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ITD’s Buu continues history of strong showing by department geotechs

Since 1975, ITD’s geologists and geotechnical engineer have participated in the Northwest Geotechnical Workshop, held annually by the 10 northwest states. The 40th workshop was recently held in Gleneden Beach, Ore. (a few miles south of Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast) in early August, with Tri Buu earning the prestigious Mr. Northwest Geotech Award for contributions to the industry. It was just the latest recognition for ITD’s award-winning geotechs.

A quartet of geologists cover the six ITD districts, and one geotechnical engineer (Buu) in Headquarters rounds out the group. Not everyone at ITD knows who they are, what they do, or how they do it, but among peers, their value is well known.

Pictured at left, l to r: Brian Bannan, Tri Buu, Bill Capaul and Shawn Enright. The group, along with District 3's Keith Nottingham (pictured at bottom of page), represents a combined 130 years of experience.

“We all recognize the value of the work Tri does,” said District 1 Engineering Geologist Bill Capaul. “He does great work, but mostly stays behind the scenes. It was nice that he finally got some recognition. He’s very deserving.”

Buu, an ITD employee since 1978, was also named the ITD Engineer of the Year at the 2013 Project Development Conference

ITD Geotechs have earned a total of 12 awards in the last two decades for the work they do. Below is a listing of those awards:

Mr. Northwest Geotech Award
2001 – Bill Capaul – D1 Engineering Geologist
2011 – Shawn Enright – D6 Engineering Geologist
2015 – Tri Buu – Geotechnical Engineer

Best Presentation Award
2012 - Brian Bannan – D2 Engineering Geologist

Hats Off Award – Presented to someone who has demonstrated a positive attitude, good sense of humor and genuine enthusiasm for their work, and provide advice or support to their fellow Geotechs.
1993 - Capaul
2000 – Buu
2007 – Capaul
2012 - Bannan

Project from Hell Award – Presented for a project with the most problems and headaches, which offered the best opportunity for learning and advancement.
1997 – Capaul
1999 – Capaul
2004 – Enright
2008 – Capaul

Keith Nottingham of D3 is the fourth member of the district geologists. Nottingham does not attend the workshop frequently enough to garner many of the awards, but he was instrumental in developing a major land reclamation in 1998 whereby the district constructed the final reclamation of a sand and gravel pit to incorporate wetlands, surface water treatment and recreational opportunities at a source in Owyhee County.

For the innovation, an Outstanding Achievement Award for Excellence in Final Reclamation – Sand and Gravel, was presented to D3 by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Idaho Division of Water Resources, Idaho Department of Fish & Game, Idaho Department of Lands, and Idaho Department of Health & Welfare.

Nottigham and D3 Source Manager Kelly Byrne are pictured below with the award.

ITD was instrumental in developing the annual conference, which is presented jointly by the Northwest Geotechnical Workshop, the Federal Highway Administration and the host state. Idaho has hosted the workshop five times, and will host again in 2019.

Geotech duties and responsibilities are wide and varied. The geotechnical engineer assists the Bridge Design section and districts in design and construction of bridge foundations, retaining walls, embankments, and landslide remediations.

The geologists are involved in many aspects of project development, construction and maintenance.

“We plan and conduct field investigations for new bridges, roadway alignments and material sources to name a few” explained Capaul. He said project design recommendations are contained in a series of reports produced by the geologist and materials engineers, with the assistance of the geotechnical engineer as needed.

They direct field explorations with ITD drilling crews and oversee the work being done by consultants or contract drillers. They also assist with unanticipated issues that arise during contracts involving geologically sensitive areas, construction methods, and they assist during emergency operations such as floods, debris flows, rock falls and landslides.

They survey highway slopes and catalog slope conditions for potential rockfall. Rockfall data collection is an ongoing effort and has resulted in the creation of a statewide database called HiSIMS, a project spearheaded by Bannan.

“We support Maintenance with investigations and recommendations for road repairs, slope stabilization, rockfall and drainage repairs, and a host of other functions. We typically manage the development and maintenance of materials sources (gravel pits and rock quarries), though in some districts there are additional personnel who assist with source management,” Capaul explained.

“We help manage consultants and review their reports and plans, and often act as consultants to other sections within ITD. We often review right-of-way permit applications or surplus-property disposal requests because they may be related to an existing or potential slope-stability issue or a materials source,” he added.

Capaul said that “over the last few years, we have begun a process to implement electronic data collection and storage of geological investigations and testing using a database called gINT. This Bentley Systems product will make geotechnical data accessible to anyone who needs it using a SQL database without the need to pull file boxes or scan files. It will streamline our efforts in developing reports and drawings needed in design and construction, lessening the risk of losing valuable geotechnical information in paper files. The gINT software system is commonly used by many other states and federal agencies as well as most ITD geotechnical consultants. The effort to customize the database to our needs has been greatly helped by D3’s Jeff Brothers, who has taken a personal interest in the project as he sees the need and how this will help him in his work. His enthusiasm to see the project through is greatly appreciated.”