DFI Magazine May/June 2020 - 61

REGIONAL

REPORT

DFI Europe
When I wrote this column, the coronavirus
that causes COVID-19 had spread around
the world and everybody was somehow
affected, either personally or with their job.
It is a very serious situation nobody has
experienced before. It is almost impossible
to make predictions as the facts are
changing all the time. Nevertheless, in
China and South Korea, there are some
signs of moving slowly back to a time before
the corona crisis. In Europe, each country
has been dealing differently with the
situation, but it is clear that governments
will have to inject money into their
industries. And infrastructure projects will
be an essential part of sustainable
development of economies, and therefore,
will have a high priority. By the time this
magazine issue reaches you, we hope that
brilliant scientists will be well advanced in
their development of a treatment and a
vaccine against the virus. Meanwhile, we
will continue with our activities within DFI
and DFI Europe. Here is a summary of our
activities of the last few months:

Board Meetings
DFI Europe's board gathers twice a year via
telemeeting and twice a year physically. The
latter always take place at the company of
one of the board members. For example, in
2019 we met at Van 't Hek in Amsterdam
and at the Belgian Building Research
Institute in Brussels. The first meeting of
2020 took place at Junttan in Kuopio
(Finland). In addition to a very fruitful
meeting, during which many actions were
started, advanced or completed (see below),
there was also time for a visit to the Junttan
factory and networking. The snow scooter
trip was especially appreciated. Thanks to
Ate Konkka, Pasi Poranen and Anders
Brotherus of Junttan for their first-class
organizational skills and the warm
welcome! As part of this meeting, Sikko
Doornbos introduced the new managing
director of Terracon. In July 2019, Benjamin
Bekhof succeeded Doornbos as managing
director of Terracon Funderingstechniek
and Terracon Molhoek Beheer, as well as

director of their daughter
companies, Terracon Spezialtiefbau and Terracon International.

Frank Haehnig
President DFI Europe
Frank.Haehnig@bauer.de

BIM/Digitalisation
Committee
The DFI Europe BIM/
Digitalisation Committee
(chaired by Jason Boddy of Arup) has
recently grown to around 15 members
from 11 countries. A practical guidance
document for digitalisation in ground
engineering will be published soon. In
collaboration with the Federation of Piling
Specialists (FPS) and the Association of
Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental
Specialists (AGS), both in the U.K., the
committee is also working on an open
standard for pile construction data, which
will be presented in September at the Piling
2020 Conference in Durham in the U.K.

Sustainability Working Group
Sustainability is a topic that concerns us all,
which is why DFI Europe launched an
initiative last year to look to what our
companies are doing in this area. Possible
domains to consider include design, reuse
of materials, use of alternative materials,

equipment development, trade
in installation techniques and
optimization of logistics. A starting point
will be a survey about national strategies
and regulations that should become
available by this summer.

Upcoming Events
After the successful Pile Integrity Testing
Seminar in September 2019, DFI Europe is
organizing a seminar on pile load testing in
collaboration with the Royal Institute of
Engineers (KIVI). The seminar has been
postponed until fall 2021 due to COVID19, and will provide an overview of
different load tests and instrumentation,
rules for testing and interpretation, and
several case studies. Information about the
seminar in the Netherlands will follow
soon. And of course, preparation is in full
swing for the next DFI/EFFC International
Conference, which will take place at the
Free University of Berlin in May 2022.

DFI Europe board members visit Junttan facilities

DEEP FOUNDATIONS * MAY/JUNE 2020 * 61
DFI Magazine May/June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DFI Magazine May/June 2020
