Hal Hunt Speaker Chosen The DFI 37th Annual Conference in Houston, October 16-19, will feature James Pappas as this year’s Hal Hunt lecturer. This annual event is named for a founder of DFI, who was also the Institute’s first president. Hunt wanted to recognize notable communicators in the industry. Pappas is vice president of Ultra- Deepwater Programs for RPSEA, the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, Sugar Land, Texas. The lecture will be presented during the October conference at the George R. Brown Convention Center, which connects to the Hilton Americas-Houston. Pappas has been the global technology coordinator and facilities engineer in the Deepwater & Internat ional Wel l Engineering & Facilities Division, deepwater project coordinator for Devon Energy. He was also production engineer in the Gulf of Mexico Division for Devon and Santa Fe Snyder prior to their merger. Pappas has been active in technical committees for the annual Offshore Technology Conference, at which DFI held its first technical session in May. Dennis W. Boehm, Hayward Baker, is chair of the 37th Annual Confer- ence, the theme of which is “Foundations and Ground Improvement Techniques: Adapting Them to an Ever- Changing Environment.” The complete program is on the DFI website. The conference includes three pre-conference short courses, 4 topic tracks and concur- rent sessions on day 2. The conference will have two keynote speakers, Stephen G. Wright, Ph.D., emeritus professor, University of Texas, Austin, and Professor Sebastian Bauer, a board member of Bauer Maschinen GmbH and managing director, Bauer GmbH Engineering Worldwide, who will also host a post-conference site visit to the Bauer Maschinen Conroe facili- ties. The conference in- cludes a full program of luncheons and banquets at which awards and honors will be presented. In addition to the Distin- guished Service Award, DFI’s Outstanding Project Award will be featured at the Awards Banquet. A new DFI award will make its debut, the first C. William Bermingham Innovation Award, named in honor of Bermingham, who was DFI president, 1986-7. The recipient will be named at the banquet. A full companion program is also on the program, and the Hilton Americas- Houston has ample attendee amenities, restaurants and spas as well as nearby parks. The city offers a wide array of sight- seeing venues, from ball games to theater, music and shopping. For more infor- mation, see the adjacent ad. OPA Winner is World Trade Center Pedestrian Underpass DFI’s Outstanding Project Award will be presented to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the DFI 37th Annual Conference in Houston in October. The project is a top-down, cut and cover pedestrian underpass that replaces the former north pedestrian bridge, destroyed on 9/11. Mueser Rutledge was the geotech- nical consultant for the support of exca- vation design. Ten candidate projects vied for the 2012 award, a wide variety of deep foundation standouts. Brief descriptions of each project follow. The winning project will be the cover story in the September/ October issue, and others will be featured in future issues. The Strank Memorial Bridge rehab- ilitation and the new Locust Street Bridge near Pittsburgh were nominated by Bray- man Construction, with L.R. Kimball. The firms developed a value engineering solu- tion that saved money and mitigated com- muter delays. Another bridge, the John 30 • DEEP FOUNDATIONS • JULY/AUG 2012 James Audubon Bridge, is a new Mississippi River crossing. The design-build project was completed by joint venture Audubon Bridge Constructors. Dan Brown and Associates were consultants. The Mansueto Library at the University of Chicago is a unique automated storage and retrieval facility 55 ft (17 m) under- ground. The design-assist-project was done by Hayward Baker and Case Foundation. For the Telechapi Renewable Transmission Project in California, Crux Subsurface and Arroyo Engineers designed a foundation that used micropiles for an upgrade of 11 segments of high-voltage transmission. Schnabel Engineering’s submission was its work with the National Park Service to provide emergency repairs for settlement at the Jefferson Memorial. Clark Construc- tion Civil also worked on the project to repair the seawall at the site. Berkel & Company’s nominee was the Automated People Mover Tunnel extension at the international terminal at Hartsfield- Jackson Atlanta International Airport, part of $1.2 billion expansion. LPV-111 East Back Levee Improvement was another nominee. Treviicos South, ArcherWestern-Alberici’s geotechncial contractor, worked with the USACE on the wet soil mixing solution to provide stabilization and limit the levee’s footprint. The Morris Island Lighthouse foundation was nominated by Palmetto Gunite Construction Company for a design-build solution to provide a permanent foundation for the historic structure. The Doyle Drive-Extreme Pile Installation was undertaken to replace an approach to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Malcolm Drilling placed very long and heavy piles in a seismically and environmentally sensitive area. The client imposed strict vibration limits, so to eliminate the risk of vibration entirely, Malcolm used the largest available oscillator for the job.
