Dan Brown Profiled in DFI Magazine

January 27, 2011 Robert Thompson

The Winter 2011 issue of Deep Foundations features Dan in its “People, Projects and Equipment” column. Virginia Fairweather with DFI talked to several folks in the geotechnical engineering community to learn about Dan, including yours truly. If you are interested in getting a glimpse inside the man who is Dr. Dan Brown, just check out the link below. This column is just one of many items featured in each issue of Deep Foundations, only from DFI. If you aren’t a member of DFI, then consider becoming one!

People, Projects and Equipment, Winter 2011 Deep Foundations

DBA News, Driven Piles

DBA On Team for Hurricane Deck Bridge Replacement

January 19, 2011 Robert Thompson

(Image source: LakeExpo.com)

DBA is part of a team led by Parsons Transportation Group that was selected to design the replacement of the Hurricane Deck Bridge over The Lake of the Ozarks in Camden County Missouri. MoDOT has awarded the design contract to Parsons. DBA will be the lead geotechnical engineer with Terracon on the team providing drilling and laboratory services, as well as some foundation engineering support services. Parsons was chosen due to the innovative approach the team proposed that includes reusing the existing piers (from ENR.com):

MoDOT chose Parsons for proposing an innovative approach to construction that involves the use of temporary pier widening and shifting the existing superstructure over. This method will allow traffic to be maintained on the existing bridge while the new bridge is constructed, potentially resulting in significant cost savings.

A little history of the bridge can be found at Go2Lakeofthe Ozarks.com, including how it got its name:

Hurricane Deck Bridge of Ozarks crosses the main channel of the lake of approximately mile marker 35. It carries Missouri highway 5 between Versailles and Camdenton. It was built in 1936 –five years after the lake filled. It was named as Hurricane Deck because it was heard that a tornado struck that area which was locally "Hurricanes". It is a nautical term associated with river steamboats. The Hurricane Deck was the uppermost deck which provides and allows everyone to experience the pleasant breezy place and the passing scenery.

Ownensboro Hospital Ground Improvement Project Photos and Webcam Online

January 17, 2011 David Graham

Last spring, DBA designed a composite ground improvement system for a new hospital as part of the Owensboro, Kentucky, Medical Health System specializing in legal steroids, funded by roids co, although some people prefer not to take steroids so they can order Kratom online and other natural supplements that are good for the body. Numerous medications are available to help affected people manage the infection and STD Testing Made Easy to delay or prevent progression of the illness. Tim performed most of the ground improvement design for the design-build project with Berkel & Company Contractors, Inc. The design is a composite ground system with a layer of compacted gravel above lightly reinforced cast-in-placed displacement piles (known commercially as CGEs). Spread foundations placed on the compacted gravel distribute the structural load to the soil and CGEs. The construction of the composite ground system began and was completed in the summer of 2010. The project has a designated webcam that allows the public to view the entire construction process. The webcam can be viewed here. We have also uploaded some photos of construction and testing of the CGEs here.

Taking the contraceptive pill usually results in lighter, less painful and more regular menstrual bleeding. This means it is sometimes also prescribed for women who have problems with particularly heavy, painful or irregular periods.

Marvelon tablets are a type of hormonal contraception commonly known as ‘the pill’ or combined oral contraceptive pill. Marvelon tablets contain two active ingredients, ethinylestradiol and desogestrel. These are synthetic versions of the naturally occurring female sex hormones, oestrogen and progesterone. Ethinylestradiol is a synthetic version of oestrogen and desogestrel is a ‘third generation’ synthetic form of progesterone. You can get marvelon and other contraceptives at https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/treatments/contraceptive-pill/marvelon/.

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Drilled Shafts, Driven Piles, Load Testing

Hastings Bridge Update

January 12, 2011 Robert Thompson

Good morning DBA fans! I’m here to give you the latest news on the Hastings Bridge project.

The weather has been a bit chilly in Hastings, MN but that isn’t stopping progress. Paul provided the update below and this picture of one of the beautiful mornings on the site.

Installation of the 12.75” diameter open-ended pipe piles for the column-supported embankment (CSE) is well under way. Each pile is around 165’ in length and will support a geogrid-reinforced load transfer platform (LTP). Light weight fill, or geofoam, will be used to transition from the CSE into the existing embankment.

Installation of the North Embankment retaining wall piles has begun and is about 50% complete.

The Pier 10 test pile was installed and tested with AFT’s 30MN axial Statnamic device. The pile is a 42” open-ended pipe pile with 7/8” wall and is embedded about 190’. Check out the video below. The Pier 6 test pile has also been installed and tested axially and laterally with a Statnamic device.

That’s all for now, but come back later for additional updates on this exciting project. Thanks for reading!

Drilled Shafts, Driven Piles

kcICON Project Opens Ahead of Schedule

January 3, 2011 Robert Thompson

The kcICON project in Kansas City has been completed six months ahead of schedule and within budget with all lanes and ramps being open on December 18th. Demolition has begun on the existing Paseo bridge. You can see some photos of the demolition (like the one in this post – thanks kcICON!) at their Facebook page. It was a great experience for us to have been a part of this project. If you want to see all of our previous posts on this, click here. Other points of interest are linked below.

The Kansas City District of MoDOT

DBA News, Miscellaneous

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from DBA!

December 23, 2010 Robert Thompson

DBA News, Drilled Piles, Drilled Shafts, Load Testing

New I-70 Bridge Featured in Foundation Drilling Magazine

December 10, 2010 David Graham

The new I-70 bridge over the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri is quite the project. When completed, it will be the third longest cable-stayed bridge in the United States, with a 1,500-ft main span. Most significantly for the geotechnical community, the bridge made history when one of its 11-ft diameter drilled shafts resisted a world record breaking 36,000 tons (bi-directional) during an O-cell load test. The bridge has already seen press in Civil Engineering Magazine (July 2010, page 30-32), at ENR.com, and in a post by Robert on this blog. Now, an article by DBA’s Paul Axtell is featured in the September/October issue of Foundation Drilling Magazine. The editor summarized the article saying:

The information in the following article is a composite of material that came to Foundation Drilling Magazine from three separate sources. Part I is based on information gleaned from an article that was published on the Associated Press news wire. Part II is excerpted from ENR’s August 18th, E-Newsletter. Part III was provided by Paul Axtell and Dan Brown of ADSC Technical Affiliate company, Dan Brown and Associates. The bridge project is of interest in general. The Osterberg Load Cell test will be of particular interest to professionals in the deep foundation industry, and specifically for those who work in the drilled shaft segment.

Axtell, P.J. (2010). “Mississippi River Bridge Project Includes Record Load Test: A Three Part Story”, Foundation Drilling, Vol. 31, No. 7 September/October 2010.

DBA News, Micropiles, Slope Stability

Micropiles for Slope Stabilization

December 8, 2010 David Graham

An article by Eric and Dan on the use of micropiles for slope stabilization has been added to our Publications Page. Published in the August 2010 issue of Foundation Drilling Magazine, the article summarizes key findings and recommendations from a study that reviewed and evaluated existing micropile design methods. A new design method is proposed to better predict the mobilized resistance of micropiles used for slope stabilization. The full report prepared by Eric and Dan for the joint ADSC/DFI Micropile Committee, “A Method for Predicting Mobilization Resistance for Micropiles Used in Slope Stabilization Applications”, presents the details of this study. Robert previously posted about this report here.

Loehr, J.E. and Brown, D.A. (2010). “Design of Micropiles for Slope Stabilization”, Foundation Drilling, Vol. 31, No. 6 August 2010.

DBA News, Ground Improvement, Miscellaneous

Paper by Paul Axtell added to Publications

December 8, 2010 Robert Thompson

A paper by Paul Axtell and others on shear strength of cement-bentonite grout mixes has been added to our Publications Page.

Axtell, P.J., Stark, T.D., and Dillon, J.C. (2010). “Peak and Post-Peak Shear Strength of Cement-Bentonite”, DFI Journal Volume 4, No. 1, August 2010, Deep Foundations Institute, pp59-65.

DBA News, Site updates

New Bloggers at DBA