February 2007
Volume 32, Issue 2

On behalf of ASCE, I would like to thank all those who supported and helped to advance the Dam Safety Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-460), which President Bush signed into law on December 22. This legislation reauthorizes the National Dam Safety Program, which provides assistance to state programs that monitor the safety of dams. The bill was a top legislative priority for ASCE in 2006 and its passage into law is a major victory for the civil engineering community. 
 
ASCE has been invited to comment on criteria governing certain job titles that will figure in the National Incident Management System (NIMS). ASCE members are encouraged to participate in the review process. As part of efforts to increase the nation’s ability to respond to catastrophic events, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s NIMS Integration Center has released initial minimum criteria that personnel will have to meet to be deployed. For each job title, working groups have set “requisite” and “recommended” baseline criteria in the areas of education, training, experience, physical fitness, certification, and licensing. These criteria are intended to complement existing systems for setting credentials. For further information or to review draft descriptions, visit www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/rm/job_titles.shtm. All comments should be sent to ASCE’s Committee on Critical Infrastructure at cci@asce.org.

ASCE’s leaders in recent years have been discussing whether or not the designation “honorary member” effectively captures the significance of ASCE’s most prestigious member grade. In 2005 ASCE set up a task committee to examine the issue by reviewing the programs of other organizations, as well as by interviewing past presidents and honorary members of the Society. The committee found that the term “honorary” does not adequately reflect the important contributions that ASCE’s 555 honorary members have made to civil engineering and society as a whole. Consequently ASCE’s Board of Direction has approved steps to change the elite member grade to “distinguished member.” ASCE invites its members to vote on the change this summer. Additional  information will be available online in the coming months. Check www.asce.org/awards for updates.

The history and heritage citations that ASCE awards to sections recognize such important activities as publishing a brochure on a region’s civil engineering heritage or sending members to local schools to acquaint students with the history of the civil engineering profession. Sections that celebrate the history and heritage of civil engineering as part of their activities may qualify for such a citation. To be considered, please submit materials related to your section’s history and heritage activities, along with a detailed letter describing those activities, to Carol Reese, ASCE’s history and heritage coordinator. By regular mail, the address is Carol Reese, HHC, ASCE, 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191-4400. The e-mail address is creese@ASCE.org. To qualify for a citation this year, all materials must be received by April 2.

Each year ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and the National Council of Structural Engineers Association (NCSEA) join forces to create a poster that promotes structural engineering as a career. The intent of the poster, which is distributed to middle schools and high schools, is to acquaint students with structural engineering by featuring appealing aspects of the profession. The SEI and the ncsea hope that young people will be inspired by the structures shown in each year’s poster and perhaps consider structural engineering as a career. To view the poster, visit www.seinstitute.org/files/2007_poster.jpg. To obtain a copy of the 2007 poster, contact Mary Ellen Saville at mesaville@asce.org or (703) 295-6195.

The life insurance available as part of ASCE’s group insurance program, which includes group term life insurance, group 10-year level term life insurance, and group 20-year level term life insurance, offers very competitive pricing. Underwritten by the New York Life Insurance Company, the plans offer affordable ways to provide for one’s family in the event of premature death. Plan details, including features, costs, eligibility, limitations, exclusions, and details on renewability, along with applications and simple price quotes, may be found by visiting ASCE’s insurance site, http://www.personal-plans.com/product/asceinsurance/, or by calling (800) 650-2723.

Have you made plans yet to attend this year’s Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) gala, which will be held in Washington, D.C., on April 25 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center? You may purchase tickets by contacting Patty Montgomery by e-mail at pmontgomery@ASCE.org or by telephone at (800) 548-2723, extension 6101. Tickets for the gala are $275 each, and tables of eight are $2,000. (All but $115 of each ticket purchased is tax deductible.) In addition to the five persons who will be honored with OPAL awards for lifetime achievements, four projects have been selected as finalists in the competition for ASCE’s Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award (OCEA award). The ocea winner also receives an OPAL award. Adding to the glitter, the event will honor the winners of the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation and the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research. For more information about OPAL, visit www.ASCE.org/OPAL.

Remember that March 1 is the deadline for nominations for the following awards: the Civil Government Award, the Edmund Friedman Professional Recognition Award, the Daniel W. Mead Prize for Students, and the John I. Parcel–Leif J. Sverdrup Civil Engineering Management Award. For complete information on these and all Society awards, visit www.asce.org/awards.

—Patrick J. Natale, P.E., F.ASCE Executive Director

On January 17 ASCE signed a letter addressed to Representative Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) that expressed opposition to moving up the effective date of the 3 percent government withholding requirement specified in the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 (section 511 of P.L. 109-222). The letter is part of an initiative by the Government Withholding Relief Coalition, an alliance of more than 40 organizations—including ASCE, the National Society of Professional Engineers, the American Institute of Architects, and many other design, construction, and business groups—that is seeking to repeal the requirement that calls for a 3 percent withholding on all payments for products and services made by federal, state, and local governments with contracting expenditures of $100 million or more.

“In particular, we are concerned about reports that this proposal will be used as a revenue offset for the reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000,” the letter states. “Originally slated to take effect in 2011, this withholding requirement is a sweeping mandate on federal, state, and local governments to withhold three percent of payments for goods and services. It also will affect Medicare payments, farm aid, and certain grants. While we do not disagree with the goals of the rural schools legislation, we strongly oppose the new withholding requirement as it will have a severe negative impact on a wide range of private sector businesses and groups in the public sector.”

According to the Government Withholding Relief Coalition, the requirement will also deplete “cash flows needed for day-to-day business operations and force some companies to alter their business models and pricing schemes when dealing with government customers.” Moreover, since the letter notes that the administrative costs associated with implementing and managing the program “will be substantial” and “complicated,” it contends that accelerating the effective date of the stipulation “will only exacerbate these problems.”

Although DeFazio is the sponsor of the bill to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (H.R. 17)—legislation that is intended to provide more revenue to counties and school districts and to make that revenue more stable—last year he opposed the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005. “What contempt the leaders in Congress have for the American people,” DeFazio said in a press release dated May 11, 2006, the day after he voted against the tax bill. “They are not only cutting programs essential to the middle class, like student loans, but they are borrowing in their name to give to rich investors. At the same time, they let a modest tax deduction for parents who help pay their kids’ college tuition expire this year. Too expensive, they said. Yet the extension of tax breaks for investment incomes cost 10 times as much. The investor tax cuts the Republicans are proposing to extend will give an average cut of only $16 to those who make between $30,000 and $40,000 a year. But the lucky winners, the households who earn more than $1 million per year, would receive an average tax cut of $42,000.”

While the Government Withholding Relief Coalition is not opposed to reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, it does oppose the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 and any effort to accelerate withholding (which is currently scheduled for 2011) as a revenue offset that would pay for H.R. 17. “There will be a large number of harmful consequences if the provision is not repealed,” the coalition argued in a paper last July. “The provision hurts honest taxpaying businesses while it attempts to find tax delinquents by essentially forcing companies to provide the federal government with an interest-free loan. The three percent withholding significantly affects companies’ cash flows. This new requirement is based on revenues from government payments with no relationship to companies’ taxable income. Companies will lose vital funds needed to operate day-to-day activities and will be forced to pass along the added costs to customers or finance the additional amount. In addition, the costs to Federal, State, and local governments to administer the program will be substantial and the process complicated to implement. The Congressional Budget Office reported that the withholding provision is an unfunded mandate on state and local governments because it exceeds the allowable $50 million annual threshold.”

On October 18, 2006, ASCE’s Board of Direction officially opposed the withholding statute by adopting Policy 520. “The American Society of Civil Engineers supports the immediate repeal of Section 511 of the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-222), which mandates a 3 percent withholding on payments to companies for any contract with a government entity,” the policy states.

—Mark Fitzgerald

Four civil engineering projects have been designated finalists in the competition for ASCE’s 2007 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award (OCEA award) and two finalists have been selected in the competition for the 2007 Charles Pankow Award for Innovation, bestowed by the Civil Engineering Forum for Innovation (CEFI). The OCEA jury convened on January 24; the Pankow jury, on January 25. During its meeting the OCEA jury selected the 2007 outstanding civil engineering achievement, and on February 5 the Board of Direction’s Executive Committee approved the choice. However, the winner will not be announced until the 2007 Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) gala, which will be held on April 25 in Washington, D.C., at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The four projects chosen as OCEA finalists are the Rehabilitation of Economic Facilities and Services Program in Afghanistan; the Golden Gate Bridge Seismic Retrofit Phase II South Approach Structures; the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Capital Development Program; and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory. The jury for the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation recommended a winner to the CEFI Board of Directors, which approved that selection during a meeting on January 29, but here too the winner will not be announced until the OPAL gala. The two finalists in the Pankow competition are the cable-stayed bridge cradle system and performance-based seismic design of high-rise buildings.
Established in 1960, the OCEA award annually recognizes the project that is deemed to embody the best in civil engineering and to make a significant contribution to both the civil engineering profession and society as a whole. Following are brief descriptions of the four projects:

The Rehabilitation of Economic Facilities and Services Program (RES program) is a $730-million initiative designed to achieve one particular goal: to rebuild the nation of Afghanistan. As the primary contractor, the Louis Berger Group, Inc., of Washington, D.C., was responsible for restoring and, in some cases, providing the foundations for basic infrastructure, including roads, energy systems, schools, clinics, and water distribution and irrigation systems. In addition to the challenges that would be inherent in such a broad range of engineering projects of this magnitude anywhere in the world, the remoteness of Afghanistan and the fighting that continues to plague the nation make the successful implementation of the REFS program a tremendous accomplishment. Afghanistan has the highest density of land mines of any nation in the world, and security is a constant concern given the activities of drug traffickers, rival warlords, and a resurgent Taliban. The country is one of the poorest and least developed in the world. Its terrain is exceptionally harsh and its climate extremes pronounced. Expatriate workers trained the local workforce and made use of Afghan subcontractors to create employment and give participants experience that is sure to prove useful in future projects. The requisite mine removal and security operations that were part of every project provided a safer environment for local residents. The development of an infrastructure capable of providing such basic necessities as water, electricity, and health care to more than just urban populations represents true nation building in the finest sense of the term. The REFS program is a remarkable step forward to an economically independent and self-sufficient Afghanistan and a modern southwest Asia.

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge is a 20th-century icon that has long been seen as susceptible to seismic damage. A better understanding of earthquakes, as well as the provisions of the latest codes, called for upgrading the bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge Seismic Retrofit Phase II South Approach Structures Project—submitted by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District—was carried out in a manner that minimized disruption to the thousands of vehicles that cross the bridge each day and did not materially change the aesthetics of the bridge. Technical solutions were developed to identify shortcomings and to provide passive resistance to seismic forces.

The project is critical to preserving the Golden Gate Bridge and mobility in the Bay Area because there is a 65 percent probability that an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.7 will strike the region before the year 2030. As the only direct transportation link between the San Francisco peninsula and counties of the vast Redwood Empire, the bridge carries 41 million vehicles per year. The Golden Gate Bridge is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2001 ASCE formally recognized the structure in its Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium Program.

The project designer successfully met the challenge of developing a retrofit that complied with modern engineering standards and worked within the original configuration of the 70-year-old structures while preserving their distinctive architecture and enabling the bridge to carry traffic at all times during construction. The design is a combination of sound, innovative engineering and constructability. The design details reflect the different ways in which the structures behave and their interaction at points of interface under an extreme earthquake. The designer configured retrofit details to fit the originally constructed details, which exhibited great variability, without diminishing the bridge’s aesthetic value. The designer’s retrofit techniques—many of which had never before been employed—greatly decrease the magnitude of earthquake-induced forces in the structures, thus significantly reducing the extent and cost of the retrofit.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the world’s third busiest, anticipates much higher passenger volumes given that overall volume in the United States is expected to reach 1 billion by 2009. To accommodate this growth, the airport initiated a $2.7-billion capital development program that was completed in 2005 on time and under budget, achieving a national construction safety record. Submitted by the honors committee of the Dallas Branch of ASCE’s Texas Section, the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Capital Development Program required complex engineering, structural analyses, and design; innovative solutions; and complex coordination on the part of the owner, the engineers, and the contractors. The program’s major components included the international terminal D, that terminal’s parking garage, an automated people mover (Skylink), a hotel (Grand Hyatt DFW), expansion of the central utility plant, improvements to roadways and airfields, and the installation of a major storm relief drain line. The elevated, dual-guideway bridge structure for Skylink was constructed over the airport apron without interrupting airport operations. Extending for approximately 4.8 mi (7.7 km), it connects all existing terminals.

The program used highly durable materials along with state-of-the-art design tools, construction technologies, and communication devices. Combined, these elements enhance life-cycle design and reduce maintenance costs. Structural components included economical posttensioned concrete with steel jackets for added structural integrity to span wide spaces in the terminal and its system of elevated roadways and to construct access ramps and Skylink guideways. Given the emphasis on security following the events of September 11, 2001, the design incorporated access control, closed-circuit monitors, and segregation methodologies. Nonreflective stainless steel was used for the roof of terminal D. The largest of its kind in the world—covering 11 acres (4.5 ha)—the roof illuminates the night sky without impairing the vision of pilots.

The Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory, linking Maine’s Waldo and Hancock counties, is unlike any other bridge in the world. The 1,161 ft (354 m) cable-stayed main span rises high above the river, creating an arresting visual feature that complements adjacent Fort Knox, and it embodies the most technologically advanced cable-stayed bridge innovations in the world. Submitted by FIGG Bridge Engineers, Inc., of Exton, Pennsylvania, the crossing is the first bridge in the world to have cable stays that are protected by a pressurized inert gas system, and forces in the stays are monitored by a computerized system. Both these features were made possible through the use of a revolutionary cradle system. The structure is also the first cable-stayed bridge in the United States to use carbon fiber composite strands, providing a laboratory under actual service conditions for civil engineers around the world while safely carrying traffic.

Extensive public involvement built consensus for the construction of this crossing—Maine’s first cable-stayed bridge—and established an aesthetic theme that pays tribute to historic Fort Knox and the state’s granite quarrying industry, long a feature of its economy.

The Maine Department of Transportation preferred a single plane of stays at the centerline of the bridge to ease maintenance, and adequate space was required in the pylon core to accommodate the elevator to the multistory, glass-enclosed public observatory. The cradle system, developed by FIGG engineers, accommodated those needs. With the cradle, the strands of the cable stays are primary tensile strength elements that run from an anchorage at the bridge deck to the cradle in the pylon and then return to the bridge deck, transferring naturally compressive forces to the pylon through the curved portion of the cradle. Epoxy-coated strands are housed in individual steel tubes in the curved portion of the cradle, and during fabrication grout was injected into the spaces between the tubes. In this way the strands remain ungrouted and can act independently, simplifying maintenance and inspec-tion, improving long-term durability, and significantly increasing the service life of the bridge. Each stay incorporated two reference strands that may be removed, inspected, and replaced with the same or newer materials at any point in the future. The annular area around each strand contains pressurized nitrogen, an inert gas that inhibits corrosion. This is the first use of this bridge monitoring system in the world. The life span of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory is expected to exceed 150 years.

Named for the late visionary Charles J. Pankow, a leader in civil engineering for more than 50 years, the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation was established by the Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CEFI’s predecessor) in 1996 to recognize organizations working collaboratively to aid the design and construction industry by bringing innovations into practice. Following are brief descriptions of the two finalists for this year’s award:

The cable-stayed bridge cradle system, developed by FIGG engineers, creates a revolutionary new bridge technology that makes it possible to increase the number of strands and thus realize longer spans. It also opens the door to more economical and aesthetically pleasing pylon shapes, wider spacing of stays, simplified inspection, and improved accessibility of strands, thereby holding promise to extend bridge service life well beyond 150 years.

Each cable stay strand of the bridge cradle is continuous from deck level to deck level, running independently through its assigned 1 in. (25 mm) diameter pipe within the cradle, which has been cast in place in the pylon. The spaces between each of the pipes are grouted before the cradle is set in place in the pylon formwork. Since this grouting operation occurs under controlled conditions, there is minimal opportunity for voids. A “cheese plate” holds each tube in position at the ends of the cradle. Since epoxy-coated strands are used, the ends of the individual pipes within the cradle are given a trumpet shape to prevent the sleeve edge from coming into contact with the epoxy coating on the strand. Each of the strands is housed within the stainless steel sheathing for its free length.

The cradle system eliminates interaction between strands in the curved portion of the cable stays by the use of individual pipes inside the cradle for each stay. The initial cost is lower because there is less need for materials and labor, as there is no need for cable anchorages in the pylon. And because the strands are not grouted, they may be removed, inspected, and replaced individually while traffic continues to cross the bridge.

Bridge designs that can be reliably constructed and easily monitored, inspected, and maintained throughout service lives that can exceed 150 years, all at a reasonable price, will benefit our nation in many ways.

Performance-based seismic design of high-rise buildings is a methodology pioneered by Magnusson Klemencic Associates, of Seattle, that is transforming the structural design of high-rise buildings in regions of high seismicity. Over the past 12 years design procedures, analytical techniques, and construction details have been continuously improved. One major advance has been enhanced computing power, which now makes it possible to efficiently perform nonlinear response history analysis. This tool enables engineers to more reliably and directly predict the response of a building during maximum ground shaking and thus to fine-tune the design of the structure so that it will respond in the most efficient way possible.

The performance-based seismic design approach seeks to rationally demonstrate that a building design meets or exceeds the performance objectives envisioned by the building code for a particular situation. Under the code, buildings are to be designed to be “life safe” following a “rare” design earthquake (estimated to occur every 475 years). To ensure a more reliable level of safety, performance-based seismic design quantifiably examines building performance in the event of a much stronger (“very rare”) earthquake (estimated to occur every 975 to 2,500 years) and explicitly demonstrates that the objective to prevent building collapse has been met. Demonstrating explicitly that this performance objective has been met gives those concerned a much higher level of confidence in the building’s design. The performance-based approach ensures that the structure will remain fully operational after a “frequent” earthquake and life safe after a rare earthquake and can explicitly demonstrate that all performance objectives set by the building code have been met or exceeded.

Performance-based design is not limited to any one building type or geometry. Rather, it is an engineering methodology that enables engineers to use rational methods to analyze and design buildings of all geometries.

The members of the OCEA jury were Dennis R. Martenson, P.E., BCEE, F.ASCE, the Society’s immediate past president; Dominic Izzo, P.E., F.ASCE, the senior manager of civil practice for Exponent, Inc., in Houston; Matthys P. Levy, P.E., F.ASCE, a founding principal and the chairman emeritus of Weidlinger Associates, in New York City; Jeffrey S. Russell, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the chair of the civil and environmental engineering department there; and Anne Elizabeth Powell, the editor in chief of Civil Engineering and the jury chair.

The members of the jury for the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation were Richard Capka, P.E., M. ASCE, the deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration; Thomas L. Jackson, P.E., D.WRE., F.ASCE, the Society’s president in 2003, a consulting transportation engineer, and a former senior vice president and chief engineer at DMJM Harris, an engineering firm headquartered in New York City; Priscilla P. Nelson, Ph.D., Hon.M.ASCE, the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the New Jersey Institute of Technology; Neculai C. Tutos, Ph.D., the president of Klaro Systems, LLC, in West Hills, California; and Anne Elizabeth Powell, the jury chair.

ASCE Ties Members To Global Civil Engineering Community

As we look at the global civil engineering landscape, we immediately discern a number of significant trends. Two of them stand out: (1) of the larger civil engineering projects in the world, a growing number will be in developing countries, and (2) emerging economies are educating ever more civil engineers, and those engineers will work for lower salaries—in some cases, much lower salaries—than will their counterparts in the developed world. For American civil engineers this means taking advantage of the new environment both to help nations in need and to remain competitive in the global marketplace.

After all, investment in basic civil infrastructure—roads, bridges, water and sewage systems, telecommunications, and systems for power generation and distribution—is known to increase economic growth and to reduce poverty, and engineers are the ones responsible for conceptual and detailed designs, project execution, and operation and maintenance. American civil engineers, in partnership with their counterparts in other countries and with organizations in those countries, have the opportunity to be leaders and shapers of infrastructure projects around the world. These efforts can proceed in a business context, in which profits can be earned in undertakings that help meet local needs, and in a volunteer context, in which engineers will find opportunities to give of their time and expertise to help develop the engineering and infrastructure capacity of developing countries. It is in the latter that asce’s capacity building initiatives come into play.

Henry J. Hatch, P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, a former chair of ASCE’s International Activities Committee, has offered a definition of capacity building that has often been cited in these pages. It is, he says, “the building of human, institutional, and infrastructure capacity to help societies develop secure, stable, and sustainable economies, governments, and other institutions through mentoring, training, education, physical projects, the infusion of financial and other resources, and, most important, inspiring people to improve their quality of life.”

asce has been active in a number of ways in this respect. We are supporting efforts to help civil engineers in Iraq, and we have donated engineering texts and related publications to a number of institutions in that country. Furthermore, members are offering their time and expertise to help Pakistan increase its ability to reduce the damage caused by earthquakes.

Our involvement in international organizations reinforces and multiplies our efforts. As a member of the American Association of Engineering Societies, we are active in the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO)—in particular, in that group’s committee on capacity building, which is chaired by Russel C. Jones, P.E., Hon.M.ASCE. asce is also represented on the U.S. National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the goal of the commission being to advance U.S. national interests by aiding development in poorer countries through efforts to boost science, engineering, and technology in those countries.

ASCE is currently exploring the possibility of a closer relationship with Engineers Without Borders (EWB), a group that makes it possible for engineers and engineering students to apply their expertise in ways that directly benefit people in poorer communities around the world. A closer link with EWB would help introduce engineering students to asce and demonstrate to them the value of asce membership after graduation.

On the professional practice and educational front, asce can do much to help prepare its members for success in the global economy. asce is an organization of 140,000 members, roughly 17,000 of them living outside the United States. Collectively we possess a wealth of global civil engineering experience, and our various activities make it possible to disseminate this information to all of our members. The many networking opportunities open to those who are active within the Society can help members grow professionally. asce also plays an important role in enlarging and disseminating the civil engineering body of knowledge on a global level and acts as a forum for addressing global trends. It goes without saying that familiarity with this body of knowledge will be indispensable to anyone wishing to compete in today’s world.

ASCE is unremitting in its efforts to build and maintain strong ties with engineers and engineering organizations in other countries. Our international groups and sections, along with our newly formed Region 10, provide our members around the world with a wealth of opportunities for dialogue and networking. ASCE has agreements of cooperation with civil engineering societies in many other countries, and we are active in such international umbrella groups as the WFEO, the Unión Panamericana de Asociaciones de Ingenieros (UPADI), and the Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council, of which ASCE is a founding member. asce actively collaborates on technical issues with our international counterparts. Authors from other countries figure prominently in asce publications, and our publications are sold around the world.

Globalization affects not only asce members and our international engineering colleagues but also the very fields of engineering, science, and technology. This does not have to be a zero-sum world. If, for example, India, China, and other emerging economies capture more of the routine engineering work, developed countries need not be losers. At present, U.S. engineers cost 5 to 10 times as much as do engineers in India and China, which means that American civil engineers will have to deliver value that makes them worthy of their cost. To meet that expectation, we must invest in our civil engineering human capital so that we can add the value that will confer a competitive advantage to our employers. We must train our civil engineers to be “master integrators,” that is, professionals who can provide leadership by combining technical knowledge with financial and management prowess.

During my tenure as president I have made a commitment to do all I can to help all our members grow. As your president, I consider it my duty to do all I can to prepare the civil engineer for his or her future. I see civil engineering students as our future. I see helping young civil engineers develop as investing in our future. Without investment, there is no future, and without the leadership in the international engineering community of such organizations as asce we cannot reach our full individual and collective potentials.

—W.F. Marcuson III, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE

OF NOTE

• Members of ASCE’s Transportation and Development Institute (T&DI) are invited to recommend candidates to serve on the institute’s Board of Governors. This is a four-year term beginning October 1, 2007, and the recommendations will be considered by the T&DI’s Nominating Committee in the coming months. Those recommended must be institute members in good standing and ASCE members (with an associate, affiliate, member, fellow, or honorary grade) in good standing. Student members may not serve on the board. Recommendations must be received no later than March 1 and must include a one-page résumé highlighting the person’s professional accomplishments, activities, and committee service in the T&DI, ASCE, and other transportation organizations, as well as a signed statement from that person agreeing to serve if nominated and elected. Submittals may be mailed to the Transportation and Development Institute, ASCE, 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191, c/o Jonathan Esslinger, or faxed to (703) 295-6421, attention Jonathan Esslinger.

• The Structural Engineering Institute’s Timber Bridges Technical Committee is seeking new members to assist it with current and future projects. Current committee projects include a migration to load and resistance factor design (LRFD) as specified by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials; load ratings for timber bridges; the development of long-term bridge monitoring techniques for timber bridges; and the development of innovative rehabilitation techniques for timber bridges. Future projects will involve the development and testing of miniaturized, environmentally rugged sensors for monitoring the structural condition of timber bridges. Those interested in joining the committee may submit their application materials online at www.seinstitute.org (click on “Committees”). For further information on committee activities, contact Jim Wacker at jwacker@fs.fed.us.

• The next meeting of the Structural Engineering Institute’s Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures Standards Committee will be held at ASCE’s headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, March 26–28. The three-day gathering will also include meetings of certain subcommittees, namely, those dealing with general structural requirements; live loads; soil, hydrostatic, and dead loads; wind loads; snow and rain loads; atmospheric ice loads; and seismic loads. A tentative schedule of the various meetings may be found at www.seinstitute.org/committees/codes.cfm. Since this will be the inaugural meeting of the committee and many of its subcommittees, anyone who would like to propose a change to the 2005 edition of ASCE 7 should submit a proposal (available at the Web site above) as early as possible. Anyone wishing to attend the meeting should contact Jim Rossberg at jrossberg@asce.org for additional details.

• The Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute’s Diving Qualifications Standard for Underwater Engineering Investigations Committee will be meeting in March during Ports 2007. The meeting will be held in Carlsbad, California, at the La Costa Resort and Spa on Wednesday, March 28, at 1:30 pm. The committee will be reviewing the latest draft of the standard and discussing issues regarding qualifications for diver training schools and instructors; the “grandfathering” of experienced divers who are engineers; and certificates and cards. The committee also hopes to hold a ballot on releasing the draft standard to the Codes and Standards Committee for review and public comment. Those interested in attending the meeting should contact Bryan Jones at bjones@ocean-coastal.com or (508) 830-1110.

• The Transportation and Development Institute’s Automated People Movers Standards Committee will be meeting April 19–20 in Vienna, Austria, at the Arch+Ing Bildungs- und DienstleistungsgesmbH (the street address being 9 Karlsgasse). The meetings will run from 9 am to 5 pm on Thursday, April 19, and from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm on Friday, April 20. Participants will review any public comments from part 4 of the document and will consider any reballoting items connected with the reaffirmation of part 3 along with ride quality reballoting connected with the reaffirmation of part 2 of the standard (if found necessary at the Dallas meeting). Attention will also be given to International Electrotechnical Commission developments pertaining to automated people movers and to model elevator code developments. Finally, the task force on doors will deliver a report.

• The Structural Engineering Institute’s Structural Application of Steel Cables for Buildings Standards Committee will be meeting on Friday, April 20, in New York City at the offices of Hardesty and Hanover (1501 Broadway) from 10 am to 5 pm. The purpose of the meeting is to resolve issues raised during the first ballot, which was held last November, and to prepare the second ballot for the standard.

• The Structural Engineering Institute’s Frost-Protected Shallow Foundations Committee has scheduled a meeting to vote on the proposed revisions to ASCE 32-01 (Design and Construction of Frost-Protected Shallow Foundations). The meeting will precede balloting on the revisions, which will be developed over the next three months. The meeting will take place at ASCE’s headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, from 8 am to 5 pm on Tuesday, March 27. For additional information, contact Robert Fuller at bfuller@nahbrc.org. The purpose of the meeting is to review and approve the proposed revisions to the standard. Because of a potential conflict with the meeting being held that day by the Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures Standards Committee (see above), members should e-mail Fuller if they will be unable to attend.

• The Structural Engineering Institute’s Structural Condition Assessment and Rehabilitation of Buildings Standards Committee will be meeting in May in Long Beach, California, during Structures 2007. The exact date and time have not yet been determined. The meeting will review and discuss two standards: ASCE 11 and ASCE 30. For more information, contact Carl Baumert, Jr., at CAB@keasthood.com.

The Society has announced the names of those who will be honored for lifetime achievements as part of this year’s Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) awards program. ASCE established the OPAL awards in 1999 to celebrate the achievements and recognize the contributions of civil engineers worldwide. Candidates may be nominated by any ASCE member but need not be members of ASCE. The winners are selected by the Society Awards Committee, which is composed of five past presidents of ASCE. The five 2007 OPAL lifetime achievement  honorees are Frederic S. Berger, P.E., M.ASCE, for management; Thomas R. Draeger, P.E., M.ASCE, for construction; John W.
Fisher, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, for education; John W. Keys III, P.E., D.WRE.F.ASCE, for government; and Loring A. Wyllie, Jr., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, for design.

Fredric S. Berger, P.E., M.ASCE, is being honored for lifetime achievement in management. Berger is a senior vice president of the Louis Berger Group, Inc., of Washington, D.C., and has been actively involved in international development since 1972, when his three-week pavement deflection inventory near Lagos, Nigeria, turned into a three-year assignment at various locations throughout that country. His developmental assignments, primarily in the transport sector, have spanned continents and included technical contributions to or active supervision of projects in some 60 countries. His current responsibilities at the Louis Berger Group include overseeing activities in Africa and Japan. He also supervises various elements of the firm’s verification program. These duties are complemented by active participation in professional societies and training-oriented institutions. Berger holds a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the vice-chair of ASCE’s International Activities Committee and has been a member of the board of overseers of Tufts University’s civil and environmental engineering department since 1994. Berger is licensed as a professional engineer in the District of Columbia.

Thomas R. Draeger, P.E., M.ASCE, this year’s honoree for lifetime achievement in construction, is the senior vice president of the Bechtel Group, Inc., and the president of Bechtel Construction Operations, Inc., where he has worked in various capacities for more than 35 years. He is currently responsible for the organization of Bechtel’s world-wide construction endeavors. Previously he was the senior vice president and manager of operations for the Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation, overseeing major civil, airport, rail, and transportation work for customers in North America. He has also been the manager of construction for Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation, which performs construction and construction management work for government projects worldwide. Draeger holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and is registered as a professional engineer in Arizona and West Virginia. He has championed the interests of younger engineers and is committed to achieving a diverse workforce. Draeger has dedicated a significant portion of his time to recruiting and mentoring talented workers from around the world.

John W. Fisher, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, is being honored for lifetime achievement in education. Fisher is a specialist in structural connections; the fatigue and fracture resistance of riveted, bolted, and welded structures; and the design and behavior of composite steel and concrete members. He has been the principal investigator for several research projects on the fatigue and fracture evaluation of welded high-performance steel and stainless steel members, on riveted steel members, and on means of repairing fatigue damage and improving fatigue resistance. Fisher was a member of the panel convened to recommend a solution for the problems associated with New York City’s Williamsburg Bridge, and he served on a task force set up by New York State to ensure bridge safety. He has a dozen books and more than 200 reports and articles to his credit, and his work has appeared in numerous scientific and engineering journals. Fisher received a bachelor’s degree from Washington University and master’s and doctoral degrees from Lehigh University. He has been a professor of civil engineering at Lehigh since 1969, and in 1988 he was named to the Joseph T. Stuart Chair in Civil Engineering there. The many societies and professional organizations to which he belongs include the National Academy of Engineering and the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. Fisher was also one of 125 engineers to be singled out by Engineering News-Record for outstanding contributions to the construction industry since 1874.

John W. Keys III, P.E., D.WRE.F.ASCE, this year’s honoree for lifetime achievement in government, was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2001 to lead the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), an agency he had served for 34 years. Keys began his association with the bureau as a civil and hydraulic engineer and worked in Utah, North Dakota, Montana, and Colorado. In Denver he served as chief of the office dealing with water quality in the Colorado River, and later he moved to Washington, D.C., to become the assistant to the regional director. A native of Sheffield, Alabama, Keys holds a bachelor’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a master’s degree from Brigham Young University. From 1986 to 1998 he was the USBR’s regional director of the Pacific Northwest, managing 24 irrigation projects, 61 major dams, 11 hydroelectric plants, and other facilities in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Wyoming. He also developed coalitions that improved the management of the Columbia River basin, and he worked closely with the Idaho legislature, irrigation districts, and other federal agencies to meet water requirements under the Endangered Species Act for salmon in the Columbia River system, bull trout in Idaho, and snails in the Snake River. He achieved wide recognition for his ability to devise solutions acceptable to fisheries, Indian tribes, and farmers in the Yakima River basin. In 1995 Keys received the Distinguished Service Award, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s highest honor, and was commended for his ability to maintain open lines of communication and keep interest groups focused on solutions.

Loring A. Wyllie, Jr., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, this year’s honoree for lifetime achievement in design, is an internationally recognized expert in seismic design and the evaluation of buildings and other struc-tures. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and joined Degenkolb Engineers in 1964, where he is now a senior principal and the chairman emeritus. He has lent his expertise to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the International Code Council, developing seismic provisions in building codes and standards for both new structures and structures of historical importance. His work has included seismic evaluations and the design of measures to improve the seismic performance of structures. A former chairman of California’s State Historical Building Safety Board, Wyllie also served on a committee within the Building Seismic Safety Council set up to update various provisions for the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. He has investigated the effects of numerous earthquakes, served as the principal investigator on many National Science Foundation research projects dealing with the repair and strengthening of structures, and published numerous articles on seismic structural design and performance. His contributions to the profession of structural engineering have been recognized through his election to the National Academy of Engineering and his status as an honorary member of the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California. In 2000 the American Concrete Institute also named him an honorary member in recognition of his expertise in concrete design and performance and his many years of service on its building code committee.

EWRI and Continuing Education Launch Debris Management Web Seminars
On January 25 asce’s continuing education department and its Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) conducted the Web seminar (“webinar”) Disaster Debris Preparation, the first of four such interactive sessions designed to help public- and private-sector engineers and management professionals draw up and implement comprehensive plans for dealing with disaster debris.

The January 25 webinar presented techniques for organizing and responding to natural and man-made disasters and offered guidance to solid waste professionals and emergency responders on how to deal with the vast amounts of debris that can be generated by a disaster.

“Debris management plans can contain unique requirements and limitations for local governments,” said Eddie Sosebee, one of the guest speakers. Sosebee has been involved in debris removal projects following such events as the typhoon Pongsona, which struck the Pacific island of Guam in 2002; wildfires in Southern California; Hurricane Katrina; and the tower collapses caused by the terrorist attacks in 2001 on New York City’s World Trade Center. He stressed that a well-prepared plan should address characteristics and situations unique to a threat or area and should take into consideration the capabilities of local government. “You need to know how much debris to plan for,” he said. “How much debris can the public works department and the local governments handle? What is the immediate prestrike disaster impact? What is the poststrike estimation?”

The second webinar in the series, Disaster Debris Response, took place on February 1 and distilled lessons from earlier tragedies. The case histories cited in this session recounted how communities and regional authorities removed debris and dealt with various other challenges created by the disasters.

The third webinar, Disaster Debris Recovery, was held on February 8. It investigated methods for timely and effective debris removal and cleanup under arduous conditions. Drawing on the perspectives of contractors and consultants, the session used case studies to elucidate lessons and highlight management practices that have proved to be highly effective.

On February 15 the series concluded with the session Emerging Issues and Topics, which called attention to important trends in this area and discussed other concerns that have surfaced in recent years after major disasters.

The software used in the webinars made for a truly interactive learning experience. Each session provided eligible participants with two professional development hours. For more information about asce’s webinars, visit www.asce.org/conted/distancelearning/online_webseminars.cfm.

Online Course Explores GIS Applications to Water Systems
ASCE recently launched the online, on-demand course GIS Applications in Water, Wastewater, and Storm-Water Systems, which provides detailed instruction in planning, designing, mapping, modeling, monitoring, inspecting, maintaining, and operating water, wastewater, and storm-water systems.

A geographic information system (GIS) is a system for managing data in a geographic context. To effectively capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and display the information it contains, hardware, software, and personnel are required. More than 80 percent of all the information used by water, wastewater, and storm-water utilities exists in a geographic context. Although GIS applications for water, wastewater, and storm-water systems are not new, going beyond the basic inventorying and mapping functions of GISs can often be challenging.

While this Web resource does not offer instruction on how to use particular GIS software, it does explore methods for using GISs in mapping, monitoring, modeling, and maintenance applications. The high-resolution video stream enables users to tap the expertise of instructors and view PowerPoint slides as the course progresses.

Following the successful completion of an online examination at the end of the course, eligible participants will earn 1.1 continuing education units or 11 professional development hours. For additional information, visit www.asce.org/files/pdf/conted/GISapplicationsjune06.pdf or call (800) 548-2723, extension 6153.

ASCE Reaches Out to Engineers in Afghanistan
The Society has begun a new project to help the engineering profession and its practitioners in Afghanistan. The project, which is very much in keeping with asce’s mission to help engineers grow professionally and to improve the practice of civil engineering, will establish a professional development center and a professional society, provide training, and create opportunities for U.S.-based firms to mentor fledgling Afghan engineering firms so that partnerships can be developed and the Afghan firms can more fully participate in their country’s reconstruction.

Fredric S. Berger, P.E., M.ASCE—a senior vice president of the Louis Berger Group, of East Orange, New Jersey, a former vice-chair of asce’s International Activities Committee, and an honoree this year in the Society’s Outstanding Projects and Leaders awards program for his lifetime achievements in management (see page 1), has been instrumental in helping asce establish this program, which will offer a system of training and provide a variety of opportunities whereby employees of U.S.-based firms can serve as mentors.

The Society has also been working with the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, the Society of Afghan Engineers, Kabul (Kabol) University, and other institutions of higher learning in Afghanistan.

ASCE invites U.S.-based engineering firms and members of their senior staffs to serve as mentors to principals of fledgling private engineering firms in Afghanistan that are involved in reconstruction efforts. For additional information about this project, contact Michael R. Sanio, M.ASCE, the Society’s director of international alliances, at (703) 295-6116 or msanio@asce.org.

Norbert W. Young, Jr., A.M.ASCE, the president of McGraw-Hill Construction, has been chosen to receive the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research. Established in recognition of the outstanding contributions made by the late Henry L. Michel to the design and construction industry, the award is presented each year by the Civil Engineering Forum for Innovation (CEFI) to a person in the design and construction industry who has helped to increase industry participation in research and in efforts to bring innovations into practice. Young joined McGraw-Hill in 1997 as a vice president in the editorial department of the Dodge division. As president of McGraw-Hill Construction he oversees electronic and print information sources that include Architectural Record, Engineering News-Record, the newsletter Constructionmail, information provided by the Sweets Network, publications of the Dodge division, and a host of regional publications. Before joining Dodge, Young spent eight years with the Bovis Construction Group. In 1994 he was appointed the president of the newly created Bovis Management Systems, which was established to serve the construction and project management needs of both private- and public-sector clients on a national and international basis. Young holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor of arts from Bowdoin College. He served on the board of directors of the Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF), the predecessor of cefi, and led McGraw-Hill’s participation as a member of CERF’s Corporate Advisory Board from 1998 to 2005. He is currently the chairman of the North American component of the International Alliance for Interoperability, which seeks to improve software interoperability to improve construction efficiency.

A snapshot of what’s happening in civil engineering practice

Montpelier Estate Restored To Madison-Era Design
The restoration of Montpelier—the residence of James Madison (1751–1836), the fourth president of the United States—has been comprehensive and exacting, involving the removal of more than 30 rooms that were added after the “master builder of the Constitution” died. The Georgian mansion was built around 1760 by the future president’s father, Colonel James Madison, and originally boasted two stories of brick in Flemish bond and a low hip roof with chimney stacks at both ends. The house is located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains just south of Orange, Virginia, and is part of a 2,700 acre (1,093 ha) estate that during Madison’s time flourished as a tobacco plantation.

In 1797, a few years before his father died and he inherited the estate, Madison added a 30 ft (9.1 m) extension and a Tuscan portico to the dwelling. Shortly after he became president, he created a drawing room out of two existing rooms and lengthened the roof. Madison died in 1836, and in 1844 his widow, Dolley, sold Montpelier. After its sale the estate saw numerous changes. By 1983, the year it was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP), the edifice had more than doubled in size. It had grown to more than 100 rooms, and only two of its first-floor spaces remained in their Madison-era form.

In 2004, following years of deliberation, feasibility studies, architectural surveys, and fund-raising efforts, the Montpelier Foundation commissioned a $23-million restoration project aimed at returning Montpelier to the structure Madison would have known. “Most of what subsequent owners did to the building is being undone,” explains David C. Fischetti, p.e., M.ASCE, a structural engineer who participated in the restoration of the roof. “What I found remarkable was that some of the work involved differentiating between Madison-era mortar and the subsequent mortar that had been put in the building. Some of this entailed cutting holes in the walls and rebuilding and reworking masonry. In some cases it just involved simple repointing, but in other cases the bricks were so loose that they needed to be pulled out and relaid. If you found original mortar from Madison’s time, you would collect it and use it to relay the bricks.”

According to Fischetti, who is the founder and president of DCF Engineering, Inc., an engineering firm in Cary, North Carolina, one of the biggest challenges of restoring the roof was assessing and prescribing the large variety of framing repairs. “A repair was required at almost every location, and we had to decide what type we would use,” he says. “There were a wide range of choices and tasks; everything from epoxy repairs to traditional timber frame repairs to steel knife plates to screwed connections to bolted connections, and any number of different fastening methods. We tried to maintain as much of the original fabric as we could. For instance, if we were going to lap splice a rafter that had been cut away when they built the additions and we wanted to extend that original rafter, we’d try to come up with a splice that would not remove too much of the original material, and that often became a real challenge.”

The main rafters (principals) in the original roof structure were part of braced frames, and there were large diagonal ceiling beams beneath each of the roof’s four hips. To fortify the support system, Fischetti designed custom steel hangers that were fabricated by a machinist. “We used some fairly new fasteners and we also used some traditional-type connections wherever we could,” he adds. “The up braces and down braces and the posts on the principal frames all went back to traditional timber framing. We went to great lengths to find material that matched or came close to what was originally used. If the original material was a dense southern pine, for instance, we acquired recycled pine of similar density and possibly a similar age; if it was poplar or oak, we did the same, trying to match what was originally in that part of the building. There was a good deal of oversight as well. Everything was subjected to review. In some cases the solution to a particular connection ended up being very different than what we thought it would be in the beginning. Sometimes we had to design joints two to three times.”

All told, the roof took about a year and a half to restore. Although work on other parts of Montpelier is still in progress, the overall restoration project is nearing completion and the estate is currently open to visitors. “Montpelier is an imposing structure and was very well planned out,” observes Fischetti. “The work that’s been done to restore it has been impressive. The teamwork and the quality of the craftsmen amazed me. It didn’t matter whether you had archaeologists, timber framers, roofers, electricians, or plumbers working there; everybody understood the importance of the building and worked well together.”

Collagen Research Could Shed Light on Bone Integrity
Roberto Ballarini, Ph.D., M.ASCE, a civil engineering professor at the University of Minnesota, has been applying his experience in structural engineering and the mechanics of solids to an interdisciplinary research project that involves measuring the mechanical properties of nanoscale structures. According to Ballarini, understanding how collagen fibrils—the basic elements of bone, cartilage, tendon, skin, and other connective tissues—relate to the overall properties of bone structures could help improve scientific techniques for assessing a person’s susceptibility to bone fracture.

“If you look closely at bone, you see that it has a very large number of sizes of features within it,” Ballarini explains. “The bone itself may be on the order of centimeters and, for some of the smaller constituents, millimeters; some are down to microns and some nanometers. So it’s a very complicated architecture within the structure, and it’s a living structure, so it changes its properties throughout its life. This research is important because we currently lack mathematical models to predict the reliability of these types of structures. The process involves developing models and analyzing the behavior of each of the constituents before putting everything together and predicting the behavior of a given piece of bone as a whole.”
Ballarini began working on small-scale structures about 10 years ago, developing methods for testing the fatigue and strength behavior of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)—chip-size devices that are typically carved from semiconductor wafers and include moving parts that, though microscopic, act as sensors or actuators. “The traditional civil engineer might view this as a strange field of work,” he notes. “But why would it be more natural for a mechanical engineer to look at a piece of bone than a civil engineer? They look at machines; we look at buildings. Well, a machine is a structure and a building is a structure, right? So why shouldn’t I apply my knowledge to better understand how a MEMS device and a structure of collagen work?”

Funded with grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation’s Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team, the interdisciplinary project has brought together experts from the fields of engineering, structural mechanics, biology, and chemistry. “No one person is going to be able to make much headway through this without working with others,” adds Ballarini, who has collaborated closely with Steve Eppell, a biomedical engineer at Case Western Reserve University, where Ballarini taught before moving to the University of Minnesota. “The other big factor,” he notes, “is today’s funding landscape, which really encourages multidisciplinary teamwork.”

Although research into the mechanical properties of nanoscale structures is still in its early stages, Ballarini and Eppell have also been investigating the possibility of developing replacements for damaged or broken bone. “Maybe you could insert something near a broken or damaged bone that could act as a temporary repair,” Ballarini explains. “This could take some of the load off the bone as it heals, or create what’s called a scaffold. The idea is that what’s put in there will work as a replacement bone and may even eventually dissolve back into the body after the bone is repaired. So you are actually temporarily replacing bone with something that has similar mechanical properties.”

Ballarini believes that a deeper understanding of how biological structures have adapted to the forces and demands of nature could be of great benefit to structural engineers. “If you look at the data for biological structures, you find that many of them are solutions to problems associated with loads,” he points out. “If you look at a palm tree and how its microstructure has developed, you find that it is a really good solution for a structure that has to bend significantly under heavy winds and hurricanes. If you look at the properties of skin and its fracture toughness, you learn that skin cartilage could be a great model for an elastic hinge. In other words, nature, through evolution, has found architectural solutions that are good responses to certain criteria it has to face every day. And so bone has evolved in this way too. Its structure has developed to tolerate, as best it can, all the things that it encounters day to day.”

—Mark Fitzgerald

It is ASCE’s philosophy that the anonymous peer review process is of critical importance in ensuring that the papers published in its scientific and technical journals are of the highest quality. So when the Society received a subpoena last November demanding information on the peer review of a paper published in its Journal of Environmental Engineering, it wasted no time in formally expressing its opposition.

The subpoena was issued in reference to a lawsuit pending in a Massachusetts federal court. The plaintiff in the suit, Boston Gas, is seeking payment from its insurers for the costs it incurred in dealing with environmental damage caused by manufacturing operations extending back to the 1950s. It contends that the damage was not caused by negligence or misconduct on its part but rather was the result of applying a reasonable standard of care in an era when the understanding of chemical hazards was not as sophisticated as it is today.

In support of its claim, the plaintiff has engaged the services of an ASCE member and professional engineer to provide expert testimony on when the contamination was likely to have occurred and what the accepted waste management practices were at the time. The defendant insurers, in response, are seeking to challenge the expert’s testimony, and they subpoenaed ASCE’s peer review records on a historical review authored by this expert, their goal being to locate other experts or sources that might disagree with the expert’s analysis.

ASCE filed a motion to quash the defendants’ subpoena, stating that the confidentiality of the peer review process is of fundamental importance in the scientific publication process. Its motion asked the court to view the peer review records in light of the so-called journalist’s privilege. This legal tenet—enshrined in Virginia law and the laws of many other states—protects reporters and other news gatherers from having to disclose confidential sources or material in a court of law unless the information in question is essential to a litigant’s right to a fair trial.

ASCE stated that, as with traditional investigative reporting, confidentiality in the scientific review process invites frank commentary and criticism from the anonymous “sources” and that this arrangement enhances the quality and accuracy of the information disseminated to the public. It further explained that the possibility of being drawn into litigation over peer review comments would discourage potential reviewers from volunteering their expertise and thus would have a ruinous effect on the Society’s scholarly publications.

On December 22 the parties argued this matter before the U.S. district court in Alexandria, Virginia. Although reluctant to apply the journalist’s privilege to scientific journals, the court conceded that revealing the names of its reviewers would place an undue burden on the Society and could very well undermine the integrity of its peer review process. At the same time, the judge found that by turning over the anonymous reviews to the paper’s author, who was subsequently retained as an expert in the litigation, ASCE waived any right it may have had to keep the comments confidential. Accordingly, the judge upheld the motion to quash with regard to the reviewers’ names but ordered ASCE to share the anonymous comments with the defendants subject to an appropriate protective order limiting public disclosure.

“We recognize the importance of a confidential peer review process to the continued success and integrity of our publications program,” says Bruce Gossett, the managing director of ASCE’s publications division. “Thus, in the interests of advancing engineering education and knowledge, the Society will continue to oppose any request for information that forms part of a confidential peer review.”

Jackson Named President Of Louisiana Levee Board
Thomas L. Jackson, P.E., F.ASCE, has been named president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority–East (SLFPA–East), the regional levee board that will oversee flood protection measures on the Mississippi’s east bank. The SLFPA–East, which began operations on January 1, arose from a state constitutional amendment calling for the consolidation of the levee boards of various parishes between New Orleans and Baton Rouge (see “Louisiana’s Governor Draws on Expertise of ASCE Members,” ASCE News, January 2007, page 3). Jackson, who served as ASCE’s president in 2003, is a consulting transportation engineer and a retired senior vice president and chief engineer of dmjm Harris, an engineering firm headquartered in New York City. In addition to serving as the Society’s president, Jackson has held a variety of other positions within ASCE, including those of national director, treasurer, vice president, and chair of the committee set up to oversee the relocation of the Society’s headquarters from New York City to Reston, Virginia. Jackson has also been active in the Red Cross, the Louisiana Engineering Advancement Program for Minorities, and the Society of Tulane Engineers. The 11 members of the SLFPA–East are specialists in such fields as engineering, geology, and hydrology and were appointed by Louisiana’s governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. Jackson was named president on January 10.

Teicholz Named Recipient Of Turner Prize
On February 1 Paul M. Teicholz, Ph.D. P.E., F.ASCE, was awarded the National Building Museum’s Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology. Teicholz, a professor emeritus of civil engineering at Stanford University and the founding director of Stanford’s Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE), was honored by the museum, which is located in Washington, D.C., for his efforts in bringing the architecture, construction, and engineering fields into the information age. He has done this by helping to develop information technology and then integrating it in the building and design industries. “Paul’s unique understanding of design and construction practices, coupled with his vision, intellectual ability, and commitment to advancing integration needs, sets him apart,” said C.B. Tatum, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford and a member of the Turner jury, in a recent press release. “His leadership of CIFE resulted in a highly effective joint effort by industry professionals and researchers to develop and apply information technology.” Teicholz has made important contributions to engineering theory and practice for decades, the applications extending to project management, modeling, and business processes. In 1985 ASCE named him its man of the year in construction management, and in 1999 he was hailed as an innovator in the construction industry in the areas of technology and materials by Engineering News-Record. His other accolades include ASCE’s Peurifoy Construction Research Award.

Baker Makes ENR Honor Roll for Efforts in 2006
William F. Baker, Jr., P.E., F.ASCE, has been included in the list compiled by Engineering News-Record (ENR) of the 25 most newsworthy people of 2006. A partner in the Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Baker is singled out for his contributions to a structural system that is expected to help the tower in the emirate of Dubayy (Dubai) known as the Burj Dubai break the world’s record for height next summer. Indeed, the tower will exceed the record by 200 m or more. With the help of a structural engineering team and a group of wind tunnel consultants, Baker pushed the limits of wind engineering. He designed the tower inside a wind tunnel and used the results to help shape the building. “The design uses the progressive setbacks of three symmetrical wings at 27 different levels that rise in a helix to ‘confuse’ the wind and avoid resonant vibrations from vortex shedding,” ENR notes on its Web site. “It also harnesses essentially every piece of vertical concrete in the largely residential tower into the lateral system.”

Acosta Installed as Governor of Region 5
On January 12 ASCE’s president, William F. Marcuson III, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, installed Jose L. Acosta, P.E., M.ASCE, as governor of Region 5. Acosta, a former president of the Florida Section’s Broward County Branch, is a manager for Miller, Legg & Associates, an engineering firm in Pembroke Pines, Florida. In this capacity he is responsible for overseeing a staff of 21 employees and approximately $4 million in net annual revenue. “The selection of Jose Acosta fully meets the Region 5 objectives of balancing the Region 5 Board of Governors by providing representation of younger members in private practice,” Steven C. McCutcheon, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, M.ASCE, noted in a letter dated January 17. “As a Cuban-American, Jose Acosta also provides Region 5 additional diversity we are pleased to have.” Acosta earned a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering and civil engineering from the University of Miami. He speaks Spanish fluently and is licensed in Florida as a professional engineer.

Fellows Elected
The following members were elected fellows of the Society in recent months. ASCE fellows are legally registered professional engineers or land surveyors who have made significant technical or professional contributions and have demonstrated notable achievement in responsible charge of engineering activity for at least 10 years following election to the ASCE grade of member. Fellows occupy the Society’s second-highest membership grade, exceeded only by honorary members.

William J. “Bill” Castle, P.E., F.ASCE, graduated in 1966 from Pennsylvania State University with an associate degree in civil engineering and today is a licensed professional engineer in five states. Castle has been active in the civil engineering specialties of structural and marine engineering, in particular, underwater inspection and evaluation, for more than 30 years. In 1983 he established the engineering company W.J. Castle, P.E. & Associates, P.C., which specializes in structural marine engineering, including underwater inspections and evaluations. In 1997 Castle and his wife, Janet, established the marine construction company Hydro-Marine Construction Company, Inc., and two years later he established his third company, Simplified Bridge Systems, Inc., which specializes in the custom design and prefabrication of small to medium-sized bridges for both private and public agencies. All three companies are located in Hainesport, New Jersey. In 2000 and 2005 he received awards from the New Jersey Department of Transportation in connection with its New Jersey Quality Initiative, and in 2004 Penn State recognized his accomplishments with its Alumni Fellow Award. The following year asce’s New Jersey Section named him the New Jersey civil engineer of the year. Castle has developed underwater inspection courses for Penn State and the New Jersey Institute of Technology and has been a member of the Development Council at the Penn State campus at Altoona since 2004. Last year he was elected to the board of directors of the Association of Diving Contractors International.

Edward C. Clukey, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a doctorate from Cornell University. He is a registered professional engineer in California and for the past 30 years has focused on offshore geotechnical engineering for the development of oil and gas reserves. His research at Cornell and in the early part of his professional career addressed problems associated with wave-seafloor interactions. Clukey is currently a geotechnical adviser to bp America, and his most recent work has involved assessments of coastal erosion, seafloor ice gouging, and geotechnical aspects for a large gravity-based structure off the coast of Russia. Previously he helped initiate the marine geotechnical program for the U.S. Geological Survey in California, and he has also worked for Exxon and bp. Since 1991 he has been involved in the development of suction caisson technology for deepwater applications, work that has resulted in more than 10 publications and the installation of more than 100 suction caissons for bp. He has also championed the use of centrifuge model testing for offshore geotechnical design. Clukey is the author of numerous publications and has worked on projects in many parts of the world.

Robert E. Cosby, Jr., P.E., F.ASCE, received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1972 and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Virginia. He began his engineering career at vecco Concrete Construction Company in 1972 and in less than seven years was a vice president there. Since then he has been extremely active in the civil engineering community, serving in various leadership roles with different companies throughout Virginia. He is currently the president and owner of Will & Cosby & Associates, Inc., of Richmond, Virginia, as well as the president and owner of Maryland Village Corporation, a commercial development company specializing in rezoning residential properties to commercial properties. Cosby has been active within asce for nearly 35 years, providing leadership to the Virginia Section and that section’s Richmond Branch. In addition to serving as branch president, he has lent his services to a number of asce committees during his career.

David I. Harvey, P.Eng., F.ASCE, is a manager and senior structural specialist with more than 36 years of experience. He is a principal of Associated Engineering, which is based in Burnaby, British Columbia. Harvey provides leadership in bridge and heavy civil engineering projects to an engineering design group. He is well known in western Canada for creative and effective structural design, is in high demand for value engineering services, and has led design teams in the implementation of award-winning transportation projects. He has designed or directed the design of numerous bridges, including work on upgrading Highway 99 (“Sea to Sky Highway”) for the 2010 Olympics. Harvey has been involved in international projects in Oman, the United Kingdom, Trinidad, and Kuwait. He has also conducted research and taught at the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom.

Douglas M. Isbell, P.E., F.ASCE, received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from California State Polytechnic University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of California at Riverside. Isbell has dedicated 40 years to the public works profession, specializing in landfill design and construction in both the United States and South Korea. For the past 10 years he has been the deputy director of the County of San Diego’s Department of Public Works. His leadership following the wildfires that ravaged the San Diego area in 2003 is just one example of this commitment to professional excellence. He developed a $6.2-million emergency program to provide protection against floods and erosion and was able to draw on the support of volunteers, including many asce members, to fully implement the plan in just 90 days. As a result, no homes in the burn areas were damaged by mud slides or debris flows during the subsequent rainy season. Isbell has been actively involved in asce and has been the recipient of numerous awards recognizing his initiative and professionalism in managing major engineering contracts, introducing construction partnering arrangements, setting up dispute resolution boards, and implementing risk management measures.

Gary A. Parks, P.E., F.ASCE, has spent nearly 40 years with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a wholesale electric power marketing and transmission company providing more than half of the high-voltage transmission system in the Pacific Northwest. During his career with BPA, Parks has overseen the development of significant advances in transmission system design. The computer programs he created for the structural design and analysis of transmission towers form the basis of many commercial programs on the market today. In 1974 he managed BPA’s full-scale test project to evaluate the feasibility of transmitting power at 1,200 kV, nearly twice the voltage of any other lines in the United States at the time. He has authored numerous papers and has been active in asce for nearly 30 years, serving on several professional and technical committees and chairing a national convention as well as a congress on structures. Parks has long championed diversity in the workplace and has been a mentor to students and young engineers.

Warren J. Paul, P.E., F.ASCE, has had a distinguished international career as a specialist in water resources, dams, and hydroelectric engineering. He holds a bachelor of arts in physics from the University of Chicago and a bachelor of science in engineering (structural engineering) and a master of science in engineering mechanics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. A licensed professional engineer in 10 states, Paul has been associated with more than 150 dam, hydroelectric, and water transmission projects in management and engineering roles throughout the United States and Central and South America, as well as in Canada, Bosnia, Turkey, Nepal, and China. A project manager and engineering manager of major dam and hydroelectric projects working from the Denver office of Washington Group International, Inc., he has been active within asce for the past 30 years. Paul is widely recognized in the field of linear and nonlinear numerical stress analysis for his work on major dam structures subject to static, dynamic, and thermal load conditions and is the author or coauthor of 16 publications. In 2005 he was honored with the Washington Group’s President’s Award for being the author of the company’s safety slogan that year.

Jan S. Plachta, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, was born in Kraków, Poland, and received his first degree in engineering from the Technische Universität Wien, in Austria, in 1966. He went on to earn a master’s degree in civil engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and became a licensed professional engineer in Illinois in 1974. In 1982 he received a doctorate in civil engineering from the Politechnika Krakowska, in Poland. Plachta worked for private engineering consulting firms in the United States, Canada, and Saudi Arabia for nearly 20 years. In 1984 he began working for the federal government and is now a structural engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Chicago district, where he focuses on flood control projects and travels to various Corps of Engineers’ districts to inspect bridges and assess dam safety. Plachta has a number of papers on the history of American bridge building to his credit. He has been an active member of asce’s Illinois Section, and he was responsible for establishing the Ralph Modjeski scholarship program at the American Council for Polish Culture, a program that since 1992 has helped fund the education of 22 engineering students.

Michael E. Radbill, P.E., F.ASCE, holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Clarkson University and a master’s degree in regional planning from Pennsylvania State University. He has been a member of asce since 1968, and for nearly four decades he has contributed significantly to the profession of civil engineering. Radbill has gained considerable knowledge of the construction engineering industry and has technical and management experience in federal, state, and local projects. His projects have dealt with transportation, power generation, aviation, and the petrochemical industry, as well as with correctional facilities, military installations, and commercial development. A significant portion of his career has included military engineering service on both active duty and in a reserve capacity for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Recognized nationally as an instructor of the National Transit Institute (NTI) course Management of Transit Construction Projects, which he has taught for the past 10 years, Radbill has been honored by the NTI for his innovations and for introducing practices that have helped to advance the transit industry. A licensed professional engineer in 10 states, he was named construction engineer of the year last year by asce’s Philadelphia Section.

Brent C. Siemer, P.E., F.ASCE, holds a bachelor of science in civil engineering from California State University at Sacramento and a master of science in management from Colorado Technical University. He is currently the city engineer for the City of Eureka, California, where for the past seven years he has overseen infrastructure improvement projects valued at more than $30 million, his most recent work focusing on waterfront redevelopment. Earlier in his career he was responsible for designing and constructing the first roundabout for the City of Arcata, California, where he also introduced traffic calming concepts. As a registered professional engineer in California and a member of asce for more than 25 years, Siemer has served both the profession and his community. He was an officer of the San Francisco Section’s North Coast Branch for five years and has now served three years on that section’s board. In the latter capacity he had oversight of the celebrations in 2005 marking the San Francisco Section’s centennial, of the development of a promotional video, and of a program looking back on the earthquake that struck San Francisco in 1906.

Virginia E. Valentine, P.E., F.ASCE, has worked in both the private and public sectors of the civil engineering community. She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Idaho and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Last August Clark County, Nevada, appointed her its county manager. In that capacity she has executive oversight of a government that provides both regional and municipal services to more than 1.8 million residents. She is also responsible for managing the county’s $5.9-billion budget and provides administrative oversight for 38 diverse and geographically dispersed departments with a total workforce of more than 10,000. She previously served as Las Vegas’s city manager and was a senior vice president of Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan, a national consulting engineering firm. Valentine has been active within asce for more than 20 years and has served as president of the Nevada Section and of that section’s Southern Nevada Branch. On the national level she represented District 11 on the Board of Direction from 1996 through 1998. Valentine is one of the engineers celebrated in the book Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers.

James K. Wight, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Michigan State University and obtained a doctorate in civil engineering (with a focus on structures) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A member of ASCE for nearly 40 years, Wight is the Frank E. Richart, Jr. Collegiate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Michigan, and his numerous honors, among them the Chi Epsilon Excellence in Teaching Award, testify to his teaching prowess. His research has focused on the earthquake-resistant design of concrete structures and the development of the strut and tie method for analyzing and designing concrete members. Wight is the current chairman of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) committee dealing with building codes, and he has served as chair of the Committee on Joints and Connections in Monolithic Concrete Structures (a body within ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute [SEI] that includes representatives of the ACI), of the Masonry Standards Joint Committee (an SEI group that includes representatives of the ACI and the Masonry Society), and of an aci committee dealing with technical activities. Wight has three books and more than 40 technical papers to his credit.

Fellow applications may be obtained from ASCE’s world headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, by calling (800) 548-2723 or, from outside the country, (703) 295-6300 or by e-mailing memapp@asce.org. Applications for fellow status are also available in PDF format at www.asce.org/membership/fellowgrade.cfm. Applicants using the PDF format must request reference forms and return envelopes from ASCE through one of the contact points listed above. Completed applications are considered at the monthly meetings of the Society’s Membership Application Review Committee (MARC), which elects qualified candidates to the fellow grade. Questions regarding the fellow guidelines or application process (including waiver of guideline inquiries) should be directed to Curtis Nunley, the staff liaison to the MARC, at one of the contact points above.

ASCE is one of countless professional organizations in the United States that have chosen to enact and enforce codes of ethics regulating the professional conduct of their members. While the societies that draft such codes believe them crucial in demonstrating their members’ commitment to honesty and integrity, they must take care that the provisions of their codes do not fall foul of state or federal laws regulating the marketplace and fair competition. This article is the first of two describing challenges to ASCE’s Code of Ethics for violations of federal antitrust law.

BACKGROUND: In November 1949 ASCE’s Board of Direction approved the insertion of a canon pertaining to price competition in its Code of Ethics. This canon, canon 4, held that “it shall be considered unprofessional and inconsistent with honorable and dignified bearing for any member of the American Society of Civil Engineers . . . to participate in competitive bidding on a price basis to secure a professional engagement.”

The new provision reflected ASCE’s belief that price-based competition for engineering projects would create a climate in which engineers would be forced to offer low-priced service at the expense of quality. The Society felt that preventing its members from engaging in fee discussions during the bidding process would ensure that contracts would be awarded on the basis of qualifications, thereby ensuring high-quality service and enhancing public safety and welfare.
After the insertion of canon 4, the Committee on Professional Conduct (CPC) conducted a number of investigations on claims that ASCE members had, in violation of the new canon, engaged in price competition. In one such case, concluded in 1954, some 14 members of the Society were expelled or suspended for engaging in price bidding during competition for a contract offered by South Carolina’s highway department.

CHALLENGE: In 1971 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered ASCE to turn over the documents relating to the ban on price competition. Soon afterward, it signaled its intention to file a civil suit against ASCE for violating section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. This federal law prohibits agreements “in restraint of trade or commerce,” and the DOJ contended that, by requiring its members to adhere to its Code of Ethics, ASCE was inducing its members to participate in anticompetitive agreements.

ASCE was not the only professional association targeted by the DOJ at the time. Both the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) had provisions in their codes of ethics barring price competition, and both groups were similarly charged with violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Faced with exposure to liability both in the federal suit and in potential private litigation, ASCE and the AIA negotiated a consent agreement with the DOJ. ASCE removed the offending provision and revised the Code of Ethics. In the revision, canon 3 held it unethical “to invite or submit priced proposals under conditions that constitute price competition for professional services,” but the following footnote was added:

Under the Code of Ethics of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the submission of fee quotations for engineering services is not an unethical practice. ASCE is constrained from prohibiting or limiting this practice and such prohibition or limitation has been removed from the Code of Ethics. However, the procurement of engineering services involves consideration of factors in addition to fee, and these factors should be evaluated carefully in securing professional services.

(In the current Code of Ethics, the various aspects of this question are treated in the guidelines to practice for canon 5.)

DECISION: For its part, the NSPE chose to litigate the issue of whether its ban on price competition constituted an unlawful restraint of trade. In 1978 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the finding of the lower courts that the NSPE had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. It held that that law reflected the opinion of the legislative branch that unrestrained competition resulted in better goods and services for the public. Professional associations such as the NSPE could not, the high court said, substitute their own judgment as to whether competition in a particular industry was “contrary to the public interest.”

The Supreme Court opinion noted that the Sherman Antitrust Act did not mean that price bidding was mandatory in all situations; it required only that bans on price bidding derive from legislation, not from agreements reached by private parties. Indeed, nearly six years before that decision Congress approved one piece of legislation restricting price bidding for engineering services. The Brooks Act, enacted in 1972 and still in effect, requires federal agencies to award contracts to engineers and architects “based on the demonstrated competence and qualifications of prospective contractors to perform the services at fair and reasonable prices.” This act, along with numerous laws similar in spirit at the state level, outlines a qualifications-based selection procedure for federal as well as many state and local engineering and architectural design projects.

Members who have an ethics question or would like to file a complaint with the CPC may call ASCE’s hotline at (703) 295-6061 or (800) 548-ASCE (2723), extension 6061. The attorneys staffing this line can provide advice on how to handle an ethics issue or file a complaint. Please note that individual facts and circumstances vary from case to case and that the general summary information contained in these case studies is not to be construed as a precedent binding upon the Society.

Richard D. “Dick” Barksdale, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, died last month at the age of 69. Barksdale, who was a professor of civil engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, made contributions in many areas of geotechnical and pavement engineering, among them finite-element analysis, elastic theory, resilient modulus, flexible pavement systems, ground modification, building settlements, and the behavior of residual soils. In 1978 he received asce’s Norman Medal for his paper “Performance of Asphalt Concrete Pavements,” which appeared in the Society’s Journal of Transportation Engineering. In 1979 and 1989, he delivered keynote lectures at the International Conference on the Structural Design of Asphalt Pavements. He was named a research fellow of the United Kingdom’s Science and Engineering Research Council in 1988, and two years later he won the Croda Prize from the Institution of Highways and Transportation. In recognition of his work as an editor and author of The Aggregate Handbook, Barksdale received the 1992 Association Trends Award from the American Society of Association Executives and the 1993 Register Award from the publication Rock Products. In 1996 he was named professor of the year by the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association, and in 2003 he received the Distinguished Research Award from the International Center for Aggregates Research and the Aggregates Foundation for Training, Research, and Education. A former president of asce’s Georgia Section, Barksdale chaired numerous technical committees. He was registered as a professional engineer in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Norman D. Witteveen, P.E., M.ASCE, a highly respected and internationally recognized airport consultant and executive, died on December 21 in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 68. During his 41-year career, Witteveen spent 27 years as an airport consultant and 14 years in the public sector. He was the design manager of Denver International Airport during its early phases of construction, and he lent his expertise to nearly 200 airport planning, design, and construction projects worldwide. From 1994 through 1999, Witteveen was the deputy director of aviation planning and development at Denver International Airport. He then served as the national director for aviation quality assurance for HNTB Corporation and was also the firm’s corporate aviation adviser. Witteveen contributed a considerable amount of time and effort to aviation and engineering associations, federal and state agencies, and universities. Many of the individuals he mentored went on to become leaders in the aviation industry.