise database for historic geotechnical data, including the digitization of a warehouse full of data including boring logs, lab data, plans, maintenance records and other information. (Image from the presentation)
Some of the key components and technologies include an Oracle database core, gINT for boring logs etc, ESRI products for GIS and spatial visualization, Falcon for document management of scanned documents, Data Interchange for Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists (DIGGS), and Equis for data management. They are also using it extensively for geologic hazard assessments and risk analysis for things such as rockfall, landslides, karst and even abandoned mines. You can get a PDF version of the presentation from the Earthsoft website. This kind of technology is tremendously exciting and I think provides insight into the way geotechnical engineering will be practiced in the coming years.