Experience

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  US Army Corps of Engineers

  • Sacramento, California Area

  • Sr. Geotechnical Engineer

    • Jul 2008 - Present
    • Sacramento, California Area

    While at the USACE, I have worked in both the Geotechnical Soils Design and Levee Safety Sections. My primary assignments have been: (i) California Delta Levee investigations, (ii) Marysville Ring Levee (MRL), (iii) 408 permit review and recommendations for CORPS conditions of approval concerning modifications of existing Federal levees, (iv) review and approval of Drilling Proposal Plans (DPP) prior allowing the performance of any subsurface investigation in Federal levees, and (v) and Semi-Quantitative Risk Analysis (SQRA) for levees.The Delta levees projects primarily consisted in providing geotechnical engineering input to planning studies performed to improve the level of flood protection in the Delta. I was the primary Federal geotechnical engineering representative working with the State of California, Department of Water Resources on the Delta Risk Management Study (DRMS).The 7.5 mile MRL ring levee project has been my major assignment for the last 3 years. It consists of all aspects of the geotechnical engineering necessary to develop a design for installation of a seepage cut off wall surrounding the City of Marysville. The cutoff walls mitigate unacceptable seepage characteristics to acceptable levels of risk.The 408 permit review assignments consist of a geotechnical engineering division review, evaluation, and recommendations for USACE approval to the California Central Valley Flood Protection Board. (CVFPB) encroachment permit applications. DPP assignments are associated with evaluation of proposed drilling activities in Federal levees. The drilling plans are evaluated to ensure they meet all USACE guidance for the proposed exploration programs for the purpose of evaluating and balancing the induced risk from drilling activities. .I am currently participating in the first QC review of a Semi-Quantitative Risk Assessment (SQRA) application for the American River North Basin in Sacramento, CA.

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  Wallace-Kuhl and Associates

  • Stockton and Sacramento

  • Senior Geotechnical Engineer

    • 2005 - 2008
    • Stockton and Sacramento

    I performed Geotechnical reports for a wide variety of projects in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Central Valley of California. This included many residential subdivision developments, commercial and industrial improvement sites. The largest project I was assigned was as the lead engineer for a large New Town project called Mountain House that created a new community near Tracy, California. This community included a satellite campus for the San Joaquin Delta Junior College. The project included all necessary infrastructure such as road, water and sewer systems. It also included design of deep foundations for twin pre-stress concrete water storage tank foundations for community drinking water and fire suppression systems.

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  City of Stockton, California

  • Stockton, California Area

  • Senior Civil Engineer

    • Apr 1994 - 2005
    • Stockton, California Area

    My primary assignment was as the Program Manager for the San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency (SJAFCA) which was a Joint Powers Agency (JPA) formed between the City of Stockton and San Joaquin County. This $70 million project purpose was restore the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) 100-year level of flood protection resulting from expanded studies of rivers flowing through the study area to the California Delta. The SJAFCA project was planned, designed and constructed in three (3) years. The project included creation of Federal legislation in Section 211 of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 1996, the formation of SJAFCA, and the raising of $70 million of local funds through a Section 218 self-assessment of the benefitting properties.I supervised all SJAFCA staff, wrote technical Requests for Proposal's (RFP's) for selection of environmental scientists to perform NEPA and CEQA studies, civil engineering design and construction management services, I also oversaw all private consulting contracts and the SJAFCA budget. At its peak, 27 different consulting firms were working simultaneously on the project in the areas of: environmental scientists, civil engineers, constructability reviewers, five (5) general contractors, construction management engineers, surveyors, hydrologists, real estate appraisers, real estate agents, and permit specialists. I also wrote or reviewed all staff reports prepared for the SJAFCA Board of Director meetings. The SJAFCA Board consisted of two (2) San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors and two (2) City of Stockton Councilpersons.The SJAFCA project won four (4) awards ranging from 2 local, 1 State and 1 national. The national award was from the American Association of Floodplain Mangers in the category "Where the Rubber Meets the Road". It has also been used as a "Poster Child" by FEMA as how a local agency can rapidly and cost effectively lower the flood risk in their community.

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  Twining Laboratories

  • Fresno and Modesto

  • Vice President of Geotechnical Division

    • Nov 1993 - Mar 1994
    • Fresno and Modesto

    Responsible for the geotechnical review and oversight of all professional aspects of the Geotechnical division. The Geotechnical division was 1 of 5 separate divisions in the company. I coordinated with other divisions on the geotechnical aspect of all company projects. I also was responsible for geotechnical marketing activities. I left the company to move to a different geotechnical firm situ8ated in my hometown of Stockton, CA.

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  Roger Foot and Associates (RFA)

  • Stockton and Sacramento

  • Associate

    • Oct 1992 - Oct 1993
    • Stockton and Sacramento

    I was the Geotechnical, and Environmental Associate manager for two (2) RFA offices (Stockton and Sacramento). I was in-charge of all technical aspects of the geotechnical and environmental projects performed by these offices. As such, I reported to the President of RFA. This assignment involved all aspects of office management ranging from technical, personnel management, marketing and billing. Environmental projects were primarily hazardous waste clean-up plans and monitoring for underground tank removals. Geotechnical projects were primarily levees and soft soil analysis in the California Delta and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.

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  Earth Systems Group of Companies

  • Stockton and Pleasanton, CA

  • Vice President

    • Dec 1989 - Sep 1992
    • Stockton and Pleasanton, CA

    In-charge of a new start-up office in Stockton and an existing office in Pleasanton. These offices included geotechnical engineers, field testing technicians and equipment, a soils testing laboratory, and administrative office personnel associated with records, report production and billings. I also had a significant amount of business development responsibility.

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  University of the Pacific (UOP)

  • Stockton, California

  • Associate Professor

    • Aug 1982 - Nov 1989
    • Stockton, California

    University professor responsible for the full range of Civil engineering and all Geotechnical classes. The civil classes included, statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, construction management, engineering economics, structural analysis, and transportation planning. The Geotechnical classes included: soil mechanics, foundation design, and the associated laboratory soil testing class. In addition to teaching courses, I advised students on class planning, had frequent office hours and was the faculty advisor for the student chapter of the American society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). I won a national award for my paper documenting the automation of soil consolidation testing using electronic equipment to improve course instruction and understanding. I earned a tenured position as an Associate Professor at UOP for my accomplishments and performance.

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  University of California, Davis

  • Davis, California

  • Geotechnical Engineering Lecturer

    • Aug 1981 - Jun 1982
    • Davis, California

    I taught all graduate Soil Mechanics classes as a replacement for my former advisor for my Master's degree (Professor C-Y Shen). Professor Shen was on a one (1) year sabbatical leave. These included: Advanced Foundation Design, Slope Stability Analysis, Seepage, and the Theory of Thin Shells.

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  Woodward-Clyde Consultants, Inc. (WCC) and Materials Reasearch and Development (MRD)

  • Oakland and San Francisco

  • Senior Engineer

    • Jun 1970 - Jul 1978
    • Oakland and San Francisco

    While at WCC I was in the Decision Analysis and Special Projects group. I worked in both the Geotechnical and Environmental divisions. This consisted of a wide range of projects including the Project Manager for a multi-State, multi-disciplinary nuclear power plant siting study. .Initially, I studied the thaw-consolidation of permafrost on the proposed development of the newly discovered north slope oil fields in Alaska. This involved a research program using both testing of permafrost samples recovered from thousands of feet below the tundra and a finite element prediction of the associated down drag loading on the oil well casing if the permafrost was allowed to thaw. This was compared to the cost and reliability of insulating the oil well casing. A paper on this subject was accepted for the International Conference on Permafrost in Moscow Russia. . I also was the Principal Investigator on many pavement research projects to develop constitutive relationships for individual layers of different roads and airfields using layered elastic and viscoelastic theory. These were used to predict individual and multiple failure mechanisms to improve pavement design from an empirical basis to an analytical basis. One of the engineering problems for which the combined knowledge of engineering, Decision Analysis, Bayesian statistics and the quantification of expert opinion was the subject of my PhD. dissertation at U.C.Berkeley entitled "Application of Bayesian Decision Theory and Expert Opinion to Develop an Optimum Maintenance Decision Model". This was developed to assist in the definition of optimum annual maintenance needs and costs. These results could then be used to estimate and justify annual budget requests. In addition, it defines the performance data to be collected and allows the performance data collected to be used to improve the model predictions on a continuous basis.

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  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

  • Sacramento, CA (SPK)

  • Summer Internships for three (3) summers, (1967-69)

    • Jun 1967 - Sep 1969
    • Sacramento, CA (SPK)

    First two (2) summers, assisted in the materials testing laboratory located in West Sacramento on Jefferson Boulevard. Ran laboratory and field quality control tests on all soli, Portland cement concrete and asphaltic concrete.The third (3rd) summer I worked in the Civil Design Branch checking design calculations. The largest projects I worked on were the Walnut Creek cement lined drainage canal which was analyzed as a beam on an elastic foundation. The second was structural calculations for the New Melones Dam.These three summer intern positions solidified my decision to pursue engineering as a career.