DBA has a logo!

By Robert Thompson, on March 17th, 2011

After 5 years, Dan Brown and Associates finally has a logo! We tried to keep it simple, yet still reflect what we do best – deep foundations. That means piles, micropiles, CFA piles, as well as drilled shafts! While not necessarily the most exciting thing an engineering firm can do, it is part of growing up as a company. Hopefully you will see it more often at conferences and in publications.

Dan Brown Profiled in DFI Magazine

By Robert Thompson, on January 27th, 2011

The Winter 2011 issue of Deep Foundations features Dan in its “People, Projects and Equipment” column. Virginia Fairweather with DFI talked to several folks in the geotechnical engineering community to learn about Dan, including yours truly. If you are interested in getting a glimpse inside the man who is Dr. Dan Brown, just check out the link below. This column is just one of many items featured in each issue of Deep Foundations, only from DFI. If you aren’t a member of DFI, then consider becoming one!

People, Projects and Equipment, Winter 2011 Deep Foundations

DBA On Team for Hurricane Deck Bridge Replacement

By Robert Thompson, on January 19th, 2011

(Image source: LakeExpo.com)

DBA is part of a team led by Parsons Transportation Group that was selected to design the replacement of the Hurricane Deck Bridge over The Lake of the Ozarks in Camden County Missouri. MoDOT has awarded the design contract to Parsons. DBA will be the lead geotechnical engineer with Terracon on the team providing drilling and laboratory services, as well as some foundation engineering support services. Parsons was chosen due to the innovative approach the team proposed that includes reusing the existing piers (from ENR.com):

MoDOT chose Parsons for proposing an innovative approach to construction that involves the use of temporary pier widening and shifting the existing superstructure over. This method will allow traffic to be maintained on the existing bridge while the new bridge is constructed, potentially resulting in significant cost savings.

A little history of the bridge can be found at Go2Lakeofthe Ozarks.com, including how it got its name:

Hurricane Deck Bridge of Ozarks crosses the main channel of the lake of approximately mile marker 35. It carries Missouri highway 5 between Versailles and Camdenton. It was built in 1936 –five years after the lake filled. It was named as Hurricane Deck because it was heard that a tornado struck that area which was locally "Hurricanes". It is a nautical term associated with river steamboats. The Hurricane Deck was the uppermost deck which provides and allows everyone to experience the pleasant breezy place and the passing scenery.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from DBA!

By Robert Thompson, on December 23rd, 2010

New I-70 Bridge Featured in Foundation Drilling Magazine

By David Graham, on December 10th, 2010

The new I-70 bridge over the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri is quite the project. When completed, it will be the third longest cable-stayed bridge in the United States, with a 1,500-ft main span. Most significantly for the geotechnical community, the bridge made history when one of its 11-ft diameter drilled shafts resisted a world record breaking 36,000 tons (bi-directional) during an O-cell load test. The bridge has already seen press in Civil Engineering Magazine (July 2010, page 30-32), at ENR.com, and in a post by Robert on this blog. Now, an article by DBA’s Paul Axtell is featured in the September/October issue of Foundation Drilling Magazine. The editor summarized the article saying:

The information in the following article is a composite of material that came to Foundation Drilling Magazine from three separate sources. Part I is based on information gleaned from an article that was published on the Associated Press news wire. Part II is excerpted from ENR’s August 18th, E-Newsletter. Part III was provided by Paul Axtell and Dan Brown of ADSC Technical Affiliate company, Dan Brown and Associates. The bridge project is of interest in general. The Osterberg Load Cell test will be of particular interest to professionals in the deep foundation industry, and specifically for those who work in the drilled shaft segment.

Axtell, P.J. (2010). “Mississippi River Bridge Project Includes Record Load Test: A Three Part Story”, Foundation Drilling, Vol. 31, No. 7 September/October 2010.

Micropiles for Slope Stabilization

By David Graham, on December 8th, 2010

An article by Eric and Dan on the use of micropiles for slope stabilization has been added to our Publications Page. Published in the August 2010 issue of Foundation Drilling Magazine, the article summarizes key findings and recommendations from a study that reviewed and evaluated existing micropile design methods. A new design method is proposed to better predict the mobilized resistance of micropiles used for slope stabilization. The full report prepared by Eric and Dan for the joint ADSC/DFI Micropile Committee, “A Method for Predicting Mobilization Resistance for Micropiles Used in Slope Stabilization Applications”, presents the details of this study. Robert previously posted about this report here.

Loehr, J.E. and Brown, D.A. (2010). “Design of Micropiles for Slope Stabilization”, Foundation Drilling, Vol. 31, No. 6 August 2010.

Paper by Paul Axtell added to Publications

By Robert Thompson, on December 8th, 2010

A paper by Paul Axtell and others on shear strength of cement-bentonite grout mixes has been added to our Publications Page.

Axtell, P.J., Stark, T.D., and Dillon, J.C. (2010). “Peak and Post-Peak Shear Strength of Cement-Bentonite”, DFI Journal Volume 4, No. 1, August 2010, Deep Foundations Institute, pp59-65.

New Bloggers at DBA

By Robert Thompson, on December 8th, 2010

I (Robert) will now have some help with posting to the blog. Our two young staff engineers, Aaron Hudson and David Graham, will be helping me with blog maintenance and posting content. Until now, I have pretty much written all of the posts and have done all other content updates. Now you will see some new “by lines” on blog posts in the future. Thanks for reading!

A Foundation Engineering Trip Down the Mississippi River

By Robert Thompson, on November 1st, 2010

Dan recently played the part of storyteller at the Southeastern Transportation Geotechnical Engineering Conference (STGEC) 2010 conference in Charleston, West Virginia when he gave the lunch presentation on the conference’s first day. He took the audience on a trip down the Mississippi River from a foundation engineer’s perspective, talking about several bridges that DBA has had the pleasure to work on, or is still working on, along the river the last few years. Dan began with the I-35W Bridge replacement in Minneapolis, Minnesota and ended at the Huey P. Long Bridge in New Orleans, Louisiana. Stops along the way included the Hastings Bridge (Hastings Minnesota), the new I-70 Bridge (St. Louis, Missouri), and the Audubon Bridge (New Roads/St. Francisville, Louisiana). Dan covered some of the technical issues/problems associated with each project and the solutions applied to complete the foundations (or complete the design). It was a very informative talk presented in a unique way that everyone at the luncheon seemed to enjoy. Dan’s presentation is now available on our Presentations Page.

Posts on Hastings Bridge here.

Posts on I-70 Bridge here.

Posts on Audubon Bridge here.

Posts on the Huey P. Long Bridge here.

Immediately after lunch, Robert made a presentation that described some of the pile load tests performed on two of the storm protection projects in New Orleans that DBA was privileged to be involved with through Kiewit. By following Dan, it provided a little continuity to the story as Robert took the group below the Huey P. Long Bridge to the levees and canals downstream of New Orleans. Robert’s presentation can also be found on our Presentations Page.