| A Pile of News: November 2022 |
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A briefing on news and information from the pile driving contractors,
associated manufacturers, construction suppliers and affiliated engineers
who comprise PDCA.
By Matt Bisbee, PDCA
Originally sent Nov. 1, 2022 |
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| Top of the Pile ... Election Season |
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VOTE twice in November: No, we don't advocate nefarious behavior at U.S. ballot boxes Nov. 8, rather we want you to cast your PDCA ballot for the 2023 Board of Directors and PDCA leadership posts (if you are a member in good standing) AND vote on 11/8 Election Day (if you are registered, of course).
Recommendations or write-ins: CLICK HERE for the PDCA Nominating Committee's slate of candidates, which recommends voters maintain current Board and leadership. Your ballot arrives in your inbox this week. When voting, your choices are: 1) vote for the recommended name/position OR 2) Write in a different name for a specified position. Completed ballots are due to PDCA by Nov. 30. Contact PDCA ASAP if you don't receive your ballots.
Past presidents grab headlines, right? He led PDCA in 2021, and last month Kevin Gourgues of Patriot Construction & Industrial trekked from Plaquemine, LA, to Alaska's remote Stuyahok River Basin. He didn't spot candidates gladhanding for votes; then again, he wasn't looking for them. He had one goal in mind to bag a moose. He's safely home now with a priceless experience, amazing photos and his goal ACHIEVED! The Yukon bull moose from Iliamna, AK, measured 64 inches wide and nearly 1,800 lbs.
Rising Waters It's frequently a campaign issue, but here we just wanted to tell you the latest on past PDCA president and retired 50-year pile driver Wayne Waters. He owns EWS Construction Consulting and was named owner's rep for construction of a 1,000-foot timber retaining wall replacement at a private beach facility on North Florida's Atlantic coast. Wayne will advise the BOD on engineer/contractor appointments and perform estimation and inspection, among other functions. |
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| From the Association & Chapters |
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Hot off the presses, read the digital version of the latest PileDriver magazine.
Mark your calendars!
Nov. 10: Value Driven PDCA Webinar Series, 2 - 3 PM ET, is on-location again, now from the unofficial S.C. Chapter HQ, the Town & Country Inn & Suites in Charleston. Participate in a legal discussion on contracts.
News and PHOTOS from the PDCA Blog:
Northeast Chapter has last '22 meeting; VP David Price of Linde Griffith says '23 to include tech seminar, clay shoot, TopGolf, possibly gaming night. Ian Vaz of Giken presented the Press-In Piling Method.
Through an enthusiastic cooperating agreement with the Deep Foundations Institute, PDCA joined numerous dual members in National Harbor, MD, for the DFI Annual Conference. PHOTOS
Pile Dynamics, Inc., in partnership with PDCA, hosted the second and final DFDTA for 2022 in Cleveland. The twice-annual seminar and proficiency exam returns to Orlando in March 2023.
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Congratulations, Paul Matthew Jaquillard, you are this month's winner!
Send an email to marian@piledrivers.org before the end of the month to claim your prize! |
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Acquisitions & expansions:
Giving back:
Foundation Constructors supports Boy Scouts as benefactor for the Construction Industry Lunch-O-Ree; keynoting the San Francisco event was MLB's 1989 NL MVP, Kevin Mitchell.
Pile Dynamics, Inc. president George Piscsalko ceremonially presented a check for $50K to the Goble Rausche Likens Scholarship through the DFI Educational Trust. The revolutionary instrumentation developer and supplier celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Samuel Roll Form Group and Canadian-based parent company hosted solemn observances at facilities across the country. They stood in honor of Indigenous communities impacted by the horrors of residential schools, part of the second annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
TRC Companies staff Tyler Huynh, Victor Herrera, Jaideep Rao donated clean-up/restoration work at Frasier DAM Recreation Park in Dallas, just 10 miles from 2024 IFCEE grounds.
Recognitions:
Boh Bros. launches a new safety program that honors the late Ron Brylski by awarding a trophy in his name. Called the Sh!t That Can Kill You, or STCKY, craft workers with high-risk jobs compete in the STCKY challenge to optimize safety practices. See pg. 16 of The Boh Picture.
Gerdau celebrated 120 years in business in 2021. That's remarkable! Now, the team celebrates winning the 13th Steelie Award for the anniversary campaign it conducted last year.
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| Transitions:
Rafael Reyes named senior project manager, serving the Mid-Atlantic region for GeoStructures.
Oluwatobi Sajuyigbe onboards as new field engineer at Kiewit in New York.
Kendall Doggett becomes new project manager at McCarthy Building Co. in Houston.
Ashley Huxtable joins ECS Limited in Charlotte; elsewhere, Fouad Masri, Ban Harborth named Greensboro, NC, office, and Mingo Crowley promoted at ECS Southeast.
Sanjay Shanhji, P.E., a 17-year geotech veteran, is new Eustis Engineering Houston branch manager.
Vinod Patel, the Midwest bridge department manager, elevates to vice president at EXP.
Joseph Clare becomes VP and underground practice leader at Shannon & Wilson in Seattle.
Brent Keller joins Universal Engineering Sciences business development in Palm Beach, FL.
Jeff Prattini, formerly with Shields Law Partners in New Orleans and a contributing legal author to PileDriver magazine, has launched the Prattini Law Firm, LLC in the Big Easy.
Recognitions:
David Barwick reaches 31 years with Southern Earth Sciences in Tallahassee, FL; elsewhere, Daniel McGough, Curran Nicholas from the firm join ASCE-Mobile leadership.
Sybil Kahn, mother of Fred and Ted Kahn, is the matriarch of Kansas City-based Kahn Steel Co.; she reached 100 years young, and the company honored her with a personalized Smucker's jar!
Martha Johnson, during a usual 50-hour work week in October, was guest of honor at a Soil Consultants, Inc. staff cookout. The Charleston firm celebrated their CEO's 90th birthday.
In sympathy:
Phil Gerhart, P.E. was already an accomplished engineer when he founded his own practice in Midvale, UT, in 1999, and later grew the firm to 35 professionals today. Gerhart Cole Inc. lost their mentor and true friend earlier this year. His legacy looms large through his work in the Intermountain West, where he led the development of many modern dams, pioneered new technologies for the I-15 reconstruction near Salt Lake City for the '02 Olympics, and implemented new techniques in soft ground construction.
Armando Guarjardo, Jr. (42) was a treasured employee of BRC International LLC and a gifted coalition-builder who deserves significant credit for revitalizing the PDCA Texas Chapter in 2021. He was instrumental in advancing BRC's presence in the market for high-quality OCTG and line pipe in five continents; he also organized a successful charitable fishing tournament for the clientele. PDCA salutes our friend Armando, who served as secretary of the Texas Chapter, at the time of his October passing. RIP.
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ASAP Group is at the University of Miami Health System campus where a new cancer research center is being built. The contractor is supplying, installing and removing 570 LF of temporary steel sheet piling.
Farrell Brothers Marine Construction begins a full day of timber pile installation for a new boat dock; this day's work began with a picturesque, North Florida sunrise on the river.
Goettle used APE equipment to install piling for the last building of the North Shore Development, a 20-year initiative on Pittsburgh's North Shore. This strengthens the city's nickname of Paris of Appalachia.
H.B. Fleming, Inc. crews drive sheets 60 feet deep under I-89 near Richmond, VT. This emergency repair facilitates a replacement box culvert. Fun Wiki-fact, Richmond is the hometown of Joel Furr, the guy said to have coined the term "spam" for unwanted email. Please don't report this newsletter as spam!
O'Quinn Marine Const. Inc. installed fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) piles from Creative Composites Group for a new bulkhead at a private golf course in Beaufort, SC. The crew also built a new golf cart bridge.
Pile Drivers, Inc. shows progress on the Firetower Hotel in Charleston, SC, originally to be on micropiles; plans changed and the crew used a Junttan rig to drive H-piles from Consolidated Pipe & Supply. Terracon was EOR.
PRECO-MSE contributed removal of defective sheeting, as well as installation of 32 pairs of 50 feet of steel sheets for a new pumping station in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.
Powell Foundations sent a crew to install 120-foot steel H-piles for new Toronto bridge construction.
SJ Hamill Construction dispatched a crane barge down the Ashley River in Charleston, SC, to a marina for Hurricane Ian recovery. Photos show impressive piloting as the vessel maneuvers through drawbridges.
American Piledriving Equipment has an APE 200 vibro and an APE D46 preparing to drive H-pile and pipes for a bridge replacement job over Table Rock Lake in Missouri's Ozarks.
DuroTerra provides ductile iron piles for two higher ed jobs in Massachusetts; Boston College's Conte Forum project and MIT's Building 55 addition.
Hammer & Steel, Inc. shares job site photos of a PTC 50 vibro suspended above the steel and will eventually be driven for a cofferdam that will serve a Maryland Heights, MO pump station.
International Construction Equipment is on the east side of Montana's treasured Glacier National Park as its ICE28B pulls pipe piles from the rocky terrain.
PVE Equipment team met at Florida HQ for product development and training on enhanced 600PP. |
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ENR covers Kiewit and its agreement to acquire Weeks Marine in early 2023, a news item we shared last month. Also, learn of a $201.6M JV involving both for the Shoreline Storage Tunnel in Cleveland.
dp-PRO magazine, Fall 2022 features a cover showing a Weeks Marine cutter suction dredge.
Fox Business Network's Mornings with Maria aired an interview where Atlas Tube CEO Barry Zekelman discussed with host Maria Bartiromo, inflation of U.S. steel costs and current U.S. trade challenges.
Houston Business Journal goes deep on JD Fields' evolution from steel distributor to manufacturer. CEO Jay Fields speaks on bold developments like the new steel mill on Houston's Ship Channel. [Paywall]
Business RadioX® features a podcast from Savannah, GA in which Thomas & Hutton VP and regional director Ralph Forbes speaks to hosts about his unique role shepherding economic growth in the region. |
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Hackers, phishers and bots fear him, but Jason Stefanski, who leads data security efforts at GeoEngineers, Inc. as CIO, stepped into some PPE and assumed a different safety role. He served as a vehicle spotter for geotech Mark Rose who was visiting a roadside project near Shelton, WA.
"High low" is a popular basketball offense but it could also code for a recent mission completed by an ESP Associates crew. The South Carolina firm's mobile LiDAR team assisted the Wyoming DOT and shared postcard photos of the Low Country Ford Expedition navigating through high country near Jackson Hole.
Before they were famous Nearly 20 years before co-founding PND Engineering, Roy Peratrovich, Jr. and Dennis Nottingham designed the first cable-stayed vehicular bridge in Alaska, and many believe in the entire U.S. This fall, the ASCE Alaska Section dedicated the John O'Connell Memorial Bridge in Sitka, AK, as a state historic civil engineering landmark.
That's a wrap for November's rendition of 'A Pile of News,' as always, thanks for reading! We get a lot of questions about how to receive this publication on the first working day of each month; those who read our publications through other means, but would like to receive it directly, simply need to SUBSCRIBE at this link. Others ask us about contributing your company news for consideration; we encourage you to keep your social media updated with news items you would like publicized. And in the cases of your most important announcements, please contact us directly at matt@piledrivers.org. Unfortunately, we can't see EVERYTHING on social media! Psst to you non-member readers out there, and we see you in the analytics, it's time to JOIN PDCA and strengthen advocacy for the driven pile! |
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Prior to the PDCA South Carolina quarterly dinner meeting, the November installment of the Value Driven PDCA Webinar Series was delivered live and on-location from the Town and Country Inn & Suites facility in Charleston, SC. Readers might recall that the August webinar was broadcast from Chesapeake, VA. Executive Director Frank Peters and Events and Education Manager Kathy Harper moderated the monthly, virtual resource made available to members and other interested parties. Joining Frank and Kathy was special guest and November presenter John Davagian (pictured), Managing Partner at Davagian Grillo & Semple, LLP in Sudbury, Mass., who gave a program on legal contracts. Mr. Davagian focused his presentation on Gotcha Clauses and liquidated damages.
