Biography
Dr. Collin founded The Collin Group, Ltd., in 1995. The Collin Group has acted as a peer reviewer for the FHWA in the development of Demonstration Project No. 82 - Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls and Reinforced Slopes Design and Construction Guidelines. He was author of the National Highway Institutes “Soil Slope and Embankment Design Manual,” “Ground Improvement Methods Manual,” and “Shallow Foundations Manual”. Dr. Collin is also a certified instructor for the U.S. DOT, Federal Highway Administration courses on Geosynthetic Design and Construction Guidelines, Shallow Foundations, Soil Slopes and Embankments, Earth Retaining Structures, Geosynthetics, and Ground Improvement.
Dr. Collin has served as an expert witness for over 70 geotechnical and or construction related failures both in the US and abroad.
Dr. Collin is currently a principal investigator for the SHRP2R02 project on “Geotechnical Solutions for Soil Improvement, Rapid Embankment Construction, and Stabilization of the Pavement Working Platform.” The objectives of this 4 year research program include the evaluation of ground improvement and rapid construction techniques for building embankments over soft soils (i.e., column supported embankments), the development of a catalog of materials and systems for rapid renewal projects; guidance for design and QC/QA procedures, methods for estimating costs, and sample specifications for the identified geotechnical materials, systems and technologies. Over the last decade The Collin Group has been involved with the design and construction of 15 column supported embankment projects across the US. Dr. Collin was the principal investigator for a FHWA research program to develop design guidelines for column supported embankments.
As an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Dr. Collin developed two new graduate engineering courses for the University. One, Ground Improvement, deals with different methods of soil improvement (e.g., grouting, deep soil mixing, jet grouting, micro piles (pin piles), soil nailing, light weight fill (including fly ash), wick drains, dynamic compaction, and stone columns). The other course is titled Designing with Geosynthetics and covers the design and specifications of geosynthetics.
Dr. Collin has served on the Geotechnical Review Board (GRB) for Fairfax County, Virginia since 1995. The GRB reviews all geotechnical reports submitted to the County prior to issuing building permits.
Dr. Collin possesses a wide range of geotechnical engineering experiences involving reinforced soil structures, geosynthetics, embankments over soft soils, deep and shallow foundations, retaining walls, excavation support systems, soil nailing, pin piles, tiebacks, slurry walls, decking and building facade support. He has been responsible for technical consultation and overview on major engineering projects and has been involved in contract negotiation and supervision of construction operations. Dr. Collin has been engineer of record on over 100 projects that involved the production of construction drawings and contract specifications. In addition to Dr. Collin’s extensive design experience he has managed large construction projects for a national construction company.
Additional experience for Dr. Collin includes: design of an underpinning system (micropiles/pin piles) to stop the vertical and lateral settlement of a 150-year old church caused by an adjacent excavation; design of a soil-cement arch, using finite element analysis, over an existing tunnel to minimize the increase in stress on the tunnel structure caused by the placement of 11 feet of fill; design of permanent tieback retaining wall systems and coordination of construction operations for roads and highways; design of frozen earth walls using finite element analyses; supervision and monitoring of installation of frozen retaining systems.