The Executives
Larry D. Olson, PE
President and Chief Engineer, M.S.
Mr. Olson is the sole owner of Olson Engineering and co-founded the company as its President in 1985 in Denver, Colorado and is internationally recognized as a leader in nondestructive evaluation of structures and infrastructure. Mr. Olson has over 35 years of consulting experience in structural condition assessment, geotechnical, pavement, materials, geophysical and vibration engineering. He has conducted and/or reviewed as the Chief Engineer over 4000 projects to investigate the condition of bridges, buildings, dams, foundations, pavements and tunnels. He is a registered Civil Professional Engineer in 21 states and the District of Columbia. He started Olson Instruments, Inc., as a division in 1993 and incorporated it in 1995 to provide instruments for nondestructive evaluation and geophysical engineering for structural and infrastructure applications. In 2011, Mr. Olson established our mid-Atlantic office (metro Washington, DC) in Maryland to bolster Olson Engineering's presence in the eastern corridor. He regularly speaks and publishes on Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation (NDT&E) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for construction applications and has taught short courses and/or ASCE Seminars on structural and bridge condition assessment nationally and internationally. Mr. Olson obtained his Bachelors in Civil Engineering and Masters in Engineering (geotechnical) degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and was honored in October, 2006 as a distinguished alumni of the UT Civil Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department. Mr. Olson received patents on impact echo scanning and parallel seismic/cone penetrometer testing and has conducted a number of funded research projects on NDE and Geophysics of infrastructure.
P.E.'s
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Indiana
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New York
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington D.C.
- West Virginia
COMMITTEES
Transportation Research Board
- AFF60 Tunnels and Underground Structures
American Concrete Institute
- 342 Committee on Bridge Evaluation
- 309 on Consolidation
- 228 Committee on Nondestructive Testing
- Former Director on the Board of the National Capital Chapter of ACI
American Society of Civil Engineers
- Member of the Geophysics Committee
- Teaches the "Structural Condition Assessment of Existing Structures" course
- Has taught the "Bridge Condition Assessment and Performance Monitoring" seminar (2009)
- Has taught the "NDE of Concrete, Asphalt and Wood" seminar (2010)
International Concrete Repair Institute
- Former Chairman of the Evaluation Committee (2000 - 2010)
- Former Director of ICRI
External Advisory Board of the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Texas at Austin
- Former Chairman (2000 - 2004)
Blue Mountain Water Board (Golden, Colorado)
- Former Director (2008-2011)
PUBLICATIONS
- Innovations in Bridge Superstructure Condition Assessment with Sonic and Radar Methods," ASNT (FHWA) Materials Technology Conference, LaGuardia, New York City, August, 2010.
- "Comparison of Surface Wave Tests for Pavement System Thicknesses/Moduli," co-authored with Patrick Miller, ASCE GeoHunan 2011 Conference, Changsha, China proceedings, June, 2009.
- "Applications and Limitations of Impact-Echo Scanning for Void Detection in Post-Tensioned Bridge Ducts," Transportation Research Record Journal, 2008 co-authored with Yajai Tinkey.
- "Sensitivity Studies of Grout Defects in Post Tensioned Bridge Ducts using Impact Echo and Scanning Method," Transportation Research Record Journal, 2007, co-authored with Yajai Tinkey.
- "Stress Wave NDE Methods for Condition Assessment of the Superstructure and Substructure of Concrete Bridges," Keynote Paper and Presentation, Indian Concrete Institute CEMCON 2006 Concrete Roads and Bridges Conference Proceedings, January 6-7, 2006, Pune, India.
- "SENSITIVITY STUDIES OF GROUT DEFECTS IN POST-TENSIONED BRIDGES USING IMPACT ECHO SCANNING TECHNIQUE," New York Bridge Assocation Conference Proceedings, September, 2005, New York, NY with Promboon and Gibson.
- "Impact Echo Testing/Scanning of Bridges and Pavements and Crosshole Sonic Tomography for Imaging of Bored Pile Foundation Defects", Hong Kong Steel Institute Conference Proceedings, July, 2004, Larry D. Olson.
- "APPLICATION OF A COMBINED NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION APPROACH TO DETECTING SUBGRADE VOIDS BELOW A DAM SPILLWAY", SAGEEP Conference Proceedings on Geophysical Engineering in Colorado Springs, February, 2004, Hollema and Olson
- "Dynamic Bridge Substructure Condition Assessment with Hilbert Huang Transform with Simulated Flood and Earthquake Damage for Structural Health/Security Monitoring", TRB 2004 83rd Annual Meeting CD ROM Proceedings, Zhang and Olson – then published in the TRB journal Transportation Research Record publication.
- "Combined Measurement of Unknown Foundation Depths and Soil Properties with NDE Methods", TRB 2004 83rd Annual Meeting CD ROM Proceedings, Sack, Slaughter and Olson – then published in the TRB journal Transportation Research Record publication.
- "Impact Echo Scanning Technology for Internal Grout Condition Evaluation in Post-Tensioned Bridge Ducts", NDT-CE Conference Proceedings CD-ROM, Berlin, Germany, September, 2003 Tinkey, Bedon, Olson and Nieberle.
- "Crosshole Sonic Logging and Velocity Tomography Imaging of Drilled Shaft Foundations", NDT- CE Conference Proceedings CD-ROM, Berlin, Germany, Hollema and Olson, September, 2003.
- "Determination of Unknown Bridge Foundation Depths with NDE Methods", Larry D. Olson, P.E., Structural Materials Technology: NDE/NDT for Highways and Bridges Topical Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, September 11-12, 2002.
- "Crosshole Sonic Logging and Tomographic Velocity Imaging of a New Drilled Shaft Bridge Foundation", Larry D. Olson, P.E., and David A. Hollema, Structural Materials Technology Topical Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, September 10-13, 2002.
- "Applications of Stress Waves Nondestructive Methods to Building and Bridges", Marwan F. Aouad, Ph.D., Larry D. Olson, P.E., and Dennis A. Sack, Structural Engineers World Congress, San Francisco, California, July 18-23, 1998.
- "Initial Test Results From FHWA Project 'Dynamic Bridge Substructure Evaluation and Monitoring System'", Marwan F. Aouad, Ph.D., Larry D. Olson, P.E., and Ming Liu, NDT Structural Materials Technology Conference, San Antonio, Texas, March 31-April 3, 1998.
- "Applications of the SASW Method to Pavements, Structures and Geotechnical Sites", Ming Liu, Marwan F. Aouad, Ph.D., Larry D. Olson, P.E., and Dennis A. Sack, 3rd International Conference on Road and Airfield Pavement Technology, Beijing, P.R. China, 28-30 April 1998 (in press).
- "Drilled Shaft Defect Detection and Resolution", Larry D. Olson, P.E., Association of Drilled Shafts Contractors Drilled Shaft Foundation Symposium, Austin, Texas, January 30, 1998.
- "NDT Diagnosis of Drilled Shaft Foundations", Larry D. Olson, P.E., Marwan F. Aouad, Ph.D., and Dennis A. Sack, Transportation Research Board, 77th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 11-15, 1998.
- "A Comparison of the Performance of Several Impact Echo Transducers and Application of Impact Echo NDT to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.", Dennis A. Sack, Larry D. Olson, P.E., and David Fidelman, Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Structural Faults and Repair, July 10th 1997.
- "Applications of NDT Methods for the Determination of Unknown Bridge Foundation Depths", Marwan F. Aouad, Ph.D. and Larry D. Olson, P.E., Non-Destructive Testing in Civil Engineering, NDT- CE '97, An International Conference organized by The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England, April 8-11, 1997.
- "Borehole NDT Techniques for Unknown Subsurface Bridge Foundation Testing", Larry D. Olson, P.E., Ming Liu, Marwan F. Aouad, Ph.D., Nondestructive Evaluation Techniques for Aging Infrastructure & Manufacturing '96", December 3-5, 1996.
- "Nondestructive Evaluation Applications and Needs for the Construction Industry", Larry D. Olson, P.E., The Third Conference on Nondestructive Evaluation of Civil Structures and Materials, Boulder, Colorado, September 8-11, 1996.
- "Determination of Unknown Depth of Bridge Abutments using the Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves (SASW) and Parallel Seismic (PS) Test Methods", Marwan F. Aouad, Ph.D., Larry D. Olson, P.E., and Farrokh Jalinoos, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Nondestructive Testing of Concrete in the Infrastructure, Nashville, Tennessee, June 12-14, 1996.
- "Determination of Unknown Depth of the Bridge Foundation Using Nondestructive Testing Methods", Farrokh Jalinoos, Larry D. Olson, P.E., Marwan F. Aouad, 1996 Structural Materials Technology and Nondestructive Testing Conference, San Diego, California, February 20-23, 1996.
- "Nondestructive Evaluation of Bridge Foundations", Marwan F. Aouad, Ph.D. and Larry D. Olson, P.E., 1996 Structural Materials Technology and Nondestructive Testing Conference, San Diego, California, February 20-23, 1996.
- "High Speed Testing Technologies for NDT of Structures", Dennis A. Sack and Larry D. Olson, P.E., International Symposium Non-Destructive Testing in Civil Engineering (NDT-CE), Berlin, Germany, September 26-28, 1995.
- "Non Destructive Testing of Concrete Construction for QA/Forensic/Rehabilitation", Larry D. Olson, Brendan Corcoran, Concrete 95 Toward Better Concrete Structures, Brisbane, Australia, September 4-7, 1995.
- "Use of Impact Echo Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Scanners to Detect and Characterize Defects in Concrete Civil Structures", Farrokh Jalinoos and Larry D. Olson, P.E., Structural Faults + Repair - 95, Extending the Life of Bridges, Civil + Building Structures", Westminster, London, U.K., July 3-5, 1995.
- "Combined Acoustic Impact Echo & Cross-Medium Tomography for Defect Characterization in Concrete Structures", Farrokh Jalinoos and Larry D. Olson, P.E., Structural Faults + Repair - 95, Extending the Life of Bridges, Civil + Building Structures", Westminster, London, U.K., July 3-5, 1995.
- "Use of Cross-hole and Cross-Medium Tomography for the Detection of Defects in Structural Concrete", Farrokh Jalinoos and Larry D. Olson, P.E., SAGEEP 1995 Conference, Orlando, Florida, April 23-26, 1995.
- "Impact Echo Scanning of Concrete Slabs and Pipes", Dennis Sack and Larry D. Olson, P.E., CANMET/ACI International Conference on Advances in Concrete Technology, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 11-14, 1995.
- "High Speed Ultrasonic Tomography for the Detection of Flaws in Concrete Members", Farrokh Jalinoos and Larry D. Olson, P.E., First National Conference and Workshop on Research Into Practice sponsored by the National Science Foundation, University of Maryland, College Park, June 15-16, 1995.
- "Nondestructive Evaluation of Concrete Dams and Other Structures", Larry D. Olson, P.E. and Dennis A. Sack, Nondestructive Evaluation of Aging Infrastructure, sponsored by SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering, Oakland, CA, June 6-8 1995.
- "Impact Echo Scanning of Concrete and Wood", Dennis A. Sack, Larry D. Olson, P.E. and Marwan F. Aouad, Nondestructive Evaluation of Aging Infrastructure, sponsored by SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering, Oakland, CA, June 6-8 1995.
- "High Speed NDT of Concrete Using Impact Echo Scanning", Dennis A. Sack and Larry D. Olson, P.E., 10th Engineering Mechanics Specialty Conference, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder Colorado, May 21 -24, 1995.
- "Evaluation of Pavement Systems Using the Spectral-Analysis-of-Surface Waves (SASW) Method", Marwan F. Aouad, Kenneth H. Stokoe, Larry D. Olson, P.E. and Dennis A. Sack, Proceedings Second International Conference on Road & Airfield Pavement Technology, Singapore, September 27 - 29, 1995
- "Quality Assurance of Drilled Shaft Foundations with Nondestructive Testing", Larry D. Olson, Marshall Lew, Greg C. Phelps, K.N. Murthy, B.M. Ghadiali, Proceedings Federal Highway Administration Conference on Deep Foundations, Orlando, Florida, December 1994.
- "In-Situ Nondestructive Testing of Buried Precast Concrete Pipe", Dennis A. Sack, Larry D. Olson, American Society of Civil Engineering, Proceedings Materials Engineering Conference, November 1994.
- "Acoustic Tomography for QNDE of Structural Concrete", Farrokh Jalinoos, Larry D. Olson, Marwan F. Aouad, A. H. Balch, Proceedings for the 1994 QNDE Conference, Snowmass, Colorado July-August 1994.
- "The Use of Impact-Echo and Spectral-Analysis-of-Surface-Wave Methods for the Concrete Investigation of the Rogers Dam Spillway Structure", Larry D. Olson, Y. Fai Chan, Dennis A. Sack, Michael F. Dumont, Robert T. Gilmore, John T. Christy, Proceedings of the 56th American Power Conference, April 1994, Chicago, Illinois.
- "Stress-Wave Nondestructive Testing of Tunnels and Shafts", Larry D. Olson, Dennis A. Sack, Kenneth H. Stokoe, II, and Kenneth W. Buchinski, Transportation Research Board - Annual Meeting - Session on Nondestructive Testing of Deteriorating Infrastructure, Transportation Research Record 1415, Washington D.C. January 1993, pp. 88-94.
- "Nondestructive Testing Role in Repair and Rehabilitation of Concrete Structures", Larry D. Olson, Innovation in Repair Techniques of Concrete Structures - Proceedings of ASCE 1993 Annual Convention, Dallas, Texas, October 1993.
- "Advanced NDT Methods for Evaluating Concrete Bridges and Other Structures", Dennis A. Sack, Larry D. Olson, Structural Faults + Repair - 93, 5th International Conference and Exhibition, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, June-July 1993.
- "Advanced NDT Methods for Concrete Structures", Dennis A. Sack, Larry D. Olson, Proceedings of the International Conference on Nondestructive Testing of Concrete in the Infrastructure, sponsored by the Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc., Dearborn, Michigan, June 1993.
- "Sonic NDT for Infrastructure Assessment", Gregory C. Phelps, Larry D. Olson, Proceedings ASCE Conference "Infrastructure Management: New Challenges, New Methods", June 1993.
- "Innovations for NDT of Concrete Structures", Larry D. Olson, Dennis A. Sack, Gregory C. Phelps, Proceedings of ASCE Specialty Conference: 1992 Materials Engineering Congress, Atlanta, Georgia, August 1992.
- "Nondestructive Testing of Older Concrete Bridges: A Case History of the SEPTA Manayunk Bridge", Dennis A. Sack, Larry D. Olson, Thomas R. Kline, Gregory R. Yates, Proceedings of the International Bridge Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 1992.
- "Sonic NDE of Bridges and Other Concrete Structures", Larry D. Olson, Dennis A. Sack, Gregory C. Phelps, Nondestructive Evaluation of Civil Structures and Materials Conference, National Science Foundation, Boulder, Colorado May 1992.
- "Sonic NDE of Structural Concrete", Larry D. Olson, Proceedings of Minisymposium on Nondestructive Testing of Concrete Elements and Structures, ASCE Structures Congress, San Antonio, Texas, April 1992.
- "Sound Structures", Larry D. Olson, The Construction Specifier, December 1991, pp 90-101.
- "NDE of Structural Concrete with Stress Waves", Larry D. Olson, Proceedings of the American Concrete International Conference on Evaluation and Rehabilitation of Concrete Structures and Innovations in Design, December 1991, Hong Kong.
- "Measurement of Subsurface, Deep Foundation and Slab/Subgrade Conditions with In Situ Seismic, Sonic and Vibration Methods", Larry D. Olson, Proceedings of the Geotechnical Congress 1991, American Society of Civil Engineers, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, June 10-12, 1991.
- "Remote Nondestructive Testing of Grouted Radioactive Waste", Harold L. Benny, Larry D. Olson, Concrete International magazine, American Concrete Institute, January 1991, pp 32-38.
- "Nondestructive Evaluation of Structural Concrete with Stress Waves", Larry D. Olson, Proceedings of the Nondestructive Evaluation of Civil Structures and Materials Conference of The National Science Foundation, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, October 1990.
- "Evaluation of Concrete and Cyclopean Masonry Dams with Stress Wave Based Methods", Clifford C. Wright, Larry .D Olson, AEG Annual Meeting - Association of Engineering Geologists, October 1990.
- "Strides in Nondestructive Testing", Larry D. Olson, Clifford C. Wright, Kenneth H. Stokoe, II, Civil Engineering magazine, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), May 1990.
- "Nondestructive Testing for Repair and Rehabilitation", Larry D. Olson and Clifford C. Wright, Concrete International: Design & Construction, March 1990.
- "Nondestructive Testing of Deep Foundations with Sonic Methods", Larry D. Olson, Clifford C. Wright, ASCE Geotechnical And Construction Divisions - Foundation Engineering Conference, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, June 1989.
- "Modal Analysis for Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation of Civil Engineering Structures", Larry D. Olson, Clifford C. Wright, Proceedings of the 7th International Modal Analysis Conference, Volume I, pp. 5 - 11, Las Vegas, Nevada, January, 1989, sponsored by Union College, Schenectady, New York and the Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc., Bethel, Connecticut.
- "Seismic, Sonic and Vibration Methods for Quality Assurance and Forensic Investigation of Geotechnical, Pavement and Structural Systems", Larry D. Olson, Clifford C. Wright, Proceedings of the NonDestructive Testing & Evaluations for Manufacturing and Construction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, August 1988, published by Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, 1990, Also published by Concrete International: Design & Construction, the American Concrete Institute magazine, March 1990, under the title of "Nondestructive Testing for Repair and Rehabilitation".
- "Case Histories of Nondestructive Evaluation of Environmental Degradation Effects on Concrete and Steel Structures", Larry D. Olson, Workshop Proceedings, International National Science Foundation Workshop "Nondestructive Evaluation for Performance of Civil Structures," University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, February 2-3, 1988.
- "Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation Methods of Investigating the Condition of Deep Foundations", Larry D. Olson, Edward O. Church, Clifford C. Wright, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Highway Geology Symposium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May, 1987.
- "Integrity Testing of Drilled Shafts", Kenneth H. Stokoe, II, Larry D. Olson, Lymon C. Reese, International Drilled Shaft Workshop for Civil engineering Faculty conducted by International Association of Foundation Drilling Contractors, Fort Collins, Colorado, July 1987.
- "Quality Assurance of Deep Concrete Foundations with Nondestructive Testing Methods", Larry D. Olson, Clifford C. Wright, Edward O. Church, Proceedings of ACI Fall Convention, Seattle, Washington, November 1987.
- "Survey of Nondestructive Wave Propagation Testing Methods for the Construction Industry", Larry D. Olson, Edward O. Church, Proceeding of the 37th Annual Highway Geology Symposium, Helena, Montana, August, 1986.
- "Case Histories Evaluation of Drilled Pier Integrity by the Stress Wave Propagation Method", Larry D. Olson, Robert W, Thompson, Session Proceedings of Drilled Piers and Caisson II, American Society of Civil Engineers National Spring Convention, Denver, Colorado, May 1985.
- "Development of Source and Receiver Components for Measurement of In-Situ Shear and Compression Wave Velocities with a Bottom-Hole-Seismic Device", Larry D. Olson, M.S. Thesis and Geotechnical Engineering Center Report GR83-3, University of Texas at Austin, May, 1983.