The 25th Design and Installation of Cost-Efficient Piles (DICEP) Conference took place September 10-11, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois, with a focus on Deep Foundations, Earth Retention, and the Benefits of the Driven Pile, as well as the theme "Driven Pile Mega Projects".
An optional, half-day short course promptly began early on Tuesday, Sept. 10. The four-hour technical presentation carried the title: Quality Control and Quality Assurance of Driven Piles Foundations and Steel Sheet Walls with Travis Coleman, PE, GRL Engineers, Inc. and Gerry McShane, Service Steel Warehouse providing insights on QA/QC for sheet pile installations.
The program began in earnest Tuesday afternoon with opening remarks followed by a panel discussion and several subject matter presentations. Here are the various topics addressed during DICEP 2024:
- Pile Driving Design & Operation Challenges in Mega Projects Panel Discussion
- Cantilevered Sheet Pile Walls Comparison of Design Methods by John J. Peirce, Jr., P.E., BC.GE, Peirce Engineering, Inc.
- Subsurface Pile Driving Induced Ground Motions, A Review; and Implications for Volumetric Change of Saturated Sands by Chuck Dowding, PhD, Northwestern University
- Safe Working Platforms An Overview for Driven and Drilled Foundations by Terry Holman, PhD, PE, Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.
- Designing Durability into Steel Sheet Piling Structures by Gerry McShane, Service Steel Warehouse
- Automated Pile Driving Data Collection on INDOT Bridges by Mir A. Zaheer, P.E., Manager Geotechnical Consultant, IN DOT
- Driving Excellence: Cajun Industries' PLNG Driven Pile Mega Project by Jimmy Nettles, Senior Project Manager and Jordan Romero, Project Manager, at Cajun Industries, LLC
- Understanding Reliability in Driven Pile Design for Transportation Structures by Silas Nichols, PE, FHWA
- Deep Foundations Comparison: Driven vs Drilled by Michael Wysockey, PhD, PE, Thatcher Foundations
- Soil / Pile Set Up in Driven Pile Foundation Design & Installation by Van E. Komurka, P.E., GRL Engineers, Inc.
- Driven Pile Foundations for Design-Build Bridge Project Success by Ken Gollon, Walsh Construction
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The Windy City Wine Down was the name of the DICEP 2024 Exhibit Hall reception which took place on Tuesday evening. In addition to attendees at the technical conference, PDCA invited practitioners in the Chicagoland pile driving industry to attend the two-hour networking social at no cost. This brought DICEP 2024 exhibitors additional deep foundations professionals before the products they were representing at the conference. Also, it gave non-members of PDCA an opportunity to learn more about the organization through attendance at an important industry event. See who was SPOTTED at the Windy City Wine Down:
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