Field Trip
Field Trip Disclaimer:
This field trip will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, and registration will be limited to fifty people. The minimum and maximum numbers of participants are based on a combination of factors, including transportation, accessibility, and safety at roadside outcrops. This field trip is subject to cancellation if minimum number of registrants is not met. Field trip logistics (e.g., schedule, duration, route, transportation, location/number of stops, etc.) are also subject to change. Participants should be prepared for variable weather conditions and hiking on uneven ground. This field trip will proceed rain or shine. Additional information regarding the logistics will be provided to the paid registrants by the field trip leader(s) at a later date, but well in advance of the trip.
Day 3 (December 8, 2021): Optional Field Trip: Herbert Hoover Dike (HHD) - $90 per person
Leader: John Kendall, USACE
Departs hotel at 7:30am, Returns at 5:00pm
The final day of the conference will include a tour of ongoing cutoff wall construction efforts at Herbert Hoover Dike (HHD). HHD is an earthen embankment dam that surrounds Lake Okeechobee. The dam is low head but maintains a near permanent head on the southern reaches of the lake. The dam has historically suffered from occasions of backwards erosion piping during abnormally high lake levels, requiring extensive inspection and emergency intervention to prevent progression of these potential failure modes under such loading conditions. Construction work in progress at HHD includes construction of a soil cement bentonite cutoff wall, designed to cutoff pipeable sand layers in the embankment and shallow foundation strata. The tour to HHD will include a site visit and informative tour of a recently completed water control structure as well as site visits to observe one or more ongoing cut off wall construction methods in progress at the dam.