REGIONAL REPORT DFI Europe When I wrote this column, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 had spread around the world and everybody was somehow affected, either personally or with their job. It is a very serious situation nobody has experienced before. It is almost impossible to make predictions as the facts are changing all the time. Nevertheless, in China and South Korea, there are some signs of moving slowly back to a time before the corona crisis. In Europe, each country has been dealing differently with the situation, but it is clear that governments will have to inject money into their industries. And infrastructure projects will be an essential part of sustainable development of economies, and therefore, will have a high priority. By the time this magazine issue reaches you, we hope that brilliant scientists will be well advanced in their development of a treatment and a vaccine against the virus. Meanwhile, we will continue with our activities within DFI and DFI Europe. Here is a summary of our activities of the last few months: Board Meetings DFI Europe’s board gathers twice a year via telemeeting and twice a year physically. The latter always take place at the company of one of the board members. For example, in 2019 we met at Van ’t Hek in Amsterdam and at the Belgian Building Research Institute in Brussels. The first meeting of 2020 took place at Junttan in Kuopio (Finland). In addition to a very fruitful meeting, during which many actions were started, advanced or completed (see below), there was also time for a visit to the Junttan factory and networking. The snow scooter trip was especially appreciated. Thanks to Ate Konkka, Pasi Poranen and Anders Brotherus of Junttan for their first-class organizational skills and the warm welcome! As part of this meeting, Sikko Doornbos introduced the new managing director of Terracon. In July 2019, Benjamin Bekhof succeeded Doornbos as managing director of Terracon Funderingstechniek and Terracon Molhoek Beheer, as well as director of their daughter companies, Terracon Spezial- tiefbau and Terracon International. BIM/Digitalisation Committee T h e D F I E u r o p e B IM/ Digi tal i sat ion Commi t tee (chaired by Jason Boddy of Arup) has recently grown to around 15 members from 11 countries. A practical guidance document for digitalisation in ground engineering will be published soon. In collaboration with the Federation of Piling Specialists (FPS) and the Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists (AGS), both in the U.K., the committee is also working on an open standard for pile construction data, which will be presented in September at the Piling 2020 Conference in Durham in the U.K. Sustainability Working Group Sustainability is a topic that concerns us all, which is why DFI Europe launched an initiative last year to look to what our companies are doing in this area. Possible domains to consider include design, reuse of materials, use of alternative materials, equipment development, trade in installation techniques and optimization of logistics. A starting point will be a survey about national strategies and regulations that should become available by this summer. Upcoming Events After the successful Pile Integrity Testing Seminar in September 2019, DFI Europe is organizing a seminar on pile load testing in collaboration with the Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI). The seminar has been postponed until fall 2021 due to COVID- 19, and will provide an overview of different load tests and instrumentation, rules for testing and interpretation, and several case studies. Information about the seminar in the Netherlands will follow soon. And of course, preparation is in full swing for the next DFI/EFFC International Conference, which will take place at the Free University of Berlin in May 2022. [email protected] Frank Haehnig President DFI Europe DFI Europe board members visit Junttan facilities DEEP FOUNDATIONS • MAY/JUNE 2020 • 61
