New Association
Is Being Formed

Three leading screw pile providers have joined forces to create an international association to standardize the engineering and operating principles for their industry across global jurisdictions.

The new association, The Institute of Helical Pile Engineering (IHPEng), is the initiative of three industry providers: ScrewFast Foundations Ltd., operating in the United Kingdom, Piletech from New Zealand, and Almita Manufacturing Ltd., from Canada.

IHPEng's role is to provide guidance on global best practices in the design, engineering, manufacturing, installation and safety of screw piling. With the combined knowledge of approximately 20 engineers and designers, 8 full-time safety staff, and countless operation members, the association will facilitate the task of assessing procedures and approaches, as well as developing the standardizations for the global market.

IHPEng's objective is to ensure leading engineers of Class A structures (wind turbines, transmission towers, refineries, bridges, hospitals, schools, etc.) that adopt screw piling, can have absolute confidence in their solution. IHPEng members lead globally in demonstrating the benefits of the screw pile technology across a myriad of industries.

"The intent is to streamline and create global standards for this industry and its clientele," explains Almita president Larry Kaumeyer. "We're proud to be representing our industry in this global effort."

Tri-State Drilling Dedicates Its New Addition

For the first time in 30 years, Tri-State Drilling Inc. has added to its offices and shop in Plymouth, Minn., and also gave the whole property a bit of a makeover. During a break in the firm's annual safety meeting, employees all congregated in the balmy 20-degree temperatures for a brief dedication ceremony. At the ceremony, Tri-State president Jim Melcher said, "When they built the first building here, they didn't do any dedications; and when they built the first addition they didn't do any dedications. They just did the work. It always falls to later generations that need to preserve the memory of the strong work of our founding generation to do things like dedications. So that's what we're here for - to dedicate the new addition to Tri-State Drilling to our two late founders, Ralph Eisele and H. Wayne Riethmiller. Ralph and Wayne now are beyond the reach of all earthly honors and rewards, so when we gather to honor them, we primarily hope to incite ourselves to imitate them. In other words, in dedicating this building, we rededicate ourselves to the qualities and values our founders exemplified for us. So in dedicating this building, we are rededicating ourselves to leadership, tenacity, innovation, patience and generosity."

Moretrench Personnel Moves

Joseph McCann (far right) has been appointed executive vice president at Moretrench, a construction and geotechnical services provider headquartered in Rockaway, N.J. McCann joined Moretrench in 1970, and was appointed vice president in 1981. Over the course of his career, he has been responsible for the design, cost estimation, installation, operation and maintenance of numerous large and complex projects involving construction dewatering and ground water control, ground water remediation, and ground freezing for new and remedial construction.

Moretrench also welcomes Joseph Sopko (left photo) to the company as regional manager for its Midwest operations. Strategically located just north of Milwaukee in Port Washington, Wisconsin, the new office will offer the full range of Moretrench's technologies to the Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis areas. These include dewatering and ground water control, ground freezing, earth retention and excavation support, deep foundations, underpinning systems, grouting systems and environmental remediation.

DFI In the Middle East

The Deep Foundations Institute's (DFI) board of trustees announces the formation of a Middle East Committee. Following a successful joint summit on piling and deep foundations presented Feb. 1-2 in Dubai, interest in DFI's mission and purpose prompted the establishment of this new committee. Mamdouh Nasr, a member of DFI since 2004 and currently the United Arab Emirates' general manager for Implenia Global Solutions Ltd., has been appointed the committee chairman, and Khaldoun Fahoum of Langan Engineering & Environmental Services was selected to serve as the vice chair. The steering committee will consist of government officials, engineering firm representatives and contractors. The committee will also will actively seek participation from the local deep foundation manufacturing community to round out the committee's membership.

The committee quickly is beginning its activities with two educational events sponsored under the committee's purview as educating the local industry community on the various deep foundation techniques available has been recognized as an immediate need. On March 14 and 15 a workshop on combined pile raft foundations and geothermics will be presented in Dubai with attendance also expected from nearby Abu Dhabi. The second event will be a seminar or conference in Beirut.

Anyone interested in being part of this new Middle East committee should contact the DFI's headquarters at staff@dfi.org.

Cajun Takes Safety Awards

Cajun Industries LLC, a deep foundations specialist headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., received two Superior Safety Performance Awards from the United States Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division Safety Now Banquet. Cajun was presented a certificate of appreciation for the 2009 Superior Safety Performance, New Orleans District, Large Company Category for Cajun's positive attitude towards safety and for outstanding performance on construction of the Boomtown-to-Hero pump station floodwalls. The team exhibited outstanding management and safety awareness, working more than 600,000 man-hours with zero lost-time accidents.

On the Job

Hub Foundations Meets the Challenges of Drilled Shaft Project

For the project on Route 1 Over Harris and High Streets in Dedham, Mass., Hub Foundations Co. drilled eight 7-foot diameter shafts for two piers, and 40 54-inch diameter shafts for two abutments, and socketed them at various depths into rock ranging from very hard Dedham granite to nearly completely decomposed argillite. A 15-foot layer of peat, which causes slurry to disintegrate due to its pH, complicated the job, as did the oddly configured site transversed by two streets with high pedestrian and auto traffic.

In 1966, Frank Maxwell founded Hub Foundation Co. Inc. In its four-decade history, Hub, which is headquartered in Harvard, Mass., has completed nearly 800 contracts under diverse, and sometimes difficult, conditions. Over the years, Hub has evolved from one of New England's largest pile driving outfits to become a leader in the drilled shaft market in and around Boston.

Educational Opportunities

March 4-5
American Society of Civil Engineers
Earth Retaining Structures, Selection, Design, Construction and Inspection Seminar
New Orleans
703-295-6300
www.asce.org

March 10-12
International Piling and Deep Foundations Summit
Shanghai, China
www.pilingasia.com

March 12
Pile Driving Contractors Association and Deep Foundations Institute
Driven Pile - A Technical Seminar
Baltimore
888-311-7322
www.piledrivers.org

March 17
British Geotechnical Association
Understanding the Measurement of Soil Dynamic Properties Seminar
London
www.britishgeotech.org.uk

March 17-19
Pile Dynamics Inc. and Pile Driving Contractors Association
Deep Foundations Testing and Analysis Workshop and Seminar
Orlando, Fla.
216-831-6131
www.piledrivers.org

March 19
ADSC: The International Association of Foundation Drilling
Drilled Shaft Foundations Seminar and Exhibits
Houston
214-343-2091
www.adsc-iafd.com

March 22-23
Global Innovative Campus
Piled Foundations Design Course
Toronto
888-384-4863
www.gic-edu.com

March 22-23
Georgia Tech Global Learning Center
Enhanced In-situ Testing for Geotechnical Analyses and Foundation Design Course
Atlanta
www.pe.gatech.edu

March 23-24
Piling and Deep Foundations Southeast Asia
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
www.pilingdeepfoundations.asia

April 8
Deep Foundations Institute and ADSC: The International Association of Foundation Drilling
Micropiles Seminar: Industry Trends & Developments
Mississauga, Ontario
973-423-4031
www.dfi.org

April 10
ASCE Geotechnical Engineering Group
Analysis and Design of Foundations On and In Rock Seminar
Pittsburgh
412-922-5575
www.asce-pgh.org

Foundation Drilling Solutions

The March issue of National Driller magazine features a special advertorial section highlighting the capabilities of three leading foundation drilling equipment suppliers - Fraste, WVC Mincon and TEI Rock Drills. If you don't receive the print edition of National Driller, go to www.nationaldriller.com after April 1, where you can check out the digital edition (and sign up for a complimentary subscription to the print version if you don't already receive it).

AEC Store Corner

Foundation Engineering Handbook - $127.95
The latest information on foundation engineering, design, construction and code

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Covers these and other key topics:

• Soil mechanics
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• Earth slope stability evaluation
• Seismic analysis
• 2006 International Building Code

Follow this link for more details or to purchase this book.