Articles

Technical Sessions - June 2016

MORNING SESSION - Hosted by GI @ 11:00 AM 

Topic: :  Geopier^® Ground Improvement Solutions for the Lone Star State

Speaker: Brian C. Metcalfe, P.E., - Director of Engineering, Geopier Foundation Company, Inc.

Geopier® ground improvement solutions have become a widely utilized alternative to deep foundations and mass excavation over the last 20 years.  The focus of this presentation will be on the use of the Geopier^® Rammed Aggregate Pier^® and Geopier^® SRT_­ Systems for settlement control, increased allowable bearing pressure, and slope stability applications.  Case Histories on constructed projects in the Dallas - Fort Worth region and throughout Texas will be presented for foundation support of commercial structures, wind turbines, storage tanks, and transportation related projects.  

Mr. Metcalfe has over 15 years of experience in the geotechnical engineering industry and has been with Geopier Foundation Company in Davidson, North Carolina, USA, since 2005, providing Intermediate Foundation® technology for ground improvement.  He currently serves as Director of Engineering at Geopier Foundations Company and holds M.S. and B.S degrees in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech.  Mr. Metcalfe is a registered Civil Engineer in California, Member of American Society of Civil Engineers, The Deep Foundation Institute, and has co-authored several papers related to ground improvement technology.

AFTERNOON TECHNICAL SESSION - Hosted by SEI @ 1:10 PM

Topic: Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) for Bridges

Speaker: Gregory Nault, P.E., S.E. – LafargeHolcim 

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is a steel fiber-reinforced, cementitious-based material that offers exceptionally high mechanical and durability related properties, including compressive strengths exceeding 22,000 psi and high ductility compared to conventional concrete. For this reason, UHPC is being considered for a wide variety of highway infrastructure applications to provide innovative design solutions. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which has performed extensive research on UHPC, has taken significant interest in this material for use in Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems (PBES) as one strategy to promote Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC). In the PBES application, field-cast UHPC is used to join prefabricated elements on-site to form simple, strong, durable, monolithic-like connections for enhanced, long-term performance. Over the past decade, approximately 150 bridge structures throughout North America have incorporated UHPC into their design. This presentation will provide a brief overview about what UHPC is, what characteristics it exhibits, the advantages to using this material, and the various structural applications that have proven successful over the years. The presentation will conclude with a case study example of an ABC project using the UHPC-PBES methodology.

Gregory Nault has over 8 years of professional bridge engineering experience and is currently a project manager at LafargeHolcim, a world-leading concrete supplier that manufactures ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) under the brand name Ductal®. Greg works closely with bridge owners and engineers to provide innovative design solutions using UHPC. Prior to joining LafargeHolcim, Greg worked for Canadian National (CN) railway, a class 1 freight transportation company. He was a project engineer at CN overseeing the design of 12+ railway accelerated bridge projects each year consisting of new and rehabilitated steel, concrete, and timber structures. He also worked for an engineering consulting firm, ABKJ, based in Seattle providing structural and seismic design services for various highway bridge owners. He received his Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering in 2007 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his Master’s in Civil Engineering in 2014 from the University at Buffalo (UB). Greg is a registered professional engineer in five states and a registered structural engineer in Illinois. He is an active committee member of ACI and an Advisory Board member for the Institute of Bridge Engineering at UB.