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Title: Koerner's
Korner |
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Introduction At the outset, thanks go to geosynthetica’s staff and Lara Costa in particular for giving us some space from time-to-time to discuss geosynthetics activities from the Geosynthetic Institute’s perspective. Our activities revolve around Bob Koerner, George Koerner and Grace Hsuan and we will all participate in this outreach program. Generally, additional details will be available on our Website at www.geosynthetic-institute.org. Also, please visit the Website for the latest GSI Newsletter Installment 23 - April
14, 2008 Installment #23 - April 14, 2008 On 27 November 2007 I had three events in Baltimore, Maryland:
The topic of the ASCE meeting was “Basal Reinforcement and Geotextile-Encased Sand Columns. ” On December 7, a lecture on geogrid mechanically stabilized earth walls (SRWs, mainly) was given to McCormick-Taylor, a major consulting company. On December 10, 11, and 12 George Koerner and I gave our "Geosynthetics in Waste Containment" course, "QA/QC of Geosynthetics" course, and the Inspectors Certification Exams, respectively. On December 14 we had a visit by Archie Filshill of CETCO Contracting, and on December 18 I spoke to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) in Boston with the following day being a seminar on “MSE Berms at Landfills” on behalf of Waste Management Inc. in Foxborough, Mass. This last event was given at the New England Patriots Stadium, which was a first for moi. (It obviously did not help the team, which subsequently lost the Superbowl.) January 2008 started off with a visit from Doug Brown of Tensar on the 8th and a GSI/GRI Laboratory Audit from Henry Mock of Golder Associates on the following day. The GSI Directors conference call was on January 10. John Guglielmetti of Du Pont visited us on January 16, Boyd Ramsey of GSE on the 17th, and Dave Chang of Taiwan on the 18th. PRS Mediterranean was at GSI on January 21 and 22, Archie Filshill on the January 23 and Vicky Curtis and Doug Brown of Tensar on the 24th. On February 4 and 5 we had Kelvin Legge and Peter Legg of Aquatan in South Africa with us for meaningful discussions. I was with Propex in Chattanooga for a seminar and discussions on the 6th and 7th and then a site visit to a floating reservoir cover on the 15th. We hosted a Koerner Family Fellows Symposium on February 15th, which was very successful. It is the seventh of these annual events. Finishing the month we had Vic Kaladin and Chris Meehan of the University of Delaware with us on the 25th to discuss work that GSI is sponsoring at Delaware. March 1 – 7 saw us and 1000 of our closest friends in Cancun, Mexico for the GeoAmericas 2008 Conference along with GRI-21, both of which were enormously successful. The organization was superb, as well as the setting. Our congratulations to all involved. We also held our Annual Board of Directors Meeting and three Focus Group Meetings. Following the conference, I lectured to Du Pont in Wilmington on Geosynthetic Durability on March 12. Tony Eith of WMI visited us on the 14th. I gave a workshop on current issues in Irvine, California on March 19, which was hosted by AES Inc. and had 70 California regulators in attendance. The group was awesome in their interest and knowledge. Finally, on April 3 we hosted Mike Balow of Lyondell Bassel and his Italian colleagues for a discussion regarding fPP geomembranes. As evidenced above, the activity level is high and is genuinely appreciated by George, Grace and myself ….Bob Koerner Installment #22 - November 26, 2007 On July 26, 2007 we were visited by Ben Berteau and his colleagues from Ring Industrial Company regarding their EZFlow product. Dr. Dov Leshchinsky of the University of Delaware was our guest on August 3, 2007 and then Rod Powers of the Florida DOT on August 7th. George Koerner and I monitored GROWS Landfill for Waste Management Inc. on August 21st. (George does this routine monthly to service the three contracts we have with WMI). A quick visit to Tensar in Atlanta on August 29th finished the month. On September 5-6, 2007 I lectured to the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental On October 5, 2007 I lectured to the students of Temple University, followed by a lecture at Lafayette College on October 10th, and then Drexel University on the following day. It is very interesting observing the response of these different student groups, although each was a different lecture. October 16, 2007 I gave back-to-back lectures to the Delaware Valley GeoInstitute and on October 18th we hosted Basell Inc. discussing flexible polypropylene geomembranes. On October 23rd I was deposed in Columbus, Ohio on a geosynthetics legal issue. November 5, 2007 I lectured to Earth Tech Consultants. George Koerner and I did field measurements at GROWS landfill on November 14th followed by a visit from PRS Med., Inc. of Israel (our newest GSI Member) on November 15-16, 2007. All-in-all we are extremely busy and it seems as though we have more guests at GSI than ever before. Installment #21 - July 23, 2007 On May 14, 2007 we had an interactive visit from Helmut
Zanzinger head of the GS-lab at SKZ in
Würzburg, Germany. On the
16-17th, I was involved in an annual review of the Civil and Environmental
Engineering
Department at the University of Delaware. On May 21st, we gave GCI-ICP examinations at GSI and on the 31st Sang-Sik Yeo successfully defended
his doctoral dissertation on the topic of testing via the Stepped Isothermal
Method (SIM). Installment #20 - May 11, 2007 February 21-23, 2007 were fully occupied by Drexel University events; Koerner Family Fellows making presentations, Engineer-of-the-Year Presentation, Lecture on the history of Engineering at Drexel, etc. February 28th was an all-day short course by George and Bob Koerner to 30 ACF, Inc. personnel on Geosynthetics in Transportation Systems. The video is really neat. On March 2nd I presented the 1st Stegman Lecture in Atlanta for the American Building Inspectors Association. The topic was walls reinforced with geogrids. Sam Allen of TRI visited us on March 5th and Greg Kiggins of Huesker on March 6th. The U. S. Society on Dams had its annual convention in Philadelphia on March 7th and I (with John Wilkes of CARPI) gave an overview paper on the new ICOLD report which describes 250 large dams worldwide that have used geomembrane waterproofing. Matt Leatherman of Carlisle visited on March 19th and I spoke to the PaDEP in Harrisburg on March 21st. The topic was large engineered berms with geogrid reinforcement. On March 27-28, 2007 I was at the Nutting Engineering Company in Cincinnati giving an in-house seminar and delivering the 3rd H. C. Nutting Lecture. Tony Eith of Waste Management Inc. visited us on March 30th. April 5th took me to Sioux Falls to visit with Gary Kolbasuk of Raven Industries. Their factories and variety of products are very impressive. On April 10-11, George and I gave courses on waste containment design and QC/QA of facilities. Both were nicely attended with laboratory demonstrations throughout. The inspector certification exams were given on April 12th. April 17-18, 2007 I was at Cornell University in Ithaca giving the 11th Shiffman Lecture. On April 23-26, 2007 I was in Würzburg Germany on behalf of Helmut Zanzinger of SKZ participating in a Geosynthetics Lifetime Symposium. Off to Denver and Colorado State University on May 3-4 to deliver the 2nd Distinguished Lecture on the topic of Geosynthetics in Agriculture/Farming Systems. Hopefully this will be a new joint venture for GSI and CSU. Lastly, Paula and I drove to Lake George in New York State for the annual waste conference which attracted 700-people! I made two presentations on May 7, 2007; engineered berms and bioreactor landfills, but the real impact was on electrical integrity surveys by Bob Phaneuf, Ian Peggs, Sam Allen, and others. As son George says, “Life is Large”! go to next installment (July 23) Installment #19 -
February 20, 2007 NOVEMBER 2006 Installment 18 - November 30, 2006 September 14, 2006 George Koerner and I continued his 3-projects of landfill monitoring (George does this routine each month). A landfill permit application in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania was the activity on September 20th followed by a GSI Board of Directors call on the next day. We have such teleconference calls about each 3-4 months. On September 27-28, 2006 I went to Memphis, Tennessee to visit Ring Industrial Group and their EZ Flow® drainage system. George did several experiments and the resulting GRI Standards will move into ASTM at their next meeting. October 5, 2006 I gave a lecture to Drexel students on engineering design using geosynthetics. Back to Wilkes Barre on October 10, 2006. GSE had its one-day Seminar in Princeton, New Jersey on October 12th. The National Engineering Academy Annual Meeting was in Washington, DC on October 15-17, 2006. I gave a base reinforcement lecture at he University of Delaware on October 19th followed by another landfill visit on the 25th. Doug Brown of Tensar visited us on October 27th. Finally, a series of 2-lectures to Drexel students on October 31st (Terzaghi and base reinforcement). November 2-3, 2006 was the Central Pennsylvania Section of ASCE’s Geotechnical Conference where I presented creep by various methods. A one-day trip to Ft. Lauderdale to speak at Republic Waste’s engineering meeting was successful. On November 14-15, Dick Stulgis and Allan Marr hosted me at their office in Westchester, Massachusetts. Lastly, a lecture at the University of Delaware on the Life of Karl Terzaghi on November 17, 2006 was just plain fun. go to next installment (February 20) Installment 17 - September 16, 2006 Since my last correspondence on May 20, 2006 a lot of activity has occurred. A May 28th meeting in the Czech Republic was interesting but didn’t materialize into a new member. The lecture to the Corps of Engineers in Philadelphia on June 13th went better. George Koerner conducted Focus Group Meetings at ASTM in Toronto on June 14th. A “triple-header” in Dallas was conducted June 18-20, 2006, i.e., (i) PolyFlex visit, (ii) Geo-Institute Meeting, and (iii) a meeting with Dave Daniel finalizing the 2nd Edition of QA/QC of Waste Facilities. ASCE Press will have it out by year’s end. The month of July was focused on setting up GRI-20 Conference set for January 18, 2007 in Washington, DC. The web site, www.geoshow.info, has the (nearly) final program. Geosynthetics can solve a part of the terrorism issue! August 3-6, 2006 saw us in the Chicago area with STS meetings. On August 1st, I spoke about geosynthetics to high school and middle school teachers in the local area... it was neat. Basell paid us a visit on August 10th to discuss the polypropylene geomembrane specification. On August 29th we met with Dr. El-Sherif to discuss fiber optics in geosynthetics, followed by a lecture to the National Academy of Engineers in Washington, DC to see if geosynthetics inroads can be made at this level. Meetings with Waste Management and their
consultant, ERG, began the month of September and this was followed by
a “double-header” in Sacramento
on September 5-8, 2006; (i) GEI on geosynthetics in dams, and (ii) the California
Water Boards on waste containment issues. The latter was to 80 regulators and
I must say that the questions asked were among the best I have had regarding
many sensitive geosynthetics issues. Lastly, the September GSI Newsletter/Report
is out and can be viewed by clicking
here. Installment 16 - May 20, 2006 The last two weeks of April are “among the missing” in that I lost my date book and it is truly worse than losing a wallet. One has the sinking feeling that you should be somewhere, or that someone is coming to visit you not knowing until the event is either lost or upon you... yuk! Nevertheless, a trip to AES
in Irvine, California on May 2-3, 2006 was excellent. Kris Khilnani
was my host to the California
owner and regulatory community and the seminar was very interactive.
The trip also gave me the opportunity to give the GRI-ICP examinations
and to have a side visit with Ron Belanger and Cora Queja of
Precision Laboratories in Anaheim. The weekend of May 6-7 was
my 50th class
reunion from undergrad work at Drexel. For what its worth , I am
now a “Golden
Dragon”. May 8, 2006 I lectured at RPI to Dave Suits’ geosynthetic
class and the ASCE Section of Albany/Troy, New York. The following
day a lecture was given to the NY-DOT and then on to Lake George,
New York
for a NY-DEC
Solid Waste Conference. Bob Phaneuf and his colleagues have
a superb ongoing event. go to next installment (September 16) Installment 15 - April 11, 2006 February 22nd saw a visit from Basell Inc. during which we discussed the to-be-reissued fPP and fPP-R specification. It will be back up by this summer. On February 24th, Drexel honored me with their Engineer-of-the-Year Award. It’s really cool getting an award from your “home-team.” On February 27th I lectured to Huesker GmbH in Cancun, Mexico, to their worldwide partners. Jürgen Kastner suggested a past-present-future presentation which was fun to put together. On March 3rd Jan Retslaff of Colbond visited us. A trip to Chicago resulted in visits to Weaver Boos Consultants (Mark Sieracke’s new firm) and discussions mainly on our new inspector’s certification program. This was followed by an STS visit (Jeff Blum and colleagues) on a variety of topics. Dr. Sibel Paruvicat of Lehigh University and her students visited Grace Husan and GSI on March 17th. A trip to Milan, Italy, from March 18th to the 22nd was very active with two lectures at the University of Milan organized by Daniele Cazzuffi and then major talks with CARPI and FLAG orchestrated by Alberto Scuero and his team. Back home we had a follow-up visit from Bob Butala of Basell on March 27th and then drove to give the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality a lecture in Hopewell, Virginia at Waste Management’s Atlantic Landfill. Tony Eith of Waste was the co-speaker and host. Archie Filshill and Tim Rafter of CETCO Contracting visited us on March 31st. Back across the “big pond” again on April 1st through 6th to give lectures on specifications to NAUE in Lüebbecke, Germany (Georg Heerten and Kent von Maubeuge hosts) and then on to Würzburg for a Conference on Lifetime Prediction. This was organized by Helmut Zanzinger of SKZ and was very successful. Furthermore, the SKZ Laboratories are “awesome.” Home on April 7th for a visit from Jan van Boldric of Colbond to end an extremely active first quarter of the year. go to next installment (May 20) Installment 14 - February 27, 2006 On December 14-16, 2005 we held the combined NAGS 2005/GRI 19 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The cooperation between the two groups was seamless and the conference was indeed successful. Writeups are in geosynthetica and other outlets. A CD of the papers is available through GSI or NAGS. The Focus Group Meetings were substantive and all tasks are now completed. Also, decided upon was for GSI to launch a CQA Inspectors Certification Program. It has been a major effort right up until our in-house courses on January 19, 20, 26 and 27, 2006. On the 27th we gave the first examination which went quite well. The GSI website has more information in regard to this program (acronym of GCI-ICP). A visit by Penn DOT on February 2 was significant in that they want to write geogrid specifications and test methods. We will cooperate by sharing our information in this regard. A visit to GSE in Houston on February 7 was significant and it was followed by a presentation to Allied Waste Systems in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 8. Allied is interested in our accreditation and certification efforts and it was a pleasure to present this information to them. We (George K and I) followed this by participating in the ASTM D-35 Meeting in Phoenix. George nicely presented GCL internal shear testing at a workshop and we also had significant discussions at both of the GCL and Geogrid Focus Group Meetings. On February 15-16, 2007 I went to Tampa to present three lectures to Richard Teddar and his very involved Florida Department of Environmental Protection Group. It's fascinating for me to observe the difference between state regulatory EPA and DOT departments insofar as their geosynthetic awareness is concerned. In this regard, Florida is superb in both areas. go to next installment (April 11) Installment 13 - December 7, 2005 On October 27, 2005, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Senior Class at Drexel on the difference between analysis and design, illustrating the issue with our Veneer Stability presentation. The lecture can be adapted nicely in this regard. Let me know if anyone wants it. October 31 we went to GSE in Houston having a number of discussions on various topics. The following day was a double header with lectures to Waste Management (geotextile tubes for dewatering) and Golder Associates (landfill stability designs). November 2 was the date of a ISO/ASTM Hydraulics Workshop organized by Sam Allen of TRI. My wrap-up presentation on the need for harmonization of test methods and specifications drew the ire of several European delagates. Even conceptually this is going to be difficult. George Koerner gave a transmissivity lecture the following day. On that Friday we hosted the entire group at GSI showing them the laboratory before they left for home. On November 11, 2005, I visited Republic Industries for a lecture and discussions on several topics. November 14 th was the date of a Corps of Engineers lecture on MSE Walls (one design calls for a 55 foot high SRW). On Nov.31-Dec 4, 2005 I went to Seville, Spain for a CEDEX Symposium of Hydraulic Structures. CEDEX is a governmental agency charged with the safety of the 1,500 dams in Spain, of which 1,050 are problematic. My lecture was on lifetime prediction of covered and exposed geomembranes. I think it went well, but all the lectures were in Spanish except mine. That's uncomfortable and a clear deficiency on my part. The symposium offered the opportunity of several meetings with member companies Carpi and Atarfil. And yes, the Spanish sure know how to live...dining and drinking has risen to a true art-form in this delightful city... On to our GRI-19 Conference in Las Vegas next week to end a wonderful 2005 year....Cheers to all !!!!...BobK go to next installment (February 27) Installment 12 - October 19, 2005 A visit by TC Nicolon (Tom Stephens and colleagues) on geotextile tubes occurred on August 29, 2005. This area is now targeting both dewatering and decontamination of sludges and waste waters. September 7 and 8, 2005 was the annual PA-DER Conference in State College, PA. Sam Allen of TRI paid us a visit on September 14, 2005 to discuss myriad activities. I presented a seminar to duPont Remediation (John Guglielmetti’s Group) on Veneer Stability on September 15, 2005. Visits by Tony Eith of Waste Management and Dov Leshchinsky of University of Delaware on September 16, 2005 were both fruitful. Kim Warren of University of North Carolina (formerly Arkansas) visited us on September 19, 2005. We participated in a September 26, 2005 seminar on reinforced walls at landfills hosted by Te-Yang Soong of CTI Assoc. It was in Detroit and was very successful. Sibel Pervakat of Lehigh paid us a visit with her student on September 29th. Dennis Koerner (no relation) and Al Schnecky of Ring Industries were at GSI on October 4, 2005. The key words here are “geofoam gravel!” The National Academy of Engineering hosted its annual meeting in Washington, DC on October 9-11, 2005. The thrust of the event was focused on Engineering Education in the 21st Century. October 13, 2005 was a double-header in New York City. I gave the 2005 Burmister Lecture at Columbia University at noon and then a lecture to the New York Metropolitan Section of ASCE in the evening. Topics were landfill stability and SRW repairs, respectively. go to next installment (December 7) Installment 11 - August 30, 2005 On July 20, 2005 we had an in-house visit from BBA Nonwovens, wherein Bill Hawkins and colleagues discussed future geotextile activities. The following day George Koerner and I were with Waste Management at their local landfills. This was followed by a visit from Archie and Kelly Filshill of InterGeo with news of the recent purchase of their company by CETCO. To finish the month, Helmut Zanzinger of SKZ in Wurtzburg, Germany visited describing the European CE Marking process for Geomembranes. Helmut is also setting up a conference in Wurtzberg for next April. August 3, 2005 saw us give a set of three GCL lectures to Earth Tech Corp., with Kevin McKeon as host. Professor Wayne Hsieh of GSI-Taiwan visited us on August 4-5, 2005 to discuss their programs. An interesting new product called EZ Flow (HDPE corrugated pipe; geofoam gravel; thin geonet wrap) was introduced to us by Al Schnitkey of Ring Ind. Group. Geofoam “Gravel” is the keyword in this regard! On August 17, 2005 we had a visit by Jim Thomas and Ken Pearson of ASTM to discuss matters of mutual interest between our two organizations. A lecture on slope stability was given to URS on August 26, 2005 with John Volk as host, followed by a lecture on geogrid reinforced Segmental Retaining Walls to the Philadelphia District Corps of Engineers on August 22, 2005. “Poison Ivy” prevented a month-end trip to visit with Dick Stulgis and Alan Marr of GeoTesting Express. Let’s hope September is better in this regard. go to next installment (October 19) Installment 10 - July 15, 2005 June 16-17, 2005 had George Koerner travel to Reno, Nevada, for ASTM D35 in which the GT/GG and GM/Resin Groups of GSI met, along with the Annual GAI-LAP meeting. George also facilitated the Endurance Task Groups within ASTM. George presented a draft TRM (erosion control) specification to ECTC in Washington, DC on June 22, 2005. Bob Koerner was off to Carlisle Geosynthetics on June 23, 2005 presenting our work to date on fPP geomembranes. Also, our entire effort on lifetime prediction of exposed geomembranes was discussed. Bob presented a 1-day seminar to the California Water Board in Riverside, CA on June 28, 2005. A major topic was GCLs, but other issues were discussed as well. It is very rewarding to see a large group of regulators so “wired-into” the geosynthetics technology; questions were fast and furious. July 11, 2005 Bob presented a series of four presentations to Golder Assoc., in Nottingham, England. Russell Jones was his host and, other than drainage systems, landfill liners and covers are tracking similarly in the U.K. and the U.S. The following day Bob presented the keynote lecture to the 2nd UK-IGS Conference at Nottingham-Trent University. The theme was GSs in Hydraulic Systems and Bob’s lecture was on Dam Waterproofing and Geomembrane Durability (abstract). go to next installment (August 30) Installment 9 - June 6 On May 13, 2005, I presented the 10th T. H. Wu
Lecture at Ohio State University. The topic was a retrospective on
Solid Waste Landfill Failures,
with the “bottom-line” that a student or designer must be
constantly aware as to the location of the liquids either in the waste,
in the liner system, and/or in the foundation system. go to next installment (July 15) Installment 8 - May 9
On April 18, 2005 a series of GCL presentations
was made to Republic Waste in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and broadcast
to their various field
sites. We discussed panel separation, broken needles, and veneer slides.
On April 22, 2005 (Earth Day) I made a presentation at Rutgers on the
subject of “Geotextile Tubes for Dewatering and Decontamination.” The latter is an important new area for cleanup of river and harbor sediments. go to next installment (June 6) APRIL 2005 On March 24-25, 2005 we presented a lecture on “Geotextile
Tubes: Erosion Control, Dewatering and Decontamination” to the
ASCE/PennDOT Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania to about 350 attendees.
This is quite
an event with many well-known speakers. The highlight was Dr. Ralph Peck,
who at age 93 held everyone spellbound with this dinner lecture on “Tunnels
I Have Loved”! go to next installment (May 9) March 2005 Dates have been set for the next series of GSI short courses. Each course is a one-day event held at GSI near the Philadelphia International Airport. Course #1 Course #2 Course #3 Course #4 go to next installment (April 15) Engineer’s Week was big in Philadelphia
with events spread throughout February 19-26, 2005. Mark Adler (JPL Project
Manager of Mars’ Landing and spectacular photos) was Drexel’s
recipient of Engineer-of-the-Year. go to next installment (March 23) February 2005 As usual, the past few weeks have been active beginning with presentations to Solmax’s International Installers Meeting in Cancun, Mexico. This very interesting and interested group met every morning February 18-20, 2005 to discuss the nuances of the GRI-Generic Specifications. The host, Bob Denis, and I tag-teamed the presentations with Bob speaking to the group in French. It is always a joy working with Bob in this regard. While there are indeed differences in North American and European practices, it was felt that the HDPE, LLDPE and seam specifications are on the right track and are gaining traction around the world. At the invitation of Professor Mike Duncan, I had the opportunity of being the Keynote Lecturer at the Annual Meeting of the Center for Geotechnical Practice at Virginia Tech University on February 23-24, 2005. The topic was Segmental Retaining Walls; Practice, Performance and Repairs. Of course, the “repairs part” of the lecture plays into ground modification techniques which are the forte of many of the Center’s member organizations. Meanwhile back at the shop, George Koerner has sent out this year’s GAI-LAP proficiency samples and is busy working on various GCL tests and a new set of flexible wall permeameters. Lastly, we welcome GSI’s newest member, CTI and Associates, Inc., of Brighton, Michigan. Our contacts are Dr. Te-Yang Soong and Mr. James Walker -- Welcome! go to next installment (March
17) GRI-18, which was held in conjunction with GeoFrontiers on January 26, 2005 in Austin, Texas, is now history. There were sixty-nine in-progress papers which are included in the conference CD. They are evenly split between Transportation/Geotechnical in the morning, and Geoenvironmental/Hydraulics in the afternoon. Each session had its respective panel of experts who counterpointed the R & D in-progress papers against their own knowledge of the literature, and then projected into the future their ideas on R & D insofar as research needs. Let me dwell on these latter issues. In the Transportation/Geotechnical session, specific needs were identified as follows: Walls and Slopes
Foundations
Pavements
In the Geoenvironmental/Hydraulics session, specific needs were identified as follows: Landfilling
Hydraulic
The oral presentation of papers and the prepared remarks by the panel members were then followed by open discussion from the audience. Here the tone of the discussion somewhat changed from highly focused research needs (as just described), to more general issues and concerns. Some that were expressed by the overflow crowd of 150 people (we apologize for the room being much too small) are the following:
go to next installment (February 28) January 2005 For the past two weeks George Koerner and I have been conducting one-day short courses here at the GSI facility. (We are about four miles from the Philadelphia International Airport.) The over-riding asset being that we can take the class participants directly into the laboratory and demonstrate the requisite tests that were just presented during the lecture. This way there are frequent breaks allowing the participants stretch-time and a cup of coffee. Our conference room is set up for about 20-partipants classroom-style and these four courses were essentially full each day. On January 6, 2005 we presented “Geosynthetics in Transportation/Geotechnical Engineering,” which is design and performance oriented. Separation, reinforcement, filtration and drainage are emphasized. The following day, we teamed with Professor Dov Leshchinsky of the University of Delaware and focused completely on “Geosynthetic Reinforced Walls and Slopes.” Dov added tremendously and demonstrated his excellent computer software throughout. • MSEW for walls On January 13, 2005, George and I shifted gears into the geoenvironmental area with a course titled “Geosynthetics in Waste Containment” and then on the following day “Quality Control and Quality Assurance of Geosynthetics.” Thus, each group of two-courses (given back-to-back on Thursdays and Fridays) forms a set. For participants who travel by air to Philadelphia for the courses, they usually take one set or the other. The locals within driving distance pick and choose courses as they see fit. The courses are well received, come with a complete set of notes, are accompanied by a super lunch (thanks to Paula Koerner), and are very inexpensive ($100 for GSI members and $200 for others). We will do them again in August, so please mark the tentative dates. GSs in Transportation -
August 4, 2005 See “you-all” in Austin at GeoFrontiers and GRI-18. go to next installment (February 1 - GRI-18 Report) Installment 1 - January 1January 2005 promises to be incredibly active with four, one-day short courses on Geosynthetics in Transportation (January 6th), Geosynthetics in Walls and Slopes (January 7th), Geosynthetics in Waste Containment (January 13th), and QA/QC of Geosynthetics (January 14th). This is followed by Geo-Frontiers in Austin, Texas with activity centered around the GRI-18 Conference on Wednesday, January 26, 2005. This conference-within-a-conference will be followed by the GSI Annual Meeting in the evening. The GSI Board of Directors will meet on January 25, 2005 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. GSI operates from a set of Focus Groups where activities such as test methods and specifications often begin. The meetings set for January are as follows: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 (Austin) Wednesday, January 26, 2005 (Austin) Thursday, January 27, 2005 (Austin) Thursday, January 27, 2005 (at ASTM in Atlanta)! Lastly, George and Bob Co-chair ASTM D35.02 on Durability which George will handle in Atlanta on January 27-28, 2005. In addition to the task group meetings, George will participate in a Torsional Rigidity meeting to see if this GRI Standard should move on the ASTM in the future. With five trips to Europe already confirmed for 2005, we Philadelphians are hoping that US Airways exists (direct flights to 18 European cities) at least for the current year! |
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