DFI Presents Gerwick Award for Innovative Marine Foundations
The Deep Foundations Institute recently awarded its Ben C. Gerwick Award to Patrick Bermingham, CEO of Bermingham Foundation Solutions of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The award recognizes innovation in design and construction of marine foundations.
Bermingham’s achievements include design of a beam launcher for the U.S. firm Flatiron, working with the Italian firm Deal, for a bridge over a wide North Carolina river. He’s also led the effort to create a new cofferdam in the Niagara River for a new hydroelectric power station.
The annual award is sponsored by the DFI Education Trust, the University of California Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Ben C. Gerwick Company. The award recognizes its namesake for his achievements during a 62-year career in the field of marine foundations.
One of Bermingham’s most noteworthy innovations is the Statnamic load testing method, developed in conjunction with the Dutch National Research Council. He has also developed high-efficiency pile hammers, diesel hammers and an underwater hammer used by the oil industry, which anchors foundations at 9,842 feet below sea level. Currently, Bermingham is developing improvements to pile technologies together with the use of geothermal circuits in foundations.
The DFI is an international association of contractors, engineers, academics and suppliers in the deep foundations industry with more than 3,000 members worldwide. For more information, visit www.dfi.org.
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