ADVANCES IN PILE DRIVING TECHNOLOGY
Speaker Presentations
Wednesday, May 18
9:00 a.m.
Dr. Shawn Wilson, Louisiana
Department of Transportation
and Development
PDCA has selected Dr. Shawn Wilson with
the Louisiana Department of Transportation
and Development (LADOTD) as the keynote
speaker for the opening ceremony
at the PDCA 20th Annual International
Conference & Expo 2016.
On Dec. 16, 2015, John Bel Edwards (then governor-elect)
announced Dr. Wilson as the secretary of the LADOTD. Dr.
Wilson has served as chief of staff for the LADOTD, a role he
filled for 10 years under three previous secretaries and under
the executive administration of two governors. A proud product
of New Orleans public schools, Wilson earned a B.A. in Urban
and Regional Planning from the University of Louisiana, where
he served as student government president and member of the
University of Louisiana System Board. He holds a Master of Public
Administration degree and recently earned a Ph.D. in public policy.
As secretary of the LADOTD, Wilson is in charge of maintaining
public transportation, roadways, bridges, canals, select levees,
floodplain management, port facilities, commercials and aviation,
which includes 69 airports within the state.
10:15 a.m.
Important Considerations for
Designing Sheet Piling Structures
Dick Hartman,
Hartman Engineering
Anchored walls and cofferdams using sheet
piling are constructed every day. Most of
them perform as intended, but some experience
significant problems or collapse. In this
presentation, Dick Hartman will discuss
several difficulties that can be encountered and ways to prevent
them during both the design and construction process. Examples
and case studies will be used for illustration.
10:50 a.m.
Key Factors to Achieving
Construction Cost Effi ciency with
Today’s Pile Driving Technology
Gerry McShane,
Service Steel Warehouse
The continuous charge toward ever increasing
construction cost efficiency has led to
advances in sheet pile material composition,
profile design, weldability, strength, ductility
and method of forming. Matching developments in equipment
design contribute to gains in efficiency. The key factor to realizing
these gains is in achieving improvements in pile installation. Gerry
will explain how material and equipment changes stack up in terms
of meeting design requirements and improving pile drivability will
be examined in detail.
11:25 a.m.
Ethical and Risk Aspects of Pile
Driving Subcontracts
Alexander Filotti, M.B.A., P.E.,
Underpinning & Foundation
Skanska, Inc.
In this presentation, Alexander Filotti will
address ethical and risk aspects of pile driving
subcontracts in the Northeast region of
the U.S., reflecting the technical and normative
advances of the industry such as soil investigations, capacity
predictions, load test result interpretations and correlations and new
standard contracts adopted by major owners (e.g., City of New York).
Thursday, May 19
8:30 a.m.
GENERAL BUSINESS
MEETING KEYNOTE
Driven Piles – Research to Practice
Silas Nichols,
Federal Highway Administration
This presentation will summarize current
work in FHWA to advance the state of the
practice in the design and construction of
driven pile foundations, and discuss the
impact for the PDCA membership. This will include an overview
on the recently completed Geotechnical Engineering Circular
(GEC) 12 on design and construction of driven piles, work on
GEC 9 on the design of deep foundations for lateral loading and
research efforts focused on design methods for large diameter,
open-ended pipe piles.
10:30 a.m.
Installation of Large Diameter
Pipe Piles with Constrictor Plates –
Kentucky Lakes Bridge Project
Ben White,
GRL Engineers, Inc.
Seventy-two-inch diameter pipe piles
were chosen as the pier foundation piles
for the Kentucky Lakes Bridge in Aurora,
Kentucky. Constrictor plates were installed
within the piles to force a soil plug and
increase pile resistance once the minimum
penetration depth was reached. In this presentation, Ben White
will discuss the design phase test pile program, the pile installation
process, equipment used for installation and results from dynamic
testing of several production piles.
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