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Introduction
At the outset, thanks go to geosynthetica’s staff and Lara Costa in particular for giving us some space from time-to-time to discuss geosynthetics activities from the Geosynthetic Institute’s perspective. Our activities revolve around Bob Koerner, George Koerner and Grace Hsuan and we will all participate in this outreach program. Generally, additional details will be available on our Website at www.geosynthetic-institute.org.
Also, please visit the Website for the latest GSI Newsletter
Installment 24 –
Installment #24 – 27 July 2008
On 21-26 April 2008, I presented a keynote address to 500 attendees at a Spanish government conference in Palma, Mallorca. My topic was “Landfill Liners: Past, Present, and Future." A paper is available.
Pat Carpenter of CETCO then visited us at the Geosynthetic Institute (GSI) on April 28.
May 4-7 saw us at Sagamore, New York for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Solid Waste Conference. My presentation was on geotextile tubes to dewater and decontaminate polluted river and harbor sediments. This conference is “a must” for people in the northeast and mid-atlantic states. Scott Luettich and Steve Poirier of Geosyntec visited us on May 14 and subsequently they re-joined GSI–welcome back! Robert Armstrong visited GSI on May 15 to discuss EVAL geomembranes. Rich Weggel of Drexel visited on May 16 to discuss a joint project with George Koerner (of GSI) on the “hanging bag test” for geotextile tubes. On May 21-22, I was at the University of Delaware doing a review of their Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. On May 29-30, I traveled to Hershey, Pennsylvania to present a lecture on “Basal Reinforcement and Geosynthetic Encased Stone/Sand Piles” at the annual ASCE/PennDOT Conference. This conference is rapidly becoming a meeting of all state DOT’s in the mid-atlantic region.
June 3-4 presented a opportunity to go visit Ring Industrial in Memphis, Tennessee. Their work and the related efforts at the University of Memphis on “geofoam gravel” is very impressive. On June 11 I gave a unique presentation on personal investments and, in particular, how to get nontaxed retirement money out of 401Ks without paying taxes. People tell me it went well but I doubt if it is the beginning of a new career. On June 12, I presented a workshop to Waste Management Inc. in Williamsburg, Virginia on thirty pressing issues involving geosynthetics in waste containment. On June 18, George and I gave our “QA/QC of Geosynthetics” course at GSI followed by inspector certification examinations.
Fortunately, my schedule loosens up a bit now and I look forward to a more relaxed summer. I hope that works for others as well!
– Bob Koerner, Geosynthetic Institute
Installment #23 – April 14, 2008
On 27 November 2007 I had three events in Baltimore, Maryland:
* a visit to Tenax’s plant with related discussions;
* a visit with the local Corps of Engineers;
* and a lecture to the Baltimore Section of ASCE.
The topic of the ASCE meeting was “Basal Reinforcement and Geotextile-Encased Sand Columns. ”
On December 7, a lecture on geogrid mechanically stabilized earth walls (SRWs, mainly) was given to McCormick-Taylor, a major consulting company.
On December 10, 11, and 12 George Koerner and I gave our "Geosynthetics in Waste Containment" course, "QA/QC of Geosynthetics" course, and the Inspectors Certification Exams, respectively. On December 14 we had a visit by Archie Filshill of CETCO Contracting, and on December 18 I spoke to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) in Boston with the following day being a seminar on “MSE Berms at Landfills” on behalf of Waste Management Inc. in Foxborough, Mass. This last event was given at the New England Patriots Stadium, which was a first for moi.
(It obviously did not help the team, which subsequently lost the Superbowl.)
January 2008 started off with a visit from Doug Brown of Tensar on the 8th and a GSI/GRI Laboratory Audit from Henry Mock of Golder Associates on the following day. The GSI Directors conference call was on January 10. John Guglielmetti of Du Pont visited us on January 16, Boyd Ramsey of GSE on the 17th, and Dave Chang of Taiwan on the 18th. PRS Mediterranean was at GSI on January 21 and 22, Archie Filshill on the January 23 and Vicky Curtis and Doug Brown of Tensar on the 24th.
On February 4 and 5 we had Kelvin Legge and Peter Legg of Aquatan in South Africa with us for meaningful discussions. I was with Propex in Chattanooga for a seminar and discussions on the 6th and 7th and then a site visit to a floating reservoir cover on the 15th. We hosted a Koerner Family Fellows Symposium on February 15th, which was very successful. It is the seventh of these annual events. Finishing the month we had Vic Kaladin and Chris Meehan of the University of Delaware with us on the 25th to discuss work that GSI is sponsoring at Delaware.
March 1 – 7 saw us and 1000 of our closest friends in Cancun, Mexico for the GeoAmericas 2008 Conference along with GRI-21, both of which were enormously successful. The organization was superb, as well as the setting.
Our congratulations to all involved.
We also held our Annual Board of Directors Meeting and three Focus Group Meetings.
Following the conference, I lectured to Du Pont in Wilmington on Geosynthetic Durability on March 12. Tony Eith
of WMI visited us on the 14th. I gave a workshop on current issues in Irvine, California on March 19, which was hosted by AES Inc. and had 70 California regulators in attendance. The group was awesome in their interest and knowledge.
Finally, on April 3 we hosted Mike Balow of Lyondell Bassel and his Italian colleagues for a discussion regarding fPP geomembranes.
As evidenced above, the activity level is high and is genuinely appreciated by George, Grace and myself ….Bob Koerner
Installment #22 – November 26, 2007
On July 26, 2007 we were visited by Ben Berteau and his colleagues from Ring Industrial Company regarding their EZFlow product. Dr. Dov Leshchinsky of the University of Delaware was our guest on August 3, 2007 and then Rod Powers of the Florida DOT on August 7th. George Koerner and I monitored GROWS Landfill for Waste Management Inc. on August 21st. (George does this routine monthly to service the three contracts we have with WMI). A quick visit to Tensar in Atlanta on August 29th finished the month.
On September 5-6, 2007 I lectured to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Regulations (PaDER) in Harrisburg on engineered berms and then went to Manchester, England on September 18-22 to lecture to the British Geomembrane Association and the Environment Agency of the United Kingdom. The British are completely informed and knowledgeable in almost every aspects of geosynthetics. Most sessions end up being "my learning experience." The end of the month was the annual National Academy of Engineering meeting in Washington, DC.
On October 5, 2007 I lectured to the students of Temple University, followed by a lecture at Lafayette College on October 10th, and then Drexel University on the following day. It is very interesting observing the response of these different student groups, although each was a different lecture. October 16, 2007 I gave back-to-back lectures to the Delaware Valley GeoInstitute and on October 18th we hosted Basell Inc. discussing flexible polypropylene geomembranes. On October 23rd I was deposed in Columbus, Ohio on a geosynthetics legal issue.
November 5, 2007 I lectured to Earth Tech Consultants. George Koerner and I did field measurements at GROWS landfill on November 14th followed by a visit from PRS Med., Inc. of Israel (our newest GSI Member) on November 15-16, 2007. All-in-all we are extremely busy and it seems as though we have more guests at GSI than ever before.
Installment #21 – July 23, 2007
On May 14, 2007 we had an interactive visit from Helmut Zanzinger head of the GS-lab at SKZ in Würzburg, Germany. On the 16-17th, I was involved in an annual review of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Delaware. On May 21st, we gave GCI-ICP examinations at GSI and on the 31st Sang-Sik Yeo successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic of testing via the Stepped Isothermal Method (SIM).
On June 1, 2007, I lectured to NTH in the Detroit, Michigan area. They had a number of their clients present and the topics were very focused and informative. On June 6th, I was at the Delaware Solid Waste Authority’s Wilmington-area landfill and lectured on various topics. On the 8th, we had a GSI Board of Director’s teleconference call. Aqua-PA visited us on June 12th followed by a “double-header” of Gary Willibey of Skaps in the morning and Bill Hawkins/Frank Holloway of Fiberweb in the afternoon. That busy week ended with Archie Filshill of CETCO Contracting visiting us on the 15th.
On June 20th, I visited Kevin McKeon of Earthtech and then Vicky Curtis of Tensar visited us on the 21st. Tensar has, among other activities, a new tri-axial reinforcement geogrid. We gave GCI-ICP exams on June 25th and had Weilin Hwan of Rutgers with us on the 26th. George Koerner did the ASTM D35 “bit” in Norfolk, Virginia from the 27th-29th where he held his annual GAI-LAP meeting.
On July 9th Jim Olsta and Chuck Hornaday of CETCO visited us with active discussions being the result and on July 20th George and I went to Waste Management and daylighted George’s three active projects at their GROWS and Tullytown landfills. As George likes to say, “Life is Large!”
Installment #20 – May 11, 2007
February 21-23, 2007 were fully occupied by Drexel University events; Koerner Family Fellows making presentations, Engineer-of-the-Year Presentation, Lecture on the history of Engineering at Drexel, etc. February 28th was an all-day short course by George and Bob Koerner to 30 ACF, Inc. personnel on Geosynthetics in Transportation Systems. The video is really neat. On March 2nd I presented the 1st Stegman Lecture in Atlanta for the American Building Inspectors Association. The topic was walls reinforced with geogrids. Sam Allen of TRI visited us on March 5th and Greg Kiggins of Huesker on March 6th.
The U. S. Society on Dams had its annual convention in Philadelphia on March 7th and I (with John Wilkes of CARPI) gave an overview paper on the new ICOLD report which describes 250 large dams worldwide that have used geomembrane waterproofing. Matt Leatherman of Carlisle visited on March 19th and I spoke to the PaDEP in Harrisburg on March 21st. The topic was large engineered berms with geogrid reinforcement. On March 27-28, 2007 I was at the Nutting Engineering Company in Cincinnati giving an in-house seminar and delivering the 3rd H. C. Nutting Lecture. Tony Eith of Waste Management Inc. visited us on March 30th.
April 5th took me to Sioux Falls to visit with Gary Kolbasuk of Raven Industries. Their factories and variety of products are very impressive. On April 10-11, George and I gave courses on waste containment design and QC/QA of facilities. Both were nicely attended with laboratory demonstrations throughout. The inspector certification exams were given on April 12th. April 17-18, 2007 I was at Cornell University in Ithaca giving the 11th Shiffman Lecture. On April 23-26, 2007 I was in Würzburg Germany on behalf of Helmut Zanzinger of SKZ participating in a Geosynthetics Lifetime Symposium.
Off to Denver and Colorado State University on May 3-4 to deliver the 2nd Distinguished Lecture o
n the topic of Geosynthetics in Agriculture/Farming Systems. Hopefully this will be a new joint venture for GSI and CSU. Lastly, Paula and I drove to Lake George in New York State for the annual waste conference which attracted 700-people! I made two presentations on May 7, 2007; engineered berms and bioreactor landfills, but the real impact was on electrical integrity surveys by Bob Phaneuf, Ian Peggs, Sam Allen, and others. As son George says, “Life is Large”!
Installment #19 – February 20, 2007
December 4-5, 2006 saw us in the Detroit area for the very successful 2nd CTI Conference, the theme being Bioreactor Design and Operation. Dr. Soong attracted numerous regulators from Michigan and Ohio as well as a large group of landfill owners. George Koerner and I gave a QA/QC Course at GSI on December 8th, followed by the QA/QC Exams the following day. A lecture to the Corps of Engineers on Basal Reinforcement on December 20th was well received, and the year finished with the family in Cancun. Great ending to a great year.
Lectures to EarthTech and Waste Management were on January 5th with QA/QC Exams on the following day. Bill Hawkins of Fiberweb and George dug up a 35-year old geotextile installation in Delaware on January 9th and the fabric was in excellent condition. A paper will follow. January 16-to-19, 2007 was a blur of activities in Washington, DC; GRI-20 Conference, Annual Meeting, BOD Meeting and Focus Group Meetings. The following week we had visits from Archie Filshill of CETCO Contracting and Wayne Hseih of GSI-Taiwan. On December 30, I presented various Geosynthetics Concerns to Golder Assoc. A quick trip to Tom Collins’ group of Huesker Inc. was superb. They are doing cutting edge R&D. Sam Allen of TRI paid us a nice visit on January 8th and we had a productive BOD conference call on February12th.
NOVEMBER 2006
Installment 18 – November 30, 2006
September 14, 2006 George Koerner and I continued his 3-projects of landfill monitoring (George does this routine each month). A landfill permit application in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania was the activity on September 20th followed by a GSI Board of Directors call on the next day. We have such teleconference calls about each 3-4 months. On September 27-28, 2006 I went to Memphis, Tennessee to visit Ring Industrial Group and their EZ Flow® drainage system. George did several experiments and the resulting GRI Standards will move into ASTM at their next meeting.
October 5, 2006 I gave a lecture to Drexel students on engineering design using geosynthetics. Back to Wilkes Barre on October 10, 2006. GSE had its one-day Seminar in Princeton, New Jersey on October 12th. The National Engineering Academy Annual Meeting was in Washington, DC on October 15-17, 2006. I gave a base reinforcement lecture at he University of Delaware on October 19th followed by another landfill visit on the 25th. Doug Brown of Tensar visited us on October 27th. Finally, a series of 2-lectures to Drexel students on October 31st (Terzaghi and base reinforcement).
November 2-3, 2006 was the Central Pennsylvania Section of ASCE’s Geotechnical Conference where I presented creep by various methods. A one-day trip to Ft. Lauderdale to speak at Republic Waste’s engineering meeting was successful. On November 14-15, Dick Stulgis and Allan Marr hosted me at their office in Westchester, Massachusetts. Lastly, a lecture at the University of Delaware on the Life of Karl Terzaghi on November 17, 2006 was just plain fun.
Installment 17 – September 16, 2006
Since my last correspondence on May 20, 2006 a lot of activity has occurred. A May 28th meeting in the Czech Republic was interesting but didn’t materialize into a new member. The lecture to the Corps of Engineers in Philadelphia on June 13th went better. George Koerner conducted Focus Group Meetings at ASTM in Toronto on June 14th. A “triple-header” in Dallas was conducted June 18-20, 2006, i.e., (i) PolyFlex visit, (ii) Geo-Institute Meeting, and (iii) a meeting with Dave Daniel finalizing the 2nd Edition of QA/QC of Waste Facilities. ASCE Press will have it out by year’s end.
The month of July was focused on setting up GRI-20 Conference set for January 18, 2007 in Washington, DC. The web site, www.geoshow.info, has the (nearly) final program. Geosynthetics can solve a part of the terrorism issue!
August 3-6, 2006 saw us in the Chicago area with STS meetings. On August 1st, I spoke about geosynthetics to high school and middle school teachers in the local area… it was neat. Basell paid us a visit on August 10th to discuss the polypropylene geomembrane specification. On August 29th we met with Dr. El-Sherif to discuss fiber optics in geosynthetics, followed by a lecture to the National Academy of Engineers in Washington, DC to see if geosynthetics inroads can be made at this level.
Meetings with Waste Management and their consultant, ERG, began the month of September and this was followed by a “double-header” in Sacramento on September 5-8, 2006; (i) GEI on geosynthetics in dams, and (ii) the California Water Boards on waste containment issues. The latter was to 80 regulators and I must say that the questions asked were among the best I have had regarding many sensitive geosynthetics issues. Lastly, the September GSI Newsletter/Report is out and can be viewed by clicking here.
Installment 16 – May 20, 2006
The last two weeks of April are “among the missing” in that I lost my date book and it is truly worse than losing a wallet. One has the sinking feeling that you should be somewhere, or that someone is coming to visit you not knowing until the event is either lost or upon you… yuk!
Nevertheless, a trip to AES in Irvine, California on May 2-3, 2006 was excellent. Kris Khilnani was my host to the California owner and regulatory community and the seminar was very interactive. The trip also gave me the opportunity to give the GRI-ICP examinations and to have a side visit with Ron Belanger and Cora Queja of Precision Laboratories in Anaheim. The weekend of May 6-7 was my 50th class reunion from undergrad work at Drexel. For what its worth , I am now a “Golden Dragon”. May 8, 2006 I lectured at RPI to Dave Suits’ geosynthetic class and the ASCE Section of Albany/Troy, New Yor
k. The following day a lecture was given to the NY-DOT and then on to Lake George, New York for a NY-DEC Solid Waste Conference. Bob Phaneuf and his colleagues have a superb ongoing event.
May 16-17, 2006 was occupied by serving on an Advisory Committee to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of the University of Delaware. In my opinion it is an excellent but greatly underrated department and university. Lastly, visits to GSI by Gary Willibey of ADS and Sam Allen of TRI on May 18, 2006 were enjoyable and of significance.
Installment 15 – April 11, 2006
February 22nd saw a visit from Basell Inc. during which we discussed the to-be-reissued fPP and fPP-R specification. It will be back up by this summer. On February 24th, Drexel honored me with their Engineer-of-the-Year Award. It’s really cool getting an award from your “home-team.” On February 27th I lectured to Huesker GmbH in Cancun, Mexico, to their worldwide partners. Jürgen Kastner suggested a past-present-future presentation which was fun to put together. On March 3rd Jan Retslaff of Colbond visited us. A trip to Chicago resulted in visits to Weaver Boos Consultants (Mark Sieracke’s new firm) and discussions mainly on our new inspector’s certification program. This was followed by an STS visit (Jeff Blum and colleagues) on a variety of topics. Dr. Sibel Paruvicat of Lehigh University and her students visited Grace Husan and GSI on March 17th.
A trip to Milan, Italy, from March 18th to the 22nd was very active with two lectures at the University of Milan organized by Daniele Cazzuffi and then major talks with CARPI and FLAG orchestrated by Alberto Scuero and his team. Back home we had a follow-up visit from Bob Butala of Basell on March 27th and then drove to give the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality a lecture in Hopewell, Virginia at Waste Management’s Atlantic Landfill. Tony Eith of Waste was the co-speaker and host. Archie Filshill and Tim Rafter of CETCO Contracting visited us on March 31st.
Back across the “big pond” again on April 1st through 6th to give lectures on specifications to NAUE in Lüebbecke, Germany (Georg Heerten and Kent von Maubeuge hosts) and then on to Würzburg for a Conference on Lifetime Prediction. This was organized by Helmut Zanzinger of SKZ and was very successful. Furthermore, the SKZ Laboratories are “awesome.” Home on April 7th for a visit from Jan van Boldric of Colbond to end an extremely active first quarter of the year.
Installment 14 – February 27, 2006
On December 14-16, 2005 we held the combined NAGS 2005/GRI 19 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The cooperation between the two groups was seamless and the conference was indeed successful. Writeups are in geosynthetica and other outlets. A CD of the papers is available through GSI or NAGS. The Focus Group Meetings were substantive and all tasks are now completed. Also, decided upon was for GSI to launch a CQA Inspectors Certification Program. It has been a major effort right up until our in-house courses on January 19, 20, 26 and 27, 2006. On the 27th we gave the first examination which went quite well. The GSI website has more information in regard to this program (acronym of GCI-ICP).
A visit by Penn DOT on February 2 was significant in that they want to write geogrid specifications and test methods. We will cooperate by sharing our information in this regard. A visit to GSE in Houston on February 7 was significant and it was followed by a presentation to Allied Waste Systems in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 8. Allied is interested in our accreditation and certification efforts and it was a pleasure to present this information to them. We (George K and I) followed this by participating in the ASTM D-35 Meeting in Phoenix. George nicely presented GCL internal shear testing at a workshop and we also had significant discussions at both of the GCL and Geogrid Focus Group Meetings. On February 15-16, 2007 I went to Tampa to present three lectures
