Tag Archives: DFI

Busy Fall Speaking Schedule for DBA

The months of September and October will be busy for several DBA team members speaking at a variety of conferences and events. Dan Brown and John Turner will be speaking at the ADSC/DFI Drilled Shaft Seminar and Field Day in Denver September 12 and 13. Dan will be giving the 4th Annual Osterberg Memorial Lecture at the DFI Educational Trust dinner being held on the evening of the 12th. Dan and John will be speaking mostly on construction issues during the seminar.   

 

MWGC logoLater in the month, Dan and Robert Thompson are both featured at the 2012 Midwest Geotechnical Conference hosted by Ohio DOT in Columbus, Ohio. Dan will be speaking on base grouted shafts while Robert will give his presentation on the ADSC SE Chapter rock socket load test research program.     

 

STGEC 2012In October, Dan and Robert appear together again at the 2012 Southeastern Transportation Geotechnical Engineering Conference (STGEC) in Richmond, Virginia. This will be the 43rd installment of this conference, hosted this year by the Virginia DOT. Dan will speak on design-build construction issues for deep foundations, while Robert will again present the load test research project. Dan will also speak at the 26th Central Pennsylvania Geotechnical Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania in October, and Robert will speak at the ADSC Carolinas Chapter meeting in Greenville, NC.

Dan Brown Selected for 2012 DFI Osterberg Lecture

Dan has been selected by the DFI Educational Trust to deliver the 4th Annual Osterberg Memorial Lecture.  The lecture is given at a benefit dinner for the  DFI Educational Trust Scholarship Funds.  The dinner this year will be held in conjunction with the joint DFI-ADSC Seminar Drilled Shafts: Top to Bottom on September 12th in Denver.  From DFI:

The Osterberg Memorial Lecture has been established in honor of Dr. Jorj Osterberg, inventor of the Osterberg Cell, to recognize innovations in the deep foundations construction industry and related to deep foundations engineering design, testing or education; all aspects of his lifelong contributions.

According to the invitation letter from DFI, the committee selects a “person who encompasses the spirit of the lecture which is to emphasize innovations or contributions to the deep foundation industry and related to deep foundation engineering design, testing or education, all aspects of Jorj Osterberg’s lifelong contributions.”

Previous lecturers are:

2011: John. H. Schmertmann, Ph.D., P.E.

2010: Bengt H. Fellenius, Dr. Tech., P.Eng.

2009: Clyde Baker, Jr., P.E., S.E., and Robert G. Lukas, P.E.

About the DFI Educational Trust:

Today DFI Educational Trust is an independent charitable foundation of the Deep Foundations Institute. The TRUST manages the Annual Student Paper Competition, the Annual Young Professors Paper Competition, the History of Deep Foundations Poster Program, the Sustaining Membership Fund and the Paul DeBruyn Memorial Student Scholarship Fund, the Berkel & Company Contractors Inc. Scholarship Fund, and the Annual Osterberg Memorial Lecture. These programs, along with future initiatives, will play a large role in enabling better Industry-Academia communications by instilling an interest in the heavy construction and civil engineering sciences in both high school and college level students.

Currently the TRUST plans to awards annually four Student Scholarships in the amount of $12,500 each to undergraduates studying in the field of civil, geotechnical or construction engineering. Auburn University, Carnegie Mellon, University of California-Berkeley and University of Illinois are awarded the funds and select students based on the TRUST’s criteria of majoring in one of the above fields of engineering with interest in deep foundations construction and having financial need. Additionally the TRUST provides scholarships to high school students in partnership with the ACE Mentor Program for those interested in pursuing college studies in engineering or construction management. These scholarships are endowed through charitable donations and fund raising events, such as golf outings and benefit dinners.

Creating opportunities for students to see Industry in action is another large element of the DFI Trust mission, by providing affordable student attendance of DFI Conferences and technical seminars, site visits and live demonstrations or by bringing Industry Experts into the classrooms. The TRUST is proud to announce the formation of its first student chapter at UC-Berkeley in 2009.

Mike Holloway in DFI Magazine

The July/August 2012 issue of Deep Foundations features one of our newest employees, Dr. Michael Holloway, in its “People, Projects and Equipment” section.  The article, entitled “D. Michael Holloway: Strong Mind, Strong Personality,” follows Mike’s education and career as a geotechnical engineer from his “outrageous streak” in high school to his current position at DBA.  If you are interested in learning more about the “strong mind” and “strong personality” that is Mike Holloway, click the link above or check your mailbox for a copy of the latest copy of Deep Foundations, only from DFI.

This is not the first time we have been lucky enough to have one of our own featured in the “People, Projects and Equipment” section.  Some of you may remember that Dan was featured in the Winter 2011 issue.  A copy of that article and the associated blog post can be found here.

Mike Holloway SuperPile 2012 Presentation

DSCN2543We have added Mike Holloway’s presentation at DFI SuperPile 2012 on May 17, 2012 to our Presentations Page.  Mike discussed some of the issues related to pile testing and what can influence the blow counts that are often relied upon to accept piles.  He covered the types of testing, limitations of various methods, and issues to consider when applying test results to production piling.

A Driven Pile is a Tested Pile – Not So Fast! – D. Michael Holloway, Ph.D., P.E. – DFI SuperPile 2012, Portland, OR, May 17, 2012

I-70 St. Louis Bridge–New Papers by Paul and Dan

The drilled shaft foundations for the new I-70 Mississippi River Bridge in St. Louis, MO are the subject of two recent papers written by Paul and Dan and published by DFI.  Dan presented the paper focusing on the Alternate Technical Concept (ATC) process at the DFI 36th Annual Conference in October. (previous post here).  A case history paper by Paul and Dan was published last month in Volume 5, Number 2 of the DFI Journal.  Links to the papers are below, as well as on our Publications page.  Other posts on this bridge are here.

Brown, D.A., Axtell, P.J., and Kelley, J. (2011). “The Alternate Technical Concept Process for the Foundations at the New Mississippi River Bridge, St. Louis”,  Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations, 2011, Boston, MA, USA, pp171-177.

This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations, the 2011 annual meeting of DFI.  Go to www.dfi.org to purchase the procedings or for further information.

Axtell, P.J. and Brown, D.A. (2011). “Case History – Foundations for the New Mississippi River Bridge – St.Louis”, DFI Journal Volume 5, Number 2, December 2011, Deep Foundations Institute, pp3-15.

This paper was originally published in DFI’s bi-annual journal, Volume 5, No. 2 in December 2011.  DFI is an international technical association of firms and individuals involved in the deep foundations and related industry. The DFI Journal is a member publication. To join DFI and receive the journal, go to www.dfi.org for further information.

DBA at DFI 36th Annual Meeting–Photos and Links

DFI held its 36th Annual Meeting October 18-21 in Boston, including the annual awards banquet.  Dan was honored with the 2011 Distinguished Service Award at the banquet.  The Christopher S. Bond Bridge in Kansas City, MO was honored with a Special Recognition award (one of 5 runners-up for the Outstanding Project Award).  Photos of DBA folks at the event are posted below.  All of the photos from the meeting can be found at this link.

Dan gave a presentation on the Alternate Technical Concept (ATC) that DBA supported for the I-70 Bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Louis, MO.  The link to the presentation is below.  (Some previous posts here and here and here; posts with links to other presentations here).

PowerPoint Presentation – Alternate Technical Concept: Foundations for the New Mississippi River Bridge, St. Louis – Dan Brown, Ph.D., P.E – DFI 36th Annual Conference, Boston, MA, October 20, 2011.

Dan receives DFI 2011 Distinguished Service Award

Dan receiving the 2011 DFI Distinguished Service Award

Bond Bridge Special Recognition Award - DFI 2011

Robert receiving the Special Recognition Award for the Christopher S. Bond Bridge Project

Paul and Erik at DFI 2011 Awards Banquet Reception

Paul and Erik at the reception before the awards banquet

Dan To Receive 2011 DFI Distinguished Service Award

Dan will be honored at the DFI 36th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in Boston, October 19 to 21.  He will receive the award at the annual awards banquet on Thursday, October 20th.  From DFI:

The Deep Foundations Institute is pleased to announce Dan Brown, P.E., Ph.D., as the recipient of the DFI 2011 Distinguished Service Award. The award, in its 31st year, honors individuals chosen by their peers for exceptional contributions to DFI and to the industry.

Brown began his career with a B.S. from Georgia Tech, and later received his Ph.D. at the University of Texas, Austin, in only 28 months, while working. He then taught at Auburn University for 22 years before setting up his own consulting firm in Tennessee. The Winter 2011 issue of the DFI magazine included a profile of Brown that chronicled the universal admiration and regard for him within the industry. He was cited by others for his expertise, his intelligence and ability to teach others. Brown and his firm are sought out for advice everywhere.

Follow this link to see the full press release.  We’ll post pictures after the ceremony.

Simplified Settlement Model–DFI Journal Technical Note by Tim Siegel

DFIJv5No1Tim has authored a Technical Note in the most recent issue (June 2011) of the DFI Journal.  The note is entitled “Simplified Settlement Model for a Shallow Foundation on Composite Ground with Rigid Piles”.  From the Abstract:

A piled raft refers to a shallow foundation that is structurally connected to the piles, while composite ground refers to a soil-pile matrix where the piles are not structurally connected. The design objectives for both a piled raft and composite ground are (excluding special considerations such as expansive soil): (1) to provide a sufficient ultimate resistance and (2) to distribute the load into the soil-pile matrix so that the settlement experienced by the shallow foundation is within tolerable limits. A simplified model is proposed for a shallow foundation on composite ground where the foundation settlement is estimated as the sum of the downward movement of the piles plus the downward movement of the shallow foundation relative to the pile head. The proposed simplified
model is applied using conventional geotechnical analyses for two hypothetical examples of shallow foundations undergoing compression settlement.

This paper was originally published in DFI’s bi-annual journal, Volume 5, No. 1 in June 2011.  DFI is an international technical association of firms and individuals involved in the deep foundations and related industry. The DFI Journal is a member publication. To join DFI and receive the journal, go to www.dfi.org for further information. ”

You can also subscribe to the DFI Journal here.

Dr. John Turner, P.E. joins DBA!

We are pleased to announce that John P. Turner, Ph.D., P.E., has joined our firm as a Senior Principal. Turner is Professor Emeritus, University of Wyoming, where he spent the past 25 years teaching and conducting research in geotechnical engineering. He has undergraduate degrees in both Geology and Civil Engineering and earned his doctorate in Geotechnical Engineering from Cornell University. John will bring his considerable expertise in design and construction of deep foundations to our practice. He is a co-author of the 2010 FHWA manual “Drilled Shafts: Construction Procedures and LRFD Design Methods” and the author of NCHRP Synthesis 360, “Rock-Socketed Shafts for Highway Structure Foundations”, as well as over 100 technical publications on the topics of deep foundations, earth retention, and landslide stabilization. Early in his career John was an engineering geologist with Herbert and Associates and he maintained his involvement in consulting throughout his academic career. Recent projects include design of rock-socketed drilled shafts for bridges at Pitkins Curve in Big Sur and the Antlers Bridge on I-5 in northern California. John is a recipient of the President’s Award and the Distinguished Service Award from the ADSC: International Association of Foundation Drilling. He has maintained active membership in ASCE for over 30 years and is a past chairman of the Committee on Deep Foundations of the Geo-Institute of ASCE.

Technical Note on ACIP Pile Load Testing

A technical note by Tim that appeared in the December 2010 issue of the DFI Journal has been added to our publications page.  Tim’s note examines some issues related to axial load testing of augered cast-in-place (ACIP) piles, also know as augercast piles or CFA piles, that are not covered in ASTM D 1143/D 1143M-07 Standard Test Methods for Deep Foundations Under Static Axial Compression.  Specifically, load hold time, unload-reload cycles, and fluctuations in incremental load are discussed as they relate to load testing for determining axial capacity or axial load distribution of ACIP piles.  Details of instrumented ACIP pile load testing are also covered.

Siegel, T.C. (2010). “Load Testing and Interpretation of Instrumented Augered Cast-in-Place Piles”, DFI Journal Volume 4, No. 2, December 2010, Deep Foundations Institute, pp69-71.

DFI requests that the following be included with all DFI papers we post:

“This paper was originally published in DFI’s bi-annual journal, Volume 4, No. 2 in December 2010.  DFI is an international technical association of firms and individuals involved in the deep foundations and related industry. The DFI Journal is a member publication. To join DFI and receive the journal, go to www.dfi.org for further information. ”