Category Archives: DBA News

DBA News, Drilled Shafts, Site updates

kcICON Bridge Paper Added

clip_image002

 

I have added the paper that we wrote and Dan presented at the Deep Foundations Institute 34th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations that was held in Kansas City, MO late last month.  The paper highlights how the design-build process was successful in the design and construction of the large diameter drilled shafts supporting the bridge.  We discuss the installation methods used, the load test program, and how we evaluated the durability of the shale rock sockets under drilling fluid.

You can check out the progress of the bridge at the project website.

Axtell, P.J., Thompson, W.R., and Brown, D.A., 2009. “Drilled Shaft Foundations for the kcICON Missouri River Bridge”, Deep Foundations Institute 34th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations, Conference Proceedings 2009, October 21-23, 2009, Kansas City, Missouri, pp. 3-12.

 

DBA News

New DBA Staff Addition – plus, Dan “retires” from Auburn University

Two items of note here:

09_Aaron_s

Aaron Hudson has joined DBA as a staff engineer.  Aaron earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  He was Dan’s last graduate student at Auburn, or will be as soon as he gets his thesis finished!  He will complete the M.S. degree from Auburn in 2010.  Aaron has worked as a soil technician, lab technician, and occasional drill hand for his father’s firm The Summit Group of Louisiana in Sulpher, Louisiana.  Immediately prior to joining DBA, he worked for almost a year as a staff engineer for TTL, Inc. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Aaron will work as a staff engineer and will get to spend a good deal of time in the field.  Welcome aboard, Aaron!

 

If you read the above, you may have noticed I wrote “last graduate student”.  Yes, in case you had not heard, Dan “retired” from Auburn University.  I used the quotes to indicate that Dan didn’t really retire, he really made a career change back into full time consulting, where he began after finishing his M.S. at Georgia Tech way back when.  Actually, it was 1977, so it wasn’t really all that long ago, right?

 

For those that are familiar with the hectic travel schedule Dan kept while having two full time jobs as professor and consultant, it hasn’t changed a bit.  As our business continues to grow, Dan seems to be always somewhere besides the office! When you want Entrepreneurial advice, you can also contact Lee S. Rosen.

DBA News, Drilled Shafts

Recent Project Photos – (or) What have we been up to the last few months (Part 1)?…… Drilled Shafts!

If you frequent this blog, you have noticed that posts have been rare the last few months.  That is mostly to my being in the field a lot this summer and very busy on lost of projects.  While that is good, it meant I did not have time for updates.  Below are some slide shows from a few drilled shaft projects we worked on this summer.

 

Garden State Parkway Mullica River Bridge, New Jersey – Test Shaft Installation

Paul took a trip to lovely New Jersey to observe a large diameter test shaft on the Mullica River Bridge.  DBA worked as a consultant for Parsons Brinckerhoff on an 8-foot diameter, 220-foot deep test shaft.  CASE was the drilled shaft contractor and Agate was the general contractor.  DBA consulted on the design of the test shaft program, as well as the use of Self Consolidating Concrete (SCC).

 

 

Drilled Shaft Lateral Load Test Research with the University of Kansas

Paul took a ride out west to Kansas City, Kansas (close to home!) to observe a drilled shaft lateral load test in Wyandotte County, near the Cabela’s store on I-435.  The test is part of ongoing research by the University of Kansas for the Kansas DOT.   DBA was involved in previous research concerning laterally loaded shafts behind MSE walls (see previous post, click here for more information on the project).  This research continues on the same theme of investigating the behavior of laterally loaded shafts socketed into the sedimentary rocks in eastern Kansas.  DBA does not have an active role in this project, just an academic interest. 

 

 

 

Huey P. Long Bridge Improvements, New Orleans, Louisiana – Test Shaft Installation

The Huey P. Long Bridge in New Orleans (built in the 1930s) is undergoing a major rehab and expansion.  The vehicle traffic will increase from 2 9-foot lanes in each direction to 3 11-foot lanes in each direction.  This is a very interesting combined highway and railroad bridge with a fascinating history.  The bridge is actually a private bridge owned by the New Orleans Public Belt Railway (click the link to see some cool photos from the construction of the bridge in the 1930s). The project website is here. 

DBA was consulting with the joint venture building the bridge for the base-grouted drilled shafts under one new pier.  A test-shaft was built and tested with O-cells.  Robert was on site while they excavated the test shaft.  Steve was on site during grouting.

DBA News

Dan wins 2009 ASCE Martin S. Kapp Foundation Engineering Award.

Dan was recognized with the 2009 Martin S. Kapp Foundation Engineering Award at the International Foundation Congress and Exposition 09 in March.  The award is given annually by ASCE to recognize outstanding achievement in geo-construction.  From the ASCE Web site:

The Martin S. Kapp Foundation Engineering Award will be given to an individual on the basis of the best example of innovative or outstanding design or construction of foundations, earthworks, retaining structures, or underground construction. Emphasis shall be placed on constructed works where serious difficulties were overcome or where substantial economies were achieved. The example shall have been described in published form available to the entire engineering community.

Dan receiving Kapp Award from G-I President, Dr. Jean-Louis Briaud, P.E.
Dan receiving Kapp Award from G-I President, Dr. Jean-Louis Briaud, P.E.

Congratulations, Dan!

DBA News, Drilled Piles, Drilled Shafts, Driven Piles, Micropiles, Miscellaneous, Slope Stability

IFCEE 09 Wrap-up and Papers Posted

IFCEE09 page

Last week’s International Foundation Congress and Equipment Exposition was a huge success!  Dan gave a keynote address on Tuesday on managing risk in deep foundations within the design-build delivery model.  Paul, Erik, and I also had papers to present.  The technical sessions were excellent, the indoor exhibits were excellent, and the outdoor exhibits of foundation equipment were outstanding!  The ADSC, Geo-Institute, and PDCA were the co-organizers of the event.  A big hats off to all of the staff of all three organizations that made the event a huge success!  Thanks and “atta boy” go to Mohamad Hussein, P.E. (Conference Chair) and to Dan (Technical Program Chair) for all of their work, as well as the rest of the organizing committee.

I have also blogged about the conference here at GeoPrac.net.

Here are some pictures of the outdoor exhibits:

IFCEE09 Exhibit 1 IFCEE09 Exhibit 2 IFCEE09 Exhibit 3

There were over 300 papers included in the conference.  The proceedings were published as three Geotechnical Special Publications:

GSP 185: Contemporary Topics in Deep Foundations

GSP 186: Contemporary Topics in In-Situ Testing, Analysis, and Reliability of Foundations

GSP 187: Contemporary Topics in Ground Modification, Problem Soils, and Geo-Support

The editors, Magued Iskander, Ph.D., P.E. (Polytechnic Institute of New York University), Debra Laefer, Ph.D. (University College Dublin, Ireland), and Mohamad Hussein, P.E. (GRL) all had their work cut out for them.

I have added all seven papers authored by DBA team members to our site.  The links are below, or you can go to our Publications page.

Axtell, P.J., Stark, T.D., and Dillon, J.C. (2009). “Strength Difference Between Clam-Shell and Long-Reach Excavator Constructed Cement-Bentonite Self-Hardening Slurry Walls”, 2009 International Foundation Congress and Equipment Expo, Contemporary Topics in Ground Modification, Problem Soils, and Geo-Support, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 187, ASCE, pp. 297-304.

Brown, D.A. (2009). “Management of Risk in Deep Foundations with Design-Build”, 2009 International Foundation Congress and Equipment Expo, Contemporary Topics in Deep Foundations, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 185, ASCE, pp. 1-11.

Brown, D.A. and Thompson, W.R. (2009). “Drilled Shaft Performance in Cemented Calcareous Formations in the Southeast United States”, 2009 International Foundation Congress and Equipment Expo, Contemporary Topics in Deep Foundations, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 185, ASCE, pp. 119-126.

Loehr, J.E and Huaco, D.R. (2009). “Probabilistic Calibration of Resistance Factors for Slope Stability”, 2009 International Foundation Congress and Equipment Expo, Contemporary Topics in In-Situ Testing, Analysis, and Reliability of Foundations, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 186, ASCE, pp. 297-304.

Parsons, R.L., Pierson, M., Han, J., Brennan, J.J., and Brown, D.A. (2009). “Lateral Load Capacity of Cast-in-Place Shafts Behind an MSE Wall”, 2009 International Foundation Congress and Equipment Expo, Contemporary Topics in In-Situ Testing, Analysis, and Reliability of Foundations, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 186, ASCE, pp. 560-567.

Rollins, K.M., Adsero, M.E., and Brown, D.A. (2009). “Jet Grouting to Increase Lateral Resistance of Pile Group in Soft Clay”, 2009 International Foundation Congress and Equipment Expo, Contemporary Topics in Ground Modification, Problem Soils, and Geo-Support, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 187, ASCE, pp. 265-272.

Thompson, W.R., Hill, J.R., and Loehr, J. E. (2009). “Case History: Value Engineering of Driven H-Piles for Slope Stability on the Missouri River”, 2009 International Foundation Congress and Equipment Expo, Contemporary Topics in Deep Foundations, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 185, ASCE, pp207-214.

DBA News, Drilled Shafts

kcICON River Bridge Update – March 08

I started on a post back in January, realizing I never finished it when I started writing a new one for this project.  So, this one now covers a few months!

Work on the land bents began back in November, before it got really cold!  There are 5 land-based bents (Bent 1 on the “south” side of the river and Bents 2 – 5 on the “north” side of the river).   Work started with Bent 2 in November, of which Paul took a few photos that I have put into the slideshow below.  After a pause for the holidays and scheduling, work on Bent 3 was started in January.  The drilled shaft contractor, Hayes Drilling, begins shaft excavation in late afternoon so that that is completed early in the morning for concrete to be placed in the daytime.  This means that Paul is verifying the low temperature forecasts of the local KC weather personalities, as well as messing up his sleep habits with many late nights (early mornings?) spent observing the shaft excavations.  Paul writes concerning the progress as of this week:

The main pylon is beginning to take shape as the delta-tower rises out of the river.  The drilled shafts are complete at Bents 2 and 3, including base-grouting for QA purposes.  Despite encountering several difficult boulders right above bedrock, the shafts at Bent 4 have been installed and are awaiting base-grouting.  Hayes has constructed three of the five shafts at Bent 5.  When complete, they’ll move their operation to the south bank to complete the five shafts at Bent 1.

Pile sleeves have been installed behind the MSE walls at the north and south end bents and are awaiting HP14x73 piles.  The piles at the south end bent will be driven after settlement of the fill is mostly complete.  The north end bent piles will be installed upon completion of the Bent 5 shafts.

The MSE abutments are being constructed prior to pile driving, hence the sleeves (corrugated metal pipe) being set for the piles.

I have complied a slideshow from some of Paul’s latest pictures.  There are a couple in there from early work on site.  You can see the pylon tower in the river is coming on up!

More pictures here.

Previous post here, here and here.

 

DBA News, Drilled Piles, Drilled Shafts, Miscellaneous, Site updates, Terzaghi & History

Audubon (JJA) Bridge Construction Update

I have been too busy to post more photos from my trips to New Roads, LA in the fall to help Steve with the work at the Audubon Bridge project.  It has been a flurry of activity as they worked to finish installing, tip-routing, and load testing all of the shafts in the river (done in December!).   They have also completed and tested the land test shaft on the west side of the river and begun installing the land shafts.  Throw in a lot of pile driving, including some 5-foot diameter pipe piles for temporary bents, and it has been a very busy site.  All of the various tip-grouting, O-cell load tests on drilled shafts, and PDA testing of the pre-cast piles has been successful.  As of today, the Mississippi River has come up and slowed things down a bit, but they should get all of the foundation completed within the next couple of months. 

Some pictures I took on some of my trips are setup below.  I have also experimented with embedding some video I took with my camera.  The camera was not set on a very high video capture resolution, but I think they are good enough for you to get the idea of the shaft excavation and the pile driving activities.

More pictures here.

Previous posts here.

 

East Pier Construction – September 2008:

 

East Temporary Bent Pile Driving – September 2008:

 

West Side Construction and Other Stuff – October 2008:

 

 

Excavating Shaft 5E with airlift.

 

 

Driving 5′ dia. pipe pile for East Temprary Bent

 

Extracting casing at Shaft 21W
DBA News, Drilled Shafts, Site updates

New Publications and Presentations – KDOT Wall Report, Ground Improvement Paper, and Drilled Shaft Presentations

I have added some publications and presentations to the site – trying to catch up on things here.

The report of the lateral load tests on drilled shafts and an MSE wall for KDOT has been published.  My post on this project is here.  Dr. Bob Parsons at University of Kansas was the principal researcher.  Our main contribution was analysis of the lateral  response of the drilled shafts (Appendix B in the report).

 

KDOT wall report

Pierson, M., Parsons, R.L., Han, J., Brown, D.A. and Thompson, W.R., 2008. “Capacity of Laterally Loaded Shafts Constructed Behind the Face of a Mechanically Stabilized Earth Block Wall”, Report for the Kansas Department of Transportation.

 

We now have a paper co-authored by Paul in the just released DFI Journal Volume 2.  The subject is shear modulus in soil mixing and jet grouting.

 

Pages from Increase in Shear Modulus by Soil Mix and Jet Grout Methods_AxtellStark - DFI Journal Vol2-Nov2008

Axtell, P.J. and Stark, T.D., 2008. “Increase in Shear Modulus by Soil Mix and Jet Grout Methods”, DFI Journal Volume 2, No. 1, Nov2008, Deep Foundations Institute, pp11-21.

 

Two presentations have also been added – one from Dan’s talk at the 2008 STGEC Conference (program page is here) and one from Dan’s appearance at the San Antonio Section of ASCE earlier this month.

 

Brown STGECPigeonForge October 2008       Pages from Design of Drilled Shafts for Extreme Events - San Antonio Section ASCE Jan 2009

 

Design of Drilled Shafts for Extreme Events – Dan A. Brown, Ph.D., P.E. – San Antonio Section ASCE Meeting – January 9, 2009

Improved Design of Drilled Shafts in Rock – Dan A. Brown, Ph.D., P.E. –  STGEC 2008, Pigeon Forge, TN October 2008

 

DBA News, Drilled Shafts

ADSC SE Chapter Rock Socketed Drilled Shaft Research Project Underway (and contest, too!)

DBA is one of many participants in a geotechnical engineering / deep foundation design research project being sponsored by the ADSC Southeast Chapter and funded by the ADSC Industry Advancement Fund. The project is investigating the axial resistance of drilled shafts socketed in to various rock formation in the Southeastern U.S. Design of drilled shaft foundations in the Southeastern U.S. has been very conservative over the years, often based solely on presumptive values of end bearing on rock and a requirement that the shaft be founded on sound rock with some minimum embedment below the rock surface. The research program hopes to test several shafts socketed into different rock formations to provide data for evaluating current design methodology, particularly the presumptive design values used in the region.

The first test shaft is being constructed this week at the Long Foundation Company equipment yard in Nashville, Tennessee. The shaft has a 48-inch rock socket in limestone. In conjunction with the research project, the ADSC SE Chapter is holding a prediction contest for the first test shaft. You can submit your prediction of the unit side shear and end bearing values. You can access the page on the shaft and the contest on the project page here or at the link on the top of the right sidebar. Information available includes boring logs, rock core photos, and photos of the rock socket construction. Contest entry deadline is Thursday, September 25th.

Other participants/sponsors include: Loadtest, PSI, S&ME, and Tennessee DOT.


Technorati : , , , , , , ,