U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000


Skip to content
Facebook iconYouTube iconTwitter iconFlickr iconLinkedInInstagram

Office of International Programs

FHWA Home / Office of International Programs

Appendix D: Scan Team Contact Data and Biographic Information

(As of May 31, 2002)

Randy R. Cannon (Co-Chair) Bridge Design Engineer
South Carolina Department of Transportation
P.O. Box 191
Columbia, SC 29202-0191
Tel: 803-737-1420 Fax: 803-737-1881
E-mail: cannonrr@dot.state.sc.us

Chris Dumas (Co-Chair) Geotechnical Engineer Eastern Resource Center
10 South Howard Street, Suite 4000 Baltimore, MD 21201 Tel: 410-962-0096
Fax: 410-962-4586
E-mail: chris.dumas@fhwa.dot.gov

Dr. Barry R. Christopher (Report Facilitator)
210 Box Elder Lane Roswell, GA 20590
Tel: 770-641-8696
Fax: 770-645-1383
E-mail: barryc325@aol.com

Dr. Dan A. Brown
Department of Civil Engineering Harbert Engineering Center West Magnolia Street Auburn University, AL 36849 Tel: 334-844-6283 Fax: 334-844-6290 E-mail: dbrown@eng.auburn.edu

Maung Myint Lwin
Structural Design Engineer FHWA Western Resource Center 201 Mission Street, Suite 2100 San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel: 415-744-2660 Fax: 415-744-2620
E-mail: myint.lwin@fhwa.dot.gov

Alan Macnab
Condon-Johnson & Associates, Inc. 651 Strander Boulevard, Suite 110 Tukwila, WA 98188 Tel: 206-575-8248 Fax: 206-575-8354
E-mail: amacnab@condon-johnson.com

Sundru (Sam) Mansukhani Geotechnical Engineer
FHWA Midwestern Resource Center 19900 Governors Drive, Suite 301 Olympia Fields, IL 60461-1021 Tel: 708-283-3550 Fax: 708-283-3501
E-mail: sam.mansukhani@fhwa.dot.gov

Kevin W. McLain
Geotechnical Engineer
Missouri Department of Transportation P.O. Box 270
Jefferson City, MO 65102 Tel: 573-751-1044 Fax: 573-526-4345
E-mail: mclaik@mail.modot.state.mo.us

Thomas W. Pelnik III
Geotechnical Program Manager Virginia Department of Transportation 1401 East Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 Tel: 804-328-3076
Fax: 804-328-3136
E-mail: thomas.pelnik@virginiadot.org

Dr. Ali Porbaha
New Technology and Research CALTRANS
MS-5
5900 Folsom Boulevard Sacramento, CA 95819 Tel: 916-227-7161 Fax: 916-227-6974
E-mail: ali porbaha@dot.ca.gov

Dr. Sastry Putcha
State Construction Geotechnical Engineer Florida Department of Transportation 605 Suwannee Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0450 Tel: 850-414-4148
Fax: 850-922-0228/850-410-5506 E-mail: sastry.putcha@dot.state.fl.us

Richard D. Short (Dick)
Area Manager Kleinfelder, Inc. 1970 Broadway, Suite 710 Oakland, CA 94612 Tel: 510-628-9000 Fax: 510-628-9009
E-mail: dshort@kleinfelder.com

BIOGRAPHIC SKETCHES

Randy R. Cannon (Co-Chair) is the Bridge Design Engineer for the South Carolina DOT in Columbia, South Carolina. He is the voting member for South Carolina on the AASHTO Bridge Subcommittee and is chairman of T-15 - Technical Committee for Substructures and Retaining Walls. He also serves on T-3 - Technical Committee for Seismic Design and T-9 - Technical Committee for Corrosion. Before being appointed the Bridge Engineer, Mr. Cannon was the Bridge Geotechnical Engineer, with earlier positions as Bridge Team Leader in structural design and work in the bridge boring crew; road, and bridge construction. Mr. Cannon is a graduate of the University of South Carolina, with bachelor of science and master of engineering degrees. He is a licensed professional engineer in South Carolina and serves as current vice president of the South Carolina Council of Engineering and Surveying Societies. He is also president of South Carolina Society of Engineers and is a member of the American Society of Engineers and National Society of Professional Engineers.

Christopher E. Dumas (Co-Chair) is currently employed by the FHWA as a Geotechnical Engineer for the Eastern Resource Center in Baltimore, Maryland. In his current position, Mr. Dumas uses his expertise to provide assistance to State highway departments and their consultants in geotechnical design, construction, value engineering, and in the implementation of new geotechnology (e.g., software, training courses, construction equipment, design code specifications). His current 14-State service area extends from Virginia to Maine, but he also is frequently involved with other State Highway Agencies and consultants from around the United States. Through his regional and national design and construction activities, Mr. Dumas saw a critical U.S. market need for accelerated construction, and developed the subject Scan Proposal. Mr. Dumas has a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering and a master of science degree in geotechnical engineering from the University of Florida. Mr. Dumas also is the current Chairman of the National Science Foundation’s TRB’s Committee on Foundations, and is a member of the World Road Congress Technical Committee on Embankments, Drainage, and Subgrades (PIARC C-12).

Dr. Barry R. Christopher (Report Facilitator) is an independent geotechnical engineering consultant specializing in reinforced soil and other ground improvement technologies, geosynthetics application and design, and geotechnical/geosynthetics testing and instrumentation. He has authored numerous technical papers on these subjects, including six design manuals for the FHWA and a textbook on geosynthetics. He currently teaches training courses in reinforced soil walls and slopes, geotechnical instrumentation, geosynthetics, and foundation evaluation for the FHWA and private industry. Dr. Christopher has more than 23 years of geotechnical engineering experience, much of which was gained from his previous work as a principal engineer for a major geotechnical consulting firm, where he was heavily involved in deep foundation design and embankment construction. He also gained significant experience on soft foundation projects while working as the technical director for a geosynthetics manufacturer. He has a BSCE degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, an MSCE degree from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. from Purdue University. He is a registered professional engineer in six States, has chaired several national and international professional committees and is currently active in ASTM, ASCE, IGS, NAGS, the GeoCouncil, and ISO/CEN.

Dr. Dan A. Brown is a member of the Civil Engineering faculty at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. Dr. Brown’s research emphasis includes construction and design of deep foundations for highway bridges, response of pile group foundations to extreme event loadings, and field testing of deep foundations. Prior to joining the Auburn faculty in 1987, he was employed in private practice in Louisiana. Dr. Brown is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and holds a doctorate from the University of Texas. He is a licensed professional engineer in several States, and is an active member of TRB Committee A2K03 and the Deep Foundations Committee of the Geo-Institute of ASCE (Past Chairman).

Maung Myint Lwin is the Structural Design Engineer for the FHWA Western Resource Center in San Francisco, California. Mr. Lwin currently is responsible for providing technical support in bridge engineering to the FHWA Division Offices and State DOTs. He is involved in the structural design of bridge foundations and soil-structure interaction in seismic analysis. Before joining FHWA in January 2000, he was the State Bridge Engineer for Washington State. Mr. Lwin is a graduate of the University of Rangoon, Burma, and holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. He is a licensed civil and structural engineer in Washington State. Mr. Lwin serves on several technical committees of the TRB and AASHTO, and chairs NCHRP Research Project Panel 24-09 Static and Dynamic Lateral Loading of Pile Groups.

Alan Macnab is the Business Development Officer for Condon-Johnson & Associates, located in Seattle, Washington. He has been involved in the construction and management of projects in the earth retention and deep foundation contracting market for 30 years. Mr. Macnab has extensive experience in drilled shafts, driven piles, soldier piles and lagging, secant piling, tiebacks, micropiles, soil nailing, and soil mixing. He is a licensed professional engineer who graduated with a BSCE from the University of Western Ontario. He is the president-elect of the Geo-Institute, past president of the ADSC –The International Association of Foundation Drilling, and currently chairs the ADSC Standards and Specifications Committee. In addition he sits on the DFI Committee on Soil Mixing and chairs the WSDOT/ADSC Task Force on Drilled Shafts. Mr. Macnab has published a number of papers on earth retention, drilled shafts, nondestructive testing, and dispute resolution. He has also written a book, published by McGraw-Hill, called Earth Retention Systems Handbook. He has lectured frequently on these issues at industry-, FHWA-, and academic-sponsored events.

Sundru (Sam) Mansukhani is a Geotechnical Engineer for the FHWA at the Midwestern Resource Center (MRC) in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Mansukhani currently serves as a national geotechnical engineering expert on individual projects for the design and construction of bridge foundations, pavement support systems, and earth retaining structures. He provides leadership in programs for improving the geotechnical engineering practices used by the State and local highway agencies serviced by the MRC. Prior to joining the MRC in 2000, he served as the executive vice president of a major national geotechnical consulting company and directed the activities of chief engineers, consultants, and senior vice presidents. Mr. Mansukhani is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, and holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is a licensed professional engineer in Alabama, Arizona, and numerous other States; a member of the ASCE, and serves on several research advisory committees and national technical working groups for the development of new FHWA geotechnical programs.

Kevin W. McLain is a Geotechnical Engineer with the Missouri DOT (MODOT) in Jefferson City, Missouri. Mr. McLain currently works with new geotechnical engineering technologies and applications for the MODOT Geotechnical Section. These technologies and applications have included soil nailing, reinforced slopes, and use of and application of SCPTU tests in Missouri. He is currently working on developing geotechnical design procedures for seismic-prone areas of the state. Mr. McLain graduated in 1988 with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Kansas State University. He is currently working on a master’s degree in civil/ geotechnical engineering through the Division of Continuing Education at Kansas State. He is a licensed professional engineer in Missouri. He is also a registered geologist in the State of Missouri, and is currently working on a FHWA technical committee on soil nailing.

Thomas W. Pelnik III is a Geotechnical Engineer for the Virginia DOT (VDOT). He manages the Geotechnical Engineering Program for the VDOT Central Office Materials Division in Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Pelnik currently is responsible for geotechnical investigations, laboratory soil testing, and geotechnical design of projects over difficult ground conditions. His current engineering emphasis includes in situ testing and ground improvement for highway construction. Before joining VDOT in March 2000, he was a geotechnical engineering consultant in Boston, Massachusetts, and in Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Pelnik is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Rhode Island. He is a licensed professional engineer in New York State and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Mr. Pelnik serves on VDOT’s Design-Build Committee, VDOT’s Geotechnical Research Advisory Committee, and the advisory board for the Virginia Tech Center for Geotechnical Composite Systems; works with technical committees of the Virginia Tech Center for Geotechnical Practice and Research and the TRB; and is a member of the ASCE.

Dr. Ali Porbaha is a researcher with New Technology and Research (NT&R), California DOT (CALTRANS) in Sacramento, California. Dr. Porbaha currently directs the Geosystems Research in CALTRANS that involves developing design tools and design manuals for innovative ground modification technologies. Prior to joining the research staff at NT&R in 2000, he served as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the Port and Airport Research Institute (PARI), the national laboratory of the Japanese government; and also worked for the TOA Technical Research Institute in Japan. Dr. Porbaha is a graduate of the University of Maryland and holds a doctoral degree in geotechnical engineering. His publications include more than 60 articles prepared for professional journals and international conferences on the subjects of ground improvement, ground reinforcement, and ground treatment. He is a licensed professional engineer in several States, and currently directs the National Deep Mixing (NDM) program, a nationally coordinated research collaboration among the federal government and nine State governments.

Dr. Sastry Putcha is the State Construction Geotechnical Engineer for the Florida DOT (FDOT) at the Central Office at Tallahassee, Florida. He is responsible for developing and issuing Statewide policy and procedures for all construction-related geotechnical features used in the transportation program. He is also currently the Program Manager of various research and development projects involving innovative technology that reduces the cost of foundation installation and embankment construction. Dr. Putcha has served FDOT for about 13 years and has more than 20 years of experience in geotechnical engineering for State highway administrations and in the private sector. Dr. Putcha holds a Ph.D. in bio & ag engineering from North Carolina State University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, India. He is a licensed professional engineer in Florida. He is a member of the ASCE and has served on committees of the TRB.

Richard (Dick) Short is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer and Area Manager for Kleinfelder, Inc., located in Oakland, California. He specializes in deep foundation design and construction for all types of private and public works facilities. His experience includes pioneering the use of European technologies in the San Francisco Bay Area, such as Tubex piles and the Fundex (PLT) rapid load test method. He heads his firm’s Emerging Technologies Initiative designed to inform staff and clients of the latest technologies in the geotechnical field. He received his BSCE from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his MS in geotechnical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Short is a past president of the California Geotechnical Engineer’s Association and is also the current vice president of the Deep Foundation Institute and co-chairman of the International Committee. He also is the board member in charge of overseeing the upcoming October DFI conference in San Diego, the theme of which is “Accelerated Design and Construction Techniques.”

<< Previous Contents Next >>
Page last modified on November 7, 2014
Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000