I have uploaded the presentation Steve gave at Geo-Florida 2010 on February 24th. You can find it on our Presentations page or by clicking the image below. Enjoy!
Archive for the Category » Drilled Shafts «
March 01st, 2010 | Author: Robert Thompson
Category: Drilled Shafts, Load Testing, Recent DBA News, Site updates
| | Leave a Comment
February 25th, 2010 | Author: Robert Thompson
It has been a little while since we last visited the John James Audubon Bridge site in New roads, Louisiana. My how things have changed! I just have a couple of pictures of the piers from January – it is really looking like a bridge now! For frequent updates, check out the webcam and the photo albums on the project web page. The web cams have a really cool time lapse button that shows you a time lapse loop of the pier from the beginning of construction.
UPDATE (2/28/10) - I added 3 new photos to the slide show that were taken this last week. At that time the piers were at lift 21 and were about elevation +335 feet (the top of the sheet piles at the foundation level are about elevation +50 feet).
Category: Drilled Shafts, Site updates
| | Leave a Comment
January 26th, 2010 | Author: Robert Thompson
DBA is on the successful team that was awarded the contract for the new Mississippi River Bridge in St. Louis, Missouri. The project is a joint project of MoDOT/IDOT with MoDOT being the lead agency. HNTB is the lead bridge designer for the new cable-stayed bridge carrying I-70 over the river. The bridge is one part of a larger project that also includes the MIssouri North I-70 Interchange, the Illinois I-70 Connection, and the Illinois Tri-level Exchnage
From the project web site:
The $640 million Mississippi River Bridge project is proceeding through design, with construction scheduled to start in early 2010. The new Mississippi River Bridge is the first bridge built connecting downtown St. Louis and southwestern Illinois in more than 40 years. Currently, the only urban interstate bridge between Illinois and Missouri is the Poplar Street Bridge, known locally as the PSB. The PSB is one of two bridges in the United States that carry three interstates. By relocating one interstate (I-70) from the Poplar Street Bridge to the new Mississippi River Bridge, drivers will experience less congestion, fewer crashes and less unnecessary fuel use.
The new Mississippi River Bridge will be a 1,500 foot cable-stayed bridge across the Mississippi River between Metro East and St. Louis, Missouri. The bridge is two lanes in each direction, but is wide enough to be restriped for three lanes in each direction if traffic volumes warrant and additional funding is secured. In addition, the bridge project includes approaches on the Illinois and Missouri sides to get traffic to the bridge.
The wining contractor team is Massman/Traylor Brothers/Alberici Constructors. DBA’s role was to help prepare an alternate concept for the drilled shaft foundation design which will include load test measurements. We anticipate construction to begin in March with load test shaft.
An overview of the bridge is here. The press release for the award of the main bridge is here.
Category: Drilled Shafts, Load Testing, Recent DBA News
| | Leave a Comment
January 26th, 2010 | Author: Robert Thompson
I have added a recent paper that Dan and Steve contributed to concerning loess that is in the November, 2009 issue of the DFI Journal. The paper describes the results of site investigation and laboratory tests at a site in Kansas with loess deposits. The effectiveness of various correlations between field and laboratory tests and design properties are evaluated. Steve is currently working on the follow-up paper that evaluates lateral load tests of drilled shafts at the site.
Category: Drilled Shafts, Load Testing, Miscellaneous
| | Leave a Comment
January 11th, 2010 | Author: Robert Thompson
The kcICON project in Kansas City, Missouri is using Facebook and YouTube as a public relations tool. They have recently posted new videos and pictures. The latest video is of demolition of one of the existing approach structures. It is all done for public relations, so the photos and videos are oriented for the general public, showing how the project is moving along, how their tax dollars are being spent, and providing information on lane closures, etc.
The kcICON Facebook page is here. The project website with more photos and a web cam is here. You can also follow the project on Twitter here.
I expect we’ll see more use of Facebook, Twitter, etc. on projects in the future. It appears to be effective, at least for the techno-savy crowd!
Category: Drilled Shafts, Miscellaneous
| | Leave a Comment
December 18th, 2009 | Author: Robert Thompson
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:
DFI Helical Foundations & Tiebacks Specialty Seminar – Feb 1
DFI and PDCA – A Joint Conference on Driven Pile – Mar 12
ADSC Drilled Shaft Foundations Seminar – Mar 19
PDCA 14th Annual International Conference and Expo – May 6-8
2nd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing – May 9-11
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
Category: Drilled Piles, Drilled Shafts, Driven Piles, Micropiles, Miscellaneous, Recent DBA News, Site updates
| | Leave a Comment
November 30th, 2009 | Author: Robert Thompson
An article on the kcICON bridge project was published in the November 2009 issue of Roads and Bridges magazine. The article was written by Pat Cassity, P.E. of Parsons Transportation Group, Brian Kidwell, P.E. of MoDOT, and Pat Byrne, P.E. of Massman. The on-line version is here. I have also posted a PDF on the kcICON page our Consulting Projects page you can access by clicking the image below.
Category: Drilled Shafts, Miscellaneous, Site updates
| | Leave a Comment
November 09th, 2009 | Author: Robert Thompson
Steve just can’t get enough of the state of Louisiana. Now that the Audubon Bridge foundations are complete, he needed an excuse to get back and found himself in the Crescent City observing production shaft base grouting at the Huey P. Long Bridge project. Here area few more good construction photos to supplement my previous post.
Here is an interesting story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune about the bridge project explaining how they are widening the bridge.
Category: Drilled Shafts
| | 2 Comments
November 03rd, 2009 | Author: Robert Thompson
Yes, you read that right – the last drilled shaft has been installed on the John James Audubon Bridge near New Road, Louisiana. The project has been quite an adventure for us, especially Steve. He spent the most time on the site during shaft excavation, tip grouting, load testing, and even pile driving. Robert got to spend a fair amount of time, too, over the last couple of years. Paul was even lucky enough to make a couple of trips.
The shaft construction was concluded with one last O-cell test on Shaft 3W South. Dan was present for the last load test which went fabulously well.
If you are going to the Geo-Institute congress GeoForida 2010 next February in West Palm Beach, you can hear Steve present the paper he and Dan wrote on the tip grouting and load test program.
The bridge is still under construction, of course, and will be an awesome structure when completed. It was an exciting project for us to be a part of the team. We’ll have a project summary posted in the near future to highlight the details of the foundations. For now, you will have to be satisfied with the slideshows below (in reverse chronological order) from some of our visits this summer and fall.
Load Test at Shaft 3W South – October 2009
Excavation of Shaft 3W South – September 2009
Shaft Grouting and other Construction – June 2009
Shaft Excavation, Pile Driving, and Cofferdams – May 2009
Category: Drilled Shafts, Recent DBA News
| | Leave a Comment
November 03rd, 2009 | Author: Robert Thompson
I have added the paper that we wrote and Dan presented at the Deep Foundations Institute 34th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations that was held in Kansas City, MO late last month. The paper highlights how the design-build process was successful in the design and construction of the large diameter drilled shafts supporting the bridge. We discuss the installation methods used, the load test program, and how we evaluated the durability of the shale rock sockets under drilling fluid.
You can check out the progress of the bridge at the project website.
Category: Drilled Shafts, Recent DBA News, Site updates
| | Leave a Comment
