All posts by Robert Thompson

ADSC’s Design and Construction of Drilled Shafts coming in May

Dan will be one of the instructors at the ADSC Design and Construction of Drilled Shafts seminar May 18, 2007 in Columbus, Ohio. Information is here.

Ron Erb, P.E., of BBCM Engineering will also be an instructor.

Cooperating organizations include the ADSC Ohio Valley Chapter, ASFE, DFI, and the Geo-Institute of ASCE.


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Dan’s High Performance Concrete paper from GeoDenver is posted

I have added Dan’s recent paper from the Geo-Institute’s GeoDenver 2007 meeting to the site. This paper is on high performance concrete in drilled shaft construction and was written with Dr. Anton Schindler of Auburn University. Problems associated with concrete in drilled shafts are discussed, including workability of concrete and congested reinforcing cages. Several case histories are presented.

Brown, D.A. and Schindler, A., 2007. “High Performance Concrete and Drilled Shaft Construction”, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 158, Geo-institute GeoDenver 2007 Conference.


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New Links Added

We have added links to Pile Dynamics, Inc. and to the web site for the 8th International Conference on the Application of Stress Wave Theory to Piles, or Stress Wave 2008. Pile Dynamics, Inc. provides testing and monitoring systems for deep foundation construction and testing. Their sister company, GRL Engineers, Inc., provides deep foundation testing, analysis, and consulting services. They have a technical library of papers by members of their firms, including many on driven pile foundations.


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First Test Shaft Started at Audubon Bridge

The first test shaft was begun recently at the John James Audubon Bridge in Louisiana. DBA’s Steve Dapp, Ph.D., P.E. had the pleasure to make a site visit last week and this week to observe progress. The shaft is the first shaft to be excavated on the project and is at the west pier in the Mississippi River. Excavation of the shaft is being done using a Toyo 1600 gpm pump. The shaft will be about 200 feet deep below the river level, will be tip-grouted, and will be load tested using an O-cell load device. Some photos below.

Toyo pump being lowered into the shaft:

JJA test shaft 1_small.jpg

Excavating the shaft with Toyo pump:

JJA test shaft 2_small.jpg

Wire cable casing cleaner used to clean out the casing:

JJA test shaft 3_small.jpg

Mini-SID (Shaft Inspection Device) being lowered into the shaft:

JJA test shaft 4_small.jpg


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Dr. Dan Brown co-chair of ADSC Civil Engineering Faculty Workshop scheduled for 2008

The ADSC has announced that Dan will co-chair their popular Civil Engineering Faculty Workshop in June, 2008 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Allen Cadden, P.E., Director of Engineering and Vice President of Schnabel Engineering will be co-chair with Dan. The 5-day course includes full-scale field demonstrations of drilled foundations and earth retention technologies. A press release from ADSC is here. We’ll post more links when ADSC posts more information, including applications.


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Project Summary – AEC Lowman Riverbank Stabilization Project

I have added a new project to our project list. DBA provided several key services for the AEC Charles R. Lowman Power Plant Riverbank Stabilization project. Erik and Dan developed a design that used 100 drilled shaft foundations to stabilize the riverbank and allow AEC to construct new air quality control improvements. The shafts are 54 inches in diameter and extend over 100 feet deep to socket into limestone. Click on the image to download a summary sheet.

AEC Summary image_small.png


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Dr. Dan Brown selected for 2nd Annual Mike O’Neill Lecture

MONeill flier.jpg

Dan has been selected to give the 2nd Annual Mike O’Neill Lecture at the CIGMAT 2007 Conference at the University of Houston, Texas. The lecture was instituted in honor and memory of Dr. Mike O’Neill of the University of Houston, one of the “heroes” of deep foundation engineering and research. CIGMAT is the Center for Innovative Grouting Materials and Technology. The 2007 conference will be held March 1st and 2nd, 2007. Dan will deliver the O’Neill Lecture at 1 p.m. on the 2nd. More information on the lecture and the conference will be posted soon at the CIGMAT web site.

Congratulations to Dan for this honor!


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New links to conferences added; Project page updated

We have added some new features to the links on the left side of our page. One of these is a list of links to some upcoming conferences, meetings, and short courses of interest in the geotechnical engineering / deep foundations field. We also have a list of Dan’s upcoming speaking appearances on the left just below his photo.

I am trying to work on several other things, including our Projects page. We plan to have information and links to ongoing projects we are working on as well as project summaries of completed projects.


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