Dr. Mike Holloway, P.E. comes aboard!

By Robert Thompson, on November 4th, 2011

DBA is pleased to announce that Dr. D. Michael Holloway, P.E. has joined the DBA team. Mike is a recognized expert in driven pile foundation design and dynamic testing, in-situ testing, instrumentation, and earthquake engineering. His over 40 years of foundation and geotechnical engineering experience includes stints at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station (WES) in Vicksburg, MS, and Woodward-Clyde Consultants in Oakland, CA. He founded InsituTech, which specialized in engineering deep foundations and applying insitu soil testing services.

When starting InsituTech, Mike broadened the professional practice beyond “conventional” PDA-related testing and analyses services. Rather than just test and report to satisfy QC requirements during construction, he applied dynamic testing and analyses to enhance foundation design and constructability, as well as to improve on-site troubleshooting of construction problems. The efforts paid off as the firm made significant changes in the way PDA services became integrated into the design/build process on several major marine facilities and bridge projects in the west and in the Pacific.

Mike is a Blue Devil, having earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. at Duke University in North Carolina. Raised in New York, he made his way to California seeking engineering gold soon after his time at WES. He has been based there ever since.

Mike’s presence in California makes DBA a practically coast-to-coast firm (well, at least East Tennessee to California). We at DBA are excited at the expertise Mike adds to our portfolio and look forward to his contributions to the team. Welcome, Mike!

Holloway DBA Announcement (Press Release)

Recent Project Photos – (or) What have we been up to the last few months (Part 2)?……Driven Piles!

By Robert Thompson, on October 30th, 2009

Who says we only work on drilled shafts?? Robert had the opportunity to work for Kiewit Engineering Company providing geotechnical engineering support to Gulf Intracoastal Constructors (GIC), a joint venture of Kiewit and Traylor Brothers on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway West Closure Project near Belle Chase, Louisiana. The project is part of the overall flood protection system improvements that are supposed to protect New Orleans from future hurricanes. The key components of this particular project are a massive gate and pump station across the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Go For more information on the project, go here, here, and here (video from Corps of Engineers).

Robert spent a good part of the summer in New Orleans doing a variety of geotechnical engineering tasks to support the construction efforts of GIC. The main thing he worked on was the test pile program. The project included a massive test pile program with 24 test piles spread among 5 test sites with various combinations of dynamic, static axial, static tension, and static lateral tests. The piles were mostly open-ended steel pipe piles varying from 18” to 54” in diameter. A few 18” x 18” pre-stressed precast concrete piles were also thrown in for good measure. In addition to performing drivability studies and evaluating tests data, Robert got to spend some time in the wonderful June and July weather in southern Louisiana on the site observing pile installation and testing. And as always, he came back with a lot of pictures. Here are a few to enjoy.