TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES MANAGER MARY ELLEN BRUCE Technical Activities Update Technical Committees are the backbone of DFI. It is their role to focus on the unique issues of major methods and technologies within deep foundations and excavation. We depend on DFI Technical Committees to keep members and the industry up to date with the state of practice through publications, guidance documents, peer-review of papers, educational events and committee reports. This issue of Deep Foundations includes reports from 5 of DFI’s 16 Technical Committees. COMMITTEE CHAIR GARY SEIDER Helical Piles and Tiebacks Committee The Helical Piles and Tiebacks Committee is working on several projects di rected toward advancing the practice and understanding of helical piles and tiebacks. The committee’s university presentation has been narrated by Dr. Samuel Clemence (Syracuse University), and is available for download on the DFI website. To download both the narrated and un- narrated presentations and the guidance notes, visit the committee’s webpage under the Groups tab on the main menu of www.dfi.org, and view “Recent News.” Committee member Kyle Olson (Foundat ion Supportworks Inc. ) participates in bi-weekly conference calls — hosted by the Pile Driving Contractors Association (PDCA) — to develop proposed changes to the 2018 International Building Code (IBC). The call participants are going through IBC Chapter 18 “Foundations” line by line, proposing edits and writing justifications for the changes. The final changes with justifications must be submitted to the International Code Council in January 2015. Work on three model specifications continues for helical anchors, helical piles and helical soil nails. A subcommittee consisting of Dr. Yasser Abdelghany (Ministry of Transportat ion and Infrastructure, British Columbia), David Bruce (CHANCE Hubbell Power Systems, Inc.), Mark Bryant (Maclean Power Systems Civil Products Group), Moncef Souissi (CTL Thompson Inc.) and Gary Seider meet twice a month with Technical Activi- ties Manager Mary Ellen Bruce to work on the specifications. The helical anchors specification is nearly complete with only one final DFI Technical Advisory Com- mittee (TAC) review response remaining. The 2014 Helical Piles and Tiebacks Committee Specialty Seminar was held April 3, 2014 at the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, Mo., with 75 people in attendance. There were 10 presentations, with topics ranging from the North American helical pile market, settlement- based helical pile design, case histories and helical pile history. Dr. Clemence and Dr. Alan Lutenegger (University of Massachusetts Amherst) presented a summary of their findings from the literature review and practitioner survey on design and construction practices for helical piles and tiebacks they COMMITTEE CHAIR NICOLAS WILLIG Slurry Wall Committee The Slurry Wall Committee continues to work on many initiatives that advance slurry wall knowledge and use. The committee finalized a Spanish version of the 2005 Guideline for Structural Slurry Walls, which is available through the publications section of DFI’s website at www.dfi.org. This project parallels the ongoing revision of the English version of the guideline that will include the latest technical trends in equipment, wall repairs and panel joint construction as well as an updated list of dia- phragm walls com- pleted since 2005. Subgroups con- tinue work on the Guide to Selection of Cutoff Methods, a new document that outlines a decision-making process for identifying viable cutoff and barrier methods for seepage control applications. A separate subgroup is working on basic and advanced DEEP FOUNDATIONS • JULY/AUG 2014 • 91 undertook this year. This project was funded by the DFI Committee Project Fund. Project deliverables will include a white paper and DFI Journal article to be published in 2015. The seminar was a success and the committee already began planning its 2015 Specialty Seminar. The committee approved the following mission statement: “To advance the accep- tance and use of helical piles and tiebacks and ultimately achieve worldwide recognition as a valued deep foundation and earth retention system. This shall be achieved via research, education, specification and code development advanced and driven by a volunteer organi- zation consisting of helical manufacturers, design professionals and contractors.” I encourage all DFI members interested in becoming a member of the Helical Piles and Tiebacks Committee to contact DFI headquarters at [email protected].
