Specialty Geotechnical Contractor DBM was excavating a drilled shaft for the I-5 interchange in Ridgefield, Washington when they dug up something unusual at a depth of 30-ft. At first the WSDOT inspector thought it looked like wood, but then called in a WSDOT archaeologist who took the fragments to University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. The tusk is believed to belong to a Columbian Mammoth and date to approximately 13,000 to 15,000 years ago. Story and image from The Columbian.
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Nicholson Completes Emergency Work on Indiana’s I-65
PITTSBURGH, PA – Nicholson Construction recently completed emergency repair work to an unstable pier supporting a bridge on INDOT’s Interstate 65. These repairs enabled a 37-mile section of the highway’s northbound lanes to be reopened after a four-week closure.
The highway was in the process of being rehabilitated and widened when the pier was damaged by steel piles driven into the water tight ground below it. The pier began to settle and eventually rotated ten inches.
Nicholson developed a design-build solution that used micropiles to transfer the loads to more stable soils and low-mobility grouting to fill voids and densify the upper subsurface layer.
[Editor] Read on to hear more about Nicholson’s fix of this unstable bridge pier. [/Editor]
Cadenhead to Lead Hayward Baker’s Western Region
ADSC 2008 Faculty Workshop Wrapup
Robert Thompson of Dan Brown and Associates has posted a wrapup of the 2008 ADSC Faculty Workshop. They had 20 Civil Engineering faculty attend the event. The field demonstration day was hosted by DBA at the Trial’s Training Center in Sequatchie, Tennessee. Apparently that site is Dan’s hobby. Read more about the workshop itself and also read Robert’s post about the field demonstration day including photos. In the photo at right (Robert Thompson, DBA) you can see the Statnamic test setup for a drilled shaft. A little more about the event:
Long Foundation and Hayward Baker have installed examples of several foundation and retaining structures, including drilled shafts, micropiles, and soil nails. During the field day demonstrations, the attendees will observe additional installations, load tests, and non-destructive testing.