February 8, 2010 - LRFD Drilled Shaft Webinar
Today Naresh Samtani presented an ASCE Webinar entitled "Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) for Geotechnical Engineering Features, Deep Foundations - Drilled Shafts". Information on this LRFD webinar series is available from the ASCE. The next time the Deep Foundations series will be offered is in early June.
April 15, 2009 - LRFD for Substructures Article #3 - MSE Wall Pullout Resistance Factors
Naresh Samtani has published a new LRFD article entitled: LRFD Article 3: LRFD for Substructures - Calibration of Resistance Factors for Pullout in MSE Walls Based on Fitting With ASD. This article dovetails nicely with his work as a member of the team revising the FHWA MSE Wall Manual as described below. View this article and more LRFD related content at our LRFD Page or view all of our downloads.
December 31, 2008 - Happy New Year and Looking Forward
Happy New Year to our clients, colleagues and visitors! 2008 has been a busy year (hence no news posts since May!) and we have some exciting updates for the coming year!
New FHWA MSE Wall Manual
The 2001 FHWA manual titled “Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls and Reinforced Soil Slopes” has been the benchmark document for design and construction of MSE walls throughout the United States and in many countries. FHWA is currently updating this manual to incorporate the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) approach as well as new applications for MSE walls such as shored and stable feature systems. NCS is part of the Ryan R. Berg team that has been retained by the FHWA for the manual revision. The key team members are Ryan R. Berg of Ryan R. Berg and Associates (RRBA) in Minnesota, Barry R. Christopher of Christopher Consultants in Atlanta and Naresh C. Samtani of NCS. At the current time, it is anticipated that the new manual will be available for general distribution in late summer/early fall of 2009.
AASHTO LRFD Service Limit State Calibration
All transportation projects with federal funding are required to implement the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) methodology as included in the AASHTO Bridge Design Specifications. At the current time the LRFD procedures have been calibrated for Strength I limit state. NCS is part of a team led by Modjeski and Masters (M&M) (www.modjeski.com) to develop new design codes that incorporate a rational approach based on service limit state (SLS) for durability and performance of bridge systems, subsystems, components, and details that are critical to reaching the expected service life and assuring an actual service life beyond 100 years. Led by Dr. John M. Kulicki, PE, of M&M, the key team members include Dr. Wagdy G. Wassef, PE, of M&M, Dr. Dennis R. Mertz, PE, of University of Delaware, Dr. Andrzej S. Nowak, PE, of University of Nebraska and Dr. Naresh C. Samtani, PE, of NCS. The results of this work will be available in early 2012. The project is funded as part of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) of the Transportation Research Board (TRB).
ASCE Webinars on Geotechnical Topics in LRFD
Starting January 2009, Naresh Samtani and Jerry DiMaggio will present a series of webinars for the GeoInstitute of ASCE on a variety of geotechnical topics based on Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) methodology. The first offering is a two-part webinar titled Load & Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) for Geotechnical Engineering Features with Part 1 being on Friday, January 16, 2009 and Part 2 on Friday, January 30. More info is available at the webinar website or download an informational brochure.
North American Steel Sheet Piling Association (NASSPA) University Professors Workshop
An NCS team that includes Jerry A. DiMaggio, PE, was chosen by the North American Steel Sheet Piling Association (NASSPA) to develop a University Professors Workshop (UPW). The primary goal of the UPW “is to assist educators in finding the tools and resources needed to successfully conduct classes in steel sheet piling, thereby producing more knowledgeable young professionals in relation to steel sheet pile wall design and construction.” It is anticipated that the UPW will be offered by NASSPA in late Summer or early Fall of 2009.
 NCS Welcomes Tyler Carstensen!
In June of 2008, NCS hired Tyler Carstensen to the position of Engineering Intern. Tyler is a Junior at the University of Arizona, majoring in Mining Engineering with an expected graduation date of May 2010. In his short 6-months with NCS, he has already been a valuable asset to our company and we look forward to great things him. Welcome aboard Tyler!
Over 7,500 Downloads
Since the creation of our downloads section, there have been over 7,500 downloads of our technical papers, presentations and other files. The Soils and Foundations Manual continues to be the most popular item, accounting for more than 50% of the total downloads.
May 19, 2008 - New Photo Gallery and Project Updates
NCS has added a photo gallery to our website and drastically improved the user experience for browsing photos from our unique projects! We also modified our menu to make the downloads more accessible in addition to the new photo gallery. On a side note, we have passed the 5,500 mark for downloads of our papers, presentations and miscellaneous other information from our site.
Project pages that have been updated with many additional photos include the I-10 Widening Project (St. Mary's to 29th), the SR 89a Banjo Bill Rockfall Containment Project (recently completed in April of this year), and the Mt. Lemmon emergency wall repairs project. In the coming weeks we hope to add several more project profiles along with the corresponding photos.
May 2, 2008 - New Office Location! And updated LRFD Policy Memoranda
As-of Thursday May 1, 2008, NCS is located at 1790 E. River Road, Suite 205, Tucson, AZ 85718. Our phone and fax numbers have not changed, and our primary contact address for contract correspondence and other official business is still 640 W. Paseo Rio Grande, Tucson, AZ 85737.
NCS LRFD Policy Memo 1 - Development of Factored Bearing Resistance Chart by a Geotechnical Engineer for Use by a Bridge Engineer to Size Spread Footings on Soils Based on Service and Strength Limit States has been revised as of 3/18/2008. Sorry for the delay in posting the revision.
March 6, 2008 - ADOT LRFD Policy Memoranda Developed by NCS Now Available for Download!
As part of our On-Call Geotechnical Services contract with the Arizona Department of Transportation, NCS was tasked with reviewing and implementing the AASHTO Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) Bridge Design Specifications as it pertains to geotechnical engineering. NCS’ scope of work included the comparison of new methods prescribed in the LRFD specifications with the current state of the practice, and the preparation of policy memoranda that would form the baseline of the new standard of practice for geotechnical engineering in Arizona. Three (3) of these memoranda were issued in February of 2008 and are discussed in more on our ADOT LRFD Policy Memoranda page.
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