District of Columbia Geotechnical and Ethics 20 PDH Discount Package 1

This online engineering PDH course presents the guidelines for calculation of the bearing capacity of soil under shallow and deep foundations supporting various types of structures such as buildings and houses, towers and storage tanks, fills, embankments and dams. These guidelines may be helpful in determining soils that will lead to bearing capacity failure or excessive settlements for given foundations and loads.

Bearing capacity is the ability of soil to safely carry the pressure placed on the soil from any engineered structure without undergoing a shear failure with accompanying large settlements. Applying a bearing pressure which is safe with respect to failure does not ensure that settlement of the foundation will be within acceptable limits. Therefore, settlement analysis should generally be performed since most structures are sensitive to excessive settlement.

This 10 PDH online course is applicable to civil, structural and geotechnical engineers, as well as design and construction personnel who are involved with foundation investigation and design.

This online engineering PDH course provides guidance for analyzing the static stability of slopes of earth and rock-fill dams, slopes of other types of embankments, excavated slopes, and natural slopes in soil and soft rock.

Slope stability criteria are presented for strength tests, analysis conditions, and factors of safety. The criteria are intended to be used with methods of stability analysis that satisfy all conditions of equilibrium. Methods that do not satisfy all conditions of equilibrium may involve significant inaccuracies and should be used only under the restricted conditions described herein.

This 4 PDH online course is applicable to geotechnical and structural engineers, as well as design and construction personnel working on projects involving slope stability analysis.

This engineering online PDH covers the basic guidelines and principles of dam risk management.

Risk management is the overarching activity when risk is used to inform dam safety decision making and builds on risk analysis and risk assessment phases. It encompasses activities related to making risk-informed decisions, prioritizing evaluations of risk, prioritizing risk reduction activities, and making program decisions associated with managing a portfolio of facilities. Risk management includes evaluating the environmental, social, cultural, ethical, political, and legal considerations during all parts of the process.

This online engineering PDH course provides guidance on the requirements for excavation and trenching operations. This course describes safe work practices that can protect workers from cave-ins and other hazards.

Trenching and excavation work presents serious hazards to all workers involved. Cave-ins pose the greatest risk and are more likely than some other excavation-related incidents to result in worker fatalities. One cubic yard of soil can weigh as much as a car. An unprotected trench can be an early grave. Employers must ensure that workers enter trenches only after adequate protections are in place to address cave-in hazards.  Other potential hazards associated with trenching work include falling loads, hazardous atmospheres and hazards from mobile equipment. Following the requirements of OSHA Excavation standards will prevent or greatly reduce the risk of cave-ins and other excavation-related incidents.

This online engineering PDH course will establish, through the presentation of many examples, the principles of distinguishing between a gift and a bribe.

The federal government has formulated detailed rules covering gifts given to executive-branch employees in many situations. The rules are published in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and are illustrated through many examples. Even though the examples are intended for government employees (many of whom are engineers), they also apply to private-sector engineers in similar situations. This course presents selected CFR examples that furnish guidance on the ethics of gift giving in situations that are especially relevant to engineers.