Douglas E. Williams is a consulting metallurgical and welding engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area.  He has over 45 years of experience in metalworking industries and specializes in materials, welding, inspection and quality control/assurance of structural steel and piping.

Current and recent clients include engineers, fabricators, erectors,  attorneys, and testing laboratories and cover the range of metallurgical and welding engineering from new bridge design, through CWI training, forensic analysis and retrofit implementation to weld inspection and oversight.

 

Industries

Mr. Williams has spent significant time working in a variety of industries where welding of steels are important. A resume is available on request, but some highlights are provided below.

Bridges

  • Doug is the Welding Consultant for materials and welding issues to the T.Y.Lin – Moffatt & Nichol Joint Venture for the design the new East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, including the Skyway and Self-Anchored Suspension (SAS) sections.  He has been active on this project since the 1999 Pile Installation Demonstration Project and 65% design of the new structures.
  • He was the subcontractor’s Welding Engineer For Field Welding of the orthotropic deck sections of the new Alfred Zampa (Carquinez) Bridge.
  • He performed an in-depth Peer Review of construction of the new orthotropic Chiapas Bridge in Mexico.  After the new San Cristobal-Tuxtla Guiterriez Bridge collapsed during construction, he provided failure analysis to determine cause and provided recommendations and a follow-up Independent Quality Assessment after construction re-commenced.
  • He published the paper, “Codifying Orthotropic Closed Rib Fabrication.”  The paper proposes criteria for the fabrication of orthotropic sections that are practical, consistent with current technology, and suitable for incorporation into a welding code such as AWS D1.5.

Penstocks & Pipelines

  • Mr. Williams worked on various pipelines, penstocks and similar structures since he was a Welding Inspector on the Trans-Alaska Alyeska Pipeline in 1975.
  • He assisted the San Francisco Water Department / PUC-UEB as a Welding Engineer and Inspector on retrofits to penstocks at the O’Shaughnessy Dam and the Priest Resevoir, which are parts of the Hetch Hetchy water system.  He is also currently a Consulting Welding Specialist for the new San Francisco Bay Division Pipeline No. 5.

Offshore Structures & Floaters

  • Doug was the Project Metallurgist for the design of the Jolliet Tension Leg Platform (TLP / TLWP).  When it was installed in the Gulf of Mexico in 1988, it was the tallest man-made structure in the world, and at 1750ft. water depth, it was the deepest water structure at the time.  The critical tendons were welded pipe, which was another first.  He was the Start-Up Site Welding Engineer for the owner during construction of the floating hull in Singapore.
  • He was the Project Metallurgist for the design of the Kulluk, an ice-breaking,  mobile offshore drilling unit for the Arctic, and wrote specifications for the steels, welding and inspection before the American Bureau of Shipping had relevant rules for the -60C service temperature.
  • He was the Project Metallurgist for the design of a number of fixed tubular structures including the North Rankin A and Goodwin platforms in Australia,  Maui B platform in New Zealand and the Pampo PPM-1 platform in Brazil.  He also performed extensive damage assessments to fixed platforms such as the Maui A Platform.
  • He was Project Metallurgist and the Start-Up Site Welding Engineer for the new construction of  the Sedco 710, 711, 712 and 713 semi submersibles.
  • Doug was Project Metallurgist and Site Welding Engineer for Sedco and Sedco/Forex fleet of  mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs), such as the Sedco 700, 250  and 600 series rigs.  He redesigned the annual inspection manuals and provided oversight for critical repairs of vessels in the North Sea and African West Coast.

Mr. Williams has also worked in other industries that include nuclear, cranes, buildings  and welded crab traps.  He wrote detailed technical specifications for the welded construction of over 35 major structures, developed over 30 annual inspection manuals for large floating structures, published papers in five major technical conferences, and was Chair for Chapter 6 “Test Methods for Evaluating Welded Joints” of the American Welding Society Welding Handbook, Vol. 1, 9th Ed., 2001.  He is a Registered Professional Engineer (Metallurgy) in California, an International Welding Engineer through IIW, an ICC Steel inspector (lapsed) and an AWS Senior CWI.