Dale Biggers Receives
Lifetime Achievement Award
By Mark Halsall
When it comes to pillars in the
pile driving community, few
cast as large a shadow as Dale
Biggers. It’s no surprise, therefore, that Biggers
has been named the first-ever winner of
the PDCA Lifetime Achievement Award.
The 49-year veteran of the pile driving
industry received the honor at the PDCA
21st Annual International Conference and
Expo in Amelia Island, Fla. in June.
“It’s a very nice honor from some people
that I admire,” said Biggers, P.E., who’s
belonged to PDCA for more than 20 years.
The PDCA Board of Directors instituted
the Lifetime Achievement Award this
year as a way to recognize outstanding individuals
who have:
•• Earned the respect and admiration of
their peers in the pile driving industry
and over the course of their career
•• Selflessly given their time and energy
to advance the science and or practice
of pile driving
•• Had a significant impact on PDCA
Biggers certainly meets those criteria.
He’s renowned throughout the industry
for helping lead remediation efforts in New
Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, and
he’s been an invaluable resource for PDCA
as chair of the association’s Technical
Committee for the past 13 years.
During that time, Biggers has organized
several efforts to improve design codes
to more accurately reflect the capabilities of
driven piles and make them more competitive
with other deep foundation systems.
“This work has been critically important
to the driven pile industry,” said Steve
Hall, PDCA executive director. “If the
PDCA ANNUAL AWARDS
codes do not allow engineers to use piles as
economically as possible, they are replaced
by other foundation systems.”
According to Hall, Biggers and
other members of the PDCA Technical
Committee worked for more than three
years to rewrite the pile driving sections
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