Foundation Engineering and Design

Increase your knowledge and learn the principles and practices for the investigation, design, contracting, and construction of shallow, intermediate, and deep foundations, including remediation of soft, wet, expansive, and frost-prone soils. 

After attending this course, you will have a firm grasp of the background and design specifics necessary to compete in this industry, including industry-leading information on the principles and practices of foundation design for buildings, transportation infrastructure, utilities, and industrial facilities. Understand practical emerging technologies including advanced design techniques for pressuremeter-supported foundation design; aggregate piers; auger cast, helical, and micro piles; and design for lateral loads, frost heave, and wet/dry cycles.

• Civil and structural engineers and designers
• Engineers and contractors for military facilities
• Public works professionals
• Consultants
• Geological engineers and geoscientists
• Facility managers and physical plant engineers
• Contractors and estimators
• Developers and public/private land owners
• Utility engineers and managers
• Local, county, and state building commissioners and staff 

Day 1: Shallow Foundations Systems

• Introduction and Foundation Systems
• Foundation Geotechnics
• Bearing Capacity
• Slabs and Mats
• Mechanics of Light, Laterally Loaded Foundations
• Drilled Shafts

Day 2: Intermediate and Deep Foundation Systems

• Intermediate Foundations
• Auger- Cast Piles
• Software Application Including Pile
• Class Demonstrations
• The Foundation Field Investigation
• Foundation QA/QC and Field Engineering

Day 3: Evolving and Specialized Foundation Systems 

• Pile Foundations
• Solar Engineering Foundations
• Foundation for Energy Transmission and Equipment
• Wind Energy Foundations

"I really enjoyed the variety of topics. The speakers were very knowledgeable on the presented subjects."
—Brittany Huntsberger, Project Engineer, HDR Engineering

"I would recommend this course highly to any future attendee.  Appreciated the presenters being available to answer questions and provide insight."
—James Gaskell, Principal Engineer/Owner, Gaskell Engineering 

"This class is very effective in expanding/reinforcing my civil expertise. I anticipate referencing the notes extensively in my foundation work. Speakers were available for detailed questions. Further discussion is warmly welcomed."
—Dustin Hase, Senior Structural Engineer, Worley Parsons

"As an electrical engineer, I feel more comfortable reading and deciphering geotechnical reports and having a good base for designing and reviewing foundations."
—Brett Stephens, PE, Substation Design Engineer, Hoosier Energy REC, Inc. 

"The quality, scope and diversity of speakers for this course is impressive. This comprehensive mix of theoretical concepts and practical real-world applications of foundation engineering is a valuable resource for any practicing civil engineer."
—Victor McDuffle, PE, Project Engineer, SEECO Consultants Inc. 

"Great course - extremely useful concepts and real-life examples for foundation repair and new construction."
—Kevin Jankowski, Structural Engineer, Briohn Design Group 

"I took this course 4 years ago and it was great. I noticed in the latest brochure that there were upgrades and I'm very happy I took the current course because it enlightened me on many new items in use today."
—Mike Till, PE, SECB, Michael J. Till Associates 

"I've never been disappointed with any seminar conducted by UW-EPD. I'm very pleased to have these quality programs so close to my home."
—Steve Hrubecky, Poyry LLC, Appleton, Wisconsin

"Year in and year out, the University of Wisconsin's continuing engineering education courses are second to none. I cannot overstress the first-rate quality of subject matter, speakers, and course reference materials."
—Garrett Gray, Project Engineer, SEECO Consultants, Inc., Tinley Park, Illinois 

"This excellent course was definitely worth my time and expense. Any time a person can expand his knowledge he should avail himself of the opportunity to improve."
—Sidney Holmes, Architect, USDA, George Washington Center, Beltsville, Maryland

Tracy Brettmann

Tracy Brettmann is the Vice President of Engineering for A.H. Beck Foundation Company working out of their Houston, Texas office.  Mr. Brettmann is responsible for overseeing all engineering operations for Beck's specialty deep foundation, energy pile, soil improvement and earth retention projects.  He is a member of the Academy of Geo-Professionals, the Geo-Institute of ASCE, the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, the Deep Foundations Institute and ADSC – The International Association of Foundation Drilling.  Mr. Brettmann is a past president of the Deep Foundations Institute and is a former chair of their Augered Cast-in-Place Pile committee.  He  serves on the Board of the DFI Educational Trust.

Sam Jorgensen

Sam Jorgensen, PE, PEng, is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer at Westwood Professional Services with extensive experience in consulting and construction including various supervisory, business development, project management, estimating, and technical design roles within the renewable energy sector.

Van Komurka

Van E. Komurka, P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE, is a Senior Engineer at GRL Engineers, specializing in static load testing.  He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville and Colorado State University, respectively.  He has over 37 years’ experience as a geotechnical engineer, including at the helm of Wagner Komurka Geotechnical Group.  Specific to deep foundations, Van has published and presented on new approaches to characterizing and incorporating soil/pile set-up into design and installation of driven piles, the value-engineering concept of support cost, the unique principle of load matching, and the Incremental Rigidity method for converting measured strains to internal forces in static load tests.  He serves on numerous organizations’ deep-foundation committees, and is an instructor for the FHWA’s National Highway Institute’s course on Design and Construction of Driven Pile Foundations. Van received both the Professional Engineer’s Service Award and the Presidential Award for Distinguished Service from the Pile Driving Contractors Association, and ASCE’s Geo-Institute’s Martin S. Kapp Foundation Engineering Award.

James Tinjum

James M. Tinjum, PE, PhD, F.ASCE, is an Associate Professor and Director of the Geological Engineering Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Prior to his engagement as a faculty member at UW–Madison in 2008, Dr. Tinjum worked for 15 years in industry for prominent engineer-procure-construct firms and a Fortune 50 company. He has specialized technical knowledge in geoenvironmental and remediation engineering for landfills with industrial waste (lime kiln dust, cement kiln dust, foundry residuals, paper mill sludge, coal combustion residuals), municipal solid waste (particularly landfill liner and cover systems and the monitoring, recovery, and value-added use of landfill gases), and hazardous waste. He conducts research in waste geotechnics and waste containment systems; the beneficial reuse of industrial byproducts (e.g., for subgrade improvement and cementitious stabilization of pavement layers); life cycle environmental analysis of geo systems; remediation of contaminated sites; and heat transfer in porous media (soil and rock). Dr. Tinjum developed these interests not only through industry practice and applied research, but also through discussions and interactions with practitioners participating in his nationally/internationally attended engineering short course programs. In applied practice, Dr. Tinjum has participated in over 50 solid waste projects.  

Justin Warner

William (Bill) Wuellner

William (Bill) Wuellner, CGC, Inc., Senior Geotechnical Engineer, 1996 to present

Bill has been practicing geotechnical engineering in Wisconsin since he started with Warzyn Engineering in 1976 and has worked on a variety of geotechnical and environmental projects throughout his career. Since 1996 he has been a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with CGC in Madison.

His recent geotechnical exploration projects include

• Edgewater Hotel Expansion and Renovation
• UW-Madison Memorial Union Reinvestment, Phases I and II
• Madison College Truax Campus Expansion
• The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery
• St. Mary’s Hospital inpatient and outpatient towers and parking ramp
• Camp Randall Stadium expansion
• Major expansions to Hilldale Shopping Center and Oakwood West
• OR/PICU addition to UW Hospital
• American Family National Headquarters addition
• A major industrial building for a client of Madison Gas & Electric
• Numerous commercial, retail, office and parking structures in downtown Middleton, Airport Road Business Park and in the Greenway Station development
• Several 6- to 12-story apartment buildings on campus and in downtown Madison

He has extensive experience in using temporary surcharge fills to prepare building sites underlain by thick deposits of soft clays for support of one and two-story commercial buildings. He has also managed CGC’s major construction testing projects for the Edgewater Hotel, Memorial Union Reinvestment, Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the Overture Center for Performing Arts, Camp Randall Stadium expansion, American Family NHQ and the GM plant renovation in Janesville.

Mr. Wuellner has been the project manager/geotechnical engineer on many WisDOT highway and county bridge projects involving foundation studies for bridges, culverts, MSE retaining walls and sign bridges as well as pavement design, slope stability and settlement analyses of high fill sections. He has prepared or internally peer-reviewed numerous LRFD bridge reports and attended WisDOT training programs on LRFD geotechnical design.

Bill is the past treasurer for the Wisconsin Section of ASCE and past president of the Southwest Branch of the Wisconsin Section of ASCE.