(L): PDCA Events Manager Kathy Harper and Gulf Coast Chapter President Dylen Andre; (R) Gulf Coast Chapter Secretary Heath Stevens

 

After being elected President of the PDCA Gulf Coast Chapter late last year, Dylan André said the new leadership would 'spice things up' for 2023 events. Making good on his promise, André tells PDCA that the Chapter is moving the traditional first quarterly meeting from a private dining space in Kenner, LA, to Topgolf in Baton Rouge, LA. On March 2, 2023, Gulf Coast Chapter members will gather there for a business meeting and social outing. Watch your inbox for registration and additional details about this event. 

Welcome Heath! The first quarterly meeting of the Gulf Coast Chapter gives Secretary Heath Stevens his debut in leadership. He was elected to the position by the membership which entrusts him with certain duties such as maintaining a careful record of Chapter business proceedings. 

Sec. Stevens' Meeting Minutes will establish Topgolf as a business meeting venue; someone send Kelly Clarkson the memo.

Following the March 2nd gathering at TopGolf, André said the Chapter will release the remaining dates for its 2023 events. Those will include three additional quarterly meetings and a new Sporting Clay Shoot, which becomes an annual event rather than an outing that occurs every other year. Watch your inbox and check back here regularly for more information on upcoming events in the PDCA Chapters.

The PDCA South Carolina Chapter encourages interested parties to consider the following invitation from The Citadel Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for the 2023 ASCE Carolinas Conference, coming to Charleston, SC in April.

Please see the following letter from Dr. Timothy W. Mays, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, and direct any questions to his office:

2023 ASCE Carolinas Conference Our students and faculty have been planning the 2023 ASCE Carolinas Conference since the beginning of 2022. Our website Carolinas Hosted by The Citadel (asce.org) is already up and running, and we are excited about bringing everyone to campus and James Island County Park from April 13-15, 2023. It may sound like a long way off, but we meet weekly to ensure a well-run event that is remembered by everyone involved. We are reaching out to you now for help and financial support that will allow us to reach our goals! Linked to this email are two documents. One is a detailed description of the event for those that are not familiar with this annual competition among schools in the Carolinas. The second is a letter from the students requesting your help with a form you can easily fill out and send back to us. 2023 Carolinas Conference Overview 2023 Carolinas Conference Sponsorship Letter & Form Right now we are looking for the following: Donations - we are excited to offer new levels of donations that are also beneficial to your company. Our highest tiers allow you to "Sponsor" a specific event where only your company will be displayed prominently at the location where the event is being held. We are limited to 10 events so if you want to do this, we have to make it first come first serve. We will recognize ALL DONORS in some fashion as described in the attachment but we will also have booths (for meeting students and other engineers from across the Carolinas) and speaking opportunities for those giving at the higher levels. Please reach out directly to Dr. Mays (timothy.mays@citadel.edu) if you have any questions regarding donations or if you want to reserve an event in your company's name! Judges - Although not binding, volunteering to serve as a judge early will allow us to have adequate plans and redundancy in place for day of event judging. Please have anyone from your company that is willing to serve as a judge email Dr. Mays (timothy.mays@citadel.edu). If a certain day or event is desired, please let us know in the email. The tentative schedule can be found here: Schedule Carolinas (asce.org). Thanks so much for your help with the 2023 Carolinas Conference! We look forward to hearing from you.   Timothy W. Mays, Ph.D., P.E. Professor timothy.mays@citadel.edu 843-813-6884 ‌

 

The PDCA Gulf Coast Chapter has new leadership, ready to hit the ground running, as the driven pile industry prepares for 2023. During its 4th Quarter Dinner Meeting held at Messina's in Kenner, LA on November 17th, Chapter Members elected the following team to serve as the voluntary, 2023 Chapter Board of Directors:

 

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Value Driven Webinar Series, On-Location in South Carolina

 
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.

The final installment of the Webinar Series is coming to you on December 8th and will feature a program on Steel Durability in Marine Construction. 

Contractors and engineers on the West Coast gained up to 3.5 PDH in November, thanks to a pair of technical seminars on which the PDCA Pacific Coast Chapter partnered to deliver. JD Fields & Company organized events in Huntington Beach, CA and Seattle, WA and filled each 4-hour time slot with a series of technical presentations from pile drivers and engineers who addressed various geotechnical challenges. Among the presenters were Blue Iron Foundation & Shoring, Geo Engineers, Inc., Fields, and others.

Dean Abbondanza (pictured, presenting), is Director of Engineering at JD Fields & Co. said that around 30 attendees participated in each, no-cost seminar. He continued that such events have been productive this year and that the steel manufacturer plans to continue offering regional seminars in 2023.

(L-R) Elizabeth Kinsella, Zachary Lindsay

Oakley, CA: PDCA Pacific Coast Chapter President Dermot Fallon announces that six students in California who are pursuing higher education in a construction field and have demonstrated an interest in the pile driving industry, have each received a $2,000 award through the Chapter's annual scholarship fund. The 2022 recipients are:

Kristoffer Brown He is a senior at Chico State studying Business Management. He plays on the varsity soccer team and achieved the CCAA All-Academic Honors Award in 2020 and 2021. He has also made the Dean's List for three semesters. His uncle is a contractor and developer, and his aunt is an architect; he wishes to follow in their footsteps and pursue a career in construction.

Will Millette He will be a freshman at Colorado State University, studying Construction Management.    He attended Las Lomas High School and received the Varsity Soccer Coaches Award for demonstrating athletic growth, commitment and dedication to the program. He worked at Concord Iron Work Inc. for the summer.

Jensen Vieira He recently graduated from El Camino High School in Sacramento and will studying Engineering at University of Nevada in the fall. Jensen was the captain of the Varsity Volleyball Team and lead his team to win the Capital Athletic League Championship and secured a bid to play in the Nor Cal Playoffs. In academics, Jensen maintained a 3.5 GPA for all 4 years of high school. He also won the Mathematics Department Award for Excellence in AP Calculus.

 

(L-R) Robert Halupka, Kristoffer Brown

(L-R) Jensen Viaira, Will Millette

Elizabeth Kinsella She is a Mechanical Engineer major at UC San Diego. She has spent the last four summers volunteering in Colonet, Mexico providing impoverished families with safe and clean shelters with solar lighting for their small homes. She has learned a lot about construction planning and building these small homes. She received Honor Roll all 4 years of high school.

Zachary Lindsay He attended Freedom High School and then to Los Medanos College for two years.  He is now transferring to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to study Construction Management.

Robert Halupka He attended Bellarmine College Preparatory High School.  He is currently studying Civil Engineering at University of Portland.

Congratulations the six current students who aspire to be the future of the deep foundation construction industry!

(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.