The first Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (PCSMGE) was held in Mexico in 1959. After that, this conference was held every four years in different countries in the Americas: Brazil (1963), Venezuela (1967), Puerto Rico (1971), Argentina (1975), Peru (1979), Canada (1983), Colombia (1987), Chile (1991), Mexico (1995), Brazil (1999), the USA (2003), Venezuela (2007), Canada (2011) and Argentina (2015). In 2019, sixty years later, this conference returned to our country.

The XVI PCSMGE 2019 has been organized recognizing the importance of disseminating knowledge, lessons learned and promoting research in innovative and challenging applications in the field of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. This conference brings together the geotechnical engineering community from all over the Americas and the rest of the world, in order to establish the problems, solutions and future challenges facing this engineering sector. The XVI PCSMGE 2019 was held from November 17 to 20, 2019 in Cancun, Mexico. The conference has been organized under the auspices of the Mexican Society of Geotechnical Engineering and fully recognized by the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, and the Deep Foundations Institute and the Geo-Institute of ASCE as cooperative societies.

Researchers, geo-professionals, practitioners and students working on Geotechnical Engineering topics submitted three hundred ninety three (393) full papers to the XVI PCSMGE 2019, which were peer-reviewed by prominent reviewers from all over the world. After peer-review, three hundred and thirty five (335) full papers were accepted for publication.

These proceedings collect the full papers accepted for publication organized into nineteen technical sessions accompanying the papers from the workshops of the ISSMGE Technical Committees participating in the XVI PCSMGE 2019. The papers cover a wide range of themes of Geotechnical Engineering in the XXI Century, focused on lessons learned and future challenges, including Laboratory and in situ testing, Analytical and physical modelling in Geotechnics, Numerical modelling in Geotechnics, Unsaturated soils, Soft soils, Foundations and retaining structures, Excavations and tunnels, Offshore Geotechnics, Transportation in Geotechnics, Natural hazards, Embankments and tailings dams, Soils dynamics and earthquake engineering, Ground improvement, Sustainability and geoenvironment, Preservation of historic sites, Forensics engineering, Rock mechanics, Education, and Energy Geotechnics.

Without a doubt, the lessons learned, results and most recent advances included in the papers of these proceedings will constitute an essential reference in the solution of geotechnical problems and will promote communication and strengthen the unity among academia, geo-industry, government, business and non-governmental organizations that are instrumental for geotechnical engineers in the Americas and the rest of the world.

We would like to express our thanks to all the authors for their exceptional contributions submitted to the Conference, to all the reviewers who devoted time and effort to do the peer-review and all the Technical Session Co-Chairs for their support to the XVI PCSMGE 2019. We are especially grateful to Eduardo Martínez, Alejandra Liliana Espinosa and José Alfredo Promotor for their assistance with the preparation of these proceedings.

Norma Patricia López Acosta, Chairwoman, Editorial Committee

Alexandra Ossa López, Chairwoman, Technical Committee

Walter I. Paniagua Zavala, Chairman, Organizing Committee

Cancun, Mexico, November 17 to 20, 2019