TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES Introducing a New Committee and Chair We are pleased to announce that DFI has formed our 25 technical committee — the DFI International Grouting Committee. The committee was formed following ongoing discussions on the sometimes-controversial differences in the international grouting industry. The primary initiative of the committee is to prepare general grouting guidelines and specific documents summarizing the different international approaches and procedures. In addition, the committee plans to review and summarize existing documents and specifications used in the worldwide grouting industry. The committee will involve representatives of the entire geo-foundation industry, including owners, engineers, contractors, manufacturers and academics, and is committed to communicate and cooperate with other existing grouting committees and groups. The first chair of the DFI International Grouting Committee is th Paolo Gazzarrini, P.Eng., D.GE, of Sea To Sky Geotech, an independent specialty foundation consultant based in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Gazzarrini has more than 35 years of experience in specialty geotechnical contracting and engineering. He has been involved in grouting foundation works for major hydroelectric projects all over the world, with experience in foundation techniques, tunneling, tunneling consolidation, diaphragm walls, anchoring, rock/soil grouting and jet-grouting. Gazzarrini received his M.S. degree in civil engineering at Milan Polytechnic, Italy. He is a member of DFI, ASCE-GI, ASDSO, USSD, ASTM and Canadian geotechnical organizations, and is past chair of ASCE GeoInstitute Grouting Committee. He participates as an educator at the University of Texas at Austin and at the university’s annual Grouting Funda- mentals & Current Practice course. He also lectures at the University of British Columbia on the topic of soil/rock improvement. In addition, he is editor of Grout Line at www.groutline.com. Women in Deep Foundations – Technical Program Leaders Women are holding lead roles for all DFI and other related technical events in 2019. Please join us in congratulating and thanking them for their efforts to provide high quality, state-of-practice programs for the industry. • Pollyanna Cunningham, International Construction Equip- ® ment (ICE ), is the chair of the DFI Driven Pile Committee, which is the lead committee for SuperPile ’19 in Seattle, Wash., May 1-3, 2019. • Karen Dawson, P.E., Jacobs, is the program chair for the Helical Pile World-DFI Helical Piles-Tiebacks-Anchors Tradeshow and Educational Seminar, in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 4-5, 2019. Mary Ellen Bruce Large, P.E., D.GE Director of Technical Activities [email protected] • Johanna Mikitka Simon, P.E., Schnabel Engineering, is the program chair for DFI’s S3: Slope-Support-Stabilization Seminar in Minneapolis, Minn., August 6-8, 2019. • Helen Robinson, P.E., GEI Consultants, is the program chair for th International Society for Micropiles’ 14 Workshop in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, August 21-24, 2019. • Dhooli Raj, P.E., Collins Engineers, is the chair of DFI’s 44 Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in Chicago, Ill., October 15-18, 2019. th • Dr. Cassandra Rutherford, Iowa State University, is co-program th chair with Raymond Franz, P.E., Hayward Baker, for DFI’s 44 Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in Chicago, Ill. • Mary Ellen Bruce Large, P.E., D.GE, is the deep foundations track co-chair with Walter Paniagua, Pilotec, and Jarbas Milititsky, Milititsky Consultants, for the XVI Panamerican Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering organized by the Society of Mexican Geotechnical Engineers and ISSMGE in Cancun, Mexico, November 17-20, 2019. Dr. Jennifer Nicks, P.E., FHWA, is also contributing to this event by working with Large on an industry-academic collaborative forum. • Lucky Nagarajan, Skyline Steel, is organizing the first WiDF th program at DFI-India 2019: 9 International Conference on Deep Foundation Technologies for Infrastructure Development in India, in Hyderabad, Telengana, India, November 14-16, 2019. We are excited to have so many women actively involved in DFI’s technical programs. Please join them. We are always welcoming new participants. 2019 FHWA National Geotechnical Team State-of-the-Program Report At the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. in January 2019, Silas Nichols, P.E., principal geotechnical engineer for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), provided an update on the state of the FHWA geotechnical program. This summary highlights the pertinent technical programs that affect deep foundations practice. Advanced Geotechnical Exploration Methods (The A-GaME) The FHWA Geotechnical Team’s signature achievement in 2018 was the Agency selection of Advanced Geotechnical Exploration Methods (The A-GaME) as an Every Day Counts (EDC) 5 DEEP FOUNDATIONS • MAR/APR 2019 • 63
