A Pile of News: October 2024

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 Oct. 1, 2024

Top of the Pile

• Piling materials, presidential politics, national security are all impacted by a pending sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese-based Nippon Steel. A federal oversight body delayed action in the matter until after November's election. Both POTUS candidates oppose the sale, but the arbitration board has approved it and opinion-shapers support it: Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, National Review, Washington Examiner.
• Key Bridge rebuild to begin in 2025  Kiewit Infrastructure is the progressive design-builder to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The Maryland Transportation Authority approved a $73M contract for phase 1. Work is expected to start in early '25 with an anticipated bridge reopening in fall '28. The community is still reeling following the tragic March '24 collapse.
• This is a story that needs to be told time and again  A recent Texas Pile, LLC project in San Marcos was originally conceived as one to use a driven pile alternative. However, pre-production test piling revealed that substantial cost and time savings (16 weeks/$5.6M) could be realized by a shift to driven piling. Collaboration for the pivot involved Texas Pile, GRL Engineers and Atlas Tube. PDCA promotes that every foundation project strives toward this goal when a driven pile is the most appropriate solution. Read the case study.
• Time is running out  have you updated your member account on The PDCA Connection to ensure your data is accurately listed in the 2025 Membership Directory? Click here to be redirected.
• Welcome, new members! PDCA thanks the following companies and individuals who joined the organization in Q3-2024. You more effectively advocate for the driven pile when you join the only organization that collectively agrees, "A Driven Pile...Is a Tested Pile..."
  • Contractor: Sargent in Orono, ME
  • Associates: Bell Lumber & Pole Company in Minneapolis, MN; Expander Body International (EBI) Inc. in Ottawa, ON; Edgen Murray Corporation in Houston, TX
  • Academic employee: Don Warrington of Lee University in Tennessee
  • Government employees: Mir Zaheer from IN-DOT; Miranda Perkins from LA-DOTD; Scott Kassel and Kyle Markel from IL-DOT; Sourav Das from Imperial House (India)
  • Student: Samir Paswan from Lalit Narayan Mithila University (India). John Loehr from Auburn University.

From the Association & Chapters

Mark your calendars:

• Oct. 710: DFI Annual Conference, Aurora, CO; PDCA is a cooperating organization
• Oct. 10: Value Driven Webinar Series, 2 PM, EDT (virtual)  Introduction to Sheet Pile Design: Concepts, Computation, and Tools, presented by Dave Chapman from Blakeslee Arpaia Chapman
• Oct. 24: Mountain State Meet-Up, Salt Lake City, 5:30-7:30 PM  held in conjunction with EDPI
• Oct. 2324 Engineers Driven Pile Institute (EDPI), Doubletree, Downtown Salt Lake City, UT: designed for mid-level engineers, 15 PDH available, sponsorship opportunities for benefactors
• Nov. 6: Northeast Chapter Dinner Meeting & Casino Night in Newark, NJ  Attend this chapter meeting and stick around for some gaming. It's the last event for 2024!
• Nov. 68: Deep Foundations Dynamic Testing & Analysis (DFDTA) in Cleveland, OH  This workshop/seminar is from Pile Dynamics, Inc./PDCA; it concludes with a PDA proficiency test.
• Nov. 14: South Carolina Chapter Dinner Meeting and Scholarship Award, Charleston, SC The last meeting of 2024 features presentation of the Nigels Scholarship to a Citadel cadet.
• Nov. 21: Virginia Regional Networking Reception  More info coming soon!!

From the piledrivers.org blog:

• Texas Chapter members and friends teed-off for the second annual golf tournament on Sept. 24 in Mont Belvieu.
• Northeast Chapter Sporting Clays Scholarship Shoot brought dozens of sportsmen and women to a unique Pennsylvania course. See who was SPOTTED at the popular event.
• DICEP attendees heard a series of impactful technical presentations in Chicago. The conference included the Windy City Wine Down networking reception for industry friends in Chicagoland.
• Checking in from the road  PDCA takes a pile drive and drops in on members in California, Minnesota. Who did we see?

Congratulations, Tomas Cabrera, you are this month's winner! Send an email to marian@piledrivers.org before the end of the month to claim your prize!

News from PDCA Companies

Giving back:

• Bechtel partnered with NSBE in support of Summer Engineering Experience for Kids, a STEM program offered in Houston, Washington, D.C. and virtually. The free, three-week program introduced engineering professions through fun and engaging activities to third, fourth and fifth graders.
• D.A. Collins Companies, like many PDCA members, prioritizes staff appreciation. It ends each September with an employee party and fireworks show at its company HQ. Neighbors don't mind and are invited to enjoy the pyrotechnics from their off-campus vantage points.
• Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company is part of a program that empowers educators at high schools with a better understanding of the construction industry in order to give them insights and experiences to pass along to students considering various career paths. Ryder Coelho, Henry Tuquero and Kuuipo Banao are the participating company reps.
• MEB dispatched recruiting staff to VA-Tech to coach students in the construction department on resume and elevator pitch development. The visit preceded their participation in an upcoming career fair. It's unclear if the students "walk in" to the engagements to Enter Sandman.

Recruiters from MEB serve as coaches to VA Tech students 

Government relations:

• The Walsh Group hosted Virginia Gov. Youngkin at its I-81 highway widening project near Salem. The job site became the state's first in nearly 30 years to receive an OSHA STAR award.
• H&H is the lead engineer for a new Amtrak bridge in southeastern Connecticut. The firm was present when Amtrak, Gov. Lamont, U.S. Sens. Blumenthal and Murphy, and U.S. Rep. Courtney and others broke ground for the $1.3B project that will involve H-pile installation.
• Bull Moose Tube hosted Lord Paul, its parent company founder, at some U.S. facilities. The British magnate & philanthropist won a lifetime P.M. appointment to the House of Lords in '96.

Acquisitions & expansions:

• Beard Construction Group, based in the Baton Rouge area, is finishing work on a second location in Luling, on the western side of New Orleans. The firm says the expansion grows their geographic reach with piling services and more in the state's southernmost communities. 
• Island Piling, Inc., a beachfront foundation installer in SW Florida, pivots to air hammers with its purchase of a PileMaster 5000, to alleviate overspray concerns and boost environmental stewardship. VP Kena Yoke says geotechs can now diversify their job site apparel.
• Geo-Technology Associates, Inc. (GTA) enters the Pittsburgh market under the guidance of VP Randy Daub, P.E., who oversees all operations in the region. Tyler Furr is branch manager.

Recognitions:

• Cajun Industries, LLC celebrates its seven crew members who passed tough written and practical exams and earned national accreditation through the NCCCO lattice boom class.
• McCarthy Building Cos. won the Best Project Award in Specialty Construction from ENR. The Port of Beaumont Main Street Terminal 1 finished in May, well ahead of schedule.
• Infrastructure Consulting & Engineering aims to change the culture for Columbia, SC, motorists through its work on a built solution to Malfunction Junction (I-20/I-26). The project earned coverage in an update from Lexington Life magazine, complete with job site photos.
• Tolunay-Wong Engineers was awarded by the Safety Council of Southwest Louisiana. 

Transitions:

• Sean Vandedrinck elevates to regional director at the East Coast offices of Russell Marine.
• Bob Page earned a reputation as one of the most skilled off-road truck drivers in history at Sargent. He started 27 years ago as a laborer on a New Hampshire job and has now retired.
• Mac Rotan moves up at Apex Steel Pipe & Piling, becoming VP of purchasing and operations.
• Braeden Hamilton is the new eastern territory manager at Hercules Machinery Corp. The Air Force veteran fills the shoes of industry veteran Bryan Daniel, who retired on Sept. 27.
• Pablo Cerda transitions to a role in global hammer sales at PACO Equipment in Houston.
• Cole Newman rises to business unit manager at Jacksonville, FL, offices of PVE Equipment USA.
• David Rettner announced that he will retire as president/chief growth officer at American Engineering Testing, Inc. in St. Paul, MN. His career began at MnDOT in 1985 and he spent the last 20 at AET.

Recognitions:

• Doug Keller, president and CEO of Goettle, is named a 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award honoree from the Spirit of Construction Foundation, which promotes builders in the Cincinnati region. Separately, Goettle was recognized by the organization as a Big Impact Circle sponsor.
• Andrew Puk, a business manager at J. Fletcher Creamer & Son, Inc. in its New Jersey and Maryland offices, becomes a board member for NUCA NJ.
• Jesse Roush and Dan Spoerl won the 2024 Bean Bag Tournament, a cultural event at Veit's Wisconsin office. Also deserving a shout-out is estimator Kevin Topp, who crafted the trophies.
• David Staines and Randall Frost, both from Canal Barge Company, have been named to the maritime industry publication, The Waterways Journal 40 Under 40 list.
• Jack Eckman was guest of honor for his 50-year anniversary at Equipment Corporation of America. The Philadelphia branch warranty specialist cut a video reflecting on his decades of work. The hype-video attracted his colleagues from near and far for the celebration.
• Bethanne Mashburn, owner of The Loren Group in Gadsden, AL, hosted Calhoun County high school students and faculty for a discussion about managing stress.
• Gabriel Rodriguez, a CAD designer at Lloyd Engineering, Inc., achieved a personal goal when he reached the summit of Ecuador's highest mountain, Mount Chimborazo. His treacherous hike took him more than 20K feet above sea level. Congratulations and great photos!

On the Job

ASAP Group machinery was spotted extracting/installing 286 lf of sheet pile, just 12 miles from the PDCA office. Crews were working at the Black Creek Water Resources Development job.

C.D. Perry, LLC is the prime contractor for a New York State Electric & Gas hydroelectric facility upgrade in Morrisonville, NY. Crews drove flat sheet piling from company inventory for installation of two cellular cofferdams, using their Hercules Machinery Co. HMC Model 25 vibro. 

Cape Romain Contractors updates the Mount Pleasant, SC, shrimp dock project; video shows the first prestressed concrete piles going down using company-owned equipment.

Kokosing is presently in the design phase as it prepares to replace the Wallops Island Causeway Bridge serving the NASA flight facility in coastal Virginia. Construction for the FHWA project is scheduled to start in early 2025; the contractor tells us that every pier bent for the bridge will be on concrete piles.

Norwalk Marine Contractors uses its Junttan rig (the first one in the U.S.), for SOE where the crew installed H-piles from Nucor Skyline for a new mixed-use development in Norwalk, CT.

Sargent is a subcontractor on what is reported to be the first dam removal in international waters. In addition to assisting with demolition, its crew is installing a cofferdam to facilitate restoration of 10 miles of the St. Croix River, which defines the Maine (US)/New Brunswick (Can.) border.

SJ Hamill Construction is mobilized at the Georgia/South Carolina state line where it is installing a cofferdam in the Savannah River for an expansion of the Georgia Ports Ocean Terminal.

Trevcon Construction is on campus at Fordham University where crews are building the new Waterfront Center, a facility to support the school's sailing and rowing programs, and the greater Bronx community.

Weeks Marine has a crew building a cofferdam in the Hudson River, one component for construction of a new rail tunnel, and part of an infrastructure investment program modernizing connectivity between New York and New Jersey. A video of pile installation shows an APE vibro in action.

COWI wins the bid from the City of Berkeley, CA, to provide engineering services in the transformation of a municipal pier into a dual-purpose structure that will accommodate ferry access and recreation.

Gerhart Cole has a team working to retrofit the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, UT; in addition to pursuing seismic upgrades and resiliency advancements, they toured the GSA administrator around the facility. Terracon is also among the many stakeholders on this project.

Shannon & Wilson provided geotechnical and hydrogeological engineering services for the construction of a new, publicly funded port in Whittier, AK. CRW Engineering Group was also part of the design/build team. KTUU-TV covered the opening of the new facility that will serve tourists arriving in the state via cruise ship.

Notes From the Field

A future home to the Final Four? It probably wouldn't meet NCAA capacity requirements, and the ballers at The Walsh Group wouldn't want to share anyway! The Chicago offices for the contractor feature a full-size basketball court, which stays busy with lunchtime workouts, after-hours pick-up games and company tournaments. Senior estimator Ken Gollon says it shows a commitment from Walsh to offer a fitness option and work/play balance it's one of the reasons he took the job!

Summer '24 interns at Walsh flash the company hand signal from half-court in the Chicago offices

B'More Boppers may be a recognizable name to baseball card enthusiasts. It's been an occasional, special depiction of the Baltimore Orioles MLB team. And if you're a fan of the Birds, keep your gear handy for October since they snagged a postseason berth! Dissen & Juhn Company held a company outing at a game in late September, and possibly got to see the next national champs in some pre-playoff action.

Have you checked a job site with Google Earth? Kena Yoke of Island Piling was at the computer and wanted to check on a beachfront, residential project in Naples, FL. She was surprised by the "street view" function on the almighty search engine focused on imagery of her cranes towering over 565 recently installed PSC piles.

Give 'em NIL royalties! We can't comment on the performance of the carbon fiber hard hats, but we will advocate that the C.J. Mahan Construction Company crew on the Cave Run Lake project, east of Lexington, KY, get a few dead presidents for lending their image/likeness to the PPE supplier.

Thanks to several of the companies and individuals featured in this October edition of APON for submitting and clarifying the entries you've just read. It's a lot harder when we have to make up this content (JK). Remember, you have an open invitation to submit news for PDCA to consider using in this publication and PileDriver magazine.

Time-sensitive ­ PLEASE update your company listing on your PDCA member account ASAP. We are gathering content for the 2025 PDCA Membership Directory this month and want to print the eventual hard copy publications you demand as completely and accurately as possible. Call PDCA if you need help accessing your account in the new member management system, The PDCA Connection.

A Pile of News: September 2024

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, Sept. 3

Top of the Pile

BREAKING: PDCA slashes costs  Thanks to August action from PDCA leadership, members may now add a company logo to their online listing at PDCA for free, the $50 charge was eliminated. (This price cut pertains only to online membership listings on the PDCA website.) Add your logo to display in The PDCA Connection, PDCA's new member search and management system.

• IMPORTANT: it is time to login and modify your account. Adjust your named company reps and update any new contact information. If you need help, call PDCA at (904) 215-4771. Changes are due ASAP and will reflect in your listing in the 2025 Membership Directory.

More FREE regional receptions this fall: PDCA continues its work to grow into markets with concentrations of driven pile activity, recently visiting Minneapolis (see Blog entry, below). Upcoming FREE regional events include a Chicago reception (Sept. 10), Salt Lake City (Oct. 24), and another visit to coastal Virginia (location TBD, Nov. 21). See Calendars section, below.

All the News that's Fit to Print...that's not us. If it was, we would have announced the 2024 Project of the Year winners in the August newsletter. But even though you've already read the special edition of PileDriver magazine, which revealed and detailed all winning projects, we want to give shout-outs, by name, to the member companies who won their categories:

• Land: $1M-$5M  Foundation
• Land: More than $5M  Cajun Industries, LLC
• Marine: Less than $5M  Power Engineering Construction
• Marine: More than $5M  Sealevel Construction
• Earth Retention: Less than $5M  East Coast Marine Construction & Design
• Earth Retention: More than $5M  Orion Marine Construction
• Associate/Engineering Affiliate  GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc.

From the Association & Chapters

Mark your calendars:

• Sept. 10: Windy City Wine Down, Renaissance Chicago O'Hare, Chicago, IL, 5:307:30 PM  Chicago piling professionals are invited to a FREE networking reception happening at the DICEP 2024 Opening Reception. Entry is free, registration is required. Non-members of PDCA are welcome.
• Sept. 1011: DICEP 2024, Renaissance Chicago O'Hare, Chicago, IL  Conference theme: Driven Pile Mega Projects, exhibitors/sponsors welcome!
• Sept. 17: Northeast Chapter Sporting Clays, Coplay, PA, 83 PM  Severe weather postponed this event, but here's another chance! Original registrants are secure on this new date. Enhance your participation by sponsoring a Shooting Station. See you at Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays.
• Sept. 24: Texas Chapter Golf Tournament, Mont Belvieu, TX  Second annual event open to singles, twosomes and foursomes. Sponsorships available, but they're going fast!
• Oct. 710: DFI Annual Conference, Aurora, CO  PDCA is a cooperating organization.
• Oct. 24: Mountain State Meet-Up, Salt Lake City, 5:307:30 PM  held in conjunction with EDPI
• Oct. 2324: Engineers Driven Pile Institute (EDPI), Doubletree, Downtown Salt Lake City, UT: Designed for mid-level engineers, 15 PDH available, sponsorship opportunities for benefactors.

From the piledrivers.org Blog:

• Gulf Coast Chapter met for the third quarter on Aug. 29 at the Golden Nugget Casino in Biloxi, MS. David Tomley of Gulf Coast Prestrees Partners was slated to present at the gathering.
• The Twin Cities Social attracted representatives of the pile driving industry in Minneapolis-St. Paul and beyond to an Aug. 22 regional networking reception. The social event at Fulton Taproom was the latest in a series of events designed to grow PDCA in important driven pile markets around North America. See who was SPOTTED.

Congratulations, GeoQuip, Inc, you are this month's winner! Send an email to marian@piledrivers.org before the end of the month to claim your prize!

News from PDCA Companies

Giving back:

• Bowen estimators and operators in Evansville, IN, participated in a charitable golf event to help IN/KY families with children facing life-threatening conditions. Matt Gentry was a co-chair.
• Kokosing co-ops volunteered to add amenities to the Ackerman Preserve greenspace in Federicktown, OH. It's a hot spot for local birdwatching, and thanks to construction crews, it now has two new sidewalks, picnic table slabs and three bench pads.
• McCarthy Building Companies treated its craft professionals on a San Diego convention center build to a ballgame between the home-team Padres and legacy powerhouse Yankees.
• Richard E. Pierson Construction and its charitable arm are holding a golf outing to support Woodstown, NJ, Agricultural Sciences and the local FFA. The event is Sept. 20 at Town & Country Golf Links in Woodstown. Tax deductible donations help fund a new Ag Education Center. Pierson Charities also cut two $2,500 checks to two summer interns, two others received AirPods.
• The Walsh Group was among sponsors of Camp buildHER in Seattle, an initiative providing girls in grades 710 with hands-on learning about construction careers. Brenna Moore presented.
• Thomas & Hutton held a fundraiser to support families impacted by flooding in Coastal Georgia where Tropical Storm Debby stalled during its march up the east coast. 

Government relations:

• Sealevel Construction joined Gov. Landry, the USACE and other leaders to break ground at the Houma Navigation Canal Lock Complex near Terrebonne, LA. The GC for the $320M project will install thousands of piles, including steel sheets, pipes, concrete and timber.
• Bull Moose Tube hosted U.S. Rep. Cloud in its newest, state-of-the-art steel mill in the south Texas community of Sinton. The lawmaker toured the facility and stood for photos with staff.
• Nucor had the unique opportunity to tour officials with the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and its International Trade Administration around some of its manufacturing facilities in North Carolina. In Nebraska, U.S. Rep. Flood visited the company's production operations in Norfolk.

Acquisitions & expansions:

• Orion consolidates corporate business units under one roof in Downtown Houston. At an August open house, HR organized a Sip and See to show off the new office complex.
• Hammer & Steel enters into partnership with Argonaut Private Equity, a Tulsa-based firm focused on formalizing involvement in growing infrastructure and manufacturing companies.
• Pile Dynamics, Inc. has secured a new partnership with TAQELL to help meet and manage growing demand for Pile Driving Analyzer (PDA) sales and tech support in the Middle East.
• GZA GeoEnvironmental adds the new Digital Technology Solutions business unit, providing strategic technology solutions including field sensor monitoring, drones/LiDAR, satellite InSAR, web applications and more. DTS recently created 3D models on a New Mexico dam.

Recognitions:

• Beard Construction Group reaches two decades in operation in Louisiana; the Baton Rouge Business Report published a feature story reflecting on the constructor's first 20 years.
• Dissen & Juhn Company built the Marina Dock Age magazine 2023 Marina of the Year. The Lighthouse Point Marina project in Baltimore Harbor involved demolition of old infrastructure and installation of new floating docks and other assets. Crews finished work 90 days early.
• Mason Construction received a courtesy visit from Ronnie Stockholm, owner of Indian Springs Campground in Kountze, TX, for whom crews donated piling and labor to build a new fishing pier for disabled veterans who frequent the venue. He presented Le Short with a certificate of appreciation and shared stories of the many Vets who have benefitted from Mason's generosity.
• Orion rang the bell at the NYSE in late August to mark 15 years as a publicly traded company.
• Eustis Engineering provided geotech exploration and design services for Louisiana projects that won "green shovel" awards from Area Development, celebrating clean energy initiatives. 
• Gerhart Cole designed large portions of the award-winning West Davis Highway Project for the Utah DOT. The firm also performed all dynamic pile testing for what Principal Brian Garrett, P.E., indicated was a "significant number of piles driven to support multiple bridges."

Anniversaries:

• PND Engineers, Inc. marked 45 years offering multidisciplinary services with the launch of a new website. Through this new resource, the firm highlights extensive work in waterfront, Arctic and coastal engineering, as well as its trademarked innovations like the OPEN CELL SHEET PILE systems and SWIM FIN pile. Check out the new digital digs at pndengineers.com. 

People on the Move

Transitions:

• Harold Baur rises to VP of pre-construction/project development at Boh Bros. Construction. He is a 25-year veteran at the legacy contractor in New Orleans, and a PDCA board member. Anthony Jacob fills Baur's former role leading the pile division. 
• Erick X. Torres is the newest addition to the Greensboro, NC, team at Sargent. A PM, he also served in the U.S. Army for 6.5 years, which included a nine-month tour in Afghanistan. Also, Albert Edward onboards with the NC team as safety specialist.
• Lacy Kiser has been named CAO at UES; read more about the appointment from Zweig Group.
• Jeffrey Price, a 31-year industry veteran, is the new Duluth, MN, manager for American Engineering Testing.
• Hannah Dorough onboards as marketing/proposal specialist at CRW Engineering in Alaska.
• Bruce Burgess, John Neukam are named associates in their respective, NJ and Maryland offices of Geo-Technology Associates, Inc.

Recognitions:

• Lance Bradley, a PDCA Safety Committee member and PileDriver author from Cajun Industries, LLC, has earned new safety certification, thanks to company support of continuing education. Also, Alex Rabalais, Christian Campbell and Kaleb Booher were among the 50+ employees from Cajun to participate in a Louisiana fishing rodeo. The three brought home five trophies.
• Peter G. Vigue began a career at CIANBRO as laborer in Maine 54 years ago, and became president/CEO through a rise that involved grit, vision, bravery and loyalty. The company prospered in his time. Now, he's honored with a named pushboat in Washington, DC's tidal basin.
• Whelden Graziano, a project engineer at D.A. Collins Companies in upstate New York, threw the winning "closest to the pin" shot at an industry disc golf tournament in Vermont.
• Kena Yoke, VP of Island Piling in Naples, FL, was chosen to open a professional development program for high school seniors dual-enrolled at Florida Gulf Coast University. She presented on networking, relationship building, communicating and serving the community.
• Cole Burden, P.E., at Pacific Pile & Marine in Seattle, earned a P.E. from the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying.
• Melanie Khouri, a project engineer at PRECO-MSE in Quebec, is on maternity leave, simultaneously with a colleague at a sister-company. The two are celebrated by management for exemplifying the delicate balance of motherhood and a construction career. It's possible!
• Noah Wills has won the votes of his colleagues at Aggregate Technologies, Inc.; he was named Employee of the Month in August.
• Amari Jones in Nucor corporate sustainability, participated in a United Nations discussion on decarbonizing the built environment, where she highlighted American-made steel.
• James Williams, P.E., of Eustis Engineering ascends to presidency at ASCE New Orleans.
• Domenic D'Argenzio is now a board-certified port engineer, the highest post-license in the field. He's a 35-year foundations professional at Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers in NYC.
• Pat DiCerbo a PDCA affiliated service member from Northwestern Mutual, finished another Ironman, the latest at Mont-Tremblant in Quebec. He respectably placed mid-pack.

On the Job

Blue Iron Foundation & Shoring was GC and installed company-owned steel sheet piling for the Ducks Unlimited fish screen replacement in Suisun City, CA. In New Orleans, a crew protects infrastructure through sheet pile placement along the 17th Street canal; it used a PVE Equipment USA 23 vibro.

Commerce Construction Corporation has tapped into the market reach of PDCA affiliated services member Heron Wolf to help fill a vacated business development manager role in New Jersey.

Geostructures teams were on campus at Virginia Commonwealth University to install piles for tower crane foundations. As not to disrupt classes, they mitigated noise through pile splicing, also selective hammer use.

Foundation released a case study summarizing multi-phased pile driving work at a commercial development in San Francisco called Mission Rock. It documents preparatory work where they considered factors such as hammer use and steel quantities. The end result was a project budget to be cut by more than 50%.

Kokosing crews work on a $225M park development in Toledo, OH, a public initiative to transform the historic Maumee River front land as a new cultural hub. ENR published an article and photos about it. We are told that between the new seawall, bridges and boardwalks, they are installing large numbers of HP and pipe piles from Nucor Skyline, also a significant quantity of JD Fields & Co. steel sheet pile.

Pile Drivers, Inc. shares a photo montage of several Charleston, SC residential developments its crews are founding, using a company-owned Junttan rig to install timber piling from Koppers. It's steady work in a region that local media reports as having a decade-long population boom.

Edgen Murray is a key contributor to the $9.5B project that aspires to transform infrastructure in SoCal. The supplier notes that its involvement has saved over $500K and met rigorous seismic standards for construction of the LA Metro Purple Line Extension. Adios to all the concrete on the LA Freeway.

JD Fields & Co. is on the construction roster revitalizing Old Florida A1A in historic St. Augustine. Partnering with the steel supplier is ASAP Group, which is installing 1,910 LF of Gerdau-manufactured, PZC-13 sheet piles that will contribute to shoreline and infrastructure protection.

Industry News

Weeks Marine and parent Kiewit tell us that they've received many messages from job seekers who were contacted about a job that they were required to pay to pursue. In this case, both companies say that they will never ask for money from potential hires and that communications would come from company URLs rather than apps.

Junttan reports from a wind farm development in northern Germany, where it is fielding a series of tests to determine the impacts its equipment has on the environment. It was collecting noise and vibration data during the installation of 126 piles driven with a Junttan PMx28 rig.

Notes From the Field

Senator Gold-Bars  An 89-foot gold pipe pile was installed for a seawall rehabilitation in Washington, DC, as recently reported on local TV news. Coincidentally, this was just days after a U.S. Senator under indictment for possessing several gold bars, alleged to be illegally acquired, resigned. These instances are not connected because the gold pile was identified as gold-painted steel. Relax, conspiracy theorists! CIANBRO drove the ceremonial pipe with a GeoQuip HPSI model 300XL as part of a National Park Service project groundbreaking.

Cocaine bear? At Yellowstone National Park, a team from Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction was working on a job site when someone spotted a brown bear roaming around the equipment. One would assume that any construction crew in the mountain west knows how to keep lunch pails secured from potential thieves.

Hydration won't be a problem when you travel with a cup like this. Southern Ontario's Atlas Tube Centre, a public recreation facility, had fans lining the street in August. No notable games were scheduled, but hockey enthusiasts hoped to meet a special guest  2024 NHL champion, Florida Panthers star and local hero Aaron Ekblad. Did we mention, he had the one and only Stanley Cup in tow? Atlas Tube helped coordinate the visit.

A death-defying, PDCA-adjacent angler  During tourney action, Wes Logan's outboard motor came loose on his bass boat, throwing him within the vessel. He is one of two Morris-Shea Bridge Co.-sponsored fishermen on the Bassmaster circuit. The "leash" on the motor is credited with saving his life. Rather than quit, he kept fishing and qualified to advance on the tour. Read how he describes the experience.

If you made it this far in the September A Pile of News, please go back and reread the top two sections, there's A LOT of urgent PDCA news for you to consider. Please take the time to visit your company's new member account and update it as you would like it to appear in the 2025 PDCA Membership Directory, a printed resource. Also, it is a very busy fall featuring plenty of PDCA educational and social activity. Make sure to register for those events you want to attend. We will keep you busy between football weekends! See you in October.