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. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own PPE since the site does not have enough for all participants.

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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

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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.  

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John Kendall Bio:

John Kendall is a registered professional engineer in the state of Florida and is a Sr. geotechnical engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Jacksonville District.  Kendall has a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of North Florida, a Master of Engineering degree from University of Idaho, and a Graduate Certificate in Risk Management from Notre Dame of Maryland University.

 

John has been with USACE since 2009, after working as a geotechnical engineer for about 10 years in private industry in Jacksonville.  With USACE, John has served as Lead Geotechnical Engineer for the Herbert Hoover Dike (HHD) rehabilitation project, responsible for completing geotechnical design and engineering during construction for numerous water control structures and several miles of cutoff wall at the project.  John also served as one of the technical experts that completed the potential failure mode analysis and risk assessment for HHD and was one of the primary engineers on the HHD Dam Safety Modification Study (which identified all actionable potential failure modes for the 150 mile embankment dam and provides authority for approximately 30 miles of additional cutoff wall).  Most recently, John has been serving as the lead engineer for the Jacksonville district National Risk Cadre.  In this role, Kendall is responsible for a diverse team of engineers that evaluates risk on USACE dams and levees nation wide.  Projects have ranged from qualitative risk assessment of feasibility designs, semi quantitative risk assessment of existing levees and dams, to quantitative risk assessment and modification studies.  Kendall has experience in a diverse range of project sites and geology, with project locations ranging from California to Puerto Rico.