Steve will be one of the presenters at the PDCA Professor’s Driven Pile Institute June 18th through 22nd at Utah State University. Steve’s lecture will be comparing the capacity of driven piles to cast-in-situ piles. He will also be assisting with the axial and lateral load test demonstrations. For more information or to contribute to the funding of the Institute, click here.

Technorati : Deep Foundations, Driven Piles, Foundation Construction, Foundations, Geotechnical Engineering, Load Test, Test Pile

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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 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 and Dr. Steve Dapp will be presenting at the PDCA 10^th 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 3^rd. 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 4^th, Steve will present “Static and Axial Capacity Between Drilled and Driven Piles”. 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.