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May e.Geo

May 2020




In this issue:

  1. Business as usual? Not so much... Survey results in.
  2. CalGeo goes digital: On-line Learning Library
  3. Scholarship winners announced!
  4. Project Award winners announced
  5. Private Large Category Spotlight: Langan Engineering
  6. Salary Survey - one more week to get in your responses
  7. Job Posting is FREE through June 30th
  8. Virtual GMM and new board
  9. Upcoming Events - the e.Calendar

We asked: "How is your business navigating the COVID-19 pandemic?" This week's survey results are now in!

As events and data are changing daily we wanted to send out a quick survey to our members to see how everyone is handling the COVID-19 pandemic and what we can do to help.

Thank you for all your responses! Please download the full survey PDF HERE >>

On average, survey respondents anticipate the same decrease with work at 60% compared to last year for June 2020 as well.

Your Questions Answered:

As for what CalGeo can help with we received the following suggestions. Read on below for each topic and what we are doing already to help:

  • Advocate with County and local governments to continue inspection licensing and inspection process in the field.

View the letter CalGeo sent on April 29, 2020 to the City of Los Angeles. Please notify us if you would like a similar letter sent to your local agency.

  • Networking and on-line training

Read the next article below and visit our brand new On-line Learning Library. Visit our Calendar for a list of upcoming webinars.

  • Operating procedures to ensure safety in the field

Visit our COVID-19 Resource page for resources and a copy of the City of Los Angeles Building Safety Construction Site Guidelines document outlining steps for construction sites to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

  • Easing of restrictions on shelter-in-place orders

Bay area counties have extended shelter-in-place orders through June 1st but have eased restrictions on construction activities.

View the Official Order Here >>

View the Small Construction Safety Protocol >>

View the Large Construction Safety Protocol >>


CalGeo goes digital with an On-line Learning Library

We have kept busy these last two months even through the cancellation of all of our live, in-person events. With the move to more on-line learning, CalGeo is announcing our new On-line Learning Library! This takes the place of our simplified "Members Club" page where all our recorded webinars, presentations, slides and handouts will now be houses.

Benefits:

  • Links to your CalGeo website login/password. Employees of member firms have full access to all previous recorded webcasts and materials! *
  • Searchable categories include Technical, Management, Legal, Membership and more
  • Technical videos come with 1-hr Professional Development Certificate on completion.
  • PDH certificates are automatically linked to your Profile on our website
  • Expansion capabilities for multiple Lessons under each Course

*If you don't see all the technical and management courses, please e-mail Kelly Cabal to have your e-mail address linked to your company's membership.

Upcoming Webinars/On-line Courses:

ICYMI: Watch Dr. Soga's April 30th webinar on Smart Geotechnical Infrastructure and Construction and get your PDH after completion! Members can login through the new On-line Learning Library now.

May 1, 9am: GBA Spring Educational Series: Gripped by COVID-19: An Economic and Geopolitical Outlook Past the Media Headlines, Bernard Baumohl, Chief Global Economist (The Economic Outlook Group, LLC)

May 20, 11am: EP Meeting w/presentation by Adam Killinger, GeoPier on Aggregate Pier Ground Improvement

Access the On-line Library Now >>

Coming soon!

We are working to create a 6-week on-line course with weekly 90-min webcasts on Site Specific Seismic Ground Motion Hazard Analysis. Instead of cramming this into a one-day course you will have the opportunity to learn each week in 90-minute segments with optional practice problems.


Congratulations to our Scholarship Winners

We were so excited to award five students with the 2020 CalGeo student scholarship this year, even if its via mail instead of in-person. Checks have just been mailed and we hope to show photos of the winners once they receive their fun "Squaw Valley" medals.

 

 

Congratulations:

Athul Parayancode, UCSD awarded $2000
Jeonghyun (Peter) Lee, UCLA awarded $2000
Brian Yamashiro, UCSD awarded $2000
Teresa Magana, CSUSac awarded $2000
Claire Anovick, Cal Poly SLO awarded $2000


Project Award Winners Announced!

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

Thank you to our Project Award Committee for pouring through all our applications this year - the most we've had yet!

And now for the winners...

Private Project Categories:

  • Large Project Category: Langan Engineering & Environmental Services for Chase Center and Mixed-use Development, San Francisco
  • Large Project Hon. mention: Leighton Consulting for Carlsbad Desalination Plant & Pipeline
  • Medium Project Category: GMU Geotechnical for Inn at the Mission, San Juan Capistrano
  • Small Project Category: No submissions

NEW Geo-Contractor Award: Farrell Design-Build for Historic Marshall Hotel, Sacramento

*Note: We hope to continue next year with our new Geo-Contractor award designed for Affiliate member projects

Public Project Categories:

  • Large Project Category: Blackburn Consulting for Southport Early Implementation Setback Levee, Sacramento
  • Medium Project Category: Engeo for WETA Central Bay Operations & Maintenance Facility, Alameda Point
  • Hon. Mention Medium Project Category: Condor Earth Technologies for Oakdale Irrigation District Two-mile Bar Tunnel, Knights Ferry
  • Hon. Mention Medium Project Category: Geocon for Upper Blackwelder Lake Dam, Beale AFB
  • Hon. Mention Medium Project Category: Cal Eng. & Geology for Emergency Landslide Stabilization, Slope above Kami Ct., San Ramon
  • Hon. Mention: Terracosta Consulting for Emergency Infill of "Koch's Crack" Sea Cave, La Jolla, CA
  • Small Category Medium Project Category: Engeo for Roseville City Hall Annex, Roseville

In the coming weeks as I receive the summary videos, we will release short articles detailing each project. Read on below for a snippet from one of this year's winners.

WINNER: Langan Engineering & Environmental Services (Private Large Category)

Chase Center Mixed-Use Development, San Francisco

Chase Center, the new home of the Golden State Warriors, will serve as a world class, state-of-the-art sports and entertainment destination. This project will bring the Golden State Warriors back to San Francisco, and along with Thrive City will contribute to the continued transformation of the Mission Bay district of business, technology, housing, and healthcare enterprises. The development will provide seating for 18,000 fans and have a view deck and two publicly accessible plazas, 580,000 SF of office/lab, event space, retail, restaurants, and underground parking. This multi-purpose event center will anchor an 11-acre mixed-use district adjacent to a 5½-acre public waterfront park.

Thrive City – an initiative driven by a partnership between the Warriors and Kaiser Permanente renamed the community surrounding the arena, paying tribute to the health care’s famous slogan. Thrive City created community gathering spaces and investments in health and wellness programs for the under served populations. The plaza contains the arena and concert venue, office space for Uber’s new headquarters, as well as restaurants and retail space. It will also include public space that will be used for a farmers’ market, yoga classes, health screenings, immunizations, healthy cooking demonstrations, and more. The idea is to transform the district into a neighborhood that boasts community engagement, continuous activity and foot traffic regardless of the Warrior’s game schedule.

The modern design and theme of this planned development is a stark difference from its historic land use. The Mission Bay area has undergone several transformations, from its tidal cove beginnings 5,000 years ago, to the gold rush era in 1849, transforming several years later into a shipyard and industrial zone. From 1860 to 1910, thousands of cubic yards of sand, rocks, dirt, and debris from the 1906 earthquake were used as fill to create more land for the growing city.

Design:

Foundations were challenged to provide adequate compression and tension support, especially where bedrock is shallow and the arena core loads were high.  A combination of large-diameter drilled shafts and augered cast-in-place piles were used for foundation support.

The support of excavation system required a laterally restrained cement deep soil mixed (CDSM) cutoff wall along the entire perimeter, with an internal shoring wall where depth of excavation changed within the site. The perimeter shoring system included tiebacks in the fill, Bay Mud, and deeper dense sand of the Colma formation.

Langan conducted tidal and aquifer tests to assess groundwater gradients and aquifer properties. We developed a numerical groundwater flow model to evaluate various design and construction dewatering scenarios and schedules to facilitate a design that would limit settlement issues.

We assessed the potential discharge to the Bay to gain the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s (RWQCB) authorization to discharge treated construction dewatering fluids without having to obtain a new permit and were able to work with the Port of San Francisco to locate an adjacent, but out-of-use, outfall to avoid constructing a new discharge line beneath the adjacent roadway, saving significant time and money.


Salary Survey Deadline Extended to May 8th!

We are giving you one more week to work on your salary survey data. The faster we collect all the responses, the faster we can get the results back out to you.

Instructions for completing and submitting:

  • Download excel template HERE>>
  • Complete all 4 tabs in excel sheet. Note: Hard copy of survey will be mailed to name and address on 1st tab. Additional copies may be requested via e-mail for internal use only.
  • Only use job descriptions listed in YELLOW on survey. If the position is not shown, please leave off the survey.
  • Please enter location zone of where each employee works using our zone map or click the image at right (incomplete entries slow down processing time)
  • E-mail us with any questions!

Data due to [email protected] by May 8th! All submissions will remain strictly confidential.


Job Posting FREE through June 30th

Providing value to our members is more important than ever during this time. We know with unemployment skyrocketing, yet construction work staying strong, some firms are looking to expand their workforce.

Login to CalGeo's Career Center and use the code: TOGETHER2020 for free job posts through June 30, 2020. The code will automatically be disabled at that date so feel free to post away!

Your CalGeo account login and password are the ones to use, we keep it simple that way.


Virtual General Membership Meeting & Board Elections

ICYMI: Our Virtual General Membership Meeting is now in our learning library.

Board Election Results for 2020-2021 year starting July 1st:

Executive Board:
Chris Diaz – Past President
Martin McIlroy – President
Mike Moscrop – Vice President
Neal Berliner – Treasurer
Mike Cazeneuve – Secretary

Directors:
Noah Smith, Terracon
Ron Skaggs, Condor Earth
Mike Watari, Wallace-Kuhl
Tom Benson, Leighton
Eric Swenson, Geo-Engineering
Lindsey Angell, Golder
Yvette Wilson (NEW), Rock Solid

Please welcome Yvette Wilson of Rock Solid Engineering, CalGeo's newest board member.
 
Yvette became a member of Cal Geo in 2015. Yvette is excited at the opportunity to be on the CalGeo Board. She looks forward to expanding CalGeo membership from her local area, supporting continuing education and collaborating with all her esteemed colleagues at CalGeo to further CalGeo’s goals.


The e.Calendar & Upcoming Events - The Geo-Calendar

Quick Browse: SoCal events in ORANGE, NorCal events in GREEN

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.

Deadlines:

May 15, 2020: Salary survey data from 2019 due

Upcoming Webinars:

May 1, 9am: GBA Spring Educational Series: Gripped by COVID-19: An Economic and Geopolitical Outlook Past the Media Headlines, Bernard Baumohl, Chief Global Economist (The Economic Outlook Group, LLC)

May 20, 11am: EP Meeting w/presentation by Adam Killinger, GeoPier on Aggregate Pier Ground Improvement

May 22 - June 26: Site Specific Ground Motion Hazard Analysis 6-week short course with Dr. Norm Abrahamson, UC Berkeley. MORE DETAILS COMING SOON! Will include weekly 90-min virtual lectures and sample problems.

Visit our COVID-19 Resources page for more information and tips for managing your business through this time of crisis.