Ms. Alba has provided geotechnical engineering services on numerous geotechnical explorations over the past 24 years. Ms. Alba served as the Geotechnical Discipline Lead for the I-595 Corridor Improvement project in Broward County, Florida, which is the first Public-Private-Partnership (P3) project ever awarded by FDOT. Ms. Alba has been involved in the planning, analysis, execution, and review of geotechnical projects ranging from roadway and railways to complex roadway bridge and tunnel projects to commercial high-rise buildings, school projects, urban development and other local municipality projects. Ms. Alba has performed evaluations for retaining walls, drainage structures, shallow foundations, driven piles, drilled shafts, augercast piles, micropiles, and pressure injected footings. Ms. Alba’s experience has also included finite element analysis, slope stability evaluations, soil nail wall design, and evaluation of geosynthetics applications, and geotechnical ground improvement techniques.
Mr. Tao has provided engineering services on numerous geotechnical explorations over the past 8 years including roadways, commercial, residential high-rise buildings, residential developments, and industrial, military, medical, commercial, and educational facilities. Mr. Tao assists in report development and geotechnical analysis of deep and shallow foundations, as well as retaining walls and stormwater facilities. He performs soil classification in accordance with AASHTO and ASTM classification systems and evaluates subsurface materials with respect to the project characteristics. Additionally, he coordinates laboratory testing on selected soil samples and performs quality control on laboratory results. Mr. Tao has been responsible for site reconnaissance and evaluation of site conditions prior to subsurface explorations and has done geotechnical drilling oversight in both private and public sector projects.
Ms. Vargas has provided geotechnical engineering services for a wide variety of public and transportation related projects throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties. These projects included driven piles, drilled shafts, micropiles and augercast piles for bridge foundations; analysis of global stability, external stability and estimating settlements for retaining walls such as mechanically stabilized earth, reinforced concrete, sheet pile cantilever and anchored walls which includes; engineering analysis for the foundations of miscellaneous structures such as ITS poles, mast arms and sign structures; analyzed the suitability of existing materials for roadway design and performed stability analyses for embankments using geosynthetic reinforcement. Ms. Vargas responsibilities include producing and assembling the geotechnical reports and set of plans for submittals, reviewing project submittals and geotechnical reports from FDOT subconsultants and providing comments to FDOT Districts 4 and 6. She coordinates with other branches of engineering such as roadway, structures, drainage, and construction and mentors a team of engineer interns.
Mr. Keppler is a Forensic Structural Engineer at AREHNA Engineering, Inc., responsible for engineering projects pertaining to structural and subsidence investigations. Mr. Keppler’s work includes field exploration and oversight, analyzing structural damage caused by foundation/settlement-related conditions, determining the existence of sinkhole activity, making remediation recommendations, soil classification, and report preparation. He performs roof inspections, Chinese drywall inspections, structural investigations, and subsidence reconnaissance site visits on commercial and residential structures. Technical experience includes data reconnaissance duties such as calibrating/operating GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar), performing slab surveys with a monometer, creating structural and site topography plans, scaling and documenting damage, and performing hand auger/penetrometer tests.
Mr. Keppler currently performs structural damage assessments and “Cause & Origin” investigations for claims related to settlement, vibrations, roof covering damage and defects, construction/installation related deficiencies/defects, weather related elevated wind/rainfall events, and water intrusion.