Thirty four years in the fields of Geotechnical Engineering/Engineering Geology with specific reference to the investigation, design and construction of major civil engineering construction and open cast mining projects including dams, tunnels, bridges, slope stabilization and rockfall mitigation, in Southern Africa.
Although a civil engineer by first training, Louis Melis has always had a keen interest in geology. As a result he studied Geology at the University of Stellenbosch after graduating as a Civil Engineer in 1975. Hereafter he undertook full time post graduate studies and research at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, University of London, graduating in 1979 with both an M.Sc and D.I.C. in Engineering Geology. In this manner Louis Melis has obtained the unusual combination of being qualified both as a Geotechnical Engineer and an Engineering Geologist eminently qualified as a geotechnical specialist in the field of rock engineering for large dams, underground construction and foundations of large civil engineering structures.
Over the past three decades he has obtained extensive experience in the field of geotechnical engineering inSouth Africa and has acted as a specialist and expert witness in assisting with the investigation of the causeof failures and unforeseen ground conditions for some of the major construction projects undertaken in South Africa.
Louis Melis has been approved on a project by project basis by the Department of Water Affairs as a geotechnical specialist to advise on the design, construction and dam safety inspections of Category 2 and 3 dams. Louis has been involved with either the investigation, design, repair or dam safety investigations of more than 100 small to medium sized dams in the Western Cape over the past 3 decades. Louis was the Geotechnical Review Consultant for the Highlands Engineering Consultants, a Joint Venture between BKS, Stewart Scott and Melis and Du Plessis for the investigation, design and construction of the 145m high Concrete Faced Rockfill Dam of Phase 1b of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.
Louis Melis was appointed at the time as a regional expert by the South African National Roads agency to investigate the implementation of a national slope management system. Louis Melis is a former external examiner in geotechnical engineering at the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Stellenbosch.
