I have updated our calendar for 2010 to include many events in the geotechnical and foundation engineering world that may be of interest, plus known speaking/teaching appearances by Dan. I’ll put in a plug for the events calendars and listings for ADSC, DFI, Geo-Institute, and PDCA. I get most of my information from them.
Some, but not all events,(in addition to my previous post) are:
UPDATE (5/19/09):Here is an article the Kansas City Star on-line. It has links to photos and video.
Main Pylon under construction for Bond Bridge, Kansas City, MO
Work by DBA is all but compete on the kcICON project. All drilled shafts have been installed and base grouted. Construction of the shafts went very well, with no significant issues. Hayes Drilling installed all of the land-based shafts. AFT performed all of the base grouting.
The main pylon in the river continues to take shape. It won’t be long before PCC will have it looking like a bridge!
Paul has been “enjoying” observing drilled shafts at night and base grouting during the day. A collection of some of his photos from the last bits of shaft construction are below. He got some great shots of the pylon, including some out in the river.
I had the pleasure of making two trips to the Audubon Bridge site in April to help Steve. I got to observe the excavation of two of the shafts on the West High Approach (on land!), observe base grouting of some of the West High Approach shafts, and base grouting of the test shaft on the East High Approach. While there, I got to see both of the river pier cofferdams. They were something else to see with all of the bracing and sheet piles. I did not get to see them installed, but I understand it was quite an interesting process as the cofferdams were “jacked down” into place. While I was there, they were cutting of the permanent casing that sticks up above the seal slab of the pier.
Last week’s International Foundation Congress and Equipment Exposition was a huge success! Dan gave a keynote address on Tuesday on managing risk in deep foundations within the design-build delivery model. Paul, Erik, and I also had papers to present. The technical sessions were excellent, the indoor exhibits were excellent, and the outdoor exhibits of foundation equipment were outstanding! The ADSC, Geo-Institute, and PDCA were the co-organizers of the event. A big hats off to all of the staff of all three organizations that made the event a huge success! Thanks and “atta boy” go to Mohamad Hussein, P.E. (Conference Chair) and to Dan (Technical Program Chair) for all of their work, as well as the rest of the organizing committee.
I have also blogged about the conference here at GeoPrac.net.
Here are some pictures of the outdoor exhibits:
There were over 300 papers included in the conference. The proceedings were published as three Geotechnical Special Publications:
GSP 185: Contemporary Topics in Deep Foundations
GSP 186: Contemporary Topics in In-Situ Testing, Analysis, and Reliability of Foundations
GSP 187: Contemporary Topics in Ground Modification, Problem Soils, and Geo-Support
I have been too busy to post more photos from my trips to New Roads, LA in the fall to help Steve with the work at the Audubon Bridge project. It has been a flurry of activity as they worked to finish installing, tip-routing, and load testing all of the shafts in the river (done in December!). They have also completed and tested the land test shaft on the west side of the river and begun installing the land shafts. Throw in a lot of pile driving, including some 5-foot diameter pipe piles for temporary bents, and it has been a very busy site. All of the various tip-grouting, O-cell load tests on drilled shafts, and PDA testing of the pre-cast piles has been successful. As of today, the Mississippi River has come up and slowed things down a bit, but they should get all of the foundation completed within the next couple of months.
Some pictures I took on some of my trips are setup below. I have also experimented with embedding some video I took with my camera. The camera was not set on a very high video capture resolution, but I think they are good enough for you to get the idea of the shaft excavation and the pile driving activities.
11/30-07 Update! – GEC No. 8 is now up on the FHWA web site. You can download it here.
Yes, folks, GEC 8 is finally complete! The publication version of Geotechnical Engineering Circular No.8: Design and Construction of Continuous Flight Auger Piles will soon be available from the FHWA Geotechnical Web Site. If you want an official sneak peek at GEC 8, just click here to get the PDF (approx. 10 MB). This circular is part of FHWA’s efforts to implement the use of CFA piles as a viable foundation alternative for transportation structures. We’ll post a notice when GEC 8 is on the FHWA web site.
I’ll have links to the conference web site once it is up and running, as well as blogging additionla information when available. This promises to be a great conference much like the 2004 Geo-Support Conference.
” The seminar will be held by the ADSC Northeast Chapter on November 14, in East Elmhurst, NY,at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, located at LaGuardia Airport. Eleven presenters drawn from the ranks of the nation’s top design, construction and testing practitioners will cover drilled shaft design, specifications, construction, concrete design, testing, as well as geotechnical investigation, and remediation techniques. An opportunity to visit with exhibitors will add to the seminar’s value. Among the featured presenters will be Dr. Dan Brown, P.E., Auburn University; Silas Nichols of the FHWA; Dr. Bernie Hertlein, P.E., STS Consultants; and Fred Rhyner, P.E., Mueser Rutledge. Internationally prominent design engineer Clyde Baker, STS Consultants will moderate a Q&A Panel. PDH credits are offered. For information including registration details, contact Ralph Capelli, 712/353-9616 or rcapelli@posillicorp.com.”
I have added a couple of publications to the site that cover intermediate geomaterials, or IGM. The first is a paper Dan and I published from my master’s thesis in 1994 which I presented at the 25th Ohio River Valley Soils Seminar in Lexington, Kentucky.: The second one is a report of axial and lateral load tests for drilled shaft foundations in shale for a bridge in Alabama. The loadtests, analysis, and design recommendations were done as part of a research project on drilled shafts Dan was doing for ALDOT. My thesis work was part of the research project.
I am slowly working on getting as many of our publications on the site as possible. Thank you for your patience!
ADSC Drilled Shaft Foundations Seminar – Mar 19
PDCA 14th Annual International Conference and Expo – May 6-8
International Bridge Conference 2010 – June 6-10
Earth Retention 2010 – Aug 1-4
DFI 34th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations – Oct 12-15 
TRB 7th International Bridge Conference – Dec 1-2
