DFI Executive Director Encourages Members to Stay Involved
Following recommendations from the State of New Jersey, the federal government of the United States and the World Health Organization, DFI headquarters is closed, and staff is working remotely.
“The health and safety of our members and staff are of utmost importance,” says Theresa Engler, DFI executive director. “We have been focused on monitoring the rapidly changing situation to determine if upcoming DFI events will be postponed.”
At this time, two conferences have been postponed: the DFI-PFSF Piling & Ground Improvement Conference in Sydney, Australia, that was scheduled to take place this week, and Deep Mixing 2020 originally scheduled for June 15-18 in Gdańsk, Poland. Dates in 2021 are being explored for each. DFI also converted two Traveling Lectures in March to webinars. DFI will continue to provide updates on the status of our events at www.dfi.org.
“While rescheduling some events has kept us busy,” adds Engler, “we continue to move forward with online committee meetings, educational webinars, publications and other projects that provide resources to our members and maintain a sense of community.”
Following are links to suggested activities for DFI and industry members to stay connected to the DFI community:
Join Midyear Technical Committee Week
All DFI technical committees are holding online meetings Mar. 30 – Apr. 2 to discuss ongoing projects and provide a forum for new ideas from industry. Please join the calls, explore the committee activities and consider being an active member. Everyone is welcome.
Plan to attend the online ITS Money Webinars
DFI’s Testing & Evaluation Committee’s ITS Money webinar series kicks off on Apr. 1, followed by webinars on June 3 and Aug. 5. The webinars demonstrate how foundation testing conducted during the design phase can provide data that optimizes foundation designs and construction procedures, thereby saving money while increasing the quality of the constructed foundation. They are free for DFI members and government employees; nominal nonmember rate includes DFI individual membership through December 31, 2020. Each provides 1.5 Professional Development Hours (PDHs).
Download the recently released EFFC-DFI Guide to Working Platforms
The free 175-page guide pools experiences from EFFC and DFI members to increase awareness of the state of practice regarding the multiple considerations — including pumps, platforms, vehicles, and personnel — for managing working platforms. There are also many other publications and online proceedings available at www.dfi.org that you may currently have more time to read.
Read the latest issue of Deep Foundations
The Mar/Apr 2020 issue features articles on an active soil nail wall for building stability, cable car network micropile foundations, technical and legal risks for adjacent structures, micropiles to improve stability of factory machining centers, and improving helical pile-to-foundation connections.
Nominate your projects and colleagues for DFI’s 2020 Awards, including the Distinguished Service Award, Outstanding Project Award and the C. William Bermingham Innovation Award, all due Apr. 15.
Prepare an abstract for the 6th International Conference on Grouting and Deep Mixing, Feb. 13-16, 2022, New Orleans, Louisiana. Abstracts are due May 4.
