David J. Runser

    David Runser joined Van Deurzen and Associates, P.A. in September 1992 while a senior at Blue Valley High School through the school’s mentorship program. During this period, David developed a computer assisted design method for reinforced soil retaining walls. Following graduation from high school, he held a part time position as an intern engineer prior to attending Kansas State University in the fall. While at Kansas State David was an active participant in the Concrete Canoe, Chi Epsilon, and the Engineering Student Council.

    David graduated from Kansas State with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in December 1996, and was promoted to a full time structural engineer at Van Deurzen and Associates, P.A. His primary responsibilities included design of reinforced soil retaining walls.

    In August 1997, David accepted a research assistantship at Purdue University under Dr. Patrick Fox and Dr. Philippe Bourdeau. While pursing his Masters Degree, David maintained a part time position designing retaining walls for Van Deurzen and Associates, P.A. At Purdue David’s research project involved the instrumentation of a 55’-0" tall Reinforced Earth retaining wall located in Logansport, Indiana. The objective of the study was to observe reinforced soil behavior during and after construction, and to provide an independent check on current design methods used for tall MSE walls containing inextensible reinforcements. Numerous field instruments including strain gages, earth pressure cells, load cells, inclinometers, and piezometers, were installed in addition to extensive laboratory testing including steel tension tests, large diameter triaxial tests, and index tests. David received his Master’s of Science in Civil Engineering in August of 1999.

Following graduation from Purdue University, David accepted a position as a  Geotechnical/Structural Engineer at Van Deurzen and Associates, P.A. in August 1999 which he currently holds.  David is a registered professional engineer in the state of Kansas and his primary responsibility is the design of reinforced soil retaining walls in the Midwest and Atlantic Coast regions.  He has been the keynote speaker at a local installers information seminar to address construction and design issues related to the performance of segmental retaining walls.  Other responsibilities include slope stability analyses, evaluation of building foundations, design of tieback and concrete cantilever retaining walls, and retaining wall construction quality assurance.

David has attended several meetings of the National Concrete Masonry Association’s technical subcommittee on the Segmental Retaining Wall Design Manual.  He has also been a juror for the 2002 NCMA Design Awards of Excellence.  David is a member of the Segmental Retaining Wall Standards Committee which is responsible for the development of a consensus building code for the design of segmental retaining walls.

Runser, D.J., and Runser, J.A. (2002) “Dissemination of Preliminary Design Build Bid Packages through an Interactive Web Site – An Industry Case Study”, Computing in Civil Engineering Proceedings of the International Workshop on Information Technology in Civil Engineering, Washington, DC, pp 357-366

Bourdeau, P.L., Fox, P.J., Runser, D.J., and Lee, J. (2001) “Development of Low Cost Retaining Walls for Indiana Highways”, Joint Transportation Research Program, FHWA/IN/JTRP-2001/3, 165 pp.

Runser, D.J., Fox, P.J., and Bourdeau, P.L. (2001) "Field Performance of a 17-m High Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall", Geosynthetics International, Vol 8, No. 5, pp 367-391.

Runser, D. J. (1999). Instrumentation and Experimental Evaluation of a 17m tall Reinforced Earth Retaining Wall, M.S.C.E. thesis, Department of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, 289 pp.

Instrumented section of wall at completion of research project.

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