MEMBER PROFILE Lori Simpson: Technical Excellence and a Passion for Code Reform Lori Simpson always had an affinity for math, and often thought she would be a math teacher one day. Her high school guidance counselor in Menlo Park, Calif., suggested majoring in engineering since there were few women enrolled. At Stanford, Simpson decided that electrical and mechanical engineering were too nerdy, and chose civil engineering without knowing exactly what it was. She enjoyed the coursework, and gravitated toward an emphasis in structural design. But a summer internship working for a geotechnical firm changed that. Simpson spent those sunny days crawling under distressed houses, drawing figures and writing reports. She enjoyed the variety and creativity and found it a lot more fun than sitting behind a desk all day. That job sold her on geotechnical engineering. Senior year, Simpson took graduate-level courses in geotech and graduated in 1987 with a B.S. in civil engineering. She continued to work summers and winter breaks at Earth Systems Consultants and enrolled in graduate school at UC Berkeley under the advisement of Professor Ray Seed. In 1988, Simpson graduated with an M.S. in geotechnical engineering. While working for Earth Systems, she met Dave Simpson and got married upon graduation from UC Berkeley. They soon moved to Albuquerque, N.M., where her husband worked on his masters in geology at UNM. Simpson worked for a hydrogeology company performing environmental work, well installations and geotechnical lab testing. After two years, they moved back to the Bay Area, and Simpson took a job with Treadwell & Associates, which soon became Treadwell & Rollo, Inc. (T&R). After 20 years with T&R, Langan Engine e r ing and Environmental Services acquired the company. Simpson has been there for 24 years and attributes the longevity to her two mentors: Frank Rollo and Richard Rodgers. She explains that she has learned a lot from each of them, and that both have different styles. Speaking of Simpson, Frank Rollo says, “Over the years, she has accepted challenging assignments and developed her technical, management and marketing skills. She is well respected by her peers, clients and contractors and is a leader in the organization.” Delving into Deep Foundations Early in her career, Simpson was assigned to a project called Mission Bay, a 300-acre (1.2 sq km) neighborhood in San Francisco that is under redevelopment. She has been working on the project since 1991, and over the years the area has grown with new streets, parks, residential and commercial structures, and high rises; she is currently working on the proposed new arena for the Golden State Warriors NBA team. According to Richard Rodgers, “because of the depth of poorly compacted fill and weak marine deposits, foundations (many on the order of 200 ft [61 m] deep) in this area push the envelope of design and construction practice.” Langan has performed the geoetchnical observations and written geotechnical reports for 90% of the work performed in Mission Bay. It was through this work that Simpson became involved in DFI. Almost every structure in Mission Bay is supported by deep foundations, including over 15,000 driven piles, as well as auger cast piles and Tubex piles. Ground improvement solutions have also been employed in Mission Bay. Simpson noted some differences in geotechnical engineering between the East and West Coast of the U.S. On the West Coast, the geotechnical engineer performs the subsurface exploration and writes a report with recommendations including foundation types, loading and lateral capacities. The structural engineer then designs the foundations and the geotech reviews, signs and stamps the design drawings. Simpson holds both professional engineering (P.E.) and geotechnical engineering (G.E.) licenses. Tackling Code Reform When Simpson first started working on projects governed by the International Building Code (IBC), it became apparent that the code had many inconsistencies. She researched how to make changes to the code, submitted several proposed changes on her own, and got one accepted. It was during this time that Langan was looking to acquire T&R, and Rudy Frizzi, managing partner at Langan, DFI past president and trustee, suggested that Simpson join the DFI Codes and Standards Technical Committee. The committee could provide support and emphasis, which was important at the code forum hearings. Richard Rodgers commented that Simpson thrives on exploring “avenues through which she can learn from others, share her knowledge, and influence the criteria by which deep foundations are designed.” Simpson became very active on the committee and continued to be passionate about modifying codes to reflect best practices in geotechnical engineering. Some major changes included correcting inconsistent information that was present in IBC. Other efforts focused on obvious omissions. Simpson explained the process of petitioning for a code change. Proposed changes are sent to an IBC review panel for DEEP FOUNDATIONS • MAR/APR 2015 • 55
