Ground Improvement Committee Continuing DFI’s efforts to serve DFI members and the geotechnical community as a whole, the Ground Improvement Committee’s first DFI-funded project has kicked off. Coming on the heels of the very successful Liquefaction Analysis and Mitigation Forum held in St. Louis in April, the project is intended to present a synthesis of the current state of liquefaction mitigation practice. At the April forum, we were fortunate to have a panel of internationally-recognized researchers in attendance to discuss findings from recent reconnaissance and research regarding the consequences and mitigation of earthquake-induced liquefaction. We again thank Prof. Edward Kavazanjian of Arizona State University, Prof. Brady R. Cox of University of Arkan- sas, Prof. Ross Boulanger of University of California Davis, Prof. Russell Green of Virginia Tech, Prof. Kyle Rollins of Brigham Young University, Prof. Scott Olson of University of Illinois, and Silas Nichols of Federal Highway Administration for being so generous with their time and sharing their vast know- ledge and experience. Tim Siegel of Dan Brown and Associates is heading up the Synthesis on Liquefaction Mitigation Practice project, which involves conducting a detailed survey, and compiling and synthesizing the results in order to gain a better understanding of the current state of the practice. The survey is designed to gather information across various populations including consultants, designers and specialty contractors in different regions of the country. The questions relate to the prevalence of liquefaction as a design consideration, as well as specific technical questions regarding fine-grained soils, site char- acterization tools, analytical and computational methods, references and resources, mitigation techniques and verification methods. Invitations to participate were sent out to numerous profes- sionals, and advertisements cal- ling for participants were placed Martin G. Taube, P.E., P.G. Committee Chair [email protected] in Geo-Strata and the DFI’s magazine. We are still looking for additional participants and your help would be greatly appreci- ated. With every additional participant, the synthesis becomes more representative and valuable. The committee set up the survey to be user friendly and not very time consuming. Please contact Tim Siegel at [email protected] to get involved. If you have any questions or comments, or if you would like to get involved with the ground improvement committee, contact DFI headquarters. DEEP FOUNDATIONS • NOV/DEC 2012 • 71
