CSDA Schedules Convention in San Francisco

Safety and training will be two major topics on the agenda for the Concrete Sawing and Drilling Association's 2005 Annual Convention, scheduled for Feb. 14-19 at The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

Bruce Swanson, director of the OSHA Directorate of Construction, U.S. Department of Labor, will make the opening day presentation, "Managing Worker Safety in Construction: OSHA's Perspective on What Constitutes an Effective Safety Program."

Karl Smith and Tom Pyle from Caltrans will make presentations on slab replacement, joint repair and slurry disposal. Cristine Fargo from the International Safety Equipment Association will address "The Latest on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the Construction Industry."

Many additional presentations focused on concrete sawing and drilling will be made including "Preventative Maintenance for Core Drilling," "Applying Diamond Tool Cutting Theory to Real World Situations," "Ring Saw Operation and Maintenance," "Flat Saw Maintenance" and "Limitations and Possibilities of Diamond Chain Technology." Other topics will address "Wage and Hour Compliance," "Building Quality Accounts Receivable" and "Insurance Claim Management."

With the success of last year's presentation by a major specifier of concrete cutting services, the 2005 convention will feature a roundtable on specifiers (i.e., architects, engineers, general contractors and government officials) moderated by George Bush from Penhall Company and Karl Smith from the California DOT. Discussion will focus on how governmental agencies specify concrete cutting services and how CSDA contractors can make their services more attractive to specifiers. A second roundtable on "Safe Work Practices for Contractors" will be moderated by CSDA Vice President Susan Hollingsworth of Holes Inc.

Prior to the official start of the convention, CSDA will offer its two-day Estimating training course on Feb. 14-15, also at The Fairmont San Francisco. Estimating, one of the newer CSDA courses, focuses on the practice of estimating jobs in the concrete sawing and drilling industry.

And the CSDA Tech Fair will be held Friday, Feb. 18 from 1-5 p.m. For more information on the 2005 CSDA Convention, the Estimating course or the Tech Fair, contact CSDA at 727-577-5004 or visit the Web site at www.csda.org.

AISC Offers Free Online Seismic Seminar

The American Institute of Steel Construction is offering a six-hour online seminar to help engineers throughout the country apply the 2002 AISC Seismic Provisions to their projects.

"Seismic Design and the 2002 AISC Seismic Provisions" provides designers with critical information on new materials and notch toughness requirements; revised compactness requirements; new column splice provisions; detailed revisions to moment frame requirements; new weld access hole detailing for moment frame connections; changes to special truss moment frames; extensive revisions to concentrically braced frames; new eccentrically braced frame requirements; revised quality assurance provisions; recommendations for moment frame connection prequalification; and extensive revisions to composite steel seismic systems

The presenter for the online program is Thomas A. Sabol, Ph.D., S.E., president of Los Angeles-based Englekirk & Sabol, consulting structural engineers. Sabol served as Lead Guideline Writer for Repair and Modification for the SAC Joint Venture, Phase 2, and currently serves on the AISC Task Committee responsible for the development of the AISC Seismic Provisions. His career includes the structural design and project administration of several large building projects, including the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In addition to serving on AISC Technical Committees, he is involved in the technical activities of NEHRP, BSSC, EERI, and SEAOC. Sabol is an adjunct associate professor of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UCLA where he teaches graduate and undergraduate classes focusing on earthquake engineering.

There is no charge for taking the seminar, but there is a processing fee involved in receiving a CEU Certificate. AISC members can purchase a certificate awarding 0.6 CEU's for $25 while non-members can purchase the certificate for $50.

For more information on the online seismic seminar, visit www.aisc.org/seminars.