Austin X. Huang, Ph.D., P.E., L.G., D.GE, F.ASCE was featured in GeoStrata of Geo Institute of ASCE April/May 2022 Issue Look Who's a D.GE.
Austin Huang is a principal with Merit Engineering, Inc. in Seattle, Wash. With expertise and extensive research and consulting experience in geotechnical and geological engineering, he’s responsible for geotechnical and hydrogeology investigations, and design of foundations, soil and rock slopes, retaining walls, roadways, and underground structures. During his 30-year professional career, Huang has authored nearly 800 consulting engineering reports for projects located in western Washington State, California, Oregon, and Arizona.
Between November 2018 and October 2020, Seattle created a new public park - Portage Bay Park (also known as Fritz Hedges Waterway Park) from land that formerly belonged to the University of Washington. This video documents its construction. Construction of UW''s new Population Health can also be observed.
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Awards and Publications
We obtained an Overall Performance Rating Score of 94/100. The performance review was conducted by Dun & Bradstreet, an authorized agency to conduct such a review for the GSA (General Service Administration) of the US Federal Services Department. This review was carried out by contacting more than 25 of our clients.
2018 Engineer of the Year
Austin Huang, Ph.D., P.E., LG., D.GE, F.ASCE - ASCE region 8 civil engineering honorable mention of 2017 Engineer of the Year for design and invention on BCECM System for US Agricultural Department for Louisiana Shoreline Protection.
2020 ICSE - Virginia USA
Paper in process (International Conference on Scour and Erosion) "Compensated Erosion Control Module (BCECM), Successfully Tested for Louisiana Shoreline Protection"
BCECM system is custom designed for Louisiana Shoeline Protection. A 500´ test wall was installed and completed for three-year field test. Test results have shown that the BCECM can attenuate over 90% of the waves, effectively and consistently reducing wave energy.
ASCE Excellent Project
BCECM System
-Patent No.: US 10,214,870 B2
Buoyancy Compensated Erosion Control Module - Designed for US Agricultural Department for Louisiana Shoreline Protection was awarded honorable mention of 2017 Excellent Local Project by ASCE Seattle Chapter.
2012 ICCEBM - Hong Kong
International Conference Civil Engineering and Building Materials, Hong Kong 2012 "Bearing Capacity for Drilled Pile with Rock Socket and A Case Study"
The previous model for the capacity of a rock socket pile is overly simplified not including cohesion between the rock and the concrete interface, thus not practical and significantly underestimating. This paper further extends the existing model with inclusion of cohesion and results are validated with an application.
ACEC Gold Award
for Technical Value to the Engineering Profession.
Western Washington University’s planned Student Recreation Center required construction on an erratic bedrock subsurface that would most likely cause construction change orders and cost overruns. With impressive mathematic derivations, Merit Engineering recalculated the capability of drilled shaft and rock socket pillars to more closely match field conditions, proving their technical and economical feasibility. The firm’s new equations set an important baseline calculation for other projects to effectively use drilled shaft and rock socket pillars, and enabled Western Washington University to complete the project under budget and without construction change orders and cost overruns.
2011 Georisk -Atlanta USA
ASCE Georisk 2011 Atlanta "Case Study—A Landslide on Coastal Slope in Bellingham Bay"
The subject slope discussed in this paper runs east-west about 0.4 kilometers, is ∼18 meter tall and roughly 25° to 40°, and leads down to the beach of Bellingham Bay, in Bellingham, Washington, USA. Emergency response was called for to repair the failure section and slope stability analysis was executed. The slope was regraded for a safer slope with installation of curtain drain and placement of cast-in-place piles in the upcoming agenda. Field test borings were drilled to about 28 meters depth and soils were analyzed for pertinent engineering properties for slope stability analysis.