Member Registration Options & Fees

Attendee: $1,350

Academic or Government: $500

Student: Complimentary

Guest: Additional Attendee: Same rate as registrant

Non-Member Registration Options & Fees

Attendee: $2,025

Guest: Additional Attendee: Same rate as registrant

GUEST Options & Fees

Guest registration fee includes access to the PDCA Exhibit Hall, as well as breakfasts and receptions on the schedule.

Spouse: $450
Child: $450

Enjoy a gift delivered directly to your room at the Four Seasons from our "Fast Pass to Fun" sponsor, Liebherr. This gift can be used during your stay at the Four Seasons, any of Orlando's exciting attractions & theme parks,
and even back home! 

 

 

PDCA 13th Annual Golf Tournament

PDCA's 13th Annual Golf Tournament will take place on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, at the Cypress Course at Evermore Resort. The Cypress Course has earned wide acclaim since its grand opening in 2021 as one of the region's most meticulously designed layouts and is a must-play for any Orlando golfer. This Parkland-style course marries lush tropical landscapes with strategic architectural challenge, providing a golfing experience unmatched in central Florida.

 

 

Short Course: Quality Control and Quality Assurance of Driven Piles Foundations and Steel Sheet Walls      

Mohamad Hussein, GRL Engineers, Inc.
Gerry McShane, Service Steel Warehouse 

Driven piles are often the most suitable deep foundations to support all types of structures in all kinds of geotechnical conditions. Pile driving is a self-assuring method of foundations construction; the process itself makes each-and-every pile a "tested" product. Design, driving, and testing/inspections constitute the three main parts of a piling project.  This course provides an overview of common methods of QA/QC for driven foundations piles and steel sheet walls.  It includes discussions on factors to consider during the design phase of a project and during installations, and provides some perspectives on the value of testing, inspections, and QA/QC from design and construction points of view. The benefits of good practices and well-planned and well-executed QA/QC programs on the design and construction for more cost effective, efficient, and reliable deep foundations and steel sheet walls will be discussed by recognized experts. 

1:00 - 1:10 PM                  Course Introduction 
1:10 - 2:00 PM                  Pile and Hammer Types 
2:00 - 2:20 PM                  Pile Driving Inspection 
2:20 - 3:00 PM                  Steel Sheet Piles: Best Construction Practices 
3:00 - 3:15 PM                  Break 
3:15 - 4:00 PM                  Steel Sheet Piles: Durability by Design  
4:00 - 5:00 PM                  Static and Dynamic Pile Testing 
5:00 - 5:30 PM                  Development of Pile Driving Criteria 

Short Course attendees are eligible for 4.0 Professional Development Hours. Registration for the PDCA Annual Conference is not required to attend the Short Course but is encouraged.

 

Individuals that will attend the Short Course and the PDCA Annual Conference, please click the Attendee Registration button above.

Individuals that will attend the Short Course Only, please click the Short Course Registration button below.

 

short course Registration Fees

PDCA Member: $150

Non-Member: $225

 

opening welcome reception - king meadow lawn

Kick off the PDCA 26th Annual Conference & Expo with an unforgettable evening of networking, conversation, and camaraderie at the beautiful King Meadow Lawn. Set against the backdrop of the Four Seasons Orlando Resort at Walt Disney World® Resort, the Opening Reception provides the perfect opportunity to reconnect with industry colleagues, meet new attendees, and begin building valuable relationships that will continue throughout the conference.

Enjoy delicious food, refreshing beverages, and a relaxed outdoor atmosphere while celebrating the start of three exciting days dedicated to education, innovation, and collaboration. Whether you are a first-time attendee or a longtime PDCA member, the Opening Reception is the ideal place to launch your conference experience and connect with professionals from across the deep foundations industry.

 

7:15 AM - 8:00 AM        
Registration Opens

8:00 AM - 8:30 AM        
PDCA Annual Conference Opening Ceremony & Breakfast
Chris Normand, PDCA President

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM        
Opening Keynote: The Promise
Jason Hewlett
What kind of leader do you want to be? Extraordinary? Inspiring? Memorable? In this captivating, entertaining, and high-energy keynote, world-class speaker and entertainer Jason Hewlett dares and delights audiences to take their leadership skills to legendary levels. With humor, heart, and absolute clarity, Jason hilariously brings legends of stage, music, and comedy to life to help leaders discover their very own signature moves and redefine their promise and commitment to their teams and organizations. The extraordinary combination of Vegas-quality entertainment and life-changing education creates an ovation-inspiring experience that audiences just can't get enough of. This keynote is not just good fun -- it's life-affirming, leadership-elevating, and transformational. It's the unlocking of secrets that propel performers from likeable to legendary.

9:40 AM - 10:30 AM     
Exhibit Hall Grand Opening & Break 

10:45 AM - 11:30 AM    
Nothing has Harmed the Driven Steel Pile More than Resistivity
Gerry McShane, Director Piling, Service Steel Warehouse
Summary: The Durability of steel has changed significantly over the last 50 years largely due to new methods of steel making and subsequent changes in metallurgical structure. Modern manufacturing processes no longer produce specific chemical composition but combine grain refinement and addition of alloys to achieve required mechanical properties. Many of these alloys contain corrosion inhibitors that extend durability to levels that were not attainable in the past. Regardless of these improvements, the use of Resistivity to determine soil corrosiveness of driven steel piling effectively renders any of these steel developments redundant.  Resistivity leads the engineer into specifying excessive and often needless corrosion protection through lack of clarity and concentration on only one aspect of the corrosion of buried steel. The factors that contribute to corrosion occurring and the rate that it develops will be examined and various steps to control or inhibit corrosion will be outlined. A comparison will be made between the breakdown of steel and concrete overtime. An example will be provided showing the various options open to the designer to inhibit or improve steel durability along with their associated costs. Resistivity will be examined and the areas of concern highlighted. Recommendations will be given to provide design-based durability for driven piling systems.

11:40 AM - 12:30 PM    
Thoughts on Shoring Safety from a "Seasoned" Engineer
Dick Hartman, PhD, PE, Owner / Principal, Hartman Engineering
Summary: The presentation will discuss why safety is important to both the design engineer and the field superintendent. Personal experience with an emergency situation will be described. Common situations that can lead to shoring failures and how to prevent them will be presented and discussed.

12:40 PM - 1:40 PM        
Luncheon with Exhibitors

2:00 PM - 2:50 PM    
What is Artificial Intelligence, and Why Should YOU Care?
Mark Finlayson, PhD, Associate Professor, Florida International University
Summary: A high-level overview of AI and why it is an important new technology of great relevance to engineers and contractors. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm. But many remain confused and concerned: What is Artificial Intelligence really? Where did it come from? How can we use it? Is it going to take our jobs? And is it going to take over the world, Terminator-style? In this talk, I cut through the hype to provide a high-level overview of AI--it's purpose, origin, history, and potential future--and outline productive ways to think about how we can productively use AI for our benefit, both broadly across society and specifically in Bridge Engineering. I examine the latest AI generative text and image models (e.g., ChatGPT), describing how they work and suggesting opportunities for how they might be leveraged by engineers and contractors, all the while pointing out important caveats and limitations.

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM | Concurrent Electives / Breakout Sessions
Queen Room: The Valley Project Remote Pile Testing in Denmark from Germany 
Stefan Mewes, Product Manager Pile Driving Equipment, Liebherr-Werk Nenzing GmbH, Austria
Summary: This presentation highlights how advanced monitoring technologies and digital connectivity transformed traditional pile testing methods. Using onboard data systems and the Pile Driving Analyzer, real-time data--including hammer energy, blow count, penetration, and pile response--was captured onsite in Denmark and transmitted live to a certified engineering office in Germany for immediate analysis. Attendees will gain insight into how remote testing eliminates the need for on-site specialists, reducing travel costs, minimizing downtime, and enabling faster decision-making. Through step-by-step explanations and video demonstrations, the session will showcase how integrated platforms like MyJobsite consolidate machine, process, and site data into a centralized, globally accessible system. This case study demonstrates how digitalization is reshaping pile testing--making it more efficient, responsive, and adaptable, even in challenging or restricted environments where travel may be limited.

Sabel Room: Load Testing Methods and Findings for Segmental Ductile Iron Piles Installed with Percussion Hammers
Matt Caskey, PE, Director of Sales, DuroTerra
Glen Santulli, PE, Project Engineer, GRL Engineers, Inc.
Summary:  Ductile Iron Piles (DIPs) are commonly used to provide deep foundation solutions on sites that aren't suitable for cranes or high-mast foundation equipment. DIPs are installed in 5-m segments with a medium-sized excavator and percussion hammer. The system provides piling contractors with another option when traditional driven piles are challenging or impractical. The segmental nature of the system and use of low-vibration driving equipment typically requires static pile load tests to verify capacity.  Alternative testing methods for verifying capacity can bring greater value to project teams and sometimes allow for optimization of the piling solution. This presentation will describe the Ductile Iron Pile system and will provide some case-history examples of testing methods that were used to deliver best-value solutions to the project team.

4:00 PM - 4:15 PM        Break (no exhibits)

4:15 PM - 5:15 PM | Concurrent Electives / Breakout Sessions
Queen Room: Unveiling the Courtroom Chessboard for a Construction Case: Legal Advocacy for and Against a General Contractor
Jennifer Budd, Partner, Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC
Lori Azzara, Partner, Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC
Summary: Experienced construction litigators will take you into the courtroom where attorneys for a general contractor and a pile driving contractor will argue factual and legal positions concerning scope of work issues, differing site conditions, and project delays. The audience will participate in this interactive presentation, similar to what a judge, jury or arbitrator would have to decide.  Audience participation can be provided through text message polling or live polling of the room, depending on audience size and room accommodations.  

Sabel Room: Bearing of Uniform Pile versus Tapered Pile: A full-scale test 
Jerry Hart, The Loren Group
Hicham (Sam) Salem, PhD, P.Eng, Scientific Applied Concepts Ltd.
Summary: The lecture will present results of the April 2025 full-scale static loading tests in Mobile, Alabama, comparing the response of strain-gage instrumented steel piles driven in sand to 57 ft depth with PDA monitoring: two taper steel pipe piles (TSFP) and two piles with uniform cross section. To counter random effects, the test program included two identical piles of each pile type. The main tests results showed that the taper piles carried close to 20% more load than the straight piles at a movement of about 5 mm. The presentation will discuss the measured difference in distribution of shaft resistance and correlate the findings to published observations. The presentation will include addressing lessons, learnt painfully, regarding instrumenting and installing the test piles. The test results showed that taper increased the unit shaft resistance as compared to the uniform piles and more than well offset the reduced surface area and pile volume, offering savings of material for equal or better performance. The pile supplier's willingness to invest in an unbiased full-scale study to demonstrate his convictions was well rewarded.

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM    Cocktail Reception in Exhibit Hall
After a full day of technical sessions and educational programming, join fellow attendees for the PDCA Annual Conference Cocktail Reception--an evening designed to strengthen connections and foster meaningful conversations. This popular networking event brings together contractors, engineers, manufacturers, suppliers, and industry leaders in a welcoming and engaging setting.

Enjoy specialty cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and the opportunity to visit with exhibitors and sponsors while discussing the day's presentations, exchanging ideas, and exploring new business opportunities. Whether you're reconnecting with longtime colleagues or expanding your professional network, the Cocktail Reception offers a relaxed environment to continue the conversations that drive our industry forward. 

 

7:00 AM - 7:45 AM    
Breakfast in Exhibit Hall 

7:50 AM - 8:25 AM    
PDCA Committee & Association Updates 

8:30 AM - 9:20 AM    
Extreme Close-in Pile Driving and 5-story Structure Response at Historic Longworth Hall, Cincinnati
Brent Meins, Chief Engineer, Detecht, LLC
Joel Kurtz, Vice President and Operations Manager, DRW Associates, Inc.
Douglas Rudenko, P.G., Senior Vice President, Vibra-Tech, Inc.
Summary: A vibration study was conducted at the soon-to-be demolished historic Longworth Hall in Cincinnati adjacent to the Brent-Spence bridge construction project.  Two portions of the 5-story building, built 1904 and 1961, were instrumented for vibration-induced structure strain and piles were driven with impact and vibratory hammers as close as 3.8 ft from the foundation.  Detailed in-ground measurements of vibration, ground strain, pore water pressure, and seismic wave speed, down to -60 ft, were also made.  Vibration amplitudes slightly exceeded the USBM Z-curve limit for plaster/drywall, but computed structure strains were well below cracking thresholds and no changes (e.g. cracking/damage) to the structure were observed.

9:30 AM - 9:45 AM        Break (No Exhibits) 

9:50 AM - 10:40 AM    
Economic Outlook for Ports: Tariffs, Trade Shifts, & What Comes Next
Derek Cutler, Chief Economist, Principal, EBP US, Inc. 
Summary: The world has become increasingly uncertain: from trade wars to conflicts with Iran, we find ourselves in uncertain times.  And yet, by the very nature of our business we need to still plan for the future needs of our businesses, communities, and their interaction globally.   This presentation will help decipher the risk of recession, the long-term outlook, and ways to think about planning and mitigating uncertainty through a hard look at the data.

10:45 AM - 11:15 PM    
Driven Pile Setup and Capacity Assurance
Paul J. Bullock, PhD, PE, Senior Principal Engineer, Fugro USA Land, Inc. (Loadtest)
Summary: Driven pile capacity in all types of soil often continually increases after initial driving, following a linear trend vs. the logarithm of elapsed time.  Blow count alone may, or may not, not indicate capacity increase depending on hammer performance and capability.  Dynamic measurements made during a test pile program can be used to provide capacity assurance for production piles.  This brief presentation presents a simple method to analyze and predict pile setup using dynamic test results.  Examples are included from projects along the Gulf Coast.

11:20 PM - 1:00 PM    
PDCA Project of the Year & Association Awards Lunch