Top of the pile:

Your generosity through remittance of your 2026 annual dues to PDCA is overwhelming thank you for choosing to renew your membership this year. If you haven't renewed your membership for 2026, please do so today.

As a PDCA member in good standing, you are eligible to enter the 2026 Project of the Year Awards at no cost, attend the April Engineers Driven Pile Institute and July's Annual Conference at reduced rates, obtain FREE virtual education (PDH when applicable) through the Value Driven Webinar Series, and vote in PDCA elections in November, to name a few benefits. Members get the 2026 Membership Directory this month, and are featured in the latest PileDriver magazine. Not a member? Join PDCA to advance the driven pile industry.

Growth is a key 2026 objectiveof the PDCA Board of Directors, as laid out during annual planning in January. This month, PDCA hosts a FREE industry reception in northeastern Ohio for members and non-members. Attend the Buckeye State Blitz on Feb. 19! It's the first 2026 outreach event, following past visits to important markets like Chicago, Baltimore, Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle, Norfolk and more.

From the Association & Chapters

Mark your calendars:

• Feb. 2 (TODAY!): PDCA 2026 Annual Conference Registration Opens Start planning your July 79 visit to Four Seasons Orlando Walt Disney World Resort.
• Feb. 12: Value Driven Webinar Series, virtual, 2 PM EST. Learn how press-in machinery mitigated low headroom for pipe pile installation. Up to one PDH. Michael Carter, P.E. of Blue Iron Foundations, Ian Vaz of Giken present.
• Feb 19: Buckeye State Blitz regional reception, Broadview Heights, OH. Attend this FREE happy hour at Wild Eagle Steak & Saloon to relax with industry peers and learn more about PDCA. Members and non-members are welcome.
• Feb. 26: Northeast Chapter Professional Development Course, Howell, NJ. Attendees earn up to six PDH at this annual educational event in the conference room of host George Harms Construction. FREE to chapter members.
• March 37: CONEXPO-CON/AGG, Las Vegas, NV. PDCA partners at triennial construction event/trade show, happening in multiple locations along the Strip.
• March 5: S.C. Chapter Driven Pile Technical Seminar, Charleston.
• March 1112: Gulf Coast Chapter Engineers Conference, Baton Rouge, LA. Crawfish Boil at Tiger's Trail Wed. evening. Sessions at L'Auberge Casino & Hotel run 8 AM to 4 PM Thurs. Up to seven PDH available, one hour of Ethics.
• April 10: 2026 PDCA Project of the Year Awards entries DUE By close of business submit your projects via e-file for consideration.

From the PDCA Blog:

• It's earned legendary status as a top industry event. But the South Carolina Chapter Oyster Roast reached new heights in its 20th year. Guest photographer Janet King captured still and drone photography. See who was there.
• If you attended a recent PDCA event like the Driven Pile Academy, DICEP or Strategic Planning, you may have noticed PDCA staffer Kathy Harper's long hair. It's gone now. Read about her act of kindness.
• The new PDCA Board met in January for the Strategic Planning Meeting. As is tradition, past president Buck Darling passed the gavel to new president Chris Normand. See what the board addressed during the two-day gathering.
• He had us at 70K subscribers. PDCA member Casey Jones of Foundation Testing & Consulting delivers industry content on his YouTube channel. Watch a recent episode, which takes a historical look at the world's oldest profession.
• IFCEE 2027: Three PDCA members are on the Technical Program Committee for the International Foundations Congress and Equipment Expo (IFCEE). Bradford Roberts, Chad Held and Greg Canivan are helping formulate programming. Abstracts due March 25. Also, see IFCEE Exhibitor Prospectus.

News from PDCA Companies

Acquisitions & expansions:

• D.A. Collins Family of Companies forms Array Foundation Services through purchase of the Skaneateles, NY, company that provides subsurface and specialty infrastructure services in the region.
• McCarthy Building Co. strengthens its Georgia presence, which dates back to the 1970s. Complementing its 20-year-old Atlanta office, it opened a Savannah branch last fall, signifying its commitment to coastal and infrastructure markets.
• ARG Industrial forged a new tech partnership to offer customers Hose Builder, an intuitive program enabling your customized hose order.
• Bell Lumber and Pole Co. introduces the Bell Diversified System, a program that optimizes supply chain reliability for its timber product lines.
• Hammer & Steel, Inc. announced it has partnered with Movax in 2026, making its foundation equipment available in the St. Louis-based supplier's portfolio.
• Junttan promotes performance and user-centric design in its new Evolution series PM5 pile driving rig; it sent the first one to a customer in the Netherlands.
• Geo-Technology Associates, Inc.enhances its Ohio footprint with the addition of a Columbus office. Jacob Fryer is the branch manager in Dublin.

Recognitions: 

• GROUP Contractors brought home a pair of awards from ABC in Baton Rouge, celebrating it's commitment to safety and excellence. Two more awards came from ABC in New Orleans, including Bayou Project of the Year.
• Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Co. is publicly celebrated by NAVFAC Pacific for completing nearly half of the Pearl Harbor Shipyard Project in 2025.
• Omega Foundation Services of Lafayette, LA, notches a second consecutive ABC STEP award, recognizing the contractor's safety practices.
• Richard E. Pierson Construction appears in Monmouth County (NJ) News for helping salvage bridge demo materials to repurpose as a new fishing reef.
• DP Concrete Products (Dunham Price) salutes its logistics team, which loaded and shipped nearly 17K tons of PSC in less than two weeks in December.
• GEOKON crunched 2025 numbers and found its instrumentation shipped to infrastructure, geotechnical, and research customers in more than 75 countries.

Governmental relations:

• Nucor continues receiving high-profile visitors to its $3.1B steel sheet mill in Mason County, WV. U.S. Sen. Justice checked its progress last month.
• Nucor EVP Ben Pickett addressed the State of Steel hearing of the Congressional Steel Caucus in January, where he told the panel chaired by U.S. Rep. Crawford (AR) that "global overcapacity...remains an existential threat."
• Dewberry scientist David Nowak writes in Constructioneer magazine how decarbonization goals of Local Law 97 in NYC impact contractors.

Giving back:

• Cajun Industries hosted students from East Feliciana High School in Jackson, LA, for a tour of its fabrication operations, exposing them to new career options.
• Mason Construction staff attended the opening of Baptist Hospital of Southeast Texas Cancer Network in Beaumont, TX, made possible through generous help from the late Chuck Mason's family. Son Chad Mason spoke.

Transitions:

• Mike Terrell spent 39 of his 50-year construction career at Scott Bridge Company. While he formally retired as SVP on Jan. 1, its not a clean departure; he expects to keep showing up at the Opelika, AL, office until they kick him out!
• David Hyland was guest of honor as Equipment Corporation of America staff gathered for dinner in Pittsburgh to celebrate the retiring VP of operations.
• Daraius Tata retired from Hammer & Steel, Inc., after 22 years as the equipment supplier's West Coast manager.
• Jake Reichert rises to SVP at Cajun Industries, where he's been 18+ years.
• Larry Grogg retired after 37 years from Kokosing in Ohio.
• Lucian Spiteri, P.E., elevates to VP, Pre-Construction at Keller in New Jersey. Also, Paul Quinteros becomes assistant project manager in Texas.
• Calvin Silva rises to Houston-based VP, Business Development at McCarthy.
• Daniel Garza is a new PE at Orion in Houston; admin Alana LaQuay retired after 42 years.
• Andrew Leftridge joins Sargent Mid-Atlantic region as a superintendent.
• John Bomer appointed new QC manager at John Lawrie Tubulars in Houston; Jarod Smith joins the inside sales team.
• Casey Lowe is the new account manager for the PVE USA Gulf Coast Division. His background is in foundation work, as well as five years in the USMC.
• Chris dePascale, P.E., and Joseph Goetz, P.E., earn promotion to VP at Dewberry HQ in Fairfax, VA. Also, Andy Kioko, P.E., becomes SVP and Maggie Jolly is a new entry-level civil engineer.
• Kim Armstrong, P.E., onboards as project manager at H&H in Boston; also, Dana Hecht joins the firm in New York City as director of program delivery.
• Jason Reeves, P.E., and Brian Vaughan, P.E., each elevate to VP at S&ME.
• Siphay Douangvilay, P.E., is a new senior associate in Nashville for Schnabel Engineering; he is a specialist in soil-structure interaction analysis and SOE.

Recognitions:

• Anthony Beneditto, Chad Guidry, Barry Gandy, Will Higginbotham, all drivers at APC Construction in New Orleans, earn defensive driving honors.
• Leonard Parquet, Jr. reaches 40 years at Boh Bros. Construction Co. Other notable milestones at the legacy New Orleans builder: Anthony McCallef,Dawn Pomes mark 35 years, and Corey Slavich, Joseph Smith III hit 30.
• Kelli Struett was project manager of the year at AGC Washington, which honored her Manson Construction team for a ship canal gate replacement.
• Kirsten Kirbow, HR/safety manager at Alfred Miller Companies in Lake Charles, LA, earned certification from NCCER in four safety categories.
• Leroy Ball, CEO at Koppers, Inc., makes Pittsburgh Times' Power 100 list.
• Chad Arpe, a precast concrete proponent and director at Locke Solutions in Houston, appeared on The Blueprint Podcast, a show for constructors.
• Robert Griggs, president/founder of Trinity Products in St. Louis, is in the Class of 2026 Inductees to the Missouri Manufacturers Hall of Fame. Also,
• Henry Lucas, founder of ECS Group of Companies, is among the six newest inductees to the NC State Hall of Fame for civil engineering alumni.
• Megan Young, P.E., from H&H is the WTS New York Member of the Year.
• William Bruin, principal at SGH in California, engaged students at Santa Clara University in a discussion about his path and practice in marine engineering.
• Dave Baska, a Terracon consultant, is noted for expertise in seismic hazard, liquefaction analyses, soil-structure interaction and structural design. ENR West named him the 2026 Legacy Award Winner.
• Don Warrington from Tennessee's Lee University, shares a documented history about The First Instrumented Pile.

On the Job

Blue Iron Foundations & Shoring used a PVE USA VMA pile driver to install sheet piling for a levee gate at Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Northern California.

Callan Marine drove steel piling as part of its replacement of the Padre Island's Bob Hall Pier in South Texas. A February grand opening is expected.

Hal Jones Contractor crews installed 700 LF of steel sheet piling from Nucor Skylineusing an ICE vibro for the new Shipyards Marina in Jacksonville, FL, part of a waterfront transformation.

Island Piling manufactured and drove 224 sixteen-foot by 22-inch PSC piles using its PileMaster 5000 air hammer for a new home in Naples, FL. UES was the geotech of record for the builder, London Bay Homes.

GeoQuip, Inc. provided diesel and vibratory hammers for PSC installation to finish ahead of schedule for the new North Carolina bridge. Local TV shows jobsite video.

Meever USA supplied steel sheet piling, pipe, HP, and more for construction of a new 680-foot, $3.2M bulkhead for Gulf Ship in Coastal Mississippi. Funding was secured through grants and the Restore Act. Harrison County officials show off the new asset.

MKT Equipment, Inc. rented a V5ESC vibro to a Nebraska customer who wanted on-site training. The manufacturer happily complied, despite frigid conditions.

Peirce Engineering designed a cofferdam for construction of a new, Philadelphia apartment complex. Installers drove Nucor Skyline sheet piling with ICE machinery.

S&MEperformed a variety of services such as geotechnical exploration to construction materials testing, and more for the new Steven Bell Hall at UNC Chapel Hill.

UBC Pile Drivers and Divers celebrate pile drivers getting back to work, in light of recent court decisions enabling of offshore wind farm construction to resume.

See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns  It's a love story in time for Valentine's Day. Ali Momin, a project engineer at McCarthy says his first project for the company in 2023 was the Ismaili Center Houston. It was personally important to him because of his heritage. In December 2025, he was married in the same building his McCarthy team built, and proudly shares the wedding photos.

Son of a gun... they made the jumbotron...on the bayou. DP Concrete Products lit up on the McNeese State University basketball scoreboard. Staff chefs Eric Hebert, Mike Portus, Rico Sarvaunt, and Joey Ardoin created the company entry that won the Jambalaya Cook-Off, part of a Lake Charles, LA, Cajun Heritage Day event. Unfortunately, they don't share the recipe.

The picture kept will remind me  Your workplace can be exciting for your young child. Greg Belpomme brought his daughter to his construction staffing firm, Heron Wolf. During her visit, she rearranged his desk and spilled on his keyboard. But her influence didn't hinder his NYC construction jobs report.

R.O.C.K. in the USA  As the nation's 250th birthday nears, CIANBRO is fortifying and beautifying America's Front Yard, the Washington, DC Tidal Basin. Crews working along the Potomac River finish seawall/shoreline rehabilitation, installing piling from Consolidated Pipe & Supply with a company-owned PILECO diesel hammer. The goal is to finish in time for the July 4th celebration.

We leave you with a suggestion for R&D teams who strive to optimize pile driving equipment; build a rig and call it the 'Mendoza'. The work the Hoosier QB did on a 4th and 5 in the fourth quarter of the national championship capped off one of football's greatest-ever drives. (B1G > ACC...and SEC.)

Thanks for reading, we will see you back here on March 2.