ASCE Metropolitan Section - Martin S. Kapp Memorial Lecture

Martin S. Kapp Memorial Lecture

Martin S. Kapp

As a memorial to Martin S. Kapp, in 1975 the ASCE Metropolitan Section established an annual lecture on the subject of soil mechanics and foundation engineering by an outstanding authority in the field.

Martin Kapp spent his entire professional career of 25 years in the service of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. He became the head of the Soils Division and later served as the Chief Engineer from 1970-1972.

This was an exciting and heady era of building activity at the Port Authority, with many large projects involving either heavy foundation construction or extensive land reclamation. These projects were typically located on marginal land that was underlain by complex deposits of glacial soils. Finding economic design solutions for these difficult ground conditions presented unusual challenges and major responsibilities. Marty relished these challenges and saw them as opportunities for the development of new methods and technology. He was responsible for the development or implementation of many new ideas.

Martin Kapp at the World Trade Center site during construction of the slurry wall.

He pioneered the use of the sand drain and surcharge method for subsurface stabilization and extended this technique to include the use of groundwater dewatering to affect a surcharge loading. In 1958, he won the Alfred A. Raymond award for the development and application of this concept.

But undoubtedly his most notable engineering accomplishment was the use of the slurry trench technique for the construction of a 65-foot deep foundation wall for the World Trade Center. This was the first major structural slurry wall in the United States and ranked as one of the largest slurry walls in the world. For this accomplishment, he received the A.P. Greensfelder Construction Prize in 1970.

Martin Kapp passed away on September 11, 1972, seven months before the dedication ceremonies for the World Trade Center.

Past Speakers and Topics:

37th	January 12, 2012	Jerry A. DiMaggio	Deep Foundation Advancements in the State of Practice for Transportation Projects
36th	January 20, 2011	Thomas D. O'Rourke	Key Developments in the Design and Construction of Earth Retention Systems
35th	January 21, 2010	Frederick C. Rhyner	Solving the Problem of Creep at Amtrak's Thames River Bridge
34th	January 15, 2009	Hugh S. Lacy Roderic A. Ellman, Jr.	Foundations of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge
33rd	January 17, 2008	Dov Leshchinsky	Lessons Learned from Failed MSE Walls
32nd	December 14, 2006	Jean-Louis Briaud	Foundation Engineering: Recent Advances
31st	December 6, 2005	Richard Finno	Developments in the Observational Approach for Controlling Excavation-Induced Grounds
30th	December 7, 2004	Fred Kulhawy	The Time Factor in Deep Foundation Evaluation
29th	December 18, 2003	Jorj O. Osterberg	Geotechnical Engineers, Wake Up! "The Soil Exploration Process Needs Drastic Changes"
28th	December 12, 2002	Edward Kavazanjian, Jr.	Foundation Construction on Landfills
27th	January 10, 2002	Michael W. O'Neill	Design Methods for Drilled Rock Sockets
26th	April 5, 2001	John Donohoe	Recent Applications of Ground Freezing
25th	April 22, 1999	George A. Munfakh	Ground Improvement Engineering - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
24th	May 28, 1998	Donald A. Bruce	Deep Mixing Methods: A Global Perspective
23rd	May 1997	Arnold Aronowitz	Geotechnics - Planning to Construction
22nd	May 16, 1996	George Tamaro	Foundation Engineers: Why Do We Need Them?
21st	May 9, 1995	Reuben Samuels	Could We Build It Now? Where Are We Going?
20th	May 17, 1994	Don U. Deere	Who Forgot the Geo in Geotechnical Engineering?
19th	May 11, 1993	G. Wayne Clough	Twenty Years of Finite Element Analysis - Lessons Learned, Future Trends
18th	May 12, 1992	Stuart Littlejohn	Ground Anchors
17th	May 7, 1991	Alfred J. Hendron, Jr.	Rock Engineering Problems in a Metropolitan Environment
16th	May 8, 1990	Bramiette McClelland	Calcareous Sediments: An Engineering Enigma
15th	May 3, 1989	Joseph S. Ward	Forensic Engineering
14th	May 17, 1988	Thomas R. Kuesel	Soil and Structures
13th	May 19, 1987	Donald York	Design and Performance of Structural Slurry Walls
12th	May 9, 1986	John Lowe III	Uses of Roller Compacted Concrete in Dam Construction
11th	May 7, 1985	George Sowers	Building on Waste Fills
10th	April 10, 1984	Hal P. Aldrich, Jr.	Foundation Engineering Before Soil Mechanics: A Case History (The New Technology)
9th	April 26, 1983	James K. Mitchell	In Situ Deep Densification for Ground Improvement
8th	March 30, 1982	James P. Gould	Foundations of the Great Bridges
7th	May 12, 1981	H. Bolton Seed	Case Histories and Their Critical Role in the Development of Geotechnical Engineering Practice
6th	April 15, 1980	Ben C. Gerwick	Aspects of Soil Mechanics in Deep Foundation Construction
5th	March 20, 1979	Elio D'Appolonia	Mitigating Passive Natural Hazards in Construction
4th	February 15, 1978	T. William Lambe	Whither Geotechnical Engineering
3rd	February 16, 1977	G.A. Leonards	Failure of a Pile Foundation at Fawley England: A Design or Construction Error
2nd	January 21, 1976	Gregory P. Tschebotarioff	Half a Century of Soil Mechanics - Some Thoughts for the Future in the Light of the Past
1st	March 19, 1975	Ralph B. Peck	Pitfalls of Overconservatism in in Geotechnical Engineering