TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES MARY ELLEN BRUCE LARGE, P.E., D.GE, DIRECTOR OF TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES Technical Activities Update DFI's 18 technical committees and 3 working groups are meeting during the DFI Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in New Orleans, October 24-27. Each meeting is open to conference attendees, and we encourage you to attend and collaborate with your peers, influence the profession, build consensus, develop leadership skills and extend your network. The committee meeting schedule is available on the conference website at www.deepfoundations2017.org. COMMITTEE CHAIR PAUL AXTELL, P.E., D.GE Drilled Shaft Committee The Dri l led Shaf t Technical Committee conducted a pro- ductive meeting at SuperPile '17 in San Diego, Calif. The meeting was attended by more than 30 individuals, both members and non- members of the committee. A status update was provided by Peter Faust of Malcolm Drilling and Dr. Anne Lemnitzer of University of California at Irvine (UCI) on two research projects currently underway. Faust discussed the status of the EFFC-DFI Foundations. The 1 edition of the Guide is available free of charge on the DFI website at Best Practice Guide to Tremie Concrete for Deep st The completion of the 2 edition, including recommendations for future practice, is anticipated in the summer of 2018. Lemnitzer discussed the status of the research being conducted at UCI into the magnitude of the shear force computed in rock socketed drilled shafts. Construction of the drilled shafts at the test facility at UCI will begin this summer, with testing being performed in the fall, and preliminary results anticipated in early 2018. These two projects are being financially supported by the DFI Committee Project Fund, along with other participating organizations. We eager- ly await the results and conclusions of both. www.dfi.org, on the ‘Publications’ page. nd Two additional potential research initiatives were discussed at the meeting. The first project pertained to silt in drilling fluids, and its potential influence on quality in combination with lack of control requirements in the current construction specifications. The second potential initiative is an investigation into whether or not drilled shafts should be subject to the requirements for mass concrete. We look forward to advancing these initiatives in the interest of the drilled shaft industry. As you can see, it is an exciting time to be a member of the DFI Drilled Shaft Com- mittee. We are looking forward to an active and productive future, and welcome moti- vated individuals to join our ranks. WORKING GROUP CO-CHAIRS PETER KANDARIS, P.E., AND STEVE DAVIDOW, P.E., S.E. Electric Power System Foundations Working Group The Electric Power System Foundations Working Group provides an industry-wide forum to address deep foundation design and construction issues in the electric power industry. Thousands of deep foundations (e.g., drilled shafts, driven piles, micropiles, helical anchors, etc.) are constructed annually in the U.S. and around the world supporting electric transmission line structures. Yet, there are no comprehensive guidelines to address the design and construct ion of these foundations, leaving utilities to adopt individual practices based on regional preferences. The group's focus is to collect and identify standards of practice with the goal of developing guidelines for more uniform design and construction of electric system foundations. Two working group meetings were held in 2017. The first was held in March during the ASCE GeoInstitute's Geotechnical Frontiers conference in Orlando, Fla. The most recent meeting was held at DFI's SuperPile ’17 conference, June 14-16 in Coronado, Calif. The focus of these meetings was the continued development of a standard-of-practice white paper (i.e., a prelude to a design guide). Various working group members are drafting report sections, which will provide a comprehensive summary of current industry foundation design and construction practices. As of June 2016, about 60 percent of the report sections had been drafted, with com- mitments for comple- tion of the remainder within the next couple of months. We intend to have a complete draft of the white paper ready for discus- sion at the DFI Annual Conference in New Orleans. The plan is to finalize and publish the white paper in 2018. With industry feedback, we hope to help develop a consensus with practitioners and utilities so that guide foundation design and construction documents may begin DEEP FOUNDATIONS • SEPT/OCT 2017 • 99
