A Pile of News: October 2022 |
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A briefing on news and information from the pile driving contractors,
associated manufacturers, construction suppliers and affiliated engineers
Originally sent Oct. 3, 2022
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HUGE news tops the Pile! Kiewit is acquiring Weeks Marine, per an agreement between the two construction leaders and PDCA Contractor Members. A Jan. 1, 2023 closing is expected. More below in Acquisitions & Expansions.
PDCA welcomes new and returning members – Join us in thanking the following driven pile advocates:
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Contractors – Arcola Building Company of Madison, OH; CS Marine Constructors of Vallejo, CA; Lynnhaven Marine & Dock, Inc. of Suffolk, VA
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Associates – Bull Moose Tube Co. of Chesterfield, MO; Elite Tubular in Houston, TX
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Engineering Affiliates – BSM Engineering of Portland, OR; Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. in Oak Brook, IL; William Kruse, P.E. in Clark, NJ
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Affiliated Services: Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC; Mystic Safety LLC
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Student: Sergio Alejandro Marin Savatier
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From the Association & Chapters |
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Mark your calendars!
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Oct. 4–7: PDCA is a cooperating organization at the Deep Foundations Institute Annual Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, MD
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Oct. 12–14: Deep Foundation Dynamic Testing & Analysis, a biannual seminar, workshop and exam, in partnership with PDI, Inc., is at the Cleveland Marriot East in Ohio
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Oct. 13: PDCA Value Driven Webinar Series – Steel Durability in Marine Construction by Gerry McShane, 2-3 PM EDT. It’s a virtual event FREE to members, $50 for non-members.
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Oct. 14: Buchanan Lecture 2022 (ASCE), 2PM CT at Hilton Conference Center, College Station, TX
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Oct. 26: PDCA Northeast Chapter Dinner Meeting, 6–9 PM EDT at Bocelli Ristorante in Staten Island, NY. This PDCA members-only chapter event will feature a technical program.
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Nov. 1: PDCA Texas Chapter Lunch & Learn, 11 AM–2:30 PM CDT at Hilton Houston Plaza/Medical Center. Members register for $30, non-members for $40. Leading engineering and equipment professionals are presenting, lunch is included. Sponsorships are encouraged.
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Nov. 3: Palm Trees and Pile Driving – South Florida Social, 5:30–7:30 PM EDT, is a FREE networking happy hour at Bokampers in Miramar. It will include a short pile driving industry update. PDCA members and non-members welcome. Sponsorship appreciated!
News and photos from the PDCA blog:
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DICEP 2022 in New Orleans concluded Sept. 14; PHOTOS of the annual technical event.
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PDCA members were among organizers and the South Carolina Chapter was a sponsor for the successful GeoCarolinas conference in September; see who was SPOTTED.
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No fancy rims, custom lighting or flashy wraps – the exhaust system is original, and this pick-up isn’t even lifted. But the odometer read makes this 1997 F-250 an attention-grabber.
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Gulf Coast Chapter blasts into Labor Day with its annual sporting clay shoot: PHOTOS
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Precast Piling Technology, Gulf Coast Pre-Stress Partners, RJ Gorman Contracting, American Equipment & Fabricating among those included in summer 2022 PDCA PHOTOS display.
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Congratulations, Garrett Hogencamp, you are this month’s winner!
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Acquisitions & expansions:
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Leadership statements on Kiewit/Weeks merger: “Weeks (Marine) offers valued, specialized construction experience where we see great opportunity,” says Kiewit CEO Rick Lanoha’s internal note to employees about the pending deal. Rich and Dick Weeks said of their five-generation, family-owned business: this is “in the long-term best interest of our employees and clients.”
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Geo-Technology Associates, Inc. (GTA) opens second Virginia office in Richmond; Eric Church, P.E. (not the singer) is designated as the office leader for contractor and geotech clientele.
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Seismic Surveys broadens market reach, increases regional service through partnership with Sauls Seismic and Nomis Seismographs, now operating under Argus Monitoring Solutions, LLC.
Giving back:
Recognitions:
Governmental relations:
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McCarthy Building Co. secured an energy sector partnership to build Illinois’ largest solar farm, and one of the biggest in the U.S. Gov. Pritzker attended an event with stakeholders announcing that the $535M project will break ground this fall near Springfield.
Anniversary:
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Bowen Engineering Corp. reached 55 years in business in September. The Indianapolis-based, self-performing GC has grown from a single office with a sewage treatment plant contract in 1968, to a diversified corporation operating in utility, industrial and more markets nationwide.
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Transitions:
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Jon Rodriguez is new CFO at Manson Construction Co., based at company HQ in Seattle; also Kyle Allen becomes ERP manager in Houma, LA, after 14 years in company engineering roles.
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Scott Thanisch joins the executive team at Orion as EVP and CFO.
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Greg Black moves to the helm at Arcola Building Company in northeastern Ohio; he fills the role of longtime leader John Selwyn.
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Kenneth Lawler, an Army vet and Iowa State Cyclone, promoted to project manager at Russell Marine.
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Trey Hendrick, P.E. elevates at ECS Limited. Other promotions are Laura Hill, P.E., Josh Bradshaw, P.E., Trey Landis, P.E. and Brennen Thomas, E.I. Tom Goldsbury joins the firm in Florida.
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John Liautad, Joshua Stevens are new technicians for Southern Earth Sciences in New Orleans.
Recognitions:
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Lt. Cdr. Lindsey Darling, daughter of Buck Darling of New York’s HF Darling, Inc., achieves her first merit-based promotion as a U.S. Naval officer. Mom (Inger) and Dad attended the Labor Day weekend ceremony to see their first-born formally elevate to Lieutenant Commander. Congrats!
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JC Clark at Pacific Pile & Marine led company efforts in Ghana for the Well Constructed program that strives to ensure the availability of clean drinking water in the western African nation.
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Tanner Credeur, Steam Fitch of Sealevel Construction in Louisiana earn new crane certification.
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Gwen Sanders, P.E. named Outstanding Civil Engineer and James Williams, P.E. is Outstanding Young Civil Engineer; they were among several professionals from Eustis Engineering, LLC who were celebrated at a recent ASCE New Orleans Branch program.
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Jennifer Borges, P.E., Miguel Lockward, P.E. are named to leadership roles at ASCE Miami-Dade; the EXP professionals are joined on the board by several colleagues from the firm.
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Michael Derr, P.E. of Geo-Technology Associates to reprise in ASCE Lehigh Valley leadership.
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Dino Fiscaletti, P.E., D.PE achieves post-licensure certification in port engineering. The Rhode Island senior consultant at GZA GeoEnvironmental has a considerable geotechnical resume.
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Kenny Meyn, P.E. reaches 37 years as district manager in New Orleans for Southern Earth Sciences.
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Gina Cruz, Mickey Pickett earn Employee of the Month accolades from Tectonic in New York.
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Thomas Smoak, P.E. of Terracon graduates Leadership Charleston in South Carolina.
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Patrick DiCerbo – Northwestern Mutual overcame a flat tire and pouring rain to complete what he calls “the most demanding challenge I have faced,” at Ironman Wisconsin on Sept. 11.
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George Pallas, partner at Cohen Seglias, named 2023 Philadelphia Construction Lawyer of the Year.
In sympathy:
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Clyde N. Baker Jr. was a geotechnical engineer who advanced soil science and deep foundation design. ENR remembers a true innovator. In November, DFI will honor him during an annual event that funds a scholarship in his name.
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John Francis “Jack” Cooper, a valued, longtime employee of Mason Construction in Beaumont, TX, passed this summer. His obituary describes a true gentleman and overall good guy whom his coworkers revered. Romantics, pay close attention to the part that describes in the sweetest detail, his pursuit of wife, Linda, upon returning from Vietnam.
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David Pierce, late president at PND Engineers, passed earlier this year and was remembered in this space and PileDriver magazine. Since that time, the Port of Bandon in Oregon has installed a plaque honoring their native son and principal engineer for the local Sports Basin.
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Smithsonian Channel program How Did They Build That? features another project that included work from a PDCA member. While not a driven pile job, the Gov. Albert D. Rosellini Bridge in Seattle is a 7,710-foot floating bridge designed by the geotech team at Haley & Aldrich.
Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce updates progress on the city’s Colman Dock project, which just reached 1M total labor hours; Pacific Pile & Marine is part of the JV leading the $467M job.
Civil + Structural Engineer Magazine includes PDCA members in recent articles. One details rapid port expansion on the Texas Gulf Coast and focuses on Project 11 from McCarthy’s Marine & Industrial Unit. Photos show crews using hammers from American Piledriving Equipment. Another article introduces seven new shareholders at Thomas & Hutton.
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Surely you’ve seen the commercials aimed at those who may have been at U.S. Marine base Camp Lejeune between 1953–1987, thus may qualify to join a lawsuit. We wondered if Nelson Henriquez of Conti Civil had a hard time cutting through droves of personal injury attorneys staking out the base entrance as he arrived to recruit future construction professionals?
From the history books – We share a Facebook post from MKT Manufacturing showing old photos of an MKT #7. The sepia tone and graininess of the pictures obscure the person shown, but we are guessing it is a young Chris Cayce, on the job and tending to the air hammer.
Don’t look at this in dashboard, or any other lights – As if a reference to a Meat Loaf song wasn’t bad enough, Premier Geotech & Testing fouled up LinkedIn feeds by not only quoting the iconic rock balladeer, but also using a photo of something resembling meatloaf prepared from head cheese. The post includes #IYKYK – but we didn’t know and had to investigate. Apparently, it is a photo of soil for a landfill cap.
Steel, sports and entertainment – J.D. Fields & Company takes diversification to new levels. In 2020, it was movie production. Last year brought NIL deals with NCAA athletes (by the way, congrats to SMU WR Rashee Rice, who earned Player of the Week honors in September). As if the recent exclusive distribution agreement with ArcelorMittal wasn’t enough this year, Fields just entered the NASCAR Cup Series and added its logo to a Camaro ZL1, which driver Corey LaJoie raced to 14th place in Texas in September.
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Thanks to our readers; members or not, your attention to the driven pile sector is important. While we humbly thank current PDCA members for ongoing support, the remainder of this narrative is to those who have not yet joined. Maybe you have been thinking about joining PDCA but determined it wouldn’t make sense to start this late in the year? Well, we counter that argument and tell you that Membership dues are prorated. So, if you were to join today, we would calculate your dues to be 1/4th of the annual cost and that would activate you through the end of this year. Of course, we would then invoice you for the full year 2023 in January, but it is an ideal way to get started immediately. Your dues ensure that we can continue to bring you publication resources like ‘A Pile of News,’ PileDriver magazine, blog posts, social media, and more. Additionally, those dues help support PDCA’s very active education and professional development programming. And there’s so much more available through PDCA membership. We work hard attain high visibility for driven piles in the deep foundations sector, we just ask you to pitch in a little bit each year to support the cause. Thanks for your time, we will see you November 1st!
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