PDCA is finally revealing the winners of the PDCA 2022 Project of the Year Awards with the latest issue of PileDriver magazine!

Did your company take home a top prize? After a record-setting year of project submissions, competition was fierce. The judge's panel has issued it's verdicts in the several, contested categories and we extend a sincere CONGRATULATIONS to the 2022 winning companies. Make sure to read the newest PileDriver magazine which includes descriptive narratives about each project, as well as striking photography chronicling various stages of the progress. The pile driving industry celebrates these projects which demonstrate innovation, problem-solving, work capacity and resilience of your fellow PDCA members.

Entries for next year's Project of the Year Awards program for projects completed by December 31, 2022, will open in January. Start planning your submissions now!

(Left to right: Michael McCormick, Don Surrency, John King, Sonny DuPre, John Skinner)

A 2022 objective of the South Carolina Chapter of PDCA and current president John King is to recognize the contributions of some of the region's important figures who spent impactful careers serving the Charleston market and helped shape the driven pile industry into what it is today. During its third quarter dinner meeting on August 18th, President King arranged for four retirees to receive The Harry Robbins Chapter Award. Three contractors and one supplier were introduced by a family member or close colleague and presented with a unique pile driving rig trophy to signify their contributions to the industry. Those recognized in August included Sonny DuPre who followed his father at the helm of Cape Romain Contractors, Michael McCormick who was a co-founder of Pile Drivers, Inc., John Skinner who retired after a long career at Parker Marine Contracting in 2021, and Don Surrency who was a leading representative at Koppers, Inc. for more than 30 years. PDCA thanks the four gentlemen for helping shape the modern, driven pile industry into what it is today.

In addition to the special recognitions, Chapter members and friends gathered at the Town & Country Inn & Suites in Charleston for a networking reception, buffet dinner featuring various southern cuisine favorites, a Chapter business update and a feature presentation from Kathy Harper of the PDCA national office in Orange Park, Florida. There, Kathy is the Manager of Education and Events; she provided dinner attendees with a 'behind the scenes' look at the evolution of such industry staples as the PDCA Annual Conference, DICEP, the PDCA Value Driven Webinar Series and Contractors Foundation Institute: Driven Pile Academy, among others. Members from the South Carolina Chapter are active in national level PDCA events and enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about their origin.

 

The capacity event attracted more than 60 attendees.

Kathy Harper from PDCA

A popular networking reception preceded the meeting.

David Tomley, PE

Mohammad Mulla, PE

 

 

If you read the blog post about it on this website earlier this month, you might recall that PDCA announced that it would be going 'LIVE and on-location' from a member office to originate a webinar for the first time in the history of PDCA virtual learning. As it turns out, hosts Bill and Brooks Crossman at Atlantic Metrocast, Inc. who hosted the PDCA's Frank Peters and Kathy Harper to conduct the August installment of the PDCA 2022 Value Driven Webinar Series, are close business associates of Dr. John Ryan, P.E. (pictured), the subject-matter expert who presented the virtual program. The assistant professor of civil engineering at The Citadel gave a one-hour presentation entitled Case Study of Prestress Concrete Piles as a Value Engineered Seismic Solution to PDCA members who registered for the webinar which took place during the afternoon of August 11th. Attendees earn 1 hour PDH.

The Crossman's traveled from out of state to their Portsmouth, VA prestressed concrete production facility on that Thursday to welcome the PDCA education team. As they assisted with the conference room set up, they were pleased to learn that it was Dr. Ryan who would be appearing virtually from South Carolina. Likewise, Dr. Ryan was surprised to find out that his program would originate from the office of his long time business associates, and gave Bill a warm shout-out before delivering his presentation.

The PDCA 2022 Value Driven Webinar Series continues on September 8th when attendees will hear a one-hour program at 2:00 PM EDT entitled The Use of Fiberglass Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites in Piling Applications. Interested members can register for this FREE program and earn 1 hour PDH; non-members too, can attend for the nominal charge of $50. PDCA thanks the THE 2022 Series sponsors Hammer & Steel and Pat DiCerbo/Northwestern Mutual for the underwriting and the hundreds of people who have participated in this ongoing virtual education program to date. REGISTER HERE.

Scenes from Atlantic Metrocast, Inc. in Portsmouth, VA when PDCA delivered the 2022 Value Driven Webinar Series.

The Portsmouth, VA staff at Atlantic Metrocast, Inc. stands for a promotional photo in advance of hosting the August, PDCA webinar.

Have you registered to attend the August installment of the PDCA 2022 Value Driven Webinar Series happening on Thursday the 11th? You still have time to secure your spot for the presentation 'Case Study of Prestress Concrete Piles as a Value Engineered Seismic Solution,' by Dr. John Ryan of Ryan Structural Engineers, LLC. The one-hour program is FREE to PDCA members and $50 for non-members. It begins at 2:00 PM EDT and will be delivered through the Zoom platform. CLICK HERE to register for this program.

The Value Driven Webinar Series historically originates from the PDCA, Florida-based offices, however the August 2022 program will be the first remote broadcast from a PDCA member office. Atlantic Metrocast, Inc. in Portsmouth, VA is lending its conference room to PDCA for the afternoon to set up the necessary equipment for the webinar and broadcast it to registrants. This is the first, LIVE and on-location webinar from PDCA. Attendees will not experience any difference in the audio or video during the program but might be interested to know that the subject matter being presented about prestress concrete pile, coincidentally is being delivered from a prestress concrete piling production facility. 

The PDCA team is in the coastal Virginia region during the week of August 8th to hold "Networking in Norfolk" for the regional pile driving industry; this is a FREE, happy hour-style event for area contractors, suppliers, manufacturers and civil engineers. That event takes place from 5-7 PM EDT on August 11th, shortly after completion of the webinar. Atlantic Metrocast, Inc., which is very generous to lend PDCA the needed space and ensure Value Driven Webinar Series attendees receive the August program uninterrupted, is among the sponsors of "Networking in Norfolk.." Other sponsors include GeoQuip, American Piledriving Equipment, American Equipment and Fabricating Corp., ECS MidAtlantic, Equipment Corporation of America, ICE-International Construction Equipment, Inc. Liebherr, M.T. Kaye Steel, and Fay Southeast.