Where
This is an online event.MGS-GI January Meeting
Please join us for our next virtual meeting on Wednesday, January 13, 2021. Andrea is a pavement engineer and Group Manager for Terracon’s Minneapolis, Minnesota Office and she will discuss pavement management and how pavement management data ties closely to the geotechnical field. The second speaker will be Special Projects Manager Brian Koch at Michels and he will present on building drilled shafts to bridge the Mississippi River.
Andrea will discuss pavement management and how pavement management data ties closely to the geotechnical field. She will show how using pavement condition values can identify roads in the middle of their lifespan and how that information partnered with further forensics (cores and/or soil borings) can refine recommendations like a mill and overlay. She will review the technical aspects of how a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) value is determined and how pavement cores can be used to refine planned pavement treatments and design.
Michels installed 242 drilled shafts to support the piers for a new basket-handle, true-arch twin bridge across the Mississippi River from Moline, IL to Bettendorf, IA. The installation of the drilled shafts was completed with the simultaneous use of two Liebherr LB36 and one IMT 300 drill rigs. Utilizing barges, 233 drilled shafts were installed in the river. Michels crews also installed 7-ft to 10-ft permanent steel casing into the bedrock, and drilled to depths of 60 feet for each shaft. Despite working in strong currents, freezing temperatures and on rocking barges, Michels crews placed the shafts within 3 inches of plan position. Since the drilled shafts are the key piece in supporting the bridge structure, Michels provided cross-hole sonic logging to verify the integrity and strength of the concrete within the shafts and to add another level of quality control for the owner/customer. Extensive planning took place each day to ensure that tugboats, the linchpin of the project, were being efficiently utilized to shift the barges and materials daily. On any given day, Michels transported five concrete trucks by barge from shore to shaft sites to pour between 40 and 240 cubic yards of concrete. The Michels environmental team was diligent with preparing, discussing and implementing a water treatment plan that was accepted by all state and federal agencies and adhered to strict environmental regulations. Grain hopper barges were rented to control and treat the water that was used in the drilling operations. Another challenge crews ran into was the discovery of caverns when drilling into some parts of the bedrock. Michels worked with the engineer to develop a plan to construct the drilled shafts that encountered the caverns.
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About the Presenters
Andrea is a pavement engineer and Group Manager for Terracon’s Minneapolis, Minnesota Office. Andrea has close to 10 years of experience in the pavements, pavement forensics and construction materials industry. Andrea holds a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, Institute of Technology where her research focused on the effect of heavy agricultural equipment on the flexible and rigid pavements of rural roads in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Andrea has assisted both the private sector as well as municipalities including Cities, Counties and Townships with pavement management plans intended on improving the network condition through pavement maintenance and preservation techniques. She has also worked on research with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), the Local Road Research Board (LRRB) and the National Association of Road Research (NRRA). She is the outgoing president of the Minnesota Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (MAAPT).
Special Projects Manager Brian Koch has more than 15 years of experience in heavy construction, including nearly five at Michels. Brian graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and spent the next decade as a field leader on highway construction projects. He joined Michels foundations operations in 2017 as a Project Manager, leading highway and road construction projects. In 2019, Brian was promoted to Special Projects Manager. In that role, he focuses on managing projects related to the construction of foundations for electrical transmission lines, additionally leading the Regional Minnesota Foundations Office.
SCHEDULE:
- 11:30 am First Presentation (30 minutes)
- 12:00 pm Second Presentation (30 minutes)
- 12:30 pm Annoucement (30 minutes)
All times are in Central Time.
UPCOMING CALENDAR:
- 02/10/2021 Densification, Inc., Braun Intertec
- 03/10/2021 American Engineering Testing, Inc., Mott MacDonald
- 04/14/2021 Itasca Consulting Group
- 05/20/2021 UMN 69th Geotechnical Engineering Conference