Dan Brown and Associates, PC » DFI

I-70 St. Louis Bridge–New Papers by Paul and Dan

Robert Thompson — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:32:19 +0000

The drilled shaft foundations for the new I-70 Mississippi River Bridge in St. Louis, MO are the subject of two recent papers written by Paul and Dan and published by DFI. Dan presented the paper focusing on the Alternate Technical Concept (ATC) process at the DFI 36th Annual Conference in October. (previous post here). A case history paper by Paul and Dan was published last month in Volume 5, Number 2 of the DFI Journal. Links to the papers are below, as well as on our Publications page. Other posts on this bridge are here.

Brown, D.A., Axtell, P.J., and Kelley, J. (2011). “The Alternate Technical Concept Process for the Foundations at the New Mississippi River Bridge, St. Louis”, Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations, 2011, Boston, MA, USA, pp171-177.

This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations, the 2011 annual meeting of DFI. Go to www.dfi.org to purchase the procedings or for further information.

Axtell, P.J. and Brown, D.A. (2011). “Case History – Foundations for the New Mississippi River Bridge – St.Louis”, DFI Journal Volume 5, Number 2, December 2011, Deep Foundations Institute, pp3-15.

This paper was originally published in DFI’s bi-annual journal, Volume 5, No. 2 in December 2011. DFI is an international technical association of firms and individuals involved in the deep foundations and related industry. The DFI Journal is a member publication. To join DFI and receive the journal, go to www.dfi.org for further information.

DBA at DFI 36th Annual Meeting–Photos and Links

Robert Thompson — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:57:46 +0000

DFI held its 36th Annual Meeting October 18-21 in Boston, including the annual awards banquet. Dan was honored with the 2011 Distinguished Service Award at the banquet. The Christopher S. Bond Bridge in Kansas City, MO was honored with a Special Recognition award (one of 5 runners-up for the Outstanding Project Award). Photos of DBA folks at the event are posted below. All of the photos from the meeting can be found at this link.

Dan gave a presentation on the Alternate Technical Concept (ATC) that DBA supported for the I-70 Bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Louis, MO. The link to the presentation is below. (Some previous posts here and here and here; posts with links to other presentations here).

PowerPoint Presentation – Alternate Technical Concept: Foundations for the New Mississippi River Bridge, St. Louis – Dan Brown, Ph.D., P.E – DFI 36th Annual Conference, Boston, MA, October 20, 2011.

Dan receiving the 2011 DFI Distinguished Service Award

Robert receiving the Special Recognition Award for the Christopher S. Bond Bridge Project

Paul and Erik at the reception before the awards banquet

Dan To Receive 2011 DFI Distinguished Service Award

Robert Thompson — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:07:39 +0000

Dan will be honored at the DFI 36th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in Boston, October 19 to 21. He will receive the award at the annual awards banquet on Thursday, October 20th. From DFI:

The Deep Foundations Institute is pleased to announce Dan Brown, P.E., Ph.D., as the recipient of the DFI 2011 Distinguished Service Award. The award, in its 31st year, honors individuals chosen by their peers for exceptional contributions to DFI and to the industry.

Brown began his career with a B.S. from Georgia Tech, and later received his Ph.D. at the University of Texas, Austin, in only 28 months, while working. He then taught at Auburn University for 22 years before setting up his own consulting firm in Tennessee. The Winter 2011 issue of the DFI magazine included a profile of Brown that chronicled the universal admiration and regard for him within the industry. He was cited by others for his expertise, his intelligence and ability to teach others. Brown and his firm are sought out for advice everywhere.

Follow this link to see the full press release. We’ll post pictures after the ceremony.

Simplified Settlement Model–DFI Journal Technical Note by Tim Siegel

Robert Thompson — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:18:52 +0000

Tim has authored a Technical Note in the most recent issue (June 2011) of the DFI Journal. The note is entitled “Simplified Settlement Model for a Shallow Foundation on Composite Ground with Rigid Piles”. From the Abstract:

A piled raft refers to a shallow foundation that is structurally connected to the piles, while composite ground refers to a soil-pile matrix where the piles are not structurally connected. The design objectives for both a piled raft and composite ground are (excluding special considerations such as expansive soil): (1) to provide a sufficient ultimate resistance and (2) to distribute the load into the soil-pile matrix so that the settlement experienced by the shallow foundation is within tolerable limits. A simplified model is proposed for a shallow foundation on composite ground where the foundation settlement is estimated as the sum of the downward movement of the piles plus the downward movement of the shallow foundation relative to the pile head. The proposed simplified
model is applied using conventional geotechnical analyses for two hypothetical examples of shallow foundations undergoing compression settlement.

This paper was originally published in DFI’s bi-annual journal, Volume 5, No. 1 in June 2011. DFI is an international technical association of firms and individuals involved in the deep foundations and related industry. The DFI Journal is a member publication. To join DFI and receive the journal, go to www.dfi.org for further information. ”

You can also subscribe to the DFI Journal here.

Dr. John Turner, P.E. joins DBA!

David Graham — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 22:03:12 +0000

We are pleased to announce that John P. Turner, Ph.D., P.E., has joined our firm as a Senior Principal. Turner is Professor Emeritus, University of Wyoming, where he spent the past 25 years teaching and conducting research in geotechnical engineering. He has undergraduate degrees in both Geology and Civil Engineering and earned his doctorate in Geotechnical Engineering from Cornell University. John will bring his considerable expertise in design and construction of deep foundations to our practice. He is a co-author of the 2010 FHWA manual “Drilled Shafts: Construction Procedures and LRFD Design Methods” and the author of NCHRP Synthesis 360, “Rock-Socketed Shafts for Highway Structure Foundations”, as well as over 100 technical publications on the topics of deep foundations, earth retention, and landslide stabilization. Early in his career John was an engineering geologist with Herbert and Associates and he maintained his involvement in consulting throughout his academic career. Recent projects include design of rock-socketed drilled shafts for bridges at Pitkins Curve in Big Sur and the Antlers Bridge on I-5 in northern California. John is a recipient of the President’s Award and the Distinguished Service Award from the ADSC: International Association of Foundation Drilling. He has maintained active membership in ASCE for over 30 years and is a past chairman of the Committee on Deep Foundations of the Geo-Institute of ASCE.

Technical Note on ACIP Pile Load Testing

David Graham — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:06:48 +0000

A technical note by Tim that appeared in the December 2010 issue of the DFI Journal has been added to our publications page. Tim’s note examines some issues related to axial load testing of augered cast-in-place (ACIP) piles, also know as augercast piles or CFA piles, that are not covered in ASTM D 1143/D 1143M-07 Standard Test Methods for Deep Foundations Under Static Axial Compression. Specifically, load hold time, unload-reload cycles, and fluctuations in incremental load are discussed as they relate to load testing for determining axial capacity or axial load distribution of ACIP piles. Details of instrumented ACIP pile load testing are also covered.

Siegel, T.C. (2010). “Load Testing and Interpretation of Instrumented Augered Cast-in-Place Piles”, DFI Journal Volume 4, No. 2, December 2010, Deep Foundations Institute, pp69-71.

DFI requests that the following be included with all DFI papers we post:

“This paper was originally published in DFI’s bi-annual journal, Volume 4, No. 2 in December 2010. DFI is an international technical association of firms and individuals involved in the deep foundations and related industry. The DFI Journal is a member publication. To join DFI and receive the journal, go to www.dfi.org for further information. ”

Dan Brown Profiled in DFI Magazine

Robert Thompson — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:57:21 +0000

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

Micropiles for Slope Stabilization

David Graham — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 19:28:57 +0000

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.

kcICON Bond Bridge Article in Deep Foundations Magazine

Robert Thompson — Tue, 04 May 2010 22:05:28 +0000

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.

Characterization of Loess for Deep Foundations

Robert Thompson — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:37:03 +0000

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.

Parson, R.L., Johnson, R.M., Brown, D.A., Dapp, S.D., and Brennan, J.J., 2009. “Characterization of Loess for Deep Foundations”, DFI Journal Volume 3, No. 2, November 2009, Deep Foundations Institute, pp14-24.