Merry Christmas from all of us at Dan Brown and Associates!! We all look forward to a fun, exciting, and prosperous New Year!!
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Merry Christmas from all of us at Dan Brown and Associates!! We all look forward to a fun, exciting, and prosperous New Year!!
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Dan is scheduled to present a paper on High Performance Concrete and Drilled Shaft Construction at the annual Geo-Institute meeting Geo-Denver 2007. Dan’s talk is scheduled in the New Technology for Drilled Shaft Construction session on February 19, 2007. Information on the meeting can be found HERE. This annual meeting is always full of great technical programs, a huge exhibit hall with booths of lots of great geo-industry companies and organizations, and other events. It is a must attend for all geotechnical engineers!
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Dr. Dan Brown, P.E. and Mr. Robert Thompson, P.E. are scheduled on the program for the 2006 Southeastern Transportation Geotechnical Engineering Conference in Florence, Alabama October 30th – November 3rd, 2006. This is the 38th STGEC meeting and is being hosted this year by the Alabama Department of Transportation. Dan will make two presentations: “High Performance Concrete for Drilled Shaft Construction” and “Design of Tip-Grouted Drilled Shaft Foundations for the John James Audubon Bridge.” Robert will make a presentation titled “Test Pile Program for U.S. 90 Bridge Reconstruction over Biloxi Bay.”
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The week of August 28th saw five load tests performed at the project site. A lateral Statnamic test and an axial Statnamic test were performed on both 24-inch and 30-inch piles. The tests were performed by AFT. A picture of one of the axial test setup is below. A static axial load tests was also performed on a 24-inch pile. Eustis Engineering, the project geotechnical engineering firm, supervised the static test. The results of the tests, along with the PDA data gathered by Eustis during driving of the indicator piles, will be used to set the pile tip elevations along the bridge alignment. Driving of production piles is set to begin the week of September 11th.
Statnamic test setup on 24-inch pile.
DBA’s work on the John James Audubon Bridge in Louisiana continues to move forward. We have submitted our reports for the main river piers that include the recommended designs for post-grouted drilled shafts. Test shaft construction is scheduled for late August or early September for an Osterberg Cell (O-Cell) load test.
Driving of indicator piles has begun at the US 90 Bridge from Biloxi to Ocean Springs, Mississippi. A program of 21 indicator piles and 6 load tests (4 axial and 2 lateral) will be used to develop pile capacities and driving criteria for the project. Eustis Engineering, Inc. is monitoring all indicator and test piles using the Pile Driving Analyzer (PDA). The load tests will be performed using the Statnamic device in late August.
DBA is working with the design-build team selected to re-construct the US 90 bridge between Biloxi and Ocean Springs, Mississippi. GC Constructors, AJV was awarded the project and is a joint venture of Massman Construction Company, Kiewit Southern, and Traylor Brothers, Inc. The geotechnical engineer for the project is Eustis Engineering of Metairie, LA. DBA will be consulting on pile foundation design and testing with Eustis and Parsons Transportation Group, the bridge designer.
Dr. Dan Brown, P.E. will be speaking at the 10th International Conference on Piling and Deep Foundations organized by The Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) and the European Federation of Foundation Contractors (EFFC). The meeting will be held May 31st through June 2nd, 2006 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  Dan will also serve as moderator for a session on monitoring and testing of deep foundations. Papers co-authored by the DBA team include a paper on base grouting of drilled shafts in the southeatern U.S. by Dan, Dr. Steve Dapp, P.E. of DBA, and Mike Muchard, P.E. of Applied Foundation Testing, Inc. , and a paper on performance based specifications for continues flight auger (CFA) or augercast piles by Dan, Robert Thompson, P.E. of DBA, and Silas Nichols, P.E. with the Geotechnical Engineering Section of FHWA These papers will be available on this web site after the conference.
DBA is part of the design-build team that is the apparent successful proposer for the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America: the new Mississippi River Bridge connecting New Roads and St. Francisville, Louisiana. The bridge will formally be known as the John James Audubon Bridge and is the Louisiana DOTD’s first design-build project. The team we are on is Audubon Bridge Constructors Joint Venture, a joint venture of Flatiron Construction, Granite Construction and Parsons Transportation Group. DBA will be the geotechnical engineer of record for the planned 8-foot diameter post-grouted drilled shafts that will support the main span towers and the high-level approaches.  Work on the project is expected to start in April. We’ll post more information and links later as the project moves forward.
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Dr .Dan Brown, P.E. and Dr. Bill Isenhower, P.E. of ENSOFT, Inc. will be conducting a two-day short course on Drilled Shaft Design, Construction and Testing. The course is the second in a series produced by ADSC and ENSOFT, Inc. The program will cover drilled shaft design, specifications, QA and QC testing, and recommended construction procedures. This course is modeled on the highly successful NHI course that has been provided to state DOTs and is based on the FHWA Drilled Shaft Design and Construction Manual developed by Dr. Michael O’Neill. The course is being sponsored by the ADSC’s Mid-Atlantic Chapter. Registration information can be found at www.adsc-iafd.com.
Dr. Dan Brown and Dr. Steve Dapp will be presenting at the PDCA 10th Anniversary Annual Conference at the Hilton Palacio Del Rio in San Antonio, Texas March 2 – 4, 2006.
Dan will be presenting “Pile Set Up in Foundation Design†on Friday the 3rd. Dan’s presentation will provide an overview of the fundamental mechanisms affecting the time-dependency of axial resistance in driven piles, and the effect of this phenomenon on design, quality control, and testing of driven pile foundations. Examples from the ongoing Escambia Bay Bridge project will be described, in which setup has been seen to vary considerably based on soil conditions. Dan will also be a panelist in a roundtable discussion “Comparing Driven Pile Capacities With Drilled Shaft Capacities†to be held later that afternoon.
On Saturday the 4th, Steve will present “Static and Axial Capacity Between Drilled and Driven Pilesâ€. Steve’s presentation will provide an overview of the effect of construction on deep foundation behavior and factors that affect performance. Issues of construction quality assurance and control, along with advantages and limitations of each foundation type will also be discussed.