Tag Archives: Dan Brown and Associates

Welcome Aaron Leopold, P.E.!

Aaron Leopold, P.E. joined the team this May with 8 years of geotechnical engineering experience.  He received a BS and MS in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  His previous work at Shannon & Wilson mainly focused on the design and construction of deep foundations and retention systems.  Aaron was often on the road, observing complex geotechnical projects throughout the Midwest and Western United States consisting of drilled shafts, ground anchors, micropiles, augercast piles, and other deep foundation and earth retention systems.  He has supported numerous landslide stabilization projects utilizing his knowledge of 2D and 3D numerical modeling and has worked on large design-build projects from the pursuit through construction in the Rockies.  Aaron is also heavily involved within ASCE and other professional organizations in Colorado and will be based in Denver.

NCHRP Synthesis 547 – Advancements in Use of Geophysical Methods for Transportation Projects

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) has released a synthesis report prepared by Brent L. Rosenblad and Andrew Z. Boeckmann (Andy is now with DBA) on geophysical methods for transportation projects: NCHRP Synthesis 547, Advancements in Use of Geophysical Methods for Transportation Projects.  The report is an updated summary of the state of practice with regard to geophysical methods in the transportation industry and includes a matrix of geophysical methods and applications. They conducted a survey of state DOTs and selected frequent users of geophysics to analyze “the common use methods and applications, challenges, and lessons learned.”

You can download a PDF of the report or purchase a hard copy at the link below.

Rosenblad, B.L. and Boeckmann, A.Z. (2020). NCHRP Synthesis 547, Advancements in Use of Geophysical Methods for Transportation Projects, Transportation Research Board, National Academies, Washington, D.C.

DBA Project Highlight: MoDOT I-44 Project Bridge Rebuild

I-44 Construction Aerial View; video courtesy of Emery Sapp & Sons

DBA has partnered with bridge designer Parsons and prime contractor Emery Sapp & Sons on a design/build project in Southwest Missouri being administered by MoDOT.  Design is complete and the project is in construction phase.  The project involves replacing 13 bridges and rehabilitating another six bridges along a 30-mile stretch of I-44 between Sarcoxie and Halltown.  The $36 million project is progressing nicely with construction beginning in 2019 and on schedule to be completed by December 15, 2021. To get a birds-eye view of some of the work, check out the video at the top of the post (from Emery Sapp & Sons)

Although smaller bridges than DBA typically works on, challenging subsurface conditions and unique structure types have made things interesting with respect to foundation design and construction.  Foundation types for various structures include driven H-piles installed with high-strain dynamic testing, drilled shafts with rock sockets in various rock formations, and spread footings bearing on near surface bedrock where applicable.  Pinnacle bedrock surface and karstic foundation conditions are prevalent in the area and this project is no exception.  Foundation design had to anticipate the complex subsurface conditions and consider constructability throughout the entire design process.

More information on the project can be found at MoDOT’s project page:  https://www.modot.org/i-44-project-bridge-rebuild .  Below are some photos taken by DBA staff while on site.

Photo Credit: DBA

 

DBA Announces Officer Transitions

DBA is excited to announce recent transitions within the company.

Dan Brown, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, is turning over the reigns of leadership to the next generation in the firm and stepping down as President.   While stepping back from day-to-day management of the company, Dan will remain fully involved in technical aspects and client service in the role of Chief Engineer where he will continue to focus on developing practical solutions to complex and challenging foundation issues.

Three Senior Principal Engineers will assume the roles of the officers of DBA.  Tim Siegel, P.E., G.E., D.GE  has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer.   Paul Axtell, P.E., D.GE has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer.  Robert Thompson, P.E., D.GE has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer.   Tim, Paul, and Robert will provide the management and leadership for the continued growth of DBA and for DBA to provide value to its clients and continue to be a key contributor to the practice of geotechnical engineering.

Tim Siegel, CEO Paul Axtell, COO Robert Thompson, CFO

 

DBA Grows – 2020 Edition!

DBA is happy to announce our two latest additions to the team: Dan Ding, Ph.D., P.E. and Andy Boekmann, Ph.D., P.E.  Dan joined us as a Project Engineer in October of 2019 while Andy came on board as a Senior Engineer in February of this year.   Read a little bit about both of them below.  Go to our About us page to see their resume as well as everyone else on the DBA Team.

Dan Ding, Ph.D., P.E.

Dan received her Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Missouri. Dan specializes in site characterization, geotechnical laboratory testing, Load and Resistance Factor Design, and reliability analysis. Before joining DBA, Dan worked as an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Missouri to teach undergraduate and graduate engineering courses as well as conduct national and state research projects. She also worked as a laboratory geotechnical engineer at Geocomp in Acton, MA for a year after graduation.  Dan is based in Columbia, Missouri.

Andy Boeckmann, Ph.D., P.E.

Prior to joining DBA, Andy was a research engineer at the University of Missouri, where he performed research on topics including post-grouted drilled shafts, reliability of geotechnical designs, foundation reuse, and geotechnical asset management. Andy also earned a Ph.D. at the University of Missouri; his dissertation examined the reliability of foundation designs based on site-specific load tests. Andy is the lead author of two NCHRP Synthesis reports, including Current Practices and Guidelines for the Reuse of Bridge Foundations. Prior to working at MU, Andy was a consulting geotechnical engineer for URS Corp. in St. Louis, where he performed design and analysis for large projects, including post-Hurricane Katrina levee design in New Orleans. Andy is an active member of the Deep Foundations Institute, including serving as the vice-chair of the Subsurface Characterization Committee.  He is also based in Columbia, Missouri.

DBA staff additions for 2018 (and Earlier)

It has been a busy time since our last post, so it is time to “catch up” on the growth of our staff over the last year or so since the last update. Here are the newest faces of DBA. You can find resumes on the About US – Other Engineers page.


Cody Coonradt, E.I. (Staff Engineer) He had several years of experience as a field and laboratory technician before completing his BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. While completing his BS and MS degrees, Cody worked at a geotechnical engineering firm in Buffalo, NY. His experience includes site investigation, stormwater management, slope stabilization, load transfer platforms, retaining structures, and ground improvement. Cody and his family have moved to Knoxville, Tennessee where Cody will be based.

Tayler Day, E.I. (Project Engineer) joined us in Knoxville in October of 2016. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri, with BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering. Talyer is in the process of completing his Ph.D. at Mizzou as well. Tayler is applying his experience in field testing to many projects with a wide variety of foundations types, working from our Knoxville office.

Isaac Jeldes, Ph.D. (Project Engineer) started at DBA in August, 2017. He is a native of Chile and is a civil engineer whose passion is geotechnical engineering. He holds MS and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tennessee. Dr. Jeldes specializes in slope stability analyses and design based on mechanical, erosional, morphological evolution concepts, and numerical techniques for geotechnical modeling. He has international experience in field exploration, foundations, ground improvement, pavement geomechanics, and retaining structures, including sheet pile walls, braced excavations, soil nailing, and active/passive anchored systems. Before Joining DBA, Dr. Jeldes served as faculty for the Engineering Fundamentals Program at the University of Tennessee and as the assistant engineer for research stations at the same university.

Will Shaffer, E.I. (Staff Engineer) is our first new team member for 2019. Will graduated with his BS in Engineering with a Civil Emphasis from Marshall University in 2017, and then obtained his MS in civil engineering from Virginia Tech at the end of 2018. While at VT he was the Charles E. Via Scholar and he conducted research on geophysics and construction vibrations. He has joined us in the Knoxville office.

Sam Sternberg, P.E., D.GE (Senior Engineer) came aboard in April of 2018. Sam joins DBA with over 16 years of geotechnical engineering experience.  He received a BS degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Kentucky, M.Div degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a MS degree in Civil Engineering from the University of South Alabama.  He has worked in consulting  on numerous private and public projects with primary focus on DOT Transportation projects around the Southeastern US.  He has managed and supported numerous bridge foundation designs, shallow and deep foundations, soft soil remediation, retaining walls (including cantilever, and mechanically stabilized earth walls), bulkhead and relieving platforms.  Sam will be working based in Daphne, Alabama

 

 

DBA is growing again – welcome to Ali, Ben, and Mark!

Well, we are at it again.  The first 5 months of 2016 have seen us add three new faces of the new website creator.  So now, drum roll, please………

Ali Leib, E.I.

Ali 2016-1

Ali was a summer intern at DBA in 2014 and 2015 and joined us full time as a staff engineer in February.  She is a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee (Go Vols!) where she completed both her B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering. While completing her M.S., she was a teaching assistant in charge of grading lab reports for the structural and geotechnical undergraduate labs. She was also a research assistant under Dr. Dayakar Penumadu, resulting in her thesis: “Effect of Particle Morphology on the Deformation Behavior of Sand under Monotonic Loading Conditions.”  Unlike most of the rest of us, Ali insists that she will not be conforming to the (mostly) standard DBA hair style.  Ali will work in our Knoxville, Tennessee office.

Mark Madgett, P.E.

Mark Madgett_s

 

Mark received a BS and MS degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Tennessee, while working on research for TDOT to improve pavement design methods.  He has worked in both consulting and construction for the last 22 years, focusing primarily on deep foundations in the Southeastern US.  As a consultant, Mark gained extensive field experience with deep foundation construction techniques and the impacts on design.  In 2006, he began working for Seaboard Foundations, opening a green field office in Tri-Cities TN as the district manager.  In his role as design engineer for Seaboard Foundations, Mark has implemented design-build techniques in many markets (energy, institutional, commercial, transportation, and healthcare you can supplement if you find Kratom online and other natural products) that vastly improved the constructability and reduced the costs of deep foundation systems for his clients.  Mark will also work outr of our Knoxville, Tennessee office.

Ben Turner, Ph. D., P.E.

Ben recently completed his Ph.D. in geotechnical earthquake engineering at UCLA with an emphasis on the transfer of forces between the ground and foundation elements during seismic loading. Prior to starting at UCLA, he worked for two years for the Los Angeles office of Shannon & Wilson, Inc.  Ben worked in both construction and geotechnical firms while attending school for his B.S. and M.S. degrees. His experience includes: design, construction, and load testing of deep foundations;  geotechnical earthquake engineering including soil-structure interaction, seismic hazard analysis, site response, liquefaction triggering analysis and mitigation of liquefaction-induced ground failure; and, characterization of structural behavior of reinforced concrete foundations.  Here are two of the publications resulting from his dissertation work:

Turner, B., Brandenberg, S., and Stewart, J. (). “Case Study of Parallel Bridges Affected by Liquefaction and Lateral Spreading.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. , 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001480 , 05016001.

Turner, B. and Brandenberg, S. (2015) “Pile Pinning and Interaction of Adjacent Foundations During Lateral Spreading”, DFI Journal, Volume 9, Issue 2.

Ben will anchor the West Coast Region of DBA, working from San Luis Obispo , California.

 

Kansas City Load Test Photos Added

BPU Load Test

Last spring, DBA conducted a construction phase load test program for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers floodwall improvement project  along the Missouri River in Kansas City, Kansas.  Located on property owned and maintained by the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities (BPU), the BPU floodwall was slated for structural improvements including a series of buttresses founded on 24-in drilled shafts.  As part of the project contract a load test program performed under the direction of a qualified P.E. and D.GE was required.  General contractor L.G. Barcus & Sons, Inc., secured our Paul Axtell, P.E., D.GE as the qualified load test expert.  DBA teamed up with load testing subcontractor Applied Foundation Testing, Inc., to perform the static load tests.

The load test program requirements included three test shafts, a statically loaded axial test shaft, a statically loaded lateral test shaft, and a combined statically loaded axial and lateral test shaft.  The required combined lateral and axial test shaft provided some unique challenges with respect to applying the loads and collecting data.  As can be seen in the picture above, the axial load was applied using dead weights.

We have added selected pictures from this unique project to our web albums, which can be viewed here.

St. Croix Bridge Construction Starts with Official Groundbreaking

St Croix Aerial Rendering

Earlier this week, officials from the Minnesota and Wisconsin departments of transportation (MnDOT and WisDOT) met for an official groundbreaking ceremony on the projected $629 million bridge and highway project that will connect Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, to St. Joseph, Wisconsin, just south of Stillwater, Minnesota, as highlighted in yesterday’s edition of The Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal.  The new bridge will replace the 80-year-old Stillwater Lift Bridge and relieve traffic congestion in nearby Stillwater.

DBA has been retained by MnDOT as the lead geotechnical consultant and foundation designer for the extradosed river bridge.  Last summer, DBA aided MnDOT in the design and oversight of a load test program described in my blog post, “DBA Wraps Up Load Test Program and Proceeds with Design on St. Croix Bridge.”  Following final design, which took place over the fall and winter, construction of the foundations will begin next week with the installation of a technique shaft.  DBA will participate in construction as well, providing construction observation and review of the technique shaft and at least one shaft at each of the five production piers.  Edward Kraemer & Sons, Inc. of Plain, Wisconsin, has been selected as the general contractor for the foundation contract with sub-contractor Case Foundation Company of Chicago, Illinois, performing the drilling.  The extradosed bridge will feature five main river towers, each resting on two footings supported by a 4-shaft group of 8.5-foot drilled shafts, socketed 25-feet or more into sandstone bedrock.

I hope to have some more updates soon with some pictures following my upcoming site visits to observe the construction operations.  In the mean time, you can stay updated by visiting the MnDOT project page and watching the “action” live via the construction webcam.