Committee Notes
The main focuses of this year for the Driven Pile Committee will be to bridge the gap between PDCA and DFI and to generate some momentum on current and new committee projects. We encourage new members to join the committee and welcome new ideas for project initiatives. The Committee continues to support joint seminars with PDCA. We have had very successful seminars in Baltimore (March 2010), Chicago (March 2011), and Calgary, Alberta, Canada (June 2012), and we look forward to more opportunities to work with PDCA to present seminars in 2014. We are working to organize the SuperPile 2013 conference in Minneapolis, Minn., locally spearheaded by Jeff Gebhard of Braun Intertec. The Committee is committed to completing several existing projects in the coming year. We are preparing a hardcover, 4-color book featuring cost efficient driven pile case histories. We have requested submissions from DFI members and are contacting authors of previously published papers that are of interest. Papers on case histories to be included showcase one or more of the following factors of cost effectiveness of driven piles: 1) Pile type/section/material - optimizing the pile type, section, or material based on desired allowable load(s) and subsurface conditions; 2) Testing - either utilizing pre-construction testing to better model subsurface conditions, or construction testing (i.e., dynamic, static, or rapid load testing) to reduce uncertainties; 3) Set-up - incorporating set-up into the design can reduce the pile length, section, and/or pile driving equipment; 4) Higher allowable loads and/or allowable design stresses - reducing the pile count and pile cap size by fully utilizing the available geotechnical and structural allowable load for each pile; and 5) Driving criteria - incorporating test results, and developing installation criteria using more reliable methods such as refined wave equation analyses vs. dynamic formulae. These are just a few examples; we encourage other factors to be considered and submitted to the project lead, Van Komurka of Wagner Komurka Geotechnical Group, Inc. (komurka@wkg2.com). We are also updating existing DFI guidance documents, including the "Inspector's Manual for Driven Pile Foundations" (Second Edition 1997) and "A Pile Inspector's Guide to Hammers" (Second Edition, 1995); combining these texts into a single document. We will also update the manual on Driven Foundation Piling (1998). Due to the continuous development of new types of driven piles, the committee has decided to create a web-based manual to allow for easier updates. We will also continue our efforts to team with the Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute on expansion of CRSI pile cap tables to accommodate larger pile sizes and higher strength concrete. The Committee will also work with the Sustainability Committee to identify and understand sustainable aspects of driven pile technologies.
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