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In this issue:
- Board Approves Dues Relief!
- End of Year Recap and Value Report
- President's Message for 2020-2021
- Webinar: Earthquake Hazards in California, A Practical Approach
- COIVD Requirements Across California
- ICYMI: Economic Outlook post COVID-19
- Site Specific Seismic Ground Motion Course Available On-line
- Project Award Spotlight: WETA Central Bay O&M Facility
- Project Award Spotlight: Roseville City Hall Annex
- Welcome New Members
- Upcoming Events - the e.Calendar
Board Approves 10% Dues Reduction Relief!
We are excited to announce that CalGeo's Board of Directors recently approved a 10% reduction of dues to all member firms renewing this summer. CalGeo’s rapid adaptation to COVID-19 through online services and expense reduction has kept the organization in a financially strong position. As such, the Board felt it appropriate to pass on a small financial dividend from our shared success.
Through your support of CalGeo’s online meetings, webinars, and continued learning opportunities, we firmly believe that we are staying stronger together. CalGeo will continue to provide education, outreach and advocacy for our members in these changing times.
Let your Board advocate or Kelly know how we can continue to support you.
If you renew your membership in the month of August, you can deduct 10% off your membership dues for this year.
Options for renewal:
On-line: Wait until August 1st when the KEY CONTACT of each member firm will receive an auto-generated invoice. This is the full-price renewal. To get the 10% discount, you must re-take our membership form through our website by logging in as the key contact. Links and instructions will be provided in the renewal e-mail. Use the discount code: BEFORESEPT1 to save 10%!
Old-school: We will mail you a paper renewal form at the end of July. Choose the discount price and send in your payment via check before September 1st to qualify. Easy as pie!
*Disclaimer: Please note that the discount does not apply to individual or student membership. All CalGeo student chapter members get membership for free!
Why renew? Read on below and check out our Value Report for a short summary of everything CalGeo has accomplished this year.
End of Year Recap and Value Report
 We hope you don't find yourself asking what CalGeo does all year, but in case you need a reminder, here is a short report detailing our 2019-2020 year.
DOWNLOAD 2020 VALUE REPORT >>
Although our Annual Conference was unfortunately cancelled, along with events across the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope that CalGeo was able to continue to provide educational and useful content and resources for you through the spring.
We were excited to launch our new On-line Learning Library to replace our Members Club webpage. Now its easy to find the resources and courses you need with searchable and easy to find topics such as Management, Technical, Emerging Professional and more. Almost all videos and materials are free to CalGeo members.
If you missed the Site Specific Seismic Ground Motion Hazard Analysis 6-week online course, not to worry! The recordings are all posted on the On-line Learning Library along with practice problems, spreadsheet resources, class slides and solutions. Learn at your own pace during the year and get access now >>
President's Message for 2020-2021
Hello my fellow geotechnical practitioners! I have been looking forward to my presidency, but I expected my initiation to look a bit different. These are challenging and inspiring times given the uncertainty due to the Corona Virus and the civil unrest within our communities; also an incredibly important $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill in Congress could pass and provide future work for our field. Who knows what will happen in the next year with all these developments?
I do know that CalGeo has supported geotechnical practitioners for 50 years, and we have financial and programmatic foundations that we can rely upon. Our membership is growing, we have a solid financial footing, and our programming increased to meet our members’ demands for excellent technical, legislative, and business/industry content.
We have transitioned seamlessly to online meetings and webinars during this pandemic due to the leadership of our board and Kelly Cabal’s efforts and foresight. We have included new areas on our website for member resources, and we will continue to engage our members and the geotechnical community as we expand our influence in California. Further, we have an industry leading salary survey that David Hamilton recently revamped to provide better and faster data analysis and streamlined presentation capabilities. Collaboration amongst members, with universities, and with our industry partners is at an all-time high, and we need to continue this momentum especially in these challenging times.
For this next year, my goals to help CalGeo continue to meet and exceed your expectations include:
- Grow our collaborations and sharing amongst our members, affiliates, Emerging Geo-professionals, student chapters, affiliated universities and other geotechnical associations.
- Establish a 3- to 5-year major project plan coordinated with future presidents to implement over multiple terms.
- Increase contact and collaboration with other state geotechnical associations to promote technology transfer and to accomplish common goals.
- Update CalGeo’s strategic plan for the next 5 years.
- Add additional loss prevention seminars/series geared for project professionals and upcoming company leaders.
- Develop seminars focused on marketing, training support staff, and accounting.
- Meet with the student chapter board members throughout the year.
- Convene and facilitate a symposium for student chapters and Emerging Geoprofessionals to promote sharing operational information, volunteer efforts, and projects that each are working on and to encourage additional collaboration and resource sharing.
- Add technical series webinars similar to the recent Site-Specific Seismic Ground Motion Hazard Analysis 6-Week Short Course
The history of CalGeo and goals set by past presidents tells me that we don’t shy away from challenges. We will strengthen and expand our programming and services and continue to lead the geotechnical industry. These goals along with our expanding programming will generate additional CalGeo members and confirm that membership in CalGeo is beneficial and essential to geotechnical engineers.
I look forward to continuing the advancement and growth of CalGeo and the geotechnical profession. Please be safe and take care.
Cheers,
Martin McIlroy
CalGeo President
New Regional Meeting & Webinar: Earthquake Hazards in California, A Practical Approach
Presented by Dr. Alan Hull, Golder
We are working through our Annual Conference speakers bringing their prepared presentations to you via webcast. Dr. Hull was scheduled to present this topic at our Annual Conference this past April that was unfortunately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is almost 50 years since the California Legislature passed the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act in response to the damage from the 1971 San Fernando earthquake and surface fault rupture. While California’s strict zoning and regulatory responses have not been replicated elsewhere in the world, governments and key industries have developed standards and guidelines to try and mitigate the effects of both strong shaking and surface fault rupture on seismically active faults. In parallel, science has greatly increased our understanding of the earthquake source mechanics, source-to-site path and shallow soil effects, and the ways to capture uncertainties into predictive models.
This presentation will use examples from the western USA and California to illustrate how earthquake and related hazards are incorporated into every-day engineering projects.
Following a brief summary of earthquake fundamentals, illustrated examples will explore how earthquake ground motions are quantified, and then captured into project design criteria, including how uncertainties can be incorporated into probabilistic and deterministic analyses. Examples will show the variety of regulatory approaches used within and beyond California; and explore the needs of engineers and regulators from ongoing scientific inquiry.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Alan Hull is a Senior Practice Leader at Golder Associates in Portland, OR. Alan is a California-registered engineering geologist who focuses on paleoseismology, earthquake hazard assessment and incorporating the effects from seismically active faults into engineering analysis and design. Prior to joining Golder, Irvine CA in 2001, Alan spent 20 years with the New Zealand Geological Survey (now GNS Science) undertaking basic and applied paleoseismic research from fault trenching and marine terrace studies. His consulting assignments for mining, oil and gas, government, and utility clients have been to understand and quantify the hazards from potentially seismogenic faults, probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHA); and the engineering geology at sites in Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, North and South America; and the South Pacific. Alan has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous client-focused reports. Alan was a member of the 2016-2018 Expert Panel supporting the update of California Geological Survey SP 42-- Earthquake Fault Zones: A Guide for Government Agencies, Property Owners/Developers, and Geoscience Practitioners for Assessing Fault Rupture Hazards in California.
Register Now >>
COVID Requirements for Construction Sites in CA
 The AGC (Associated General Contractors of California has a great website with resources to help you with accepted practices in the office and on the job site as we all phase back into working.
Click Here to download the Recommended Practices for Construction Jobsites
Google Docs spreadsheet summary of all California Counties and their current status/stay at home order.
Their website is a great resources for job site templates, suppliers of PPE and more! Check it out HERE >>
ICYMI: Economic Outlook Post COVID-19 Recording
Presented by Dr. Robert Eyler, Sonoma State University on June 3, 2020
Watch the recording of this important economic outlook as we enter the post-COVID19 economy. Dr. Eyler looks at global, national and California specific economic projections focused on the construction industry. His presentation lasts approximately 45-minutes answers some questions at the end.
Recording available to CalGeo Members on our On-line Learning Library
Site Specific Seismic Ground Motion Hazard Analysis On-line Course Available
If you missed our May & June 6-part webseries by Dr. Norm Abrahamson on Site Specific Seismic Ground Motion Hazard Analysis, do not fret! All the sessions were recorded and are available as a self-directed course through our On-line Learning Library!
Take your time and watch each 90-minute video segment. You also have access to PDFs of the slides from each of the six presentations. Make sure you really know the material by working through the included practice problems and check your answers with solution guides. Other spreadsheets and templates have been provided to make sure you have all the tools at your disposal.
After completing each of the 6 video segments, you will be able to download your completion certificate for 9-hours of Professional Development.
Too busy? Don't worry, you have a whole year of access to the course to take your time and revisit the lectures and materials.
Contact Kelly Cabal for group discounts if more than 5 employees from a firm have or plan to register for the course.
Member price $375, 5+ discount $300
Non-member price $750, Not a member? Join now!
Purchase the SHA On-line Course >>
Project Award Winner Spotlight
Well, another casualty of COVID-19 is that our amazing project award winners were not allowed to receive their awards in person this April. Instead, we have requested they all submit a short 5-10minute project summary video that will be available on our new On-line Learning Library.
Pro-tip: Access to our On-line Learning Library is through our home-page under the Quick Links menu bar or under the main navigation, Programs>On-line Learning
WINNER: ENGEO (Public Medium Category)
WETA Central Bay O&M Facility Design/Build Support, Alameda, California
The project was a design-build project with bridging documents including 85 percent plans and geotechnical reports by the Owner’s team. Only three teams bid for the project, which had an Engineer’s Estimate of $46 Million. The Overaa/Power Engineering Construction team had the lowest bid at approximately 20 percent over budget. The team developed several Value Engineering concepts including concepts by ENGEO to bring the project into budget (the savings
were all credited to the owner) so that the project cost could be reduced to within the Owner’s
budget.
Check out Engeo's short project summary video presentation HERE >>
WINNER: ENGEO (Public Small Category)
City of Roseville City Hall Annex, Roseville, CA
ENGEO prepared a geotechnical exploration report for the 82,000 square-foot, four-story building.
At the time the report was prepared, the structure was going to consist of a steel-moment-frame.
After the geotechnical report was completed, the structural system changed to a precast concrete
structure with precast hybrid moment frames. The increased and much more substantial deadplus-
live loads would have resulted in very large footings that were not practical from a cost
perspective. In addition, eccentric foundation loading from space limitations along the property
line created excessive bearing pressures.
To accommodate the significantly larger structural loads, ENGEO performed supplemental
analysis to evaluate higher allowable bearing pressures. This involved close collaboration with
the structural engineer, Buehler, to accommodate the tolerable structural and architectural total
and differential settlements. Based on the analysis, ENGEO developed site-specific
recommendations to increase the allowable bearing pressures by (1) compacting deeper fills to a
higher relative compaction, (2) deepening the footings, and (3) over-excavating the footings to
gain extra capacity from a deeper, native cemented soil. Where over-excavation of footings was
necessary, the soil was replaced with a lean concrete mix. The over-excavation was also
necessary when thicker undocumented fill was encountered in adjoining areas that could not be
impacted by the project. These techniques resulted in an increase in allowable dead-plus-live
bearing pressures from 3,000 pounds-per-square-foot (psf) to 5,000 psf dead, 7,500 psf deadplus-
live, and 10,000 psf dead-plus-live-plus-seismic/wind.
Check out Engeo's short project summary video presentation HERE >>
New Members
The popularity of our SHA online course has sparked a mini membership boom. We are so pleased to welcome the following new company members and individual members. Click the logos below to visit each company's website.
New Individual Members:
Fransiscus Hardianto, SSL
Mark Stanley, HDR
Stanley Helenschmidt, Helenschmidt Geotechnical
The e.Calendar & Online Learning Events - The Geo-Calendar
All in-person events are cancelled for the foreseeable future. We will notify you when we plan to hold a dinner meeting or Emerging Professional event.
July 8, 2020 11am-12pm: Earthquake Hazards in California, a Practical Approach presented by Dr. Alan Hull, Golder
July 15, 2020 9-10am: Rapid Drawdown Analysis using SEEP/W and SLOPE/W presented by GeoSlope
If you missed any of the Tencate Geosynthetics webinars, they are all online HERE >>
Visit our COVID-19 Resources page for more information and tips for managing your business through this time of crisis.
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