Seminars End a Busy Summer Season for DFI DFI ended the summer with a variety of programs and seminars covering an array of topics including: seismic and lateral loading, helical piles for disaster relief, micropile and anchored earth retention design, and other geotechnical engineering topics. Seismic and Lateral Loads Specialty Seminar The Seismic and Lateral Loads Specialty Seminar was held in Los Angeles, Calif., on August 5-6 with 54 attendees and 6 exhibitors. The seminar began with a committee meeting and a welcome reception in the exhibit area. The following day, invited speakers presented topics on practical deep foundation design and construction subject to seismic and lateral loads. Industry leaders overviewed the design approaches and challenges of seismic and lateral load design, addressed performance-based design for foundations in liquefiable and nonliquefiable soils, discussed practical soil-structure interaction solutions, and presented case histories that highlight the use of conventional software packages and emphasize construc- tability issues for deep foundations with lateral and seismic loading. Kwabena Ofori-Awuah, committee chair, welcoming attendees Helical Piles and Tiebacks Seminar The Helical Pile Usage for Disaster Relief Seminar was held on Sep- tember 9-10 in Newark, N.J. with 86 attendees and 13 exhibitors. A committee meeting and reception on September 9 were fol- lowed by presentations on the proper design, application and instal- lation of helical piles for disaster relief, and an exhibition of products and services on September 10. The attendees were presented with numerous case studies in the Hurricane Sandy affected zone that improved damaged structures while meeting or exceeding govern- mental standards and building code requirements. Presentations on current and past research results further identified helical piles/ anchors as a viable and innovative method to address foundation construction issues in disaster recovery environments. Several presentations informed the audience of the requirements of local codes and government and engineering standards to properly design the helical foundation option for New York/New Jersey area projects. DFI/ADSC Micropile and AER Seminar DFI and ADSC collaborated to host the two-day Micropile and Anchored Earth Retention Design and Construction Seminar on September 15-16 in Saddle Brook, N.J. The seminar had 80 attendees and 16 exhibitors. The event featured a star line- up of expert speakers who covered aspects of both micro- pile foundation support and anchored earth retention with an emphasis on design, QA/QC, testing, installation method- ology and case histories. Four members of the DFI Tiebacks and Soil Nailing Committee gave presentations on a wide range of relevant topics. DFI Legend George Tamaro was in attendance and provided valuable input from the audience during the Q&A segments. Sara Khoshnevisan and Dimitrios Konstantakos, seminar speakers The DFI-CSCE 18 Annual Geotechnical Seminar: State of the Art in Performance Monitoring and Computer Applications in Geotechnical Engineering took place on September 18 in Meriden, Conn. The seminar had 68 attendees and 8 exhibitors. Six industry experts discussed numerical modeling and interpreting results with a focus on applications including: slope stability, support of excavations, monitoring, seismic engineering, ground improvement and geotechnical construction. Here are some recaps: DFI-CSCE Annual Geotechnical Seminar th • Dr. Alfredo Urzua set the tone for the day by focusing on computer applications, addressing the question “Do you believe your model?” • Vaughan Griffiths, professor of civil engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, described the differences and similarities between strength and load factor of safety using numerical models. • Dimitrios Konstantakos of Deep Excavation, LLC., discussed design of excavation support systems and the future of computer applications. • Ben Cote of GZA GeoEnvironmental out of New York City discussed advances in instrumentation. • Dr. Sissy Nikolaou, senior associate at Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, discussed historical and current methods for seismic evaluation. • Dr. Andrew Whittle from MIT dis- cussed advances in modeling excava- tion support systems. Six New York State PDHs were awarded. Q&A session with seminar speakers 36 • DEEP FOUNDATIONS • NOV/DEC 2015
