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 24 - July 27, 2008
Installment 23 - April
14, 2008
Installment 22 - November
26, 2007
Installment 21 - July
23, 2007
Installment 20 - May
11, 2007
Installment 19 - February
20, 2007
Installment 18 -
Installment 17 -
Installment 16 -
Installment 15
Installment 14 (GRI-19
Report)
Installment 13
Installment 12
Installment 11
Installment 10
Installment 9
Installment 8 - May 9
Installment 7 - April 15
Installment 6 - March 23
Installment 5 - March 17
Installment 4 - February 28
Installment 3 - February 1 (GRI-18
Report)
Installment 2 - January 18
Installment 1 - January 1
On 21-26 April 2008, I presented a keynote address to 500 attendees at a Spanish government conference in Palma, Mallorca. My topic was “Landfill Liners: Past, Present, and Future." A paper is available.
Pat Carpenter of CETCO then visited us at the Geosynthetic Institute (GSI) on April 28.
May 4-7 saw us at Sagamore, New York for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Solid Waste Conference. My presentation was on geotextile tubes to dewater and decontaminate polluted river and harbor sediments. This conference is “a must” for people in the northeast and mid-atlantic states. Scott Luettich and Steve Poirier of Geosyntec visited us on May 14 and subsequently they re-joined GSI--welcome back! Robert Armstrong visited GSI on May 15 to discuss EVAL geomembranes. Rich Weggel of Drexel visited on May 16 to discuss a joint project with George Koerner (of GSI) on the “hanging bag test” for geotextile tubes. On May 21-22, I was at the University of Delaware doing a review of their Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. On May 29-30, I traveled to Hershey, Pennsylvania to present a lecture on “Basal Reinforcement and Geosynthetic Encased Stone/Sand Piles” at the annual ASCE/PennDOT Conference. This conference is rapidly becoming a meeting of all state DOT’s in the mid-atlantic region.
June 3-4 presented a opportunity to go visit Ring Industrial in Memphis, Tennessee. Their work and the related efforts at the University of Memphis on “geofoam gravel” is very impressive. On June 11 I gave a unique presentation on personal investments and, in particular, how to get nontaxed retirement money out of 401Ks without paying taxes. People tell me it went well but I doubt if it is the beginning of a new career. On June 12, I presented a workshop to Waste Management Inc. in Williamsburg, Virginia on thirty pressing issues involving geosynthetics in waste containment. On June 18, George and I gave our “QA/QC of Geosynthetics” course at GSI followed by inspector certification examinations.
Fortunately, my schedule loosens up a bit now and I look forward to a more relaxed summer. I hope that works for others as well!
- Bob Koerner, Geosynthetic Institute
On 27 November 2007 I had three events in Baltimore, Maryland:
*
a visit to Tenax’s plant with related discussions;
* a visit with the local Corps of Engineers;
* and a lecture to the Baltimore
Section of ASCE.
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
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
Regulations (PaDER)
in Harrisburg on engineered berms and then went to Manchester, England
on September 18-22 to lecture
to the British Geomembrane
Association and the Environment Agency of
the United Kingdom. The British are completely informed and knowledgeable
in almost every aspects of geosynthetics. Most sessions end up being
"my learning experience." The end of the month was the annual National
Academy of Engineering meeting in Washington, DC.
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.
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).
On June 1, 2007, I lectured to NTH in the Detroit, Michigan area. They
had a number of their clients present and the topics were very focused
and informative. On June 6th, I was at the Delaware Solid Waste Authority’s
Wilmington-area landfill and lectured on various topics. On the 8th,
we had a GSI Board of Director’s teleconference call. Aqua-PA visited
us on June 12th followed by a “double-header” of Gary Willibey
of Skaps in the morning and Bill Hawkins/Frank Holloway of Fiberweb in
the afternoon. That busy week ended with Archie Filshill of CETCO Contracting
visiting us on the 15th.
On June 20th, I visited Kevin McKeon of Earthtech and then Vicky Curtis
of Tensar visited us on the 21st. Tensar has, among other activities,
a new tri-axial reinforcement geogrid. We gave GCI-ICP exams on June
25th and had Weilin Hwan of Rutgers with us on the 26th. George Koerner
did the ASTM D35 “bit” in Norfolk, Virginia from the 27th-29th
where he held his annual GAI-LAP meeting.
On July 9th Jim Olsta and Chuck Hornaday of CETCO visited us with active
discussions being the result and on July 20th George and I went to Waste
Management and daylighted George’s three active projects at their
GROWS and Tullytown landfills. As George likes to say, “Life is
Large!”
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)
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)
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.
go to next installment (November 30)
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.
May 16-17, 2006 was occupied by serving on an Advisory Committee
to the Civil and Environmental
Engineering Department of the University of Delaware. In
my opinion it is an excellent but greatly underrated department
and university. Lastly, visits to GSI by Gary Willibey
of
ADS and Sam Allen of TRI on
May 18, 2006 were enjoyable and of significance.
go to next installment (September
16)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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.
May 20, 2005, we had a nice visit by Jeremiah Boorsma of AccuGeo Liner,
Inc. and learned of their continuing activity in the geomembrane business.
They were one of the original members of GSI/GRI. On May 25, 2005 we
visited two dams with the Philadelphia District Corps of Engineers and
John Wilkes of CARPI, USA. The existing one is functioning as designed,
the intake tower is a pending project.
June 2, 2005, was the day of the Koerner Research Symposium sponsored
by ASCE, ASME and SES Mechanics Divisions in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The organizers were Drs. Hoe Ling of Columbia and Victor Kaliakin of
Delaware. Fourteen papers were presented and it was heartwarming to see
that geosynthetics has fully entered into rigorous analytic formulations
and analyses. There are presently abstracts only, but shortly there will
be a hard bound book.
go to next installment (July 15)
Installment 8
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.
A quick trip to Manchester, England was made with a Naue Geogrid Workshop
on their Secugrid-products on April 25, 2005. This was followed by
a British Geomembrane Association Seminar in which I made two presentations.
Veneer Stability and GSI Specifications. At the same meeting Rob Marshall
of the U.K. Environment
Agency (EA) told the audience that EA has fully
endorsed our specifications for HDPE and LLDPE geomembranes and included
them in its technical guidance documents (we are simply delighted in
this regard).
May 3, 2005 George Koerner and I had a nice visit from Enrique Saavedra
of SL Chile who described their present and future activities. May
5, 2005 I spoke to Waste Management’s Eastern Group in Orlando,
Florida on GCL issues. Again, separation, broken needles, and veneer
slides were the topics. The following day we joined a Waste Management
Group at the Philadelphia Section ASCE Social which honored Tony Eith
as Philadelphia Engineer-of-the-Year! Sincere congratulations go to
Tony in this regard.
go to next installment (June 6)
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”!
March 30-31, 2005 was the time of the ESD Waste Conference in Lansing,
Michigan. A one-day course on “Geosynthetics in Landfill Design,” preceding the conference keynote lecture on “Landfill Failures” was
given. Dr. Debbie Reinhart was also a keynote lecturing on “Bioreactor
Landfills.”
A productive visit to Tenax in Baltimore on April 4, 2005 began the process
of integrating triplanar geonets into the draft specification on biplanar
geonets. This was followed by an Atlanta trip to lecture at Tensar (“Problems
with SRWs”), and a visit with SKAPS. It also provided an opportunity
to visit with Rob Swan of SGI at his facility. Rob’s health is
on all of our minds and we wish him the very best insofar as a speedy
recovery is concerned.
And then there’s the issue of “GCL Panel Separation in the
Field.” Meetings on April 11-12, 2005 were very significant in
that all of the GCL manufacturers were with us at GSI and we hammered
out White Paper #5 (currently available) and furthered the GCL Specification
(currently being reviewed by the manufacturers). This activity has taken
a tremendous effort by all of us at GSI, as well as many others including
the manufacturers. They should all be commended in coming together in
this regard.
go to next installment (May 9)
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
Geosynthetics in Transportation/Geotechnical Applications
Event Date: 8/4/2005
Course #2
Geosynthetics in Reinforced Retaining Walls Including Computer Design
Event Date: 8/5/2005
Course #3
Geosynthetics in Waste Containment Applications
Event Date: 8/11/2005
Course #4
Quality Control/Quality Assurance of Geosynthetics
Event Date: 8/12/2005
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.
A trip to Chicago to visit CETCO was very significant with respect to
GCL issues. A draft White Paper on panel separation was the main topic.
A follow-up meeting at GSI set for April 12, 2005 (with all GCL manufacturers)
will hopefully finalize the White Paper and then we can move on to the
generic specification.
Alberto Scuero of CARPI visited us on March 11, 2005; the main topic
being a major I-COLD report on geomembrane use in large dams. Alberto
is the lead author with Daniele Cazzuffi and I as primary reviewers.
It contains over 300 case histories on this exciting (and largely untapped)
market for geosynthetics.
Dhani Narejo of GSE was with us on March 14-16, 2005 to work with George
Koerner on a direct shear data base that will be available to members
in about 6-8 weeks.
George and I are off to visit with Waste Management to discuss several
of the field projects he is working on at WMI’s GROWS and Tullytown
Landfills.
Lastly, and most importantly, let’s all congratulate and wish Dr.
Dave Daniel the very best in his new position as President of the University
of Texas at Dallas. You can view the announcement at the following address:
www.utdallas.edu/daniel/
go
to next installment (March 23)
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
• restrictions on backfill soils
• specifications on acceptable fine grained soils
• designing to include uncertainty (risk assessment)
• adequate drainage designs
Foundations
• geosynthetics used in unsaturated soils
• electrically conductive wick drains
• horizontal drains for hydraulic falls
• intelligent geosynthetics for monitoring
Pavements
• low maintenance drainage systems
• parallel drain lines
• reverse filter grates
• adequate moisture barriers
• better understanding of soil-geosynthetic interaction
• establishment of benefit/cost behavior
In the Geoenvironmental/Hydraulics session, specific
needs were identified as follows:
Landfilling
• geonet friction and normal stress behavior
• final cover design with respect to geocomposites and geomembranes
• design of exposed geomembrane covers
• effect of gas pressure on cover stability
• benefit/cost of electrical leak location
• installation damage during construction
Hydraulic
• geomembrane batten connections for impoundments
• plastic pipe performance under high stresses
• leakage under high hydraulic heads
• residual stresses in HDPE pipe
• geotextile tube dewatering and decontamination
• residual stresses in HDPE pipe
• geopipe design bridging voids
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:
• better intellectual knowledge transfer
• smoother implementation techniques
• publication of more synthesis documents
• more activity in community venues
• more design manuals (like the pipe industry)
• need to codify standard applications
• much more education and outreach in general
In summary, the GRI-18 Conference was an exploratory trial to try to look beyond
the horizon as to what R & D needs are necessary to propel geosynthetics
to the next level. As just listed, there are some “gems” included
and thanks go to all involved (speakers, panelists, and audience) for sharing.
George Koerner, Grace Hsuan, and Marilyn Ashley did a super job in organization
and putting the papers together. Focus is now on the next
conference (GRI-19) in which we will team with NAGS. The combined conference
will be held in Las Vegas on December 14-16, 2005. Please look for advertisements
and details in the very near future.
go to next installment (February 28)
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
• ReSlope for slopes
• ReSSA for slopes and 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
GSs in Walls/Slopes - August 5, 2005
GSs in Waste Containment - August
11, 2005
QC/QA of Geosynthetics - August
12, 2005
See “you-all” in Austin at GeoFrontiers
and GRI-18.
go to next installment (February 1 - GRI-18
Report)
Installment 1 -
January 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)
(a) GCL Group: Part I - 4:00 to 5:00 PM
[Note: This is in addition to Meeting (f) below in Atlanta]
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 (Austin)
(b) Agency and Associate Members - 8:00 to 9:00 PM
[Note: This is a change from Thursday noon]
Thursday, January 27, 2005 (Austin)
(c) Consultants and Testing Laboratories - 8:30 to 9:30 AM
(d) Geotextile and Geogrid Groups - 9:30 to 10:30 AM
(e) Geomembrane and Resin Groups - 10:30 to 11:30 AM
Thursday, January 27, 2005 (at ASTM in Atlanta)!
(f) GCL Group: Part II - 7:30 to 9:00 PM
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!
go to next installment (January 18)
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