More than 110 practitioners in the deep foundations industry gathered in Prairieville, Louisiana on October 24th for a comprehensive, day-long professional development event designed to educate attendees on some of the newest and best practices for driven pile installations. The PDCA of the Gulf Coast organized the event, chaired by contractor member Michael Kelly, which the Chapter offers to educate professionals in the region every other year on the driven pile. All participants who completed the seminar were awarded 7 Professional Development Hours.

The 2019 PDCA Engineers Conference was co-sponsored by PDCA of the Gulf Coast and Nucor Skyline and consisted of seven different presentations. PDCA of the Gulf Coast Chapter President Travis Schonacher from Sealevel Construction opened and closed the program. The following agenda is a list of each presentation and session sponsor in the order they were provided to attendees:

Breakfast - Sponsored by PDCA

Vibration Monitoring Protocol per Purple Book by Joubert Harris, MS - LADOTD
Sponsored by Southern Earth Sciences

Experimental Study of Driven Pile Set-Up in Soft Clays by Chad Held, P.E. - Eustis Engineering
Sponsored by GRL Engineers

Efficient Structural Design of Precast Concrete Piles by John C. Ryan, Ph.D., PE - Ryan Structural Engineers, LLC
Sponsored by American Piledriving Equipment

Advanced Measurements/Pile Layout by Joey Coco, PE MBA - Forte & Tablada, Inc.
Sponsored by Sealevel Construction, Inc.

Lunch - Sponsored by LB Foster Company

Steel Coating and Application to Steel Piles by Marty Hall - Yellow Creek Coating Services
Sponsored by PDCA

Preserving Wood Pilings by Tim Carey - Lonza Group AG
Sponsored by Desoto Treated Materials

LAPELS Professionalism and Ethics by William Hyatt - LAPELS Board Investigator
Sponsored by Mississippi River Equipment

PDCA of the Gulf Coast Chapter thanks all attendees for participating in this highly successful event. The next gathering of the Chapter will be November 14th when it hosts its Fourth Quarter Dinner Meeting at Messina's in Kenner, LA.