"As part of the accreditation process, A2LA performs on-site audits of our laboratory and requires us to enroll in a proficiency testing program,” said Gary Torosian, GTX VP and Director of Testing Services.

Currently, there are only 30 laboratories in the U.S. accredited for geotechnical testing and GeoTesting Express is one of only three located east of the Mississippi River.

The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation is a non-profit, professional membership society committed to the success of laboratories through the administration of a broad-spectrum, nationwide laboratory accreditation system.

A2LA is the largest multi-discipline laboratory accrediting body in the USA and a member of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).

Through Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs) with the ILAC, IAAC (InterAmerican Accreditation Cooperation), EA (European Cooperation for Accreditation) and APLAC (Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation), test data from A2LA accredited laboratories are now accepted by accrediting agencies in over 60 countries worldwide.

New York

Jack Salerno, P.E. joins Geocomp as the new branch manager of its New York office, and has overall responsibility for project management, client development, and technical oversight. Mr. Salerno has over 25 years of experience in the disciplines of structural engineering and project management. Through his extensive work on a variety of structural facilities in the New York/New Jersey area, he has been involved in all phases of structural engineering, including design, rehabilitation, construction and inspection.

Mr. Salerno has expertise in the preparation of preliminary and final design contract plans, specifications, and construction cost estimates, as well as the provision of construction support services for structural rehabilitation/reconstruction contracts. Mr. Salerno comes to the firm from TRC Engineers, New York, where he served as vice president and office manager.

Georgia

Jason T. Brown, P.E. joins Geocomp as a geotechnical engineer with 14 years of experience as a consulting engineer. Before joining Geocomp, Jason was a senior project manager at Piedmont Geotechnical Consultants. His experience is mainly in design of shallow and deep foundations, soil stabilization, ground improvement and slope stability. Mr. Brown received a civil engineering degree from Clarkson University with a professional concentration in environmental engineering.

Alexi J. Neill, P.E. joins Geocomp’s Consulting Division as a project engineer in the Atlanta office. He has over 5 years of engineering experience permitting, designing, and constructing a variety of projects across the United States. Mr. Neill earned his bachelor’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and recently passed the professional engineering exam to obtain licensure in the state of Georgia. Before joining Geocomp, Alexi was an E.I.T. with Southern Civil Engineers. He was the lead engineer on a $500-million state-of-the-art mixed use project called Town Brookhaven. Mr. Neill performed design calculations, led coordination meetings, and conducted field observations to ensure smart growth that created a sense of community while being respectful of the environment and surrounding neighborhoods. Prior to living in Atlanta, Mr. Neill worked with The Haskell Company in Jacksonville, Florida as a Civil E.I.T. While there he was a member of a design-build team for large scale industrial projects in California, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Arkansas, to name a few. His design expertise helped a distinguished client to achieve LEED Certified Silver on one of their largest distribution centers in the Southeast.

Dhaka University, and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), two of the country’s major academic institutions, recently acquired Geocomp Corporation’s fully automated cyclic triaxial equipment to measure liquefaction potential. January 20th was an historically significant day, as the first-ever cyclic triaxial test was successfully run at BUET, followed by several similarly successful tests at Dhaka University’s Geology Department.

Geocomp’s Dr. Rachid Hankour and Mir Fazlul Karim, former Director of Geological Survey of Bangladesh, conducted installation and training sessions at the universities. Mr. Karim was instrumental in introducing Geocomp to Bangladesh. They were also invited by other leading educational institutes and private companies to give presentations on the topic of the application of automated geotechnical testing system for earthquake risk management in Bangladesh. They provided guidelines and suggestions for reducing risk and uncertainties through improved geotechnical information database, development of WEB-based continuous monitoring system (iSite) for existing structures and upcoming bridges and tunnels projects in Dhaka.

Following the trip’s successful conclusion, Dr. Hankour noted, “Geocomp Corporation is looking forward to establishing a strong relationship with the academic and government institutions in Bangladesh through technical cooperation in the publication of papers, seminars, short courses, and mutual site visits.”

For more information, contact Rachid Hankour, at 978-635-0012, or rh@geocomp.com

The locations were selected by the designer of remedial work to fix the slope. Inclinometer casings were installed in soil test borings to depths of about 60 feet.

Geocomp was hired by Massana to provide:

• initial manual readings of the inclinometers to measure horizontal movement with depth, and
  
  
• automated readings using in-place-inclinometers to monitor horizontal movement over a period of two months. Geocomp provided the data on the iSiteCentral website using two iSite loggers that transmitted data via radios and cell phones.

Read about Geocomp's health monitoring solutions that support this and other applications.

The Massana design-build team chose a cost effective approach to monitoring slope movement using Geocomp’s iSiteCentral real-time monitoring program. The inclinometers captured the slip plane of the slope failure so that the design and depth of the embedment of the tieback anchors would be adequate to support the slope repair. The system provided early warnings of increases in movement and allowed the designers to relate slope movements to weather events.

For more information, please contact
Tom Tye at 770-645-6575 or ttye@geocomp.com.