APRIL 2012ISSUE 45 SPRING

www.abam.com

Overcoming Challenges for a Seismically Sound Structure

Modernizing a facility that is more than 90 years old will inevitably pose challenges. The upgrade of Berth 10 at the Port of Cristobal in the Republic of Panama certainly met the criteria of a challenging project. Dealing with the existing poor ground conditions complicated the project and was one of the bigger obstacles in developing this successful project, and working on a very busy terminal in a very constrained area presented additional issues. Completed in summer 2011, this design/build eff ort on which BergerABAM teamed with Intercoastal Marine, Inc., (IMI) involved the upgrade of an existing 130-meter-long berth and a 240-meter-long extension for rail-mounted, post-Panamax container crane operations. For those not familiar with the term, post-Panamax refers to ships that do not fall within size limits for passage through the Panama Canal. Size limits and requirements for ships traversing the Panama Canal are based on the Canal’s width and depth; however, this will change with the completion of the new third locks project at the Canal in 2015.

The upgrade of Berth 10 was imperative because modern berths require high-speed, rail-mounted, ship-to-shore container cranes to effi ciently load and unload ships.

The upgrade was also essential because the Port of Cristobal is a growing container trans-shipping center. The BergerABAM and IMI team strove to keep the project on schedule by developing innovative and rapid construction techniques, but the ground conditions at the site posed a signifi cant risk to all aspects of the project. Existing geotechnical information and additional investigations confi rmed a deep layer of loose sandy soils that were susceptible to liquefaction during an earthquake. As with any modernization project, seismic design is important, but it was even more so on this project because the soft, loose, sandy layer of soil was unstable under even a moderate-level earthquake. Liquefaction would have devastating results. A moderate seismic event could produce lateral spreading and slope failures at the berth structures and

(continued on page 2)

The Berth 10 project upgraded the existing 90-year-old berth structure to permit the berthing of post-Panamax vessels and the usage of post-Panamax rail-mounted quay cranes.

INSIDE/OUT NEWSLETTER

Inside/Out is a publication of BergerABAM.

To update your contact information, please e-mail newsletter@abam.com

diff erential settlements at yard pavements. The original land area for the site was developed by progressively fi lling a swamp with unclassifi ed random fi ll materials and ground improvements were not undertaken.

To solve the issue, a unique solution to provide seismic resistance was developed. This system consists of closely spaced, large-diameter concrete drilled shafts to resist lateral forces and steel batter piles (to limit lateral displacements) placed along the bulkhead lines. Concrete shafts spaced at 2.5 meters on center and as deep as 43 meters were drilled through the soft soils to rock. The open pile-supported wharf utilized high-capacity 700-millimeter octagonal piles (some with pipe pile extensions), cast-in-place (CIP) pile caps, prestressed deck panels, and CIP topping. FLAC and Plaxis fi nite element method computer models, specially developed for ground improvements, were used to evaluate the seismic performance of the new soil-structure system that confi rmed the design. Additional ground improvements included treatment of the upper 15-meter depth of soil by vibro-replacement with gravel to mitigate settlements and fl attening of the under-wharf slopes to increase slope stability.

Although the BergerABAM and IMI team encountered challenges up front and many more unforeseen challenges as the project progressed, it was designed to be state-of-the-art, completed on time, and within budget.

“Given the signifi cant challenges, BergerABAM provided us with the required facilities completely to our entire satisfaction, overcoming many unforeseen conditions in a highly effi cient and professional manner,” said Brian Dingwall, senior contracts manager with Hutchison Port Holdings, project owner, “At all times, BergerABAM was on top of the project responding to our ever-changing needs.”

The new Berth 10 provides a modernized facility to allow for speedy and effi cient ship-to-shore crane operations at a major trans-shipment hub.

Ruba Zumut Promoted to Vice President

BergerABAM proudly announces the promotion of Ruba Zumut to vice president. Ruba will continue to focus on growing the fi rm’s structural business with governmental agencies. Arnie Rusten, BergerABAM president and chief executive offi cer said, “Ruba Zumut joined BergerABAM in the fall of 1998, and it has been a real pleasure to see how she has grown in the company. Her focus on client service and proactive management style has earned the respect of our clients and her coworkers on all levels. Time and time again I have had my professional colleagues and clients comment that they hope that I understand what a tremendous asset she is to BergerABAM. Her professionalism and sense of humor, coupled with a desire to succeed, has served Ruba well in the past, and I know that she will meet her new challenge of assisting Bill Lund in running the San Diego, California, offi ce with the same enthusiasm. She is an integral part of our leadership team and a key to the company’s future success. I am immensely proud of calling her a

colleague and a friend.”

Ruba has 24 years of experience in structural analysis, design, and construction support of reinforced concrete, steel, and wood structures. Her project experience includes residential, commercial, correctional, institutional, and military building facilities. In addition, Ruba has proven communication and coordination experience with project stakeholders, including clients, architects, and contractors. She has served as project manager for consecutive indefi nite delivery/indefi nite quantity design contracts for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District for over nine years. As project manager for these contracts, she has successfully managed over 170 individual task orders. Ruba received her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Jordan.

Ruba Zumut

2

(continued from page 1)

Editors / Writers [ Jana Roy | Dee Young | Renèe Stiehl | Diann Scherer ]

Design and Production [ Jana Roy ]

Asia, and South America. Southern Idaho has some of the best quality barley in the world, with some of the most reliable crops, so Great Western Malting’s Pocatello, Idaho, plant makes perfect sense.

Although Great Western Malting’s Vancouver, Washington, location has a rich history for which it will always be known, its location within the Port has required the plant to undergo change and modifi cations. It all began when the Port saw the need to improve rail access to its facilities. The Port’s lead track crosses with the BNSF Railway main line, which often causes heavy rail congestion. To alleviate this, a grade separation is currently being designed in the form of a rail trench that passes underneath the existing BNSF Columbia River Bridge. This one-of-a-kind pile-supported concrete rail structure is currently being designed by BergerABAM. Because the new lead track will enter the Port through the Great Western Malting plant, the plant’s decades-old barley processing facility known as the Drum House, along with storage silos and a couple of other smaller structures, stand in the way of the new tracks and must be demolished. The Drum House is nearly an antique, is underutilized, and much of its technology is outdated, so the timing of its demolition is right. The key, though, is that Great Western Malting must replace the lost function of the Drum House and modify their materials-handling system. All barley and malt pass through the Drum House on the way to and from storage, so new conveyer bridges with various attachments

During the past 61 years that BergerABAM has been serving clients, work has involved various projects involving time-honored structures. These structures often have interesting backgrounds connected to some of the most signifi cant eras in history. Great Western Malting, the oldest malting company in the western United States, is BergerABAM’s latest historically rich project.

In 1934, a group of Pacifi c Northwest businessmen founded Great Western Malting in Vancouver, Washington, where it is still located today. Prohibition had been repealed in late 1933, so these professionals, most of whom were experienced brewery owners, saw this as an opportunity to get back into the brewing business but with a diff erent approach.

During Prohibition, many breweries struggled to stay afl oat, often making products with extremely low alcohol content that scantily resembled beer. Consolidation was another tactic to stay in business. The City Brewery in Portland, Oregon, owned by Henry Weinhard, was purchased by Arnold Blitz who merged it with his brewery, Portland Brewing, and renamed the newly formed union Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company. Blitz, along with William Einzig, also of Blitz-Weinhard; Phillip Polsky, of Vancouver’s Star Brewing; Peter Schmidt, of Olympia Brewing in Tumwater, Washington; and Emil Sick, who opened the Century Brewing Company that would later become Rainier Brewing, banded together and formed Great Western Malting to provide barley malt, a brewing ingredient in high demand, to breweries and distillery owners in the Pacifi c Northwest. Henry Collins, of the Pacifi c Continental Grain Company, and J.R. Bowles, an entrepreneur from Portland, were also among the group that brought Great Western Malting to life.

More than 75 years and many owners later, Great Western Malting is still going strong, and they now have an additional plant in Pocatello, Idaho. Its Vancouver, Washington, location provides easy access to prime malt barley growing areas in Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Also, because it’s located in the Port of Vancouver, USA, it has direct access to the ocean for effi cient shipping of barley malt throughout the United States and to Canada,

Modernization of an Age-Old Malting Plant

The Vancouver, Washington, Great Western Malting plant is located on the Columbia River, within easy reach of prime malt barley growing areas.

3

(continued on page 4)

When one hears the term “social media,” do you think of teens and young adults tweeting and updating their Facebook statuses about what they’ve just eaten for lunch? What exactly is social media and why would these activities be important to your fi rm, agency, or even to yourself? Social media is a broad term for web and mobile technologies that foster interaction, discussion, and community while allowing people to connect and share information. Social media is where the conversation begins.The use of social media tools provides a greater reach for the traditional approaches of providing information, such as giving presentations or writing technical papers, while further engaging the reader. Types of social media include the following.

Social Networking Sites: Online communities of people sharing interestsExamples: Facebook and Google+

Blogging and Microblogging: Journal-style website of frequently updated informationExamples: Twitter and WordPress

Content Communities: Sharing videos and photosExamples: Flickr and YouTube

User-Generated Content: Online community sharing information, ideas, and opinions Examples: Wikipedia and Yelp

Though the popular notion of social media is that it’s used mostly by youth, all age ranges and organizations are actively using these sites and applications for research, work, and community outreach. In fact, the largest demographic of users of social networking sites are those between the ages of 35 and 54 with the largest increase in use occurring among those over the age of 55. With these numbers, it’s hard to ignore that more and more people are using social media to not only interact with the rest of the world, but to gain information important to their lives and their community.

With over 750 million users worldwide, Facebook is the strong leader in social media. Surpassing Google for weekly traffi c in

to other structures at the plant are in order and must be in place prior to demolition to ensure uninterrupted plant operations. BergerABAM has stepped up to this challenge and provided project management, civil and structural engineering, and land use and environmental permitting services for Great Western Malting’s materials-handling project, as well as permitting, engineering, and landscape architecture for some of the other associated projects.

With careful planning, BergerABAM is also designing the demolition of the Drum House, much of which will be very delicate to ensure that plant operations are not negatively impacted. In the end, the change and modifi cations will benefi t both the Port and Great Western Malting. Rail access to and from the Port will be smooth and uncongested, and Great Western Malting will continue to produce high-quality barley malt with a more effi cient and modernized system that will allow them to fulfi ll orders and shipments to breweries and distilleries around the world for many more decades to come.

(continued from page 3)

Making Connections through Social Media

On the Move

Flores Lund Consultants, a subsidiary of BergerABAM, is pleased to announce the San Diego, California, offi ce will be moving to a new location in the San Diego area this spring.

Look for the new address and other information in the Summer 2012 Issue of the Inside/Out Newsletter and at www.abam.com.

4

the United States, Facebook allows users to join networks organized by city, workplace, industry, and region. People can also update their personal profi les to notify friends about themselves. BergerABAM uses Facebook as a casual place to create dialogue and reach out to those who “like” us. Connect and share with us at www.facebook.com/BergerABAM.

In 140 characters or less, Twitter provides snippets of information based on who one chooses to “follow.” Many agencies, as well as individuals, routinely share interesting tidbits of information that often lead a reader back to a

website or blog. Twitter allows the quick share of information; real-time market intelligence and feedback gathering; and relationship building with customers, partners, and other people who care about your company. BergerABAM uses Twitter as another mechanism of keeping readers informed and helping promote our clients’ projects. Please follow us at www.twitter.com/BergerABAM.

Flickr and YouTube are both media sharing websites. Flickr allows users to upload and share photos, while YouTube permits the upload and sharing of videos. BergerABAM created accounts with Flickr and YouTube to share photos and videos of our projects with others. Scroll through the photo albums on Flickr at www.fl ickr.com/BergerABAM or watch videos at www.youtube.com/BergerABAM.

In October 2011, BergerABAM also started a blog on the company’s website where visitors can fi nd information about industry news and emerging technologies, while allowing the ability to leave comments in an interactive format. By using these technologies, the idea is to provide a benefi t to clients and the public by sharing important industry, regulation, and research news. Join in the conversation at www.abam.com/blog.

We hope that you’ll visit and share your thoughts and ideas with us on our social media sites.

(continued from page 4)

5