Now taking place June 18-19 from 11am - 3:30pm EST each day, the Virtual SuperPile 2020 has open for registration.

Hosted in partnership with ADSC, the conference includes two half-day sessions of online panel discussions and presentations on some of the most contemporary topics in the foundations industry today. Each day ends with a one-hour virtual networking happy hour.

Day One (Thursday) opens with a panel discussion on "Geotechnical Baseline Reports" (GBR). Geotechnical and legal experts discuss the meaning, benefits and challenges of using a GBR for foundation projects. The moderator is James Morrison, COWI North America. Panellists include Randy Essex, Mott MacDonald; Jeramy Decker, Kiewit; Vic Donald, Terracon; Conrad Felice, C. W. Felice; Richard Kalson, Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff.

The panel discussion is followed by three presentations highlighting new design approaches and practical construction issues.

• "The Incremental Rigidity Method - More-Direct Conversion of Strain to Internal Force in an Instrumented Static Loading Test," Van Komurka, GRL Engineers
• "Pipe Piles in Plastic Soils: Effect of Installation Activities on Side Resistance," Steve Saye, Kiewit Infrastructure Engineers
• "Impact of Heave on Permanently Cased Drilled Shaft Axial Capacity in Sand," Glen Bellew, USACE-Kansas City District

Day Two (Friday) will feature three more presentations by invited speakers.

• "Micropiles for Permanent Support Applications in Sedimentary Formations," Jesus Gomez, GEI Consultants
• "Reducing Risk and Conservatism in Drilled Shaft Design: A Case Study," Justin Toney, Quanta Subsurface and Brock Wallis, MJ Drilling
•  "Using Thermal Integrity Profiling (TIP) to Monitor Shaft Cooling System for Large Diameter Drilled Shafts," David Schoen, S&ME

The event concludes with "Horses for Courses - Pile Testing," a panel discussion on foundation and integrity testing methods. Testing experts explore the features, limitations and appropriate use of static load testing as compared to bi-directional load testing, and of low strain dynamic testing as compared to thermal integrity profiling. The moderator is Gerald Verbeek, Allnamics Pile Testing Experts. Panellists include Ryan Allin, Pile Dynamics; Marcel Bielefeld, Allnamics; Erik Loehr, University of Missouri-Columbia; and Robert Simpson, Load Testing Consulting.

Full conference attendees receive a total of six professional development hours (PDHs).

To register, visit www.dfi.org/SuperPile2020.