SINCE 1976
Kenneth B. Drake began his career in the construction industry as a union carpenter in 1976, learning the industry from the ground up. An untimely accident ended the carpenter career when Ken fell from a structure. No longer having the ability to perform carpenter functions Ken began concentrating his efforts in the field of foundation restoration of buildings and hillsides damaged by soil subsidence issues. For the next 13 years, Ken stayed on the ground and specialized in all areas of deep foundations and soil stabilization.
In 1989, realizing that conventional methods of foundation restoration were becoming cost prohibitive, he began exploring alternate mechanical type systems. Helical anchors afforded a method of underpinning settled structures, providing deep foundations for new structures, tiebacks, and slope stabilization as a pre-engineered system. In its infancy, the helical anchor systems were installed through a separate division of Ken's construction company, RJG CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INC.
In 1994 the Northridge earthquake damaged thousands of structures in Southern California. Homeowners, insurance companies, contractors, and municipalities, quickly realized that helical anchors were a viable, economical, and secure method of addressing these settled foundations. As a result of the increased demand over the next 2-3 years, Ken established ADVANCED SUPPORT TECHNOLOGY, INC. as a distribution hub for helical anchor products, testing apparatus, and installation tooling. This network currently includes 25+ helical installation specialists in California and Nevada. These specialists were all hand picked by Ken because of their vast working knowledge of conventional foundation repair methodologies. Ken believed such knowledge was necessary in order to understand circumstances in which helical anchors would be appropriate. As with any system, Ken determined that helical anchors are not always the appropriate solution, however, often times they are not only appropriate, but were found to be the only viable course of action. This comprehensive approach soon earned Ken top tier respect, and AST became an engineers' most valuable tool and source of information regarding deep foundations.
View Ken's CV in the link below:
| kbd_resume_2019.pdf |
