A Pile of News: October 2021
A briefing on news and information from the pile driving contractors, associated manufacturers, construction suppliers and affiliated engineers who comprise the PDCA.
by Matt Bisbee, PDCA
Originally sent Oct. 1, 2021
From the Association & Chapters
Upcoming industry events:

The PDCA 2021 Houston Social brought the regional pile driving industry together for a networking happy hour and short program about the benefits of forming a PDCA Chapter. (PHOTOS)
  • Thanks to event sponsors: Antaeus Foundation Equipment, BRC International, ICE – International Construction Equipment, PILECO, Inc., APE – American Piledriving Equipment, Flexicore of Texas, GRL Engineers, Hammer & Steel and John Lawrie Tubulars

Event note – DICEP 2021 was originally scheduled as a live conference in New Orleans in September, however Hurricane Ida forced a venue change. PDCA moved the conference to a three-day, virtual program with the original presentation line-up. Many virtual registrants joined a PDCA-led hurricane relief effort which raised more than $7K. Recap and PHOTOS from DICEP.
 
Now available at The PDCA Store – If you missed the PDCA 2021 Education Webinar Series #5 entitled “Vibrations in Pile Driving” by subject matter expert Dr. Cathy Martin, an archived copy is now available at no cost in The PDCA Store. Obtain your copy of this very popular presentation.

Welcome new and returning members!
  • Contractors: Coastal Pile Driving Inc., Dissen & Juhn Company, Farrell Brothers Marine Construction, Island Piling, Inc., Macro Enterprises, LTD., Mason Construction, O’Quinn Marine Construction, Southern Concrete Construction Co., Inc., Spark Contractors, Weeks Marine
  • Associates: Bigfoot Pipe & Piling, BRC International LLC, Copier, Inc., DeSoto Treated Materials, Flores Automation and Machine Control, GMS Piling Products, Heldenfels Enterprises, Radise
  • Engineers: CRW Engineering Group, LLC, Linfield, Hunter & Junius, Inc., Nagy Engineers, Soil & Materials Engineering, Inc., Southern Earth Sciences, Inc., Terra Mechanics, Inc.
  • Affiliated Services: Dafanie Financial Group LLC
  • Individual: Mississippi DOT

Pacific Pile & Marine, you are this month’s winner!
Send an email to marian@piledrivers.org before the end of October to claim your prize!
News from PDCA Companies
Acquisitions & expansions:

On the job:
The ASAP Group installs JD Fields steel to enhance 129 miles of the Florida East Coast Rail line. Also, a crew advances I-10 widening in Jacksonville with a PVE vibro mounted on their patented sheet piler.

Foundation Constructors drives 36" CISS piles for the ongoing Harbor Bridge project on US-101 in Central San Rafael in California’s Bay Area.

Goettle has a crew in Pittsburgh installing sheet piling, along with king piles to reconstruct a land mass to enable expansion of a treatment plant along the Ohio River.

Keller is involved in construction of a new TopGolf venue in Baltimore; D.W. Kozera, Inc. has performed PDA testing for the long-awaited entertainment center.

Manson Construction Co. drives first test pile for the modernization of a U.S. Navy, coastal installation at Seal Beach, CA.

McMullen & Pitz Construction completes 1,900 LF steel wall along Wisconsin’s Fox River for the DOT.

Poseidon Dredge & Marine installs new Southeast Florida seawall. A barge-based working platform wasn’t an option, so crane assembly was done onsite to drive 18 ct., 18" diameter PS pile in 36' lengths.

PRECO-MSE installs driven piling with a Junttan PM16 for a downtown Montreal shoring wall.

Weeks Marine mitigates tough conditions, installs two monopile breasting dolphins in Panama.

Company Wrench Ltd. hosted its techs from around the country at the Ohio HQ for a training with MKT Manufacturing on a piece of its pile driving equipment.

ICE, Inc. equipment helped construct the newly rebuilt Frederick Douglas Memorial Bridge; the span crosses the Anacostia River and connects South Capitol St. in DC to PGC in Maryland. Junttan rigs were also onsite; Nucor Skyline supplied steel and ECS Limited was among the consultants.

Jinnings Equipment shares action video of the BSP CG240 “working out” before going to the next renter.

Junttan’s PM23LC is spotted driving timber piles for a New Jersey boardwalk in Carteret.

Nucor Skyine supplies steel products for Quonset Business Park rehab in North Kingstown, RI.

Dewberry awarded contract to develop community resilience strategy along the North Carolina coast.

Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers provides geotechnical, foundation engineering for the new UBS Arena in Elmont, NY – soon to be the new home of the New York Islanders.

Peirce Engineering has designed 300K square feet of excavation support to include steel sheeting for the Baxter well basin replacement of the Philadelphia Water Dept.

PND Engineers, Inc. enhanced an historic Luling, TX dam by developing an open cell sheet pile system incorporated into the bulkhead on the banks of the San Marcos River.

Recognitions:

Giving back:

Governmental relations:
  • Nucor showed U.S. Sen. John Boozman the rolling mill, among other features during his tour of the Nucor-Yamato fabrication facility in Blytheville, AR.
  • Shannon & Wilson teams with University of Wisconsin to research soil-based PFAS impacts on drinking water in Rhinelander, WI. Elliot Draxler (of S&W) is interviewed by local media after participating in a briefing he and others gave to U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

Anniversaries:
Arthur R. Henry, Inc is in its 75th year and continues providing a multifaceted portfolio of contracting services to clientele throughout central and southern New Jersey. Congrats to the certified Small Business Enterprise, which has brought forth large projects such as the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City and the Health Science Center at Rutgers University.

Clark Foundations reaches 50 years in business. To date, it has been involved in several high-profile projects in the mid-Atlantic region such as the Museum of the Bible, the National Museum of African American History & Culture and CityCenterDC.
People on the Move
Transitions:
  • Brook Serafino elected to executive leadership at Foundation Constructors, Inc.; the current controller gains new fiscal and corporate governance responsibilities.
  • Christopher Dineen, P.E. joins GeoStructures, Inc. to serve the Carolinas as a project manager.
  • Bryan Binda, B.Sc. joins the Hammer & Steel regional sales team in St. Louis.
  • Matthew Koss, CSP, CHST tapped by ECS Limited to lead corporate safety from Baltimore. Elsewhere, John Hicks, P.E., Cliff Hendrickson, PG, Dave Bearce, P.E. and Joey Broussard, P.E. all promoted to regional management at ECS in Florida.
  • Christina Cruz promoted to VP regional marketing at EXP.
  • Clive Sorhaindo, P.E. elevated to group leader at S&ME, Inc. in Knoxville, TN.
  • Kathy Troost L.G., Ph.D. rejoins Shannon & Wilson as senior consultant in Seattle.
  • Are YOU looking for a change? Dissen & Juhn in Stevensville, MD needs a civil engineer.

Recognitions:

In memoriam
Widely regarded as one of the country’s expert sales consultants for cranes that facilitate pile driving, Greg Etue, who spent the last six years as regional business manager for Tadano Mantis Cranes and Tadano America, suddenly passed away Aug. 25. PDCA joins his family and friends mourning his loss.
Notes from the Field
Is there a frequent flier program? Have you ever calculated driven pile quantity in miles? R.L. Wadsworth Construction held a clever social media contest; rather than guess the number of gumballs in a jar, you were to guess the number in miles of driven pile that were used in a foundation job at the Salt Lake City Airport. The answer was 171 miles; contestant Braden Watson won a $100 gift card.

The Heartbreak Hotel is unspecified, but may have been the venue for a science and tech program, hosted by Kevin Ragon of the Timber Piling Council. You might recall that Suspicious Minds of the 1980s made mainstream, a theory that Elvis Presley was still alive. Now, Kevin’s program has produced photographic evidence of The King. (Please Return to Sender if you find this to be a poor attempt at being clever).

Do their personal clubs have wooden shafts and heads? Lodge Lumber Co. continues its partnership with other local businesses to prepare golfing grounds for the annual, 2021 Houston Open in November. It is also a supporter of the Astros Golf Foundation.

And the winner is… Drunk Bus – A movie by a J.D. Fields’ sister company is Best Comedic Film at 2021 Montauk Film Festival.
Media Hits
Global Trade magazine mentions Corman Kokosing for its work at the Port of Baltimore; article discusses ongoing efforts to increase berth capacity at the facility.

3 WTKR-TV airs a story entitled Piles of Progress and includes video from the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion project jobsite. Several PDCA members are involved in this, the largest-ever infrastructure project in Virginia. (h/t George Smith.)

WJCT News 89.9 updates the ongoing Hal Jones Contractor project – a rebuild of the Pier at Jacksonville Beach, FL; expected complete in 2022. Herald Wattenberg at PVE Equipment enjoys his weekend work-out near the job site where he can see a PVE 55M in use on the project.

Hawaii News Now television covers state contractors’ compliance with public facilities vaccination mandate. Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company is referenced through an interview with HR director Manu Bermudes and video footage of crews on job sites.

WPXI-TV Pittsburgh airs a conversation with Koppers CEO Leroy Ball in which the two discuss running a global company during a pandemic.

Thanks for reading this installment of “A Pile of News;” we will be back on Nov. 1. To close this month’s report, we salute the late Norm MacDonald who frequently signed off for the SNL Weekend Update segment he anchored (1994–97), by saying: “And that’s the way it is…” RIP.
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