N. F. (Nick) Coetzee joined Dynatest Consulting, Inc. (DCI) in June, 1987. He is officially retiring, with his last official business day 30 December, 2011.

Nicolaas Francois Coetzee was born late in the year of 1949, third child of five, in Pietermaritzburg, then Natal Province, South Africa. He and his family resided the first five years of his life on a rural farm which enjoyed no electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, telephones or mechanization. He spoke Afrikaans (first language) and Zulu. The family moved to the very small town of Harding when he was 5. He was enrolled into Harding Government School at age 6 (elementary and middle school), where he began learning English. Eight years later, he entered Ixopo High School, with rugby and other sports a significant interest.

Following high school graduation, Nick matriculated to the University of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) in Durban. An injury in his third year of undergraduate school unfortunately limited further serious rugby playing; however, he continued playing the game for various social teams. His studies at UND produced a Bachelors Degree (B.Sc.) in civil engineering in 1972.

Soon after graduation, Nick was originally very briefly employed by CSIR, but preferred private industry and moved to Jeffares and Green, Consulting Civil Engineers (then J&G, now Jeffares and Green Inc.: JGI), for whom he provided design and construction field work throughout 1973/1974. Nick’s goal, set early in life and encouraged by his parents, was to obtain as much education as possible, and by the close of 1974, with J&G’s support, was on his way to UC Berkeley, enrolled in a M. Sc. (Civil Engineering) program.

Nick concluded his UCB M.Sc. in Civil Engineering in 1975, and initiated a Ph.D. program for the final three months of that year. He decided to put the Ph.D. on hold and return home, returning to work for J&G during 1976. UC Berkeley then offered a Research Assistant (“RA”) position at UC to finish his Ph.D., so he returned, with J&G’s blessing, to Berkeley in January, 1977, finishing his Ph.D. under Professor Carl Monismith in July/August, 1979, where he specialized in pavements, pavement rehabilitation and pavement materials. Nick met Barbara Urban (M.Sc. in Civil Engineering, UC Berkeley) during this time.
Returning to J&G in Johannesburg, Nick was made Associate Partner in 1981. Late in 1981, Nick decided to move back to California, and in 1982 married Barbara Urban. He had received several offers in private industry and education. He chose an Associate Professor position with the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, ultimately serving his last two years at the University as Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering.

In 1987, a highly respected pavement engineer contacted Nick and encouraged him to depart Alaska and come to work for him (a USA private civil engineering firm), in anticipation of his firm winning a large government procurement. Richard Stubstad, then President of DCI, heard about this offer, and by 1987, he knew Nick reasonably well, not only from TRB meetings but through work Dynatest had performed in Alaska. Nick had even joined the Dynatest team (and others) to propose on a large AK DOT PMS procurement, using the (still) advanced Dynatest “DMS” approach, which Nick seemed to technically appreciate. In fact, Nick very much admired the work of Per Ullidtz, whom he had met during his studies at UCB, but the AK PMS effort failed to win. Richard decided to make Nick an offer to work for Dynatest. After some standard negotiation, Nick agreed, spending the first year half-time for Dynatest Consulting, Inc., and half-time for the University of Alaska, commuting between an apartment in Ojai, CA and Fairbanks, AK.

Nick was asked to focus his attention on helping DCI, for which he became the second engineer on staff, to successfully expand its PMS market share in its territory, ie., he was to successfully market network level pavement management, with particular attention on the Dynatest “DMS” (Dynatest Management System) product. Nick mastered the technical details and made many proposals and related efforts; however, the market had yet to really understand and embrace the technical aspects of the approach, so the effort frustratingly foundered. Fortunately, Nick managed to find lucrative DOD airfield work, and initiated building an ever-strengthening network of project level consulting clients from his first days with DCI. During these years, Nick productively back-calculated many tens of thousands of deflection basins on a very wide array of pavement structures using Dynatest’s flagship ELMOD (and provided much valuable feedback for its development).
By 1990, various events compelled Nick to start thinking about the South African APT (Accelerated Pavement Testing) program using the Heavy Vehicle Simulator (“HVS”) which had been developed by the CSIR. Although sanctions still belabored South Africa (RSA), well known historical events were already occurring that suggested sanctions would not persist. DCI had already been able to initiate some limited RSA business, which later matured into Dynatest Africa. Taking the RSA HVS APT technology international seemed a potentially successful venture for all concerned, such was the depth and maturity of APT research long conducted by the South African pavement engineering community. Nick approached CSIR and by the time the sanctions were lifted (1991), CSIR and DCI had agreed on how to proceed together to internationalize the HVS technology.

By 1993, a pilot HVS testing project for Caltrans was underway, with test sections built and designed according to Caltrans specifications in S Africa. The results were excellent and motivating for Caltrans, who then ordered two HVS units to be refurbished and delivered to Caltrans to initiate the Caltrans APT program. These refurbished “Mark III” units, repainted to the rigorous specification of “Omaha orange, no runs, no drips or sags” were delivered in mid-1995 and the California APT program was launched. It is difficult to convey the creative thinking and persistence that was required to orchestrate the California APT program, but its longevity clearly speaks for its strong foundations. William (Bill) Nokes of Caltrans, Nick, and later his mentor, Professor Monismith at UC Berkeley, imagined a kind of association of government, education, private industry and specialists, orchestrated through a special civil engineering group at UC (originally Berkeley, now Davis), to make it happen. Undoubtedly, Nick’s mastery of pavement engineering, combined with his quick humor, strong and attentive presence and ability to eventually find the right question to ask, contributed significantly to this process. Bringing together Caltrans, UC, RSA CSIR, Dynatest (for HVS operations and research support) and specialists from universities and private industry as needed, the program sets a strong standard for APT research.

Nick is a licensed professional civil engineer in South Africa, California, Alaska, Nevada and Florida (Retired). He is a member of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was active in the Transportation Research Board as a member of the Flexible Pavement and Frost Action Committees. He started the Accelerated Pavement Testing Task Force at TRB’s then Pavement Management Section chair, Joe Mahoney’s, request in 1994, which he chaired until it became a standing committee in 1999, which he then also chaired until the end of 2002. During his tenure the 1st International Conference on Accelerated Pavement Testing was held in 1999. He was TRB pavement Management Section chair from 2003 to 2006. He was also instrumental, with Joe Mahoney, in initiating establishment of the Heavy Vehicle Simulator International Alliance (HVSIA) organization with a preliminary workshop held in South Africa in 2002. He has published a number of papers on pavement materials, pavement analysis and accelerated pavement testing.

Nick will be sorely missed, not simply by Dynatest but by the pavement engineering industry, which he has served with distinction for close to 40 years.

Announcement: William A. Beck II to become President of DCI per 1 January 2011

Dynatest International is pleased to announce the following management changes in its USA organization.

T. Booth Harris will be relinquishing his day to day duties as President of Dynatest Consulting Inc. (DCI), the USA subsidiary of Dynatest International, in order to focus on strategic areas of Dynatest. He will be appointed Senior Vice President with Group responsibility for Strategic Planning as of 1 January 2011. In addition, he will take overall responsibility for Dynatest information technology and knowledge sharing, including our IT systems, networks and web presentation. Booth will continue to serve as a member of the Board of Directors for Dynatest International (parent company), DCI, Dynatest Denmark and Dynatest UK.

William A. Beck II (Bill) will succeed Booth as President of DCI, with effect as from 1 January 2011 when Bill assumes full responsibility of all DCI business activities. Bill has been with DCI since 1989. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Building Construction Management and currently is the Production Contract Manager of DCI and oversees the Production and Support Center (the company’s Florida office) for manufacturing, delivery and support of Dynatest equipment in North and South America. Bill is on the Board of Directors of both Dynatest International and DCI.

Dynatest CEO, Frank Ebskamp says “Booth has done an outstanding job as head of the DCI team, with significant growth in our revenues, building customer relations that continue to contribute to our business now and in the coming years. We are happy that we can make this generation transition so that the team can benefit from Booth’s long experience in the industry while Bill assumes overall responsibility of DCI.”

Bill and Booth will work over the next three months of this transition to ensure that Bill is well prepared for his new role as the president of DCI from 1 January 2011.

Dynatest International A/S, its subsidiary Dynatest Consulting, Inc. (a USA corporation), and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of South Africa, are pleased to announce the manufacturing relocation to Michigan, USA of a major Dynatest/CSIR product, the Dynatest/CSIR Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS). The HVS has until now been manufactured in South Africa. A recent USA origin contract award to manufacture and deliver a Dynatest/CSIR HVS Mark VI system stimulated Dynatest to transition its HVS manufacturing to within close proximity of its Westland, Michigan USA office. Teaming with suppliers, such as Ideal Fabricators Inc. in Livonia, Michigan, the eighteen month project to build the 100 foot, thirty-four ton machine, supports local industry and the jobs and related economic benefits such industry represents to the Westland/Livonia area. It is anticipated that additional HVS projects will come on line during 2010 and ensuing years.

Dynatest was founded in 1976 in Denmark by a group of engineers and technicians who combined science, technology and business into the development and manufacturing of highly specialized equipment and methodology for pavement engineering. Since 1976, Dynatest has grown to become a multinational organization with offices in a number of countries around the world, including four offices in the USA. Dynatest's objective is to develop, and to make available to the pavement industry, a full range of non-destructive and destructive pavement test equipment with supporting engineering software and services to facilitate the preservation, design and management of pavement networks.

The HVS, first produced in South Africa in the1960’s, has gone through a number of changes over the years, and has become the world’s leading and most productive Accelerated Pavement Testing (APT) device. The original concept of the HVS was to provide the capability to pavement engineers to rapidly test, often to pavement failure, actual in-service or “real” road pavement. The HVS needed to be mobile and self contained so it could be used to evaluate the life expectancy of the pavement. With its large-scale size and variable loading, the HVS allows pavement engineers to build a full scale pavement structure, rapidly apply realistic load repetitions and study structural pavement design, materials properties, pavement performance, pavement rehabilitation procedures and construction techniques. Operating 24 hours per day seven days a week, the HVS can apply twenty years of traffic loading to a pavement in approximately three months providing quick and accurate assessment of the expected life of a pavement design. The HVS can optionally apply loads up to 200kN, with the standard maximum 100kN load translating into almost one million ESAL’s (Equivalent Single Axle Loads) per day, using bi-directional loading.

There are currently ten HVS systems working in a number of locations including South Africa, Sweden, United States (California, Maine, Mississippi, Florida), and HVS systems were recently shipped to facilities in China and India.

Douglas Equipment Limited Special Products Division and Dynatest International A/S have announced that they are joining forces in a strategic marketing alliance aimed specifically at both company’s market leading Runway Friction Measuring devices that will provide more options and services to airport customers around the world.

The new alliance will allow both Douglas & Dynatest to increase the range of products that they offer to their current and new airport customers, satisfying the diverse alternative requirements of modern airport’s requirements for both truck and trailer mount friction measuring systems.

Both companies will use the marketing alliance to facilitate the expansion of synergies between their companies in the development of existing and new runway friction measurement system technology and provide even greater after sales and support to airport customers around the world by the combination of existing field service engineering capacity.

For more information please contact Douglas Equipment or your nearest Dynatest office directly or visit www.Douglas-Equipment.com or www.Dynatest.com to review the products available for your airport needs.

Dynatest Consulting, Inc. utilizes two FHWA Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) calibration equipment sets. One set is permanently based at the Dynatest Production and Support Center, located in Starke, Florida and the second system is a travelling field calibration kit. Dynatest has operated a SHRP/FHWA FWD calibration system continuously since 1992. In the fall of 2008 a travelling system was placed into service giving Dynatest one more tool for totally independent calibration of Dynatest FWD and HWD test systems. This capability serves the vast customer base better in many ways as shipping a test system is often impractical, expensive and time consuming. Dynatest maintains a staff of certified calibration technicians and calibration hardware, both of which undergo annual recertification. Additional documentation is available upon request.

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