March/April 2024 - 70

drilled shaft head shear. In addition to a conference keynote
lecture during the 2019 Pan-American Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in Cancun, Mexico,
and a 2020 DFI Educational Trust Student Paper Competition
winning paper by Rabie Farrag, Ph.D., University of California,
Irvine, the research was recently featured as the cover story
for the November/December 2023 issue of DFI's Deep
Foundations magazine. Despite significant differences in
transverse reinforcement detailing, experimental test piles
were interpreted to have failed in flexure without indication
of shear failure or adverse shear performance within the rock
socket, a significant finding.
The committee has submitted a CPF proposal on the topic
of combining side and base resistance for the design of soil
bearing drilled shafts. Developed by myself and my Dan
Brown and Associates colleague Ben Turner, Ph.D., P.E., P.Eng.,
the proposal aims to complement a previous committee
project on the topic of combining side and base resistance for
rock-socketed drilled shafts, published as a DFI consensus
paper in the DFI Journal Vol. 16, Issue 2.
In addition to CPF projects, the committee continues to
support joint projects between DFI and the European
Federation of Foundation Contractors (EFFC) on the topics of
support fluids, working platforms and tremie concrete. The
EFFC/DFI Concrete Task Group is currently developing a third
edition of the Guide to Tremie Concrete for Deep Foundations. The
Support Fluids Task Group and Working Platforms Task Group
are both currently developing second editions of the Guide to
Support Fluids for Deep Foundations and the Guide to Working
Platforms, respectively.
Andy Boeckmann, Ph.D., P.E., Dan Brown and Associates,
will be moderating a live edition of DFI's Rumble podcast at
IFCEE 2024 in May. The Rumble debate is on the relative
advantages and limitations of crosshole sonic logging (CSL)
versus thermal integrity profiling (TIP) nondestructive
integrity testing methods. The debate will include one expert
and proponent of TIP facing off against an expert and
proponent of CSL. The session will start with a live poll of
audience members: TIP or CSL? Each expert will make an
opening statement. The opening statements will be followed
by questions from the audience. After responding to audience
questions, the experts will make final statements. Audience
members will then be polled again to see if any minds were
swayed, and the moderator will make closing remarks.
On the horizon, the committee is considering a research
proposal on cast-in-place deep foundation thermal cracking.
The committee is also considering a DFI member survey
regarding industry experience with thermal integrity testing.
COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS MEEOK KIM AND MARY ELLEN LARGE
Structural Slurry Wall and Seepage Control
Following the long-time cooperation that began in 2011 and
was defined by a memorandum of understanding between the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and DFI, the Structural
Slurry Wall and Seepage Control Committee and USACE
representatives organized the third USACE-DFI Workshop on
Seepage Control Practices at USACE's Risk Management Center
in Lakewood, Colorado, on November 15-17, 2023. More than
50 attendees joined the two-and-a-half-day workshop,
comprising USACE representatives from 13 districts, the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
and DFI contractor and engineering consultant members.
The workshop was organized by a team of USACE
representatives and DFI members, led by April Fontaine, P.G.,
USACE; Erik James, P.E., P.G., G.E., USACE Sacramento District;
Gregg Batchelder-Adams, P.E., USACE Risk Management
Center; David Paul, P.E., Paul GeoTek Engineering; Gianfranco
Di Cicco, GDConsulting and DFI president; Mary Ellen Large,
P.E., BC.GE, Nicholson Construction Company; Theresa Engler,
DFI; and Matthew Glisson, P.E., DFI. The leaders met weekly for
several months to develop the workshop agenda, and they
facilitated broader meetings with members to prepare
industry-consensus presentations for the workshop. Many
thanks for the thoughtful onsite organization go to Randie
70 * DEEP FOUNDATIONS * MAR/APR 2024
Gibson, administrative services specialist
at the USACE's Risk Management Center.
This event was the third in a series of
workshops organized by USACE and DFI
in 2011 and 2016.
The 2023 workshop aimed to rekindle
relationships between DFI and the
agencies and to provide a forum for
unbiased discussion on the state of practice
with the ultimate goal of improving
the technical practices and quality of dam
and levee seepage control projects. Several
unaddressed topics from the 2016
workshop were revisited at the 2023 event.
Mary Ellen Large
Meeok Kim
March/April 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March/April 2024
