DFI Super Pile 2013 Conference – Invitation to Speakers

Wednesday, May 15 – Thursday, May 16, 2013
Hilton Minneapolis
Minneapolis, MN, USA

Seven of DFI’s technical committees have joined forces to organize this year’s Super Pile Conference. This two-day conference will consist of presentations on the latest developments in: Driven Piles, Augercast Cast-In-Place / Drilled Displacement Piles, Micropiles, Marine Construction, Testing and Evaluation of Foundation Systems, Seismic Design and Drilled Shafts. Day One will be a plenary (combined) session and Day Two will have two concurrent sessions giving attendees the option to choose which presentations are of interest to them.

Presentations will focus on local and out-of-state case studies, historical development, theory and design with emphasis on practical application, new technologies and ides for future development. There is particular interest in presentations addressing challenges for deep foundation construction in cold weather environments. Equipment, material and instrumentation suppliers, contractors and other vendors will present their services in our Exhibit Hall. Visit www.dfi.org for for up-to-date details on this conference.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
SuperPile 2013 is soliciting presentations in the following areas:

• Augered Cast-In-Place and Drilled Displacement Piles
• Drilled Shafts
• Driven Piles
• Marine Foundations
• Micropiles
• Seismic Design
• Testing & Evaluation

Potential Speakers for SuperPile 2013 should submit a brief abstract (no more than 300 words) describing the subject matter of their proposed presentation. In addition, include the committee which should review your abstract, the presentation title and the speaker name within the abstract document. The due date for abstract submissions is Friday, December 21, 2012. Please email proposals to Erin Groenewal at events@dfi.org.

Notification of acceptance or declination will be returned to all authors no later than Monday, January 28, 2013. Guidelines for presentation development will be provided to all accepted speakers at that time. They will be required to commit to presenting their topic on Wednesday, May 15th or Thursday, May 16th and to submit a PowerPoint presentation to be included in the conference publication by Friday, April 5, 2013. Also, all accepted authors should consider developing their abstract into a technical paper for consideration by the editors of the DFI Journal for inclusion in a future volume.

Should you have questions, please contact:

DEEP FOUNDATIONS INSTITUTE
Attn.: Events Department
326 Lafayette Avenue, Hawthorne, NJ 07506 USA
Tel: 973-423-4030, FAX: 973-423-4031
Email: events@dfi.org

43rd Annual Southeastern Transportation Geotechnical Engineering Conference (STGEC)

Visit Brayman Construction’s Booth at the 43rd Annual Southeastern Transportation Geotechnical Engineering Conference (STGEC) in Richmond, VA on October 22-25, 2012! www.stgec.org

DFI Committee Project Fund

The Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) will be soliciting Committee Projects Fund proposals again this year with a slightly modified requirement set. The Committee Project Fund will provide financial support for DFI Technical Committee projects that advance the state of practice and understanding of deep foundations and produce a usable deliverable. All proposals MUST be submitted through a DFI Technical Committee.

If you have any ideas for Micropile Committee related projects that you would like to prepapre a proposal for, please contact me to discuss.

Information on this year’s Project Fund will be forthcoming soon but proposals will be due in December 2012 so it is very beneficial to get started early if interested.

Small Diameter Geo-Support Design and Construction Seminar

Registration is now open for the ADSC / DFI Small Diameter Geo-Support Design and Construction Seminar!

The Small Diameter Geo-Support Design and Construction Seminar is a two-day event that will cover aspects of both anchored earth retention and micropile foundation support from a perspective of design, construction, and case history coverage. The seminar will feature presentations from leading North American and worldwide experts on the design and construction of small diameter geo-support systems. This practice-oriented seminar will be valuable to owners, engineers, architects, general contractors, and others in terms of understanding the fundamentals, applications, design, and construction of small diameter ground anchors and micropiles for earth retention and foundation support applications. There will be opportunities for networking and individual discussion with the panelists and presenters throughout this two-day event.

Sign up today at the link below!

https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ehome/index.php?eventid=48477&

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

DFI / ADSC Joint Micropile Committee Meeting – October 16, 2012

The next DFI / ADSC Joint Micropile Committee meeting will take place at the DFI 37th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in Houston, TX on Tuesday, October 16th from 8PM to 10PM. All committee members are encouraged to attend. The venue location is below:

The George R. Brown Convention Center
1001 Avenida de las Americas Houston
Houston, TX 77010
1-713-853-8000

To see a copy of the latest Chairman’s report for the Joint Committee, click HERE.

More information on the 37th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations can be found HERE. See you in Houston!

DFI / ADSC Joint Micropile Committee Meeting – August 2, 2012

The next DFI / ADSC Joint Micropile Committee meeting will take place at the ADSC Summer Meeting in San Francisco, CA on Thursday, August 2nd from 8AM to 10AM. All committee members are encouraged to attend. The venue location is below:

The Fairmont San Francisco
950 Mason Street
San Francisco, CA
(415) 772-5000

To see a copy of the latest Chairman’s report for the Joint Committee, click HERE.

More information on the ADSC Summer Meeting can be found HERE. See you in San Francisco!

2012 DFI / ADSC Micropile Seminar

The 2012 DFI / ADSC Micropile Seminar will be held as part of the 2012 Small Diameter Geo-Support Design and Construction Seminar currently scheduled for November 13-14, 2012 to be held at the Hilton Washington Dulles Airport in Herndon, VA.

The Small Diameter Geo-Support Design and Construction Seminar is a two-day event that will cover aspects of both anchored earth retention and micropile foundation support from a perspective of design, construction and case history coverage. The event will feature presentations from the leading North American and worldwide experts on small diameter geo-support system design and construction. The event will be useful to owners, engineers, architects, general contractors and others in terms of understanding the fundamentals, applications, design and construction of small diameter ground anchors and micropiles for both earth retention and foundation support applications. There will be opportunities for networking and individual discussion with the panelists and presenters throughout the event. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn from and network with the best in the industry!

Day 1 will be the Anchored Earth Retention portion of the seminar. Day 2 will be the Micropile Foundation Support portion. Exhibit spaces will be available. More information will be posted as the program is finalized.

ISM 11th International Workshop on Micropiles – October 2012

Invitation to Speakers – Call for Papers

The 11th ISM International Workshop on Micropiles is currently scheduled for October of 2012 in Italy. Papers are solicited on the following micropile topics:

State of Practice
Innovations
Technical Challenges
Historic Renovation
Load Testing
Numerical Analysis on Micropiles or Micropile Walls
Education and Market Growth / Potential
IBO Bond Values and Challenging Soils
Equipment Evolution
Slope Stabilization and Shoring with Micropiles
Micropile Networks and Reticulation
Lessons Learned

Please submit abstracts to info@ismicropiles.org
Submission of an abstract indicates your intent to submit a full paper for consideration by the Program Committee.

KEY DATES:
Abstracts due February 28, 2012
Acceptance of Abstracts March 15, 2012
Draft papers due June 1, 2012
Reviewer comments returned to authors by July 1, 2012
Final, revised papers due August 31, 2012

For more information, contact:

Mary Ellen C. Bruce, PE, DFI Technical Activities Manager
+1 (724) 942-0813 or mebruce@dfi.org

Dr. Tony Marinucci, PE, ADSC Director of Operations
+1 (469) 359-6000 or tmarinucci@adsc-iafd.com

ISM Strategic Alliance Finalized

The International Society for Micropiles (ISM) has finalized a strategic alliance agreement with the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) and the International Association of Foundation Drilling (ADSC). Through this strategic alliance, administration and support functions for the ISM will be assumed by ADSC and DFI with the ISM operating as an entity within the ADSC / DFI Joint Micropile Committee.

This alliance provides the opportunity to members of DFI and ADSC to be recognized as ISM delegates and contribute to ISM’s mission at no additional cost in membership dues. By the same token, current ISM delegates will become members of DFI, ADSC or both in lieu of their ISM membership dues that will provide added access to the extensive technical and networking resources provided by those organizations.

ISM serves delegates in over 24 countries on 6 continents. The ISM’s activites and strategic direction are led by current Chairman, Allen Cadden, PE, D.GE, and an international steering committee comprised of representatives from each founding country including Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the US and the UK. This steering committee will remain in place and will now include a representative from both DFI and ADSC. ISM technical activities will be coordinated by DFI’s Technical Activites Manager, Mary Ellen Bruce, PE, D.GE, and ADSC’s Director of Operations, Dr. Tony Marinucci, PE.

Highlights from the ISM’s newsletter, The Bond Zone, will be reproted in ADSC’s Foundation Drilling Magazine and DFI’s Deep Foundations Magazine. The ISM website, www.ismicropiles.org, is being updated to provide information on society and member activities and events, publications, and micropile resources. As the alliance evolves, the website will likely be integrated with the ADSC and DFI websites.

Planning is currently underway, through the joint efforts of ADSC and DFI, for presentation of the 11th International Workshop on Micropiles (IWM) in late 2012, most likely to take place in Milan, Italy. More information on IWM 2012 will be available soon.

A Thought for the New Year 2012

This post is the first of the year for 2012, the first in a while…, and one that has absolutely nothing to do with Micropiles; but is one I felt compelled to post as I believe it has great relevance for all of us.

I was given a book by a mentor of mine at the end of the year. I havent read the whole book but there was a particular statement that I was reading that jumped out at me this morning. The book is “The Power of Many” by Meg Whitman. I honestly don’t know that much about Meg Whitman but there is a great deal of truth in what she says about values in business…

“There is a myth – at least I believe it is a myth – that great success demands that we give up, or at least fudge, our relationship to what most of us recognize as decent, commonsense values. Honesty. Family. Community. Integrity. Generosity. Courage. Empathy. (I would add Faith.) As we climb the corporate ladder, the myth tells us, we have to step on people, stretch the truth when it fits our agenda, and make heartless decisions based only on the bottom line. We are not supposed to ask what is the right thing to do, but rather what is the best for our careers or to burnish our reputation.”

My hope for us all in the new Year is that we will not buy into the myth. Over the past years when economic times have been challenging, it has been easy to fall into the trap of doing what we feel is required for survival without regard for what is right. It is my belief that many of the woes we currently face are based on individuals making decisions based solely on self interest.

My challenge to all of us for 2012 is to look at the situations that we face through the lens of truth and that our decisions will be based on right concepts as opposed to self interest. Let us press forward fearlessly guided by right action and truth that we might forge a better future for ourselves and those around us. Happy New Year!