Get the New FHWA Drilled Shaft Manual
Get the NCHRP Synthesis 418 – Pile Criteria From Test Pile Data
Dan’s Speaking Schedule September 12-13, 2012: Concrete used in Drilled Shaft Construction - ADSC/DFI Drilled Shaft Seminar - Denver, Colorado
October 26, 2012: Factors Affecting the Selection and Use of Drilled Shafts for Transportation Infrastructure Projects - 26th Central Pennsylvania Geotechnical Conference - ASCE/DFI - Hershey, Pennsylvania Other DBA Team Speaking Appearances John Turner (September 12-13, 2012): Analysis & Design of Drilled Shafts - ADSC/DFI Drilled Shaft Seminar - Denver, Colorado
John Turner (September 12-13, 2012): Techniques for Drilled Shaft Construction - ADSC/DFI Drilled Shaft Seminar - Denver, Colorado Conferences, Meetings, Seminars, Workshops
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By Robert Thompson, on July 7th, 2010
 Although I have known for several weeks that the manual was finished (I work for one of the authors, after all!), I was waiting for the FHWA to post the link for the new manual before posting this…and now it is here! My friend, Randy Post, has an outside review (meaning not connected to one of the authors!) over at his blog Geoprac.net. Not only did he get “the scoop” on me, but he covers some of the highlights of the “what’s new” with the new, fully revised manual. The biggest change is completely re-writing the design sections to follow LRFD as well as to update the methods for calculating soil and rock resistance. As Randy also notes, the manual has been given a Geotechnical Engineering Circular (GEC) designation: GEC 10. Make sure and go read his review, as well as check out the other things on his blog (disclosure by Robert: I am an occasional contributor there).
The manual’s authors are three of the country’s top experts in drilled shaft design and construction: our own Dan A. Brown, Ph.D, P.E. , John P. Turner, Ph.D, P.E. of the University of Wyoming, and Raymond J. Castelli, P.E. of Parsons Brinckerhoff. As with any major FHWA publication such as this, there was significant industry involvement in the review process through various technical committees and individuals from ADSC, DFI, and Geo-Institute. A note from Dan:
The completion of this manual is a great relief and satisfaction. Many thanks to John Turner’s hard work and also for Ray Castelli’s diligent work to review and make us better. Special thanks to PB Project Manager Jeremy Hung and our FHWA sponsor Silas Nichols for their dedicated efforts to help get this done, and to all of you who contributed.
Dan and John have been using the material in the NHI course this fiscal year, having done some pilot courses the previous year. Some NHI courses, including the Drilled Shaft course, can be hosted by non-government groups. There are also some public seats available occasionally at DOT hosted courses. The NHI catalog page for this course is here.
Download Drilled Shafts:Construction Procedures and LRFD Design Methods, 2010.
Also linked on our Publications page.
Update (7/12/10): For those that prefer the feel of a printed volume in their hands, the ADSC: The International Association of Foundation Drilling will be the distributor of the printed volume of the manual through their Technical Library. It will be available soon, according to ADSC. We’ll post about it as soon as it is available.
Update 2 (8/19/10): The printed manual is now available.
By Robert Thompson, on May 28th, 2010
By Robert Thompson, on May 11th, 2010
Papers by Dan, Steve, and Tim that were included in the GeoFlorida 2010 conference have been uploaded to our Publications page. Dan and Steve co-authored a paper on the test program of the base grouted drilled shafts for the Audubon Bridge. Tim co-authored a paper with Willie NeSmith of Berkel and Company Contractors, Inc. on plate load testing of displacement grout columns. Dan was also a co-author with several others on a paper on jet grouting for improved pile lateral capacity.
Dapp, S.D. and Brown, D.A. (2010). “Evaluation of Base Grouted Drilled Shafts at the Audubon Bridge”, GeoFlorida 2010, Advances in Analysis, Modeling and Design, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 199, ASCE, pp1553-1562.
Rollins, K.M., Herbst, M., Adsero, M. and Brown, D.A. (2010) “Jet Grouting and Soil Mixing for Increased Lateral Pile Group Resistance”, GeoFlorida 2010, Advances in Analysis, Modeling and Design, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 199, ASCE, pp1563-1572.
Siegel, T.C. and NeSmith, W.M. (2010). “Large-Scale Plate Load Testing of Ground Improvement Using Displacement Grout Columns”, GeoFlorida 2010, Advances in Analysis, Modeling and Design, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 199, ASCE, pp2398-2405.
By Robert Thompson, on May 10th, 2010
With all of us visiting construction projects across the country, occasionally we take a photo that appears to be somewhat “artistic” – maybe the lighting (or lack of), or the aspect. I have assembled a few such photos submitted by DBA engineers in the first installment of the DBA Artistic Construction Photo Contest. Included in this installment are such items as: “Daybreak on Night Shift at JJA” and “Fountain” by S. Dapp, the series “Evolution” by P. Axtell, “GI Rig at Sunset” by T. Siegel, and “Piles in the Mist” by R. Thompson. This first volume has more photos of mine than others, but we’ll work on better balance in future volumes.
Feel free to “vote” for your favorite in the comments. I’ll try to update periodically as we have more “worthy” photos!
By Robert Thompson, on May 4th, 2010
The Spring 2010 issue of Deep Foundations from the Deep Foundations Institute includes an article by Dan and Paul (with a little help from yours truly!). The article is based on our paper presented by Dan at the 34th DFI Conference on Deep Foundations last October in Kansas City.
The kcICON project continues to roll along. Check out their Facebook page where they have lots of photos and links to their YouTube page. They recently completed the widest bridge deck pour ever for MoDOT.
Go to our Publications page to see the article, or click the image below.
By Robert Thompson, on March 1st, 2010
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!
By Robert Thompson, on February 25th, 2010
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).
By Robert Thompson, on February 25th, 2010
We’ve added a “Follow DBA” widget to our upper right sidebar that contains these six icons, all clickable, with a line of text underneath them that reads:
“Follow the DBA blog via email or RSS; view us on YouTube & Picasaweb; follow us on Twitter & Facebook.”
     
By Robert Thompson, on January 18th, 2010
DBA is growing again with the addition of Tim Siegel, P.E. to our team!
Tim has been primarily involved in the analysis and design of geotechnical structures including drilled shafts, cast-in-place piles, micropiles, and earth retention systems. Tim is a Georgia Tech grad (like Dan!) and has worked most of his career since at S&ME and Berkel & Company Contractors, Inc. During his 12 years with S&ME, he advanced from Geotechnical Engineer to Technical Principal and Chief Engineer while developing expertise in construction in karst, seismic design, numerical modeling, and specialty foundations and retaining systems. After leaving S&ME, he was a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with Berkel and was involved in large deep foundation projects all over the United States. While at Berkel, he led the development of the ground improvement technique using Berkel’s ground displacement technology. While at S&ME and then while at Berkel, he taught upper level and graduate level courses while on the faculty of the University of Tennessee. Tim’s resume can be found in the About US section of our site.
We are really glad to have Tim joining us. As you can see by his photo, he has the requisite hair style!
By Robert Thompson, on December 18th, 2009
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a great year in 2010!
Comments are welcome on which of the elves are Aaron, Paul, Robert, and Steve.
(Image form our Christmas Holiday card purchased from www.KerstenCards.com)
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Although I have known for several weeks that the manual was finished (I work for one of the authors, after all!), I was waiting for the FHWA to post the link for the new manual before posting this…and now it is here! My friend, Randy Post, has an outside review (meaning not connected to one of the authors!) over at his blog Geoprac.net. Not only did he get “the scoop” on me, but he covers some of the highlights of the “what’s new” with the new, fully revised manual. The biggest change is completely re-writing the design sections to follow LRFD as well as to update the methods for calculating soil and rock resistance. As Randy also notes, the manual has been given a Geotechnical Engineering Circular (GEC) designation: GEC 10. Make sure and go read his review, as well as check out the other things on his blog (disclosure by Robert: I am an occasional contributor there).
