Coronavirus Safety Best Practices

PDCA members could be our best resource to determine what is working on the jobsite and in the office to combat the potential spread of the COVID 19 virus.

Please take the time to list your Coronavirus Safety Best Practices and post them to this blog.  We are hoping this will serve as a resource for all PDCA members.

This blog is intended to provide PDCA members an opportunity to share their thoughts with their fellow members and is NOT intended to provide legal advice or serve as a fiinal source.  In all cases where safety is involved employers must use their best efforts to provide for the safety and health of their employees.

Thank you for your interest and support.  Please contact the PDCA office if you need any assistance.
 

A new PDCA chapter is now serving the local pile driving industry in Texas and will gather for a networking event in late February. In a letter to the locally elected leadership of the group, PDCA President Brian Heck reported that their request to affiliate as a PDCA chapter "was reviewed and unanimously approved by the PDCA Board of Directors" during its January Strategic Planning meeting.

Heck continued; "we are extremely impressed by your hard work and want to congratulate you again for accepting the responsibility to organize the PDCA of Texas." The formal communication completed several months of work by contractors, suppliers, manufacturers and engineers in Houston and beyond who pursued establishment of a formal presence for PDCA in the region. A Texas Chapter has not been available for local member engagement for several years.

As previously reported, four individuals have come forward to voluntarily serve as Texas Chapter leadership, they include:

• President: Brandon Bicknell, Russell Marine LLC. Brandon is a veteran contractor in the Houston region who joined Russell Marine as VP in 2019. Effective December 2021, he was promoted to President of the company.
• Vice president: Condon Verble, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. Condon has spent 20 years in the pile driving industry where he has been a General Superintendent. He assumed this role at McCarthy in 2019 and works in very active pile driving operations.
• Treasurer: Arjin Dogan, JD Fields & Company, Inc. Arjin is a recently graduated engineer from the University of Texas at Tyler and began with J.D. Fields as Engineer in July 2021. The Houston Business Journal published the announcement of her hiring in a January '22 article.
• Secretary: Armando Guajardo, BRC International LLC 

The PDCA of Texas Chapter is planning to host an industry networking event on February 24, 2022 at Pinstripes in Houston near River Oaks. Check back for details and registration information.

A little coastal, cold weather didn't stop event organizers led by Scott Nigels from serving up freshly-steamed oysters, plenty of beverages and an appropriate setting for industry fellowship. Local pile driving leaders, employees and their families visited the yard at Palmetto Pile Driving in Charleston, SC on Friday, January 21st for the Annual PDCA of South Carolina Chapter Oyster Roast. President of PDCA Brian Heck of Richard Goettle, Inc. and president of PDCA of South Carolina John King of Pile Drivers, Inc. were among many who enjoyed the warm atmosphere courtesy of ambient lighting from bonfires, space heaters and strung bulbs. There were also tents for oyster enthusiasts to crack oyster shells and a popular, machine shed to provide relaxed seating area away from the elements. The Oyster Roast has earned a reputation over the years as a 'must-attend,' industry event, so naturally the PDCA paparazzi (which included Nucor's Ric Anderson) was on-site to help capture photos of 'who's who' in South Carolina pile driving. See who was SPOTTED:


Many thanks to the sponsors for the South Carolina Chapter of PDCA, 2022 Oyster Roast: S&ME, Junttan, Koppers, Terracon, Essve Tech, ECS Carolinas, Carter Lumber, Ahern Rentals, NUCOR Skyline, ESP Associates, Pile Drivers, Inc., Wahoo Trucking, Soil Consultants, Dawley Surveying, Wire Products, Inc., Van-Smith Concrete, Palmetto Pile Driving, Inc., Cape Romain Contractors, Parker Marine Contracting, SJ Hamill Construction Corp, Consolidated Pipe and Supply, American Piledriving Equipment (APE), Equipment Corporation of America (ECA), International Construction Equipment (ICE), AMERICAN SpiralWeld Pipe, Insight Group.
 

PDCA Pacific Coast Chapter 2021 Scholarship Winners

 

(Left to Right): Sophie Robinson, Zhixiang Jesse Chen, Karen Siqueiros, Erick Medina, Andrew Ballinger

Congratulations to the following winners of the Pacific Coast Chapter of PDCA, 2021 annual scholarship:

• Andrew Ballinger is a freshman at Chico State University in California who is studying construction management
• Zhixiang Jesse Chen is a student at San Jose State University who plans to pursue a career in construction in California upon his graduation
• Erick Medina is a student at California State University - Sacramento where he is completing a curriculum in construction management
• Sophie Robinson studies English at University of Nevada - Reno; she intends to work in construction communications and/or human resources
• Karen Siqueiros is a University of Oregon student from San Diego who continues work on her double majors in business and economics

 

mark your calendars

The Pacific Coast Chapter of PDCA has set the date of April 29, 2022 for the Annual Scholarship Shoot which raises funds to support students pursuing construction careers. Once again, the event will take place at the Bird's Landing Hunting Preserve located at 2099 Collinsville Rd, Birds Landing, CA 94512. Check back here for registration details as the event draws closer.

the pacific coast chapter of pdca 2022 scholarship program is open for your entries!

Students who live in the Pacific Coast region of the United States are invited to apply for the 2022 PDCA Pacific Coast Scholarship Award. This is a program that encourages high school seniors or college students to enroll in a course of study that will prepare them for a career in the pile driving industry. It is also a great opportunity for those students who may want to follow in the footsteps of a friend or relative who is already involved in PDCA. Student applicants be advised; you are not limited to a strict academic curriculum for construction. Your pursuit of a career in construction is crucial, but that can include safety, civil engineering, accounting and information technology (among others) which are all applicable to a pile driving company. Be sure to make your best case when you fill out the application.

Here are the details:

• Scholarship amount is $1000
• Award for academic year beginning Fall 2022 
• Applications are due by July 1, 2022
• The awards will be released August of 2022
• Click here to obtain your electronic copy of the application

Mail or email your completed application to the following address:

PDCA Pacific Coast Chapter 
PO Box 97
Oakley, CA 94561

dfallon@foundationpile.com
dollis@reevetrucking.com

Questions? Call (925) 754-6633

Daytona Beach, FL (January 14, 2022): A common practice of the modern workplace is participation in virtual or hybrid (part live, part virtual) meetings. This dynamic exists at the Pile Driving Contractors Association in both Board of Directors meetings and educational presentations. Concerning the former, the Board of Directors engages each year in a January Strategic Planning Meeting where members review Association activity of the past year and consider priorities for the new year. The January 2022 meeting had several Board members attend in person while others joined the two-day event through the Zoom webinar platform.

A component of the Strategic Planning Meeting is the ceremonial passing of the gavel, a tradition signifying a leadership change at PDCA. In 2022, outgoing PDCA president Kevin Gourgues attended the meeting in person, but incoming president Brian Heck appeared virtually. So, meeting participants witnessed a first-ever, hybrid gavel exchange for PDCA leadership. And to further distinguish the 2022 meeting, Gourgues explained how he "carefully packed the gavel in bubble wrap in a box, added extra packing peanuts for protection and sent it from Baton Rouge" to Heck in Cincinnati. However, the delivery tracking mechanism (at the time of the meeting), showed the gavel was delayed in Indianapolis. Fortunately, President Heck had a meat tenderizer available to him and dutifully tapped it to begin the strategic planning proceedings.

From there, the Board considered a full agenda of business items over the next day-and-a-half. Participants engaged in detailed discussions about a variety of issues and initiatives of the Association. Among the actions of Board members during the 2022 PDCA Strategic Planning Meeting were:

• Passage of a 2022 PDCA budget
• Acceptance of new PDCA of Texas Chapter affiliation request
• Discussion on standing committee optimization 
• Review of bylaws
• Establishment of 2022 goals

At the conclusion of the business meeting, the Board members recognized at-large Board member Greg Canivan who was celebrating a birthday. They gathered with Greg and presented him with a video playing the birthday song.