A Pile of News - September 2020

 
 
A Pile of News: September 2020
A briefing on news and information from the pile driving contractors, associated manufacturers, construction suppliers and affiliated engineers who comprise the PDCA.
By Matt Bisbee, PDCA
From the Association & Chapters
Despite the challenges 2020 has presented, PDCA continues to provide a full slate of education and professional development opportunities, many in virtual format. Please plan to participate in these upcoming events:
 
Event: The PDCA 2020 Annual Conference Webinar Series, a five-part event offered through Zoom, continues September 2nd, and the first Wednesday each month through December. Registration is FREE to PDCA members; non-members' registration is $100 per session (ask about applying the registration to a new PDCA membership). Each of the following programs offers Professional Development Hours (PDH) credit:

Webinar Series #2 (click to register) Sept. 2, 2020 from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM EDT
Dedicated Pile Driving Certification Requirements by Toya Brown of NCCCO
Webinar Series #3 (click to register) Oct. 7, 2020 from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM EDT
Working Platforms Update and Panel Discussion by Peggy Hagerty Duffy and Terry Holman, ADSC; Gerald Verbeek of Allnamics USA moderates panel comprised of PDCA, ADSC and DFI members)
Webinar Series #4 Nov. 4, 2020 from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM EDT
You Stopped Getting Paid, Now What? by Ryan Maloney, Esq. of Jimmerson Birr
Webinar Series #5 Dec. 2, 2020 from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM EST
Tilting at Windmills: Don Quixote Meets the International Building Code by Dale Biggers of Boh Brothers Construction
 
Event: Virtual DICEP 2020 takes place Sept. 16-17 and again Sept. 23-24, from 3:00 to 5:00 PM (EDT) each day. Courses will focus on Steel Sheet Pile and Wave Equation. Up to 7.5 PDH available.
 
Event: At this time, Deep Foundations Dynamic Testing & Analysis (DFDTA) is scheduled as a live event coming Nov. 11-13 in Orlando, FL. It is in partnership with PDI, Inc. Early bird rates available until Oct. 16. Special thanks to ASCE-Florida Section, Florida Marine Contractors Association and Florida Transportation Builders Association for marketing support.
 
Read: Watch for the next PileDriver magazine, commemorating the 25th anniversary of PDCA! It features new and unique content including technical analyses, nostalgic conversations and a recently unearthed time capsule.
 
Welcome: Meet new PDCA committee chairs: Rick Kalson, Esq. of the Contracts & Risk Committee and Chris Normand, P.E. of the Safety & Environmental Committee.
 
Join: Sept. 30 is the deadline for your company to be included in the 2021 PDCA Membership Directory, a critical industry reference book. If you are not already a member, join PDCA today; click here to enroll online and ensure your directory listing.
 
Congress: An extension of the current surface transportation law by September 30th may be the last option to continue road and bridge projects in the U.S. Many insiders point to the health crisis as thwarting hopes of a bipartisan reauthorization in 2020.

Help: September is Suicide Prevention Month; PDCA joins with the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention to raise awareness of the issue and hopefully help companies avoid a tragedy. Learn what steps you can take in your workplace.
News from PDCA Companies
Recognitions:  
Expansions:
 
Anniversaries:
  • Marking 50 years in the U.S., Liebherr USA unveils a new headquarters. Take a virtual tour of the Newport News, VA facility signifying the company's "long-term focus," according to director Torben Reher.

Governmental relations:
  • U.S. Reps. John Katko (NY) and Joe Wilson (SC) lauded Nucor operations in their respective states during an International Trade Commission hearing where company designee Don Barney advocated keeping trade remedies on some steel imports.
  • Elsewhere, Indiana Congressmen Jim Banks, Drew Ferguson tour Nucor facility in The Hoosier State.
  • Also, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts names Nucor a recipient of a Developing Youth Talent Initiative grant to introduce manufacturing, engineering careers to students.
  • Eustis Engineering gets a nod from Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards in a proclamation commencing construction on the Bayou Chene floodgate structure.
  • Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan spoke at the virtual graduation of Clark Construction's unique, 2020 Strategic Partnership Program, a program for commercial construction and engineering businesses in seven U.S. cities.
  • Local officials recognize two projects of Thibodeaux, LA-based Sealevel Construction; a lock improvement with 290 timber piles and a flood mitigation job

Scanning other media:
  • The Manitowoc Herald-Times quotes Erich Pitz in a story about Wisconsin's maritime history. Through their work in and around Lake Michigan, McMullen & Pitz Construction has preserved key marine artifacts and prominently display them on company grounds and at nearby public spaces.
  • Engineering News Record details the foundation construction on a Brooklyn, NY building poised to become the Big Apple's tallest building outside Manhattan; Linde Griffith performs the construction with Nucor steel. (h/t Buck Darling)
  • Dixie Contractor magazine examines the Georgia DOT I-85 expansion; among firms credited for involvement in the massive effort is Infrastructure Consulting & Engineering of Columbia, SC.
  • 11 KTVA-TV, Anchorage updates progress on a new terminal at the Port of Alaska. Among the contractors involved the construction is award-winning Pacific Pile & Marine of Seattle.

More News:
It could buy me a boat Blakeslee Arpaia Chapman brought the "stage" for the fourth annual Charles Island Music Festival. They dusted off a spare barge and pushed it into Long Island Sound. The time, labor and resources from the Branfield, CT contractor helped the organization raise $10K for Yale New Haven Children's Hospital while music fans on 500 socially distanced boats enjoyed a daylong concert.

Frontline Heroes In its company publication The Boh Picture, Boh Bros. Construction of New Orleans features a touching tribute to COVID-19 first responders who have family connections to the company.
 

September means back to school Not every student physically returns to a campus, but a Foundation Constructors, Inc. crew from Oakley, CA was spotted diligently working in an outdoor lab at Sonoma State University as they performed a compression test on a grout-injected pile.

Not a summer vacation A crew from Koppers put in long (and hot) hours this summer to rebuild a 500-foot-long rail bridge after the previous one spanning the Kansas-Oklahoma border burned down.

Just another cog in the wheel There's an improved supply chain for U.S.-produced oil leaving Texas; Orion Marine Group assisted in the construction of the newly completed Port of Corpus Christi Gateway Terminal.
 
Floral piles...what? Coming spring '21, Little Island at Pier 55 in New York City. Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers performed extensive geotech and marine engineering services to preserve the bulkhead built in the 1890's and designed the concrete piles that look like "tulip pots," which form a unique, elevated park space.
People on the Move
The monthly round-up
  • Leading off, John King makes it a "dirty thirty" at Piledrivers, Inc. in Charleston, SC congratulations on the 'workiversary' to the esteemed PDCA past president!
  • Elsewhere, Orival Thompson, a retired Florida highway patrolman, joins Balfour Beatty as USDOT compliance manager.
  • Steve Henderson is the new director of operations at Cajun Industries, Houston.
  • Dr. Jussara Tanesi joins the Saint Paul, MN office of American Engineering Testing, Inc.
  • John Magnavita named office manager in West Palm Beach at ECS Florida, replacing Corey Nees who transitions to the same role in Baton Rouge; Jason Adams joins the firm's Sunshine State offices.
  • L. Inman Hodges Jr. named to Savannah-based EMC Engineering Services' board of directors.
  • Sean Walsh promoted to engineering manager at New Orleans-based Eustis Engineering. Also, senior inspector John Oubre retires after 29 years, which included missing vacations and working on his 25th wedding anniversary.
  • Neil Churman named senior vice president at TRC Companies' Houston office.
  • Tiffany Harrod, shareholder at Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr PC, becomes the new chair of the Houston Bar Association Construction Law Section.

Safety first:
Tracie Bergeron and Jake Woods, both of Patriot Construction and Industrial in Duson, LA, are recognized for their ongoing commitment to workplace safety.
 
Jonathan Perou, a crane operator at Sealevel Construction Inc., wins a company poster contest focused on workplace safety. Click here to see his work.

While Aggregate Technologies of Houston received recognition for safety practices, employees Chris Mitchell and Ronnie Thompson, who are veterans, were saluted for their military service.
 
Reading, writing and arithmetic:
Scott Webster of GRL Engineers and a PDCA Executive Committee member co-authored Driveability Analysis Techniques for Offshore Pile Installations with GRL colleague Brent Robinson.
 
Bill Camp of S&ME dispels a preconceived notion about the occurrence of earthquakes in his published article, Earthquake Engineering: How to Design for Earthquakes.
 
Other notes of interest:
Dave Mahoney, executive VP at Dewberry in Fairfax, VA, is appointed to the Construction Industry Round Table's (CIRT) Board of Directors.

Laura Register of Terracon is named the Engineer of the Year by the Nashville Business Journal.
 
Nathan Scalla of Clark Construction, a lymphoma cancer survivor himself, is the 2020 Leukemia & Lymphoma Society National Capitol Area Man of the Year.
  
The future looks bright:
Sara Fayek is awarded the Shannon & Wilson Inc. Richard Frueh Memorial Scholarship to continue her graduate work at Missouri S&T.

Mike Juneau at Premier Geotech and Testing shows students that tests can be fun.

Dermot Fallon of Foundation Constructors is committee chair for the 43rd Annual Construction Industry Boy Scout Lunch-O-Ree; an Eagle Scout himself, he invites your support of the event benefiting Scouts in the San Francisco Bay Area.
 
Babies!
Congratulations to Cecil D. Gassiott, LLC employees Clay and Amy Langston on your baby boy, also Kelly and Lizzy Thompson on your baby girl! What's in the water there? Elsewhere, Panu at Junttan welcomes a baby girl.
 
Condolences:
PDCA sends its deepest sympathies to the family of Mary-Alice Zepeda in Houston. She was a joy to co-workers at Lodge Lumber. A GoFundMe supports her surviving family.
Random notes from the field
The secret of their success "A good contractor is only as good as his/her truck," said no one, ever... except maybe the salesman at this Portland, ME truck dealership who proudly advertises that they have created a "purpose built beast" for H.B. Fleming, Inc.
 
Flotilla for science Someone warn this Universal Engineering Sciences crew to watch for raucous, political boat rallies when drilling pilot holes for a future bridge connecting Tampa and St. Pete. Happy Election Season!

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take ECS Limited principal Alexis Herr authored the proposal for a comprehensive facility upgrade to Hogwarts beginning with ground penetrating radar, up to roof consulting. While still awaiting an agreement, the proposal to the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, made famous by J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series, has no expiration.
 
Quotable: "The more we work together to build up our industry, the better it is for everyone." Mike Moeller of Atlas Foundation Company in Osseo, MN in PileDriver magazine. We couldn't say it better!
Thanks for reading 2020's ninth installment of A Pile of News; please keep sending and posting your company announcements. And don't forget to include #PDCADriven on your social media, you might be randomly selected to win PDCA logo merchandise from The PDCA Store.
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