Prospects for the development of Russia's northern territories requires active improvement of existing and development of new regulatory documents regulating the usage of permafrost soils as underlying soil bases for buildings and structures. The introduction of new materials and technologies, the arrival of modern technologies, machines and mechanisms to the construction industry, has exacerbated the need to revise the civil engineering regulatory framework concerning permafrost conditions.

The article presents an overview of the foundation deformation limitation for buildings and structures. Information from main research, domestic and international construction codes is given. For high-rise buildings foundations deformation limits evaluation was done by analyzing architectural, technological, and structural requirements for high-rise buildings deformations and an estimation of a probable stochastic component of a non-uniform deformation which is related to statistically non-uniform of base soil. Statistical non-uniformity of base soil was modelled by the use of a simplified deterministic method. Defined criteria for high-rise building foundation deformation limitation can be used in future research.

The paper describes the specific features of scientific and technical support of engineering survey and design for a residential building of a high level of responsibility in the city of Samara.

The safety of railway transport is affected by the quality of the superstructure, which is closely connected with the condition of the roadbed. In areas with a high precipitation and complex terrain landslides and local flow, causing deformation of the subgrade are possible. From here relevant is the prediction of the rheological state of landslide-prone sections of the railway with the change in humidity of the base soil subgrade. In the article on the basis of the theoretical developments of the authors an example of the rheological calculation of one of the landslide sites of the Far Eastern Russian railway is considered. There is a fairly good convergence of settlement data with the results of independent observations of resistance and deformities of the earth canvas, which allows us to recommend the developed developments for practical application. There is a fairly good convergence of calculated data with the data of independent observations of the stability and deformations of subgrade, which allows us to recommend the obtained developments for practical applications.

The article presents the results of monitoring the horizontal displacements of the 15.5 m deep excavation wall made of tubular concrete piles. Actual and calculated values of the horizontal displacements of the wall are given. There is a significant increase (more than calculated) in the actual displacements of the wall towards the excavation due to the irregularity of construction order. The interpretation of the monitoring results is considered concerning the excavation wall that preserves stability. The monitoring results are suggested to be applied to the design of the excavation walls.

The paper presents guidelines developed for in-situ and laboratory methods of permafrost investigation when designing structures in Arctic regions. The developed guidelines satisfy the demands made to the methods and scope of engineering investigations. The application of the guidelines improves the design solutions for foundations on permafrost, making them more effective and reliable, improves the accuracy of geotechnical calculations as well as geotechnical control during the construction period. The guidelines are suggested to be used for the improvement and development of the regulatory documents, in particular, SP 25.13330.2012.

Results of investigations of shear resistance of sandy soils as well as shear resistance at concrete-soil contact surface when ground pores are filled with polyacrylamide polymer solutions are presented.

The article presents the main provisions that were laid as the basis for methodological recommendations for assessing geotechnical risk in conditions of dense urban development. A brief overview of risk analysis in geotechnics is given. Critical defects of buildings, potentially increasing the probability of building collapse, are considered. The principal provisions of the expert and quantitative risk analysis are shown.

The issues of assessing the reliability of solutions obtained using numerical modelling, depending on the sensitivity of the model, which characterizes the behaviour of the mathematical model from variations in input parameters, are considered. A criterion for the sensitivity of the geotechnical model using the stochastic approach is proposed. A technique for assessing the reliability of calculation results using a probabilistic approach is presented.

The article considers the factors that affect the calculation of the conditional foundation precipitation, in connection with taking into account the natural pore pressure in the water-resistant layers. A comparison of the calculation of the conditional foundation sediment with and without pore pressure by the layer-by-layer summation method and the finite element method is presented. The main factors influencing the pore pressure on the calculated precipitation - the size of the compressible zone, the modulus of soil deformation, and the parameters of over consolidation - are determined. The multidirectional effect of factors on the value of the calculated precipitation is noted.

With the development and simplification of Earth remote sensing systems, it becomes possible to use these promising methods and technologies in engineering surveys. One of these methods is aerial photography and obtaining digital models of the Earth's surface based on stereophotogrammetry using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The article describes the experience of using this method for the project of engineering protection measures against dangerous geological processes on Paramushir Island (the city of Severo-Kurilsk, the Matrosskaya and Kuzminka rivers), in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (Mount Elbrus) and the Moscow Region (the Letovo village, an artificial hill).

Using the ‘specified curves' method developed to predict the surface settlement over mines, and taking into account the results of hydrogeological calculations, a comprehensive assessment of the scope of karst occurrence and the settlement of the base of a hydraulic structure is carried out. Karst cavities are assumed to be formed due to the water filtration processes in the soluble rock underlying the soil layer on which the foundation of the structure rests. Taking this into account, a cavity section model comprising elliptical arcs is proposed. The dimensions of the cavities and the resulting settlement of the basement surface are estimated for different sections of the base, with due account for the distribution of the filtration rate values in the rock and data on the varying thickness of the clay protective layer. The predicted settlement values are suggested for proving the anti-karst measures and for zoning their parameters.

The presented material allows us to understand, when, how and in what form scientific revolutions are taking place, to what results do they lead and what fundamental changes in the worldview of objective reality they cause. Scientific traditions, on the contrary, provide stability and sustainability of development the so-called ‘normal science' in the framework of the dominant paradigm that approved as a result of the scientific revolution.