May 2007
Volume 32, Issue 3

On behalf of its 140,000 members, ASCE extends its deepest condolences not only to the Society’s student and faculty members at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) but also to all the students, teachers, and staff members there, together with their families, who have been affected by the incomprehensible events of April 16. Thirty-two people—five faculty members and 27 students—were killed on campus that day. Nine of those who lost their lives—eight students and one professor—were ASCE members. “It is a black day for Virginia Tech,” wrote ASCE’s president, W.F. Marcuson III, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, in his blog (www.asce.org) on April 17. “It is also a black day for ASCE. . . . The engineering community and the world have suffered a great loss.”

Virginia Tech’s Charles Edward Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is currently pursuing a variety of ways of honoring those who were lost, including establishing three memorial funds. ASCE’s Board of Direction has approved a $50,000 donation to the Virginia Tech memorial fund, and members are encouraged to donate as well (additional information on the funds and other memorial efforts may be found at www.cee.vt.edu). ASCE has also created an online book of condolences (http://live.asce.org/blog/1/virginia/) for friends, colleagues, and those who want to share their memories of these eight students and their professor and to offer their sympathies to all who are
suffering.

“In the midst of such a tragedy there is also the hope that has been observed and expressed in many ways, ways far too numerous to mention,” William R. Knocke, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, the head of Virginia Tech’s civil and environmental engineering department, wrote last month in a letter to Marcuson. “It has likewise been humbling to have so many offers of help—faculty offering to come and help with teaching needs, notices about prayer vigils, and services held around the country by student chapters and universities, offers of financial contributions, etc. . . . I thank all of you for the many ways in which you have reached out to us in our time of trouble. Please know that we appreciate your thoughts and prayers at this most difficult time.”

On Friday, April 27, ASCE’s president-elect, David G. Mongan, P.E., f.ASCE, spoke at a memorial service held on the Virginia Tech campus to honor the civil engineering professor and students lost. “As a result of the tragic events of Monday, April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech’s Charles Edward Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the worldwide civil engineering family have suffered to a degree that defies words and the human imagination,” said Mongan. “We have lost a dedicated and seasoned professor, Dr. G.V. Loganathan. And we have lost eight promising young students.

“Dr. Loganathan was a longtime ASCE member who took an active role in the Environmental and Water Resources Institute, and each of the students was dedicated to engineering, some having traveled across the world to receive a quality education at Virginia Tech. Their stories have touched us deeply, and the outpouring of support we are hearing from ASCE members and from organizations and colleagues around the world for these individuals and their families has been overwhelming.

“On behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the global civil engineering community, I would like to offer our deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathies. We extend these to the Society’s student and faculty members at Virginia Tech and to all the students, faculty, staff, and their families, who have been affected in so many ways by these incomprehensible events.

“For me personally, Tech holds a special place in my heart. I went to school just a few miles up the road at Washington and Lee University. A very close high school friend of mine attended Tech. And one of my dearest friends and respected mentors is a graduate of Tech. I know that ASCE President Bill Marcuson wishes he could have been here today with us. Tech is a very special place for him: his father was a Tech graduate in the class of 1932.

“The ASCE community holds the highest regard for the accomplished young people who are no longer with us, taken in the prime of their lives. It is difficult to fathom this tragedy and loss. We can only offer to their families, their friends, and the entire Virginia Tech community the solace that they were pursuing the noblest of professions. They were about to dedicate their lives to serving mankind and improving the quality of life for humankind everywhere. We can honor their memory and spirit by doing no less.

“It is a great honor for me today to present to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering certificates of ASCE membership for each of the fallen students.

“On Tuesday of this week the Board of Direction of ASCE adopted a resolution in remembrance of those who lost their lives. The resolution reads as follows:

On Monday, April 16, 2007, the worldwide civil engineering community lost a talented and dedicated educator and researcher whose teachings helped to shape the future of civil engineering and whose research had an immeasurable impact on the practice of water resources and environmental engineering. The lives of eight promising young students were also cut short, depriving the world of the contributions they could have made and the effect they would no doubt have had on the civil engineering profession.

The tragic events that took place on the campus of Virginia Tech that day marked a dark moment in the history of the university, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the civil engineering profession. In honor of our fallen colleagues, the Board of Direction of the American Society of Civil Engineers remembers the victims of that incomprehensible tragedy and mourns the loss of their professional talent, personal spirit, and kinship to the engineering family, as well as the impact on the world that they should have had the opportunity to make.”

Mongan also presented a book of condolences signed by ASCE staff members and another signed by attendees of the Outstanding Project and Leaders gala, held on April 25 in Washington, D.C.

The Society joins with the nation in expressing sorrow over the magnitude of loss and suffering caused by this senseless tragedy and in hoping that in some way the sorrow will give way to healing within the Virginia Tech community. What follows are obituaries of the nine ASCE members who were lost in this tragedy:
 
Brian R. Bluhm, M.ASCE, who earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech, was working toward a master’s degree in water resources. He was 25 years old and loved God, family and friends, the Detroit Tigers, the Hokies, and learning. His work as a teaching assistant in the civil and environmental engineering department involved the sustainability of a reservoir’s water quantity during a critical drought period. Bluhm was preparing to finish his thesis in the spring and had recently accepted a job in Baltimore. On April 17 his death was announced at Comerica Park shortly before the Tigers played the Kansas City Royals. “A bright future was in the works for this Detroit sports fan,” Curtis Granderson, the Tigers’ starting center fielder, wrote in a blog entry on April 18. “I will leave Brian in my top friends list as my small tribute to him.”

Matthew G. Gwaltney, M.ASCE, a resident of Chester, Virginia, earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech (magna cum laude) and was pursuing a graduate degree with a concentration in environmental and water resources engineering. He was serving as a teaching assistant in the civil and environmental engineering department, and his work examined the nature of river mechanics and restoration. His master’s research focused on storm-water management. Gwaltney, who was 24, was attending Virginia Tech on a fellowship. According to his classmates and teachers, he wanted to give people a better understanding of environmental issues so that they would be proactive in protecting and improving the world around them. Sports were Gwaltney’s passion and he was a master of sports statistics and trivia. He was a devoted Hokies fan and enjoyed all Atlantic Coast Conference sporting events. The Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Bulls led his list of professional teams. He played basketball and baseball at Thomas Dale High School in Chester and continued to play pickup basketball throughout his career at Virginia Tech. He was a dedicated team member at Thomas Dale and his cheerful disposition and determination earned him many lasting friends, including Ashby Tarkington, Elija Alexis, Nick Anders, Brad Byerson, Matt Green, Vernon Hamilton, Russell Krupp, Travis Koogler, Kevin McCain, and Sarah Radford. He was also devoted to his family.

He was an honor student at Thomas Dale and a member of the Spanish Honor Society and graduated fourth in his class of more than 400. At Virginia Tech he was a member of Chi Epsilon, Tau Beta Pi, Phi Eta Sigma, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and the Golden Key International Honor Society. 

Jeremy M. Herbstritt, M.ASCE, was 27 years old and hailed from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Before attending Virginia Tech, he earned two undergraduate degrees from Pennsylvania State University—a bachelor’s in biochemistry and molecular biology in 2003 and a bachelor’s in civil engineering in 2006. A teaching assistant in the civil and environmental engineering department, Herbstritt intended to pursue a career in environmental engineering and had nearly completed his first year of graduate studies. “He loved running and hiking,” Alexis B. Bozzo, his girlfriend, told the Chronicle of Higher Education. “He was so full of life.” A 5 km walk and run was held May 5 at Penn State’s main campus, in University Park, Pennsylvania, in memory of Herbstritt.

Jarrett L. Lane, M.ASCE, of Narrows, Virginia, was a senior majoring in civil engineering. In high school Lane participated in varsity football, basketball, tennis, and track and somehow found time to also play in the band and be active in clubs and community organizations. By the end of his senior year he was the top player on the tennis team and had earned all-district honors in his three other sports. He graduated in 2003 as valedictorian of his class. Lane had always wanted to attend Virginia Tech, according to Gary W. Hinson, his high school biology teacher. The recipient of a special scholarship for engineering students, Lane had recently been accepted by the University of Florida to pursue a master’s degree in engineering. He celebrated his 22nd birthday in March.

G.V. Loganathan, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, an esteemed professor of civil engineering, was 51. An active member of ASCE and its Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI), Loganathan taught at Virginia Tech for 25 years. For the most part his courses dealt with hydrology, water resources systems, and hydraulic networks. Loganathan contributed to 40 ASCE journals over the past 20 years and regularly presented papers at ASCE and EWRI conferences. He served on ASCE’s Trenchless Installation of Pipelines Committee, and within the ewri he was a member of the Environmental and Water Resources Systems Committee and vice-chair of the Water Policies and Institutions Committee’s Operations Management Subcommittee. In 1996 he received the Wesley W. Horner Best Paper Award from the Journal of Environmental Engineering. A native of India, Loganathan earned a bachelor’s degree there from the University of Madras, a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, and a doctorate from Purdue University. In 2006 he won an award for excellence in teaching from Virginia Tech, and over the course of his teaching career there the College of Engineering recognized him with at least four other such honors. At the time of his death, Loganathan had joined colleagues at the university in a $1-million effort to improve engineering pedagogy by drawing on the latest research on how students learn. “He cared about his students as if they were his own children, fretting about their grades, making sure they understood the concepts,” Loganathan’s wife, Usha, told cnn on April 19. “To the last minute, he loved teaching.” In an entry posted on ASCE’s condolence Web page last month, T.R. Fluker, A.M.ASCE, a former student of Loganathan’s, put it this way: “Dr. Loganathan was a great teacher. He was a kind, considerate, patient person. He was a brilliant professor, but he also had the ability to lecture and explain engineering concepts on a level that all of the undergraduate students in his class could understand. Dr. Loganathan’s teaching influenced my life as a student and as an engineer.”

Partahi M. Lumbantoruan, M.ASCE, was 34 and from Indonesia. He was working toward a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering and hoped eventually to become a professor. His master’s thesis was on soil liquefaction during earthquakes, and last year he decided to pursue a doctorate in hydrotechnology. Known as Mora around the civil and environmental engineering department, he was a quiet, hard-working individual who spent a considerable amount of time in the university’s library. On the day he was killed, Lumbantoruan laid himself over another student, protecting that person from gunfire, reported the Chronicle of Higher Education. Budijanto Widjaja, a friend of Lumbantoruan’s, described him on ASCE’s condolence Web page in the following way: “He was a charming person and helpful. I knew him since he studied in Indonesia as a graduate student at Parahayangan Catholic University. He was a hard worker. He always lights the room when he enters. My prayers and my thoughts will always be with him and may God give strength to his family. Good-bye, Mora! I will miss you.”

Daniel P. O’Neil, M.ASCE, died at the age of 22. He was a graduate student from Lincoln, Rhode Island, and a music lover. O’Neil was a teaching assistant in the civil and environmental engineering department. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Lafayette College, graduating in the top 10 percent of his class. While at Lafayette he was enrolled in a research program that involved studying the effects of urban development on a local watershed. “Dan was a great guy,” Michael Nilson wrote on ASCE’s condolence Web page. “Always positive, energetic, and dedicated. His loss is a tragedy to so many. Dan, I know you have moved on to a better life. We’ll miss you.”

Juan R. Ortiz-Ortiz, M.ASCE, who was 26 and from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, came to Virginia Tech in August 2006 to earn a master’s degree in civil engineering. Ortiz graduated magna cum laude from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (PUPR), where he served as president of the ASCE student chapter. He had a strong interest in environmental issues and focused his studies on water resources, and he also served as a tutor for younger students. Ortiz had a passion for music and played the timbales (a type of drum) in musicals with friends and family. He also enjoyed salsa dancing. “Juan was an exemplary student, bright, very hard working and focused on developing his skills as an engineer, always willing to give the extra mile,” Gustavo Pacheco wrote on ASCE’s condolence Web page. “And even more important, he was also an extraordinary human being, respectful, with deep humanitarian values, and always with a smile in his face. As ASCE-PUPR student chapter president, he showed great leadership and [helped keep] the chapter very active. He also participated in the pupr mentor program, distinguishing himself as a very capable student mentor in mathematics and statics.” His family recalls that his life was characterized by his love for his family and his desire to become a better person each day. He lived his life with great intensity, as if each day were his very last. He changed the life of everyone he met and filled it with love and happiness. He will be remembered forever for his passion toward civil engineering, family, and life.

Waleed M. Shaalan, M.ASCE, died at the age of 32. Shaalan, who was from Zagazig, Egypt, began his doctoral studies in civil engineering in his native country. He came to Virginia Tech in August 2006 after the university offered him a teaching assistantship. At the time of his death he was just completing his first year of doctoral work. “He just came off as the simplest and nicest guy I ever met,” Fahad Pasha, Shaalan’s roommate, told the Chronicle of Higher Education. According to Pasha, Shaalan kept very busy but always made time to advise him and his other roommate, as well as to serve them cake and tea when they were studying for exams. On the morning of the shooting, the gunman moved toward an unharmed student near Shaalan, who at that point had been shot and was badly injured, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. As the gunman approached that student, Shaalan moved to distract him and was shot again.

All photographs courtesy of the Charles Edward Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech except those noted.

The Golden Gate Bridge Seismic Retrofit Phase II South Approach Structures Project—submitted by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District—was named the winner of ASCE’s 2007 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award (OCEA award) at this year’s Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) gala, which was held on April 25 in Washington, D.C. Established in 1960, the OCEA award annually recognizes the project deemed to embody the best in civil engineering and to make a significant contribution both to the civil engineering profession and to society as a whole. The project was one of four finalists chosen in January by the OCEA jury. The other three finalists, which received OCEA merit awards, were the Rehabilitation of Economic Facilities and Services Program in Afghanistan, the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Capital Development Program, and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory. (See “Four OCEA Finalists and Two Pankow Finalists Chosen,” ASCE News, February 2007.) The project designated the OCEA award winner also receives an OPAL award.

The OCEA jury this year also voted to bestow the Special Award for Nation Building on the Louis Berger Group, Inc., for the Rehabilitation of Economic Facilities and Services Program in Afghanistan. This $730-million undertaking was designed to achieve one specific goal: to rebuild the nation of Afghanistan. As the primary contractor, the Louis Berger Group was responsible for restoring and, in some cases, providing the foundations for basic infrastructure, including roads, energy systems, schools, clinics, and water 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 this program a tremendous accomplishment.

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. Five individuals are chosen each year to receive OPAL awards by the Society Awards Committee, which is composed of five past presidents of ASCE. The committee nominates one recipient in each of the five categories, then forwards the nominations to the Board of Direction’s Executive Committee for approval. This year’s 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., S.E., Hon.M.ASCE, for design. (See “OPAL Lifetime Achievement Honorees Named,” ASCE News, February 2007, for complete descriptions of their achievements.)

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge—a 20th-century icon that is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places—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 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 address 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 east of the vast Redwood Empire, the bridge carries 41 million vehicles per year.

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 Civil Engineering Forum for Innovation (CEFI) bestowed the 2007 Charles Pankow Award for Innovation on a cable-stayed bridge cradle system developed by figg engineers that creates a revolutionary new bridge technology and makes it possible to increase the number of strands and thus realize longer spans. 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 (CERF)—CEFI’s predecessor—in 1996 to recognize organizations working collaboratively to aid the design and construction industry by bringing innovations into practice.

The cradle system also eliminates interaction between strands in the curved portion of the stay cables by the use of individual pipes inside the cradle. 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. (For a fuller description, see “Cradle of Invention,” by W. Denney Pate, P.E., M.ASCE, and W. Jay Rohleder, Jr., P.E., S.E., M.ASCE, Civil Engineering, March 2007, pages 36–43.)

Norbert W. Young, Jr., A.M.ASCE, the president of McGraw-Hill Construction, is the recipient of cefi’s 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 to a person in the design and construction industry who has helped to increase 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. He served on the board of directors of cerf 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.

Improving disaster preparedness and the resilience of our infrastructure has been at the core of the work done by The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP) for more than five years. Established shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to devise ways of making U.S. infrastructure more robust and thus better able to withstand the effects of terrorism and natural calamities, tisp holds a congress each year to address issues related to the security of the built environment.

Leaders from government, industry, and academia and representatives from the engineering and intelligence communities came together March 28–29 for tisp’s sixth annual congress, “Achieving Resilience: From Readiness to Restoration.” Held in Arlington, Virginia, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, the event featured a variety of keynote presentations and panel discussions and focused on such topics as determining roles and responsibilities in disaster resilience, risk assessment and management, regional interdependencies, public information capabilities, interoperable communications, cyber attacks and disruptions, public-private cooperation, emergency management and first responder systems, evacuation and housing, incident management, restoration and rebuilding, and stakeholder involvement.

In a keynote address, Lieutenant General Carl A. Strock, P.E., M.ASCE, the commander and chief of engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, underscored the importance of preparedness and the need to adopt an “all-hazards” approach in protecting infrastructure deemed to be of cardinal importance. “What’s important is not so much what causes a consequence, but how we prepare and respond to it,” he said. “In the built environment, there are certain things that we have to do regardless of whether the environment is impacted by a natural event, a terrorist strike, or simple obsolescence through neglect. We need to anticipate and decide up front what we’re going to do when we see a given situation manifested. Anticipation is especially critical with the concept of resilience, because resilience is not just the after-the-fact response of infrastructure; it’s thinking up front. Do we understand the risks involved? What do we need to do to build resilience in?”

Strock, who announced his retirement from the army last year and is slated to officially leave his position in June, also called attention to the plan—12 Actions for Change—developed by the Corps to improve the safety of the nation’s water resources infrastructure. “We clearly need to take a more systems approach to what we do,” he observed. “The levees did not function well as a system in Hurricane Katrina because we had a system of thirteen different projects that were authorized at different times for different purposes. They served various levels of protection and were funded at different levels. We worked those as discrete systems rather than as an overall system of protection in that city. Hence we had seams and gaps that were exploited by nature and we see the same thing in other infrastructure systems in this nation. And it’s not just with physical systems. It’s the economic systems of this country that we must also be thinking about—the cyber systems, the information networks, and so on.”

Developed in a collaborative effort that drew on the expertise of the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET)—the body set up by the Corps to evaluate the performance of the hurricane protection system in New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana during Katrina—asce, the National Science Foundation, and Louisiana State University, the plan comes in response to the need for the Corps to comprehensively design, construct, maintain, and update systems so that they will be sufficiently robust and will benefit from full stakeholder participation. It also reflects the Corps’s resolve to improve communication both internally and with the public and to advance public service professionalism.

Strock, who signed and released the plan on August 24, 2006, expatiated on the Corps’s commitment to risk assessment and disclosure. “We really need to focus on risk communication,” he said. “We want to contribute to informed decision making and make sure the public servants in this country are national decision makers and [that] individual citizens are also aware of the risks they face so that they can make informed decisions. This is not an easy task because we deal with very complex issues. But we have to have an open and honest dialogue, and the challenge for us is to do it in a clear and simple way. We’ve got to strike a balance between the need for information security and transparency.”

The steps outlined in the Corps’s plan include adopting an integrated, comprehensive, and systems-based approach; applying risk-based concepts in planning, design, construction, operations, and major maintenance; and continuously reassessing and updating policy as it relates to program development, planning guidance, and design and construction standards. Moreover, the Corps intends to avail itself of the advantages conferred by dynamic independent review; to employ adaptive planning and engineering systems; to focus on sustainability; to review and inspect completed works; to assess and modify its organizational behavior; to effectively communicate risk and develop risk reduction strategies that involve the public; to manage and enhance technical expertise and professionalism; and to invest in research.

“This nation is still the strongest in the world and many people look to us for leadership and assistance when they’re in trouble,” added Strock, who then cited Regional Disaster Resilience: A Guide for Developing an Action Plan, a 36-page guidebook that tisp published last June. “This is not an action plan,” he pointed out. “It is a guide for developing an action plan, a thought piece on how to do it, and I think it’s a very good one. It focuses on regional disaster resilience and it defines regions not just along political boundaries but along systems boundaries that we need to be thinking about. It’s also very consistent with the approach that’s been taken at the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has shifted and expanded to an all-hazards strategy.”

According to the guidebook, “regional public-private partnerships” are essential for fostering information sharing and coordination and “should include all levels of government, utilities, and other service providers.” Aimed at uncovering readiness gaps, recommending solutions, and providing a benchmark for gauging a region’s level of disaster resilience, the guide includes a detailed inventory of needs that have been defined through infrastructure vulnerability assessments. It also highlights findings from interdependency exercises and lessons that have been learned from major events, including such natural disasters as Katrina and such man-made ones as the power blackout that affected large swaths of the country in August 2003.

“I think we need to expand this effort beyond our own shores,” Strock said in closing. “It is truly an interdependent world that we live in today. Things can happen overseas that can influence us in this country, so we need to be prepared to carry abroad the mechanisms that the tisp community has developed in thinking about the built environment and responding when that environment is assaulted. The world’s ability to respond to things like the [Indian Ocean tsunami] can be influenced by what we do in this group. So I think we need to broaden our perspectives and expand this capacity internationally.”

In a panel discussion that considered ways of incorporating interdependencies into risk assessments, John Laws, a water and dam sector coordinator for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, addressed various complexities and challenges related to prioritizing and protecting investments in both the public and private sectors. “Understanding the interdependencies between all the sectors and all the nuances that go along with that at the operational level is a very complex game,” he said. “It’s not easy. But we are beginning to understand that there are systems-based sectors, such as water, telecommunications, and electricity, that can influence national issues back and forth. We’re just now beginning to understand how this complex mixture operates and functions as a total paradigm and how we have to pay attention in terms of all-hazards and disaster response.”

Paula L. Scalingi, Ph.D., M.ASCE, who moderated the discussion, stressed the importance of achieving regional resilience and integrating risk strategies into the planning and management of vital facets of infrastructure. “If you’re going to have resilient infrastructures, you have to have resilient regions,” she said. “And you’re only going to have resilient regions if you understand the vulnerabilities associated with interdependencies and understand from a risk-based approach how you need to deal with those interdependency-related vulnerabilities.”

Scalingi, who is the vice-chair of TISP and the president of the Scalingi Group, of Vienna, Virginia, also stressed the need for partnerships and stakeholder collaboration. “We really have to move a lot further and a lot faster in understanding the interdependencies among not just our critical infrastructure but our essential service providers and our communities,” she added. “Regional resilience and the resilience of our infrastructure are directly dependent on understanding interdependencies, which is dependent on public and private and other organizations partnering. But you can only address those interdependencies and vulnerabilities if you have the data; and you can only get the data through information sharing; and you will only have information sharing among key stakeholders if you have collaboration and trust at the local and regional levels.”

The following day Congressman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Mississippi), the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, delivered a keynote speech that addressed various priorities and goals related to threat deterrence, vulnerability reduction, and resilience. “We’re going to be implementing a one-hundred-percent screening process,” he said. “In three years all of our large ports will have to have a process in place to screen all cargo before it reaches our shores. In five years smaller ports will also have to have a process in place that can effectively screen everything.”

With 39 years of continuous public service, Thompson is Mississippi’s longest-serving African-American elected official. He explained how he has also been working on legislation that would increase government spending on rail security. “For the most part, we’re doing a robust job screening passengers at airports,” he noted. “But if you go from here to New York on the train, you can take just about anything you want on board and nobody will stop you. We need to do a better job with this. We’re spending about nine dollars per passenger for screening purposes on aviation security but less than two cents per passenger on rail security. So we’re trying to get some more money so we can beef up security on our trains. Overall, we want those who travel, regardless of the mode of transportation they choose, to feel confident that the security apparatus we have in place will in most instances find bad things.”

In closing, Thompson acknowledged the challenges that will have to be met, and he called on the TISP community to share its ideas with his committee. “In thinking about resilience, we have to consider whether we are allowing things to become more difficult than they need to be by not forcing people to work together,” he said. “We have to make sure that cities, counties, states, and the federal government are all on the same page. But we still can’t legislate human behavior. Even though we’ve required intelligence agencies to share information with each other, we’ve found that, for the most part, everything still operates on a need-to-know basis. We’re working on this. I think you, as an organization, could help us do better. If you have ideas, please share them with us. We have no reservations about receiving good ideas. We even give credit to Republicans who bring good ideas. So I want you to feel very comfortable in bringing ideas to the table, because when the terrorists come they won’t ask for church affiliation [and] they won’t ask for party affiliation. They just want to harm Americans. And we, as Americans and people working for the security of this nation, simply can’t let that happen.”

—Mark Fitzgerald

ASCE places high priority on recognizing outstanding achievements in the field of civil engineering. And we also believe it is important to celebrate those achievements. To that end, we have a far-reaching honors and awards program that works year-round to make sure that those in our profession who have distinguished themselves receive due recognition.

Every year our Society confers honorary memberships and bestows a number of awards on individuals and projects to ensure that contributions to the theory and practice of civil engineering are properly acknowledged and properly celebrated.

A key component of our successful awards program is the nomination process. We recently added some new tools to our honors and awards Web site (www.asce.org/pressroom/honors/ or click on “Honors and Awards” in the “Products & Services” menu at www.asce.org) to maximize the value of the program by ensuring that we draw from the best possible pool of nominees. This year we added the heading “What Award Am I Eligible For?” to provide an interactive work sheet that describes in detail how members can develop meaningful nomination packages.

ASCE has seen growth of 5 percent in the nominations for Society awards it has received over the past six months. The driving force behind our success continues to be the placement of key articles and submissions in ASCE communications and on our Web site, and the addition of the new work sheet has been a boon.

It is also truly exciting to see how many of our members are being recognized by other organizations for their accomplishments. ASCE has submitted 12 nominations during the most recent award cycle for awards conferred by the following societies:

• American Association of Engineering Societies; 
• National Society of Professional Engineers; 
• National Society of Black Engineers; 
• Japan Society of Civil Engineers; 
• Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council; 
• National Academy of Engineering; 
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

We are waiting to hear the decisions on the nominations we submitted for other awards from these groups.

In 2007 the Society Awards Committee reviewed 43 nominations in connection with our Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) program. This year’s winners for lifetime achievement are as follows:

• Fredric S. Berger, P.E., M.ASCE,  Management;
• Thomas R. Draeger, P.E., M.ASCE,  Construction;
• John W. Fisher, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, Education;
• John W. Keys III, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, Government;
• Loring A. Wyllie, Jr., S.E., Hon.M.ASCE, Design.

We celebrated the exceptional accomplishments of these individuals at the OPAL awards gala, which was held on April 25 in Washington, D.C.

This summer ASCE members will be asked to vote to change the designation “honorary member” to “distinguished member” to perhaps better convey the eminence and prestige of individuals accorded a designation within the Society second only to that of ASCE president. The widespread awarding of honorary degrees has prompted ASCE to reevaluate the title of this membership grade. If members approve the new title, it will go into use in 2008.

It is vitally important for us to tie together the present and past accomplishments of civil engineers by honoring significant civil engineering feats of earlier civilizations around the world. I strongly encourage ASCE members to research engineering projects and nominate them for either local or international landmark status in our Historic Civil Engineering Landmark Program. The Society applauds efforts by members outside the United States to study civil engineering works and nominate them for landmark status. By doing so, they may help to preserve the engineering heritage of their countries.

For more than 40 years, ASCE has conferred landmark status on civil engineering achievements that have played a unique role in the development of our nation and the world. So far more than 200 projects worldwide have been formally recognized. ASCE was extremely pleased last fall to formally recognize two marvels in South America as landmarks. The civilizations of the Andes extend back 4,500 years. The innovative and brilliant Inca built their empire by taking advantage of technology developed by earlier people.

Machu Picchu, in Peru, is a masterpiece of site selection, planning, and design. The buildings, parks, terraces, and fountains at this intriguing site are interconnected by numerous channels and make up a complex water drainage system. The infrastructure of Machu Picchu illustrates how advanced the engineering capabilities of the Inca were. The steep agricultural terraces, fine masonry walls, surface and subsurface drainage, and spring headworks are all excellent examples of Incan civil engineering.

Tipon, also in Peru, attests to the advanced hydraulic and geotechnical engineering skills not only of the Inca but also of their predecessors. Tipon is an engineering masterpiece of planning and construction. The complex irrigation system of canals, aqueducts, fountains, buried conduits, and a tunnel brought surface and spring water to terraces that feature massive, zoned earthworks and fine stone masonry walls.

Other achievements formally recognized in our Historic Civil Engineering Landmark Program include the Washington Monument; the Golden Gate Bridge; Hoover Dam; the Granite Railway, in Massachusetts; the Suez Canal; the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in Australia; London’s Thames Tunnel; and the Kavanagh Building, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I hope you will take some time to visit our honors and awards Web site, examine our new nomination tools, and, most important of all, nominate an engineer who in your opinion qualifies for one of our awards.

I also hope you will encourage your colleagues and partner organizations to seek out and nominate more amazing marvels as engineering landmarks around the world. The Web site for the Historic Civil Engineering Landmark Program is http://content.asce.org/history/ce_landmarks.cfm (or click on “History & Heritage” at www.asce.org). We look forward to broadening the reach of our program both through expanded nominations and through a wider geographical span that travels back through the centuries.

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

ASCE is introducing a series of Web seminars (“Webinars”) in June entitled Hurricane Season—Are You Ready? Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina and the Implications for the Civil Engineering Profession and Your Community. This series will present the most significant technical findings from the exhaustive research and analysis effort carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) and peer-reviewed by asce’s External Review Panel (ERP) as well as relevant findings from other post-Katrina studies. The ipet was established to evaluate the performance of the hurricane protection system in New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana during Katrina. Drawing on the ipet’s more than 7,000 published pages and other technical reports, this 13-part series will provide practicing engineers with knowledge that will help them improve infrastructure and make it more resilient. Especially useful to engineers involved in the design or construction of any critical facet of structure, the series will also offer insight into how organizational, managerial, and funding considerations can sometimes blur the focus on the health, safety, and welfare of the public. The series is being sponsored by asce and the Corps of Engineers. For additional information, visit www.asce.org.

ASCE's Committee on Critical Infrastructure (CCI) has been working diligently to make our built environment sufficiently robust to meet a variety of hazards. As part of its efforts, it has initiated a program to draw on the expertise of “infrastructure champions” at the grassroots level. The CCIlaunched the program in January with a virtual meeting led by Daniel W. Martin, A.M.ASCE, who is heading the initiative. Martin welcomed the participants and outlined upcoming activities, including a training workshop that will be held in Reston, Virginia, at asce’s headquarters June 22–23. For additional information about the champions program, visit http://ciasce.asce.org/InfrastructureChampions.html.

The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP) held a breakfast meeting on April 19 in Washington, D.C., at the Army and Navy Club. Marko G. Bourne, the director of policy and program analysis at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), was the featured speaker. Bourne briefed the audience on the initiatives to reinvigorate fema and summarized changes at the agency. He emphasized that new business processes, increased employee professional development, and improved information technology systems were top priorities, and he stated that fema intends to “integrate preparedness into everything we do” and to “build on preparedness to make it operational in the field.” A podcast of his presentation will be available shortly. tisp breakfasts are also scheduled for May 10, June 21, and September 20. Additional details are available at www.tisp.org.

We are your voice on Capitol Hill. In addition to the 125 members who visited Capitol Hill in March as part of the Leadership Training in Government Relations Program, asce members and staff testified before congressional committees three times in April. Maria C. Lehman, P.E., F.ASCE, testified before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit regarding innovative contracting in transportation projects. (Her testimony is included in the National News section of this issue.) Casey Dinges, asce’s managing director of external affairs, conveyed asce’s support for increased investment in infrastructure through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund to the House Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. Robert Victor, P.E., M.ASCE, testified before the House Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies regarding funding in fiscal year 2008 for hazard mitigation programs at the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Furthermore, the asce Washington office hosted a breakfast “meet and greet” on April 19 with Representative Gerald McNerney (D-California), a wind engineer and entrepreneur who is serving his first term and is on key civil engineering committees in the House. To learn more about asce’s public policy activities, join the Key Contact Program for weekly updates. Visit www.asce.org/keycontacts for more information.

The various roles that an engineer is called upon to play have changed dramatically in recent decades, and he or she must now be comfortable as a project manager, negotiator, problem solver, team builder, or client partner. While technical skills continue to be important, focusing on that aspect at the expense of managerial prowess and business acumen may prevent you from achieving your fullest potential and effectively meeting the many demands on your time. ASCE's latest cd, Sixty Minutes to Becoming a More Successful Engineer, will help you acquire the nontechnical but highly important skills you need to grow, advance, and succeed professionally and personally. For additional information on this cd or to place an order, visit http://store.asce.org/view/ or call (800) 548-2723.

ASCE’s Transportation and Development Institute, which was founded in 2002, acts as a global leader for safe, secure, and sustainable integrated transportation and development. On April 20 the institute announced a public comment period on the reaffirmation for part 3 of its automated people mover (APM) standard, asce 21. The standard establishes minimum requirements for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of apm systems and is used in the safety certification process. To expedite the approval and release process, as well as to make it easier to use, the standard has been divided into four parts. In addition to covering stations, guideways, and electrical equipment, part 3 addresses itself to the standard’s scope, contents, references, and definitions. The public comment period will run from May 15 to June 29. To participate, contact Phillip Mariscal, asce’s standards administrator, at pmariscal@asce.org or (703) 295-6338. For more information on this standard or on asce’s standards program, contact An Pham at apham@asce.org or (703) 295-6408.

In June ASCE will join 12 science and technology societies at a conference organized by the Special Libraries Association to launch Scitopia.org, a free vertical search service for scholarly work and patents. Scitopia.org can aggregate electronic libraries, including peer-reviewed journal articles and papers in conference proceedings. Other organizations will be invited to join as the project progresses.

I’m excited to announce the addition of asce’s newest affinity benefit, Grogan Advisory Services. Grogan Advisory Services is an independent financial services firm specializing in investments, financial planning, and advisory services. asce members receive a free portfolio review that offers information regarding portfolio compositions, sector weightings, regional exposure, bond quality, investment style, and more. View all of Grogan’s services by visiting www.efs529.com/ascefinancial or send your investment information to larry.grogan@efs529.com.

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

Fiorato Wins Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association recently honored Anthony E. Fiorato, Ph.D, M.ASCE, with its Richard D. Gaynor Award, recognizing his lifetime achievements in the ready-mixed concrete industry. Fiorato—the president and chief executive officer of the CTL Group, an engineering and research firm headquartered in Skokie, Illinois—was honored for his contributions to research, engineering, and the development of standards. The author of more than 50 research papers, Fiorato has worked closely with the cement and concrete industries and has served as chairman of numerous technical committees. From 1989 to 1999 he worked at the Portland Cement Association, heading the research and technical services department. In 2004 Fiorato served as president of the American Concrete Institute, and in 2006 he became the chairman of astm International. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Drexel University and a master’s degree and a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which in 2004 honored him as a distinguished alumnus. Fiorato is licensed as a professional engineer in Illinois, Arizona, Michigan, and Ohio.

Hatch Receives Castle Memorial Award
On March 17 the West Point Society of the District of Columbia presented Henry J. “Hank” Hatch, P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and a former Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with the Castle Memorial Award. The honor is conferred on graduates of the United States Military Academy who after serving in the U.S. military go on to achieve success in a second career in public service or in such fields as education, medicine, or science. Hatch served for 35 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as chief of engineers and commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. As the army’s senior engineering officer, he strengthened project management, developed effective environmental programs, and conceived and promoted new concepts for army peacetime operations. After retiring from the military, Hatch worked for two international consulting engineering companies, specializing in the management of environmental cleanups. He has also served as the chief operating officer of asce. Currently the chair of asce’s International Activities Committee, Hatch volunteers his time and expertise to the National Research Council, the Society of American Military Engineers, and the Engineering and Technology Exploring Program of the Boy Scouts of America. His current volunteer emphasis is on building engineering capacity in Iraq and Afghanistan and on helping the U.S. engineering community strengthen the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s engineering programs. Hatch leads the U.S. engineering community in these efforts with strong support from the White House, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Corps of Engineers.

Ingraffea Honored With Irwin Medal
ASTM International has named Anthony R. Ingraffea, Ph.D., F.ASCE, the winner of its International George R. Irwin Medal. The award was presented by ASTM International’s Committee on Fatigue and Fracture, and it honors Ingraffea’s pioneering and outstanding contributions to the computational simulation of fatigue and fracture processes. A professor at Cornell University since 1977, Ingraffea has focused on structural mechanics, computational and experimental fracture mechanics, and engineering education. He has also conducted research on computer simulation and the physical testing of fracture processes and has investigated the use of interactive computer graphics in computational mechanics. A coeditor of Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Ingraffea has received numerous teaching awards from Cornell. He holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame, a master’s degree in civil engineering from Polytechnic University, and a doctorate from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Veis Named German Marshall Fund Fellow
Christopher A. Veis, P.E., M.ASCE, has been named a 2007 fellow in the German Marshall Fund’s Marshall Memorial Fellowship program. The German Marshall Fund is a public policy institution dedicated to promoting cooperation and understanding between the United States and Europe. A member of the city council of Billings, Montana, Veis is the first person from that state to be chosen for this fellowship. He works for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and is the president of the Billings Engineers Club. In 2003 he was included in the “Top 40 under 40” list compiled by Western Business News. The purpose of the fellowship is to educate the next generation of American and European leaders on the importance of the transatlantic relationship and to encourage them to work with one another on a range of international and domestic policy challenges. Fellows are selected through a competitive nationwide process and come from politics, government, the media, business, and the nonprofit sector.

Zogorski Recognized by Secretary of the Interior
On May 9 Dirk Kempthorne, the secretary of the interior, presented John S. Zogorski, Ph.D., M.ASCE, with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his scientific contributions, in particular, his research on water quality. Zogorski has made important contributions to hydrology through his research on urban storm-water runoff, coal hydrology, the effects of surface water and groundwater interactions on drinking water supplies, and the use of granular activated carbon to remove phenols from drinking water. He has also conducted assessments of volatile organic compounds (VOCS) in the nation’s aquifers and streams. VOCS are common components or additives in many commercial and household products, including gasoline, diesel fuel, paints, varnishes, glues, and cleaners. Zogorski participated in the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment Program, leading an interdisciplinary team that completed an assessment of vocs in groundwater. The reports generated from that assessment have been a valuable resource for federal, state, and local agencies working to protect drinking water supplies.

Castle Celebrated As Outstanding Professional Engineer
The New Jersey Society of Professional Engineers has named William J. Castle, P.E., F.ASCE, the recipient of its 2007 Outstanding Professional Engineer Award. Over the past three decades Castle has earned a reputation as an exceptional professional engineer and diver, carrying out more than 1,100 underwater inspections of bridges, piers, docks, and outfall structures. His three companies, all in Hainesport, New Jersey, are W.J. Castle, P.E. & Associates, P.C., a consulting engineering firm; Hydro-Marine Construction Company, Inc., a marine construction firm; and Simplified Bridge Systems, Inc., a firm specializing in the design and construction of prefabricated bridges. Castle, who has helped to develop national standards for underwater inspectors and inspections, was named civil engineer of the year in 2005 by asce’s New Jersey Section, and in 2004 he was honored with Pennsylvania State University’s Alumni Fellow Award.

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.

Md Didarul Alam, F.ASCE, is recognized not only for his professional accomplishments but also for his steady participation in ASCE’s initiatives and his efforts to further the Society’s goals. He obtained a degree in civil engineering in 1970 from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and is now a registered engineer in Bangladesh specializing in groundwater and surface water development using tube well management and irrigation systems based on low-lift pumps. He received the President’s Gold Medal Award in Bangladesh for work on tube well irrigation that was seen as conferring significant agricultural benefits. Currently its secretary, Alam has been indefatigable in expanding ASCE’s Bangladesh Section. He received an award for his recruiting accomplishments in 2004, and in 2003 the section was designated the top international section with respect to membership growth.

Roger A. Failmezger, P.E., F.ASCE, earned an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from Lehigh University and a graduate degree from the University of Florida. A licensed professional engineer in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, Failmezger has supervised and planned geotechnical programs and produced geotechnical designs for infrastructure projects dealing with large-diameter water and sewer mains, roadways, airport pavements, bridges, subway stations, office buildings, retaining walls, and earth dams. He has also planned and supervised the geotechnical investigation and performed foundation design for many bridge projects, including the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, near Washington, D.C. For that undertaking he performed the in situ testing, which drew on measurements of borehole shear and on dilatometer, piezocone, and pressure meter data. Failmezger has been invited to speak at gatherings organized by ASCE and by the Virginia Department of Transportation, and he has also addressed groups on the topic of soil nailing. He has more than 10 technical papers on in situ testing and probability to his credit, and he was one of the editors of the proceedings volume for the Second International Flat Blade Dilatometer Conference, which was held in 2006. Within asce’s Virginia Section he organizes meetings dealing with geotechnical affairs.

J. Ludwig Figueroa, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor in the civil engineering department at Ohio University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses. Born in Colombia, Figueroa holds a doctorate in transportation materials and geotechnical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also an emeritus professor at Case Western Reserve University, where he taught and conducted research until 1994. Figueroa has directed research on nearly 30 projects funded by such bodies as the Federal Highway Administration, the Ohio Department of Transportation, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Air Force, and the Army Corps of Engineers. He has also been an adviser to master’s and doctoral students at Ohio University. Figueroa pioneered what is called the energy method for predicting liquefaction, a technique that did much to stimulate research in that area. Internationally renowned for his work in pavement performance and soil liquefaction, he developed a piezoelectric device (patent pending) for measuring dynamic soil properties. He also devised algorithms for locating pavement deficiencies by analyzing video images and contributed computer code to illipave, a program developed at the University of California at Berkeley that has been widely used by researchers for analyzing flexible pavements since the 1980s.

Martha L. Frech, P.E., F.ASCE, has practiced as a civil engineering consultant for 22 years. A specialist in water resources, flood control and protection, site development, disposal sites, and environmental engineering as applied to hydraulic structures, she has participated on and led design teams of award-winning projects, among them the Chisman Creek Superfund site, in York County, Virginia, which garnered the Grand Conceptor Award, and the development of the Fort Henry Business & Industrial Centre, in West Virginia, which won that state’s Conservation Contractor and Developer Award in 2004. Frech has been active in asce throughout her career. She won a Society award designating her young engineer of the year when she was just 25 and since then she has been active in the affairs of the Pittsburgh Section, serving as president and newsletter editor and currently as a member of the board of trustees of the section’s Student Award Foundation. Frech has testified as an expert witness in cases involving hydrologic, hydraulic, and environmental issues. In 2004 she founded Streamline Engineering, Inc., and she is currently a self-employed practicing civil engineer.

Albert I. Jablowsky, P.E., F.ASCE, holds a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Cornell University and a master of science in civil engineering from Polytechnic University. A registered professional engineer in New York, he served for 35 years with the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), starting in 1967 as a junior engineer and retiring in 2002 as director of design for the region of the department that serves the five boroughs of New York City. He has designed, supervised, and managed many large, complex projects on the interstate system throughout the New York metropolitan area, including the East River bridges. His honors include the nysdot Excellence in Engineering Award, which he received in 1996. Jablowsky is now the chief engineer of Baker Engineering ny, Inc., a subsidiary of the Michael Baker Corporation. A longtime ASCE member, he was instrumental in establishing the Metropolitan Section’s Lower Hudson Valley Branch.

Mark R. Norton, P.E., F.ASCE, serves as the water resources department head at the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA), in Riverside, California. In this capacity, he was responsible for developing the first integrated watershed plan in California, a plan that the California Department of Water Resources uses as a model in awarding grants. As a result of that plan, SAWPA was successful in securing $235 million for projects that bid fair to help the region support sustainable growth over the next 20 years. In addition to serving as the administrator of a new joint power authority that oversaw the implementation of projects valued at more than $15 million designed to benefit Lake Elsinore and Canyon Lake, Norton led a multiagency task force that developed an implementation plan now regarded as a template for successful partnerships between watershed stakeholders and regulators. Within asce Norton has been active in the Los Angeles Section and in that section’s San Bernardino–Riverside Branch since 1995, serving as secretary of the section and as newsletter editor, secretary, treasurer, vice president, and president of the branch. He also chaired the group that prepared a report on the condition of infrastructure in the region of Southern California known as the Inland Empire. That “report card” was released in January 2005. Norton’s accolades include the Los Angeles Section’s Government Engineer of the Year Award in 2005, the San Bernardino–Riverside Branch’s Engineer of the Year Award in 2005, and an award from the Association of Environmental Professionals in 2003.

Ranga Palaniswamy, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a native of India, has 34 years of professional experience since receiving a doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1973. He has spent 33 of those years with the Bechtel Corporation, where he has risen through the ranks to become a principal project engineering manager. Palaniswamy is a registered engineer in California and has made significant contributions to the structural design and analysis of nuclear facilities. During his extensive career, he has been responsible for designing power plants and nuclear power facilities, as well as for scheduling the construction of those projects and determining their cost. In that work he has led teams, some with as many as 250 members, made up of engineers from a variety of disciplines, along with architects and piping designers. He has also managed the design of a variety of nuclear waste and nonproliferation projects at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, in South Carolina, the budget for his most recent design project there exceeding $200 million. During his tenure at the Savannah River Site he has managed the design and maintenance of infrastructure and process facilities of a 300 sq mi (777 km²) complex and has overseen the designs for nuclear facilities that store highly radioactive materials and safely dispose of by-products and mixed wastes. Palaniswamy was instrumental in revitalizing the Central Savannah River Valley Branch of asce’s South Carolina Section, and for three years he chaired an American Concrete Institute subcommittee dealing with waste repositories.

Jack E. Rinker, P.E., F.ASCE, has been a practicing engineer for more than 40 years. His areas of expertise include site development evaluation; hydraulics and storm-water control; wetlands delineation and assessment; permitting and processing; forensic services; and highway siting and design. Rinker is a founding member of the Engineers and Surveyors Institute, which by training engineers in the complex building regulations of northern Virginia has done much to improve the overall quality of engineering plans throughout the area. His consulting work with planning commissions, town councils, and boards of zoning appeals and his assistance in formulating zoning amendments have greatly facilitated the development of northern Virginia in recent decades. Rinker founded J.E. Rinker & Associates, which led to Rinker-Detwiler & Associates, a firm that now has 175 employees. An active alumnus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he has mentored engineering students, he is also on the board of directors of George Mason University’s Urban Systems Engineering Institute.
 
Carl Schoedel, P.E., F.ASCE, has 20 years of civil engineering experience and is a licensed professional engineer in Illinois and Missouri. His academic research on infrastructure, environmental issues, and public policy led to a number of published papers. As a practitioner, Schoedel has been instrumental in developing policies and local legislation designed to provide safe drinking water and adequate transportation facilities. As director of transportation for Kane County, Illinois, he leads a staff of 60 design, planning, permitting, and maintenance professionals and oversees a significant capital improvement program, including implementation of the $150-million Stearns Road Bridge Corridor, designated a high-priority project in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEAU-LE). He has supported student engineers by developing a college internship program within Kane County’s Division of Transportation. Active in ASCE’s Illinois Section, he also represents Chicago area counties on the board of directors of the Illinois Association of County Engineers.

Parviz Soroushian, Ph.D, P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan State University, where he has been active in teaching, research, and technology transfer for more than two decades. He has pioneered developments in the field of civil engineering materials, particularly cement-based materials and composites. Soroushian has also been actively involved in industrial research and technology transfer programs. The 13 patents that have resulted from his research are widely used in industrial products, and the 77 papers he has published reflect significant advances in the area of concrete materials. Of the more than 20 doctoral students he has advised, 11 now hold academic positions and the others are active practitioners. Soroushian also lends his expertise to various professional organizations. In addition to being a charter member of asce’s Structural Engineering Institute, he chairs a committee on thin-sheet fiber cement products for the American Concrete Institute.

Ralph A. Wagner, D.Eng., P.E., F.ASCE, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and a doctorate in civil engineering at Texas a&m University. Wagner has been the principal author for two-thirds of the 70 technical publications he has helped to prepare. His multifaceted doctoral program enabled him to manage or play important roles in complex technical projects that also had social and political aspects. In addition to the endeavor by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to establish a repository for nuclear waste in Nevada at Yucca Mountain, these projects included assessing the technical, economic, and political feasibility of siting a DOE monitored retrievable storage facility; evaluating the suitability of a site in the Great Plains for the Superconducting Super Collider; and preparing a comprehensive report on innovative waste treatment technologies funded by the DOE, the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In 1999 Wagner and five of his colleagues were honored with technical excellence awards by the urs Corporation.

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.

• During a meeting in Reston, Virginia, April 24–25, asce’s Board of Direction voted against an amendment to the Society’s bylaws that would have created a 501(c)(6) nonprofit corporation for the purpose of expanding the Society’s public policy activities. The complete text of the proposed amendment may be found at www.asce.org/inside/bylaws. For additional information, e-mail board@asce.org or call asce customer service at (800) 548-2723 or (703) 295-6300. 
• The Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute’s Diving Qualifications Standard for Underwater Engineering Investigations Committee will be meeting on June 28 in Lexington, Kentucky, at the offices of Fuller, Mossbarger, Scott and May Engineers, Inc., (1409 North Forbes Road) from noon to 5 pm. The purpose of the meeting is to continue revising the standard and to discuss comments received in the last committee ballot from the Association of Diving Contractors International. For additional information, contact Brian Jones, P.E., the committee chair, at bjones@ocean-coastal.com or (508) 830-1110. 
• The Structural Engineering Institute’s Structural Application of Steel Cables for Buildings Standards Committee (asce 19) will be meeting August 29–30 in New York City at the offices of Hardesty and Hanover, llp (1501 Broadway).
  

On behalf of ASCE, Maria C. Lehman, P.E., F.ASCE, testified before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit regarding the use of innovative contracting methods in transportation construction. Lehman—the chief operating officer of the Chazen Companies, an engineering firm headquartered in Poughkeepsie, New York—emphasized the importance of qualifications-based selection (QBS) in procuring engineering and architectural services for publicly funded projects.

QBS is based on the principle that the cost of engineering services should be secondary to professional qualifications. In 2004 ASCE officially supported QBS when its Board of Direction adopted Policy 304. Under that policy, the Society “believes that the selection of professional engineers as prime consultants and subconsultants should be based on the qualifications of the engineering firm. Qualifications including training, experience, capabilities, personnel, and workloads should be evaluated when selecting an engineering firm. Cost of engineering services, while important and meriting careful negotiations, is related to work to be performed, which often is not clearly defined at the time the engineer is selected. Therefore, selecting consultants based on cost is not recommended.”

Formerly the commissioner of public works for Erie County, New York, Lehman has been an active member of ASCE for more than 25 years and has served as the vice president of Zone I, the president of the Buffalo Section, and the director of District 1. What follows is an excerpt from her testimony.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
I am pleased to appear before you today on behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to present our views on “Public-Private Partnerships: Innovative Contracting” as the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit examines new and existing methods to deliver transportation projects.

It is important to remember the condition of the nation’s infrastructure when discussing the best way to deliver infrastructure projects. In 2005 asce released the Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, which gave the nation’s infrastructure a grade of D based on 15 categories. Roads received a grade of D, bridges a C, and transit a D+. With so much progress to make, federal, state, and local governments need all the tools available to deliver quality infrastructure products.

Public-Private Partnerships
Public–private partnerships (PPPS) are contractual relationships between the public and private sectors in infrastructure development. They have been defined as “a cooperative venture between the public and private sectors, built on the expertise of each partner that best meets clearly defined public needs through the appropriate allocation of resources, risks, and rewards.” ppps have been practiced worldwide in both developed and developing countries with multiple objectives, including promoting infrastructure development, reducing costs, increasing construction and operation efficiencies, and improving service quality by incorporating private-sector knowledge, expertise, and capital.

These PPPS span a spectrum of contractual models, from straight contracting out to outright privatization, with increasing responsibilities and risks allocated to the private sector. However, no matter which ppp model is used, the regulatory control remains the responsibility of the public sector, which (1) determines the kind of public works and services to be acquired and the quality and cost requirements on the delivery of such works and services and (2) takes necessary remedial actions for substandard performance.

Innovation in public works contracting abounds. We see this across the continuum—from the traditional design/bid/build contract, where the client contracts sequentially with the designer and then with the contractor; to the design/build contract, where the client contracts with a single source to design and build a project; to the build/operate/transfer (bot) contract in ppps, where the client contracts with the private-sector partner, which is responsible for financing, designing, constructing, and operating during a concession period and then transferring the built facilities to the client when the contract ends. No matter which contract type is chosen, the selection of the right source—designer, contractor, design/builder, or concessionaire—is critical to the success of the acquisition. “Lowest price” based source selection is common in public and private contracts. But this approach may not necessarily provide the most economical end results or the desired best value.

Nevertheless, our research has discovered a wide range of barriers to ppps in infrastructure development. These are broadly classified as (1) social, political, and legal risk; (2) unfavorable economic and commercial conditions; (3) inefficient public procurement frameworks; (4) lack of mature financial engineering techniques; (5) problems related to the public sector; and (6) problems related to the private sector.

Qualifications-Based Selection (Design/Bid/Build)
The federal government has been using innovative contracting methods for professional design services since 1972, when qualifications-based selection (QBS) became the procurement method for architectural and engineering work.

Often an owner may believe that the pivotal issue in the selection of a professional engineer is the cost of the necessary services. Also, an owner may perceive that accepting the lowest bid to perform the work produces the project with the lowest total cost. In this case the owner is of the belief that the required engineering services are completely described and the qualifications of all engineers are equal.

ASCE believes that it is impossible to describe the required scope of engineering services in this manner. When construction operations and maintenance are considered, the lowest-cost engineering services will generally not produce the lowest total project costs. Further, asce believes that the owner should have an established policy for designating individuals to serve on the selection committee. The selection committee should contain at least one professional engineer and others who are familiar with the project requirements.

ASCE believes that the selection of professional engineers as prime consultants and subcontractors should be based on the qualifications of the engineering firm. Qualifications—including training, experience, capabilities, personnel, and workloads—should be evaluated when selecting an engineering firm.

The cost of engineering services, while important and meriting careful negotiations, is related to the work to be performed, which often is not clearly defined at the time the engineer is selected. Therefore, selecting consultants based on cost is not recommended.

Accordingly, ASCE supports qualifications-based selection (qbs) procedures such as those specified by the Brooks Architect-Engineers Act of 1972 (40 U.S.C., §§ 1101–1104) and the American Bar Association’s Model Procurement Code for State and Local Governments for the engagement of engineering services. asce recommends that the application of these procedures to the development of a scope of work and the selection, procurement, and administration of contracts for engineering services be the responsibility of technically qualified staff of the project owner. This would include people with engineering or construction backgrounds.
Congress subsequently has clarified and extended the application of the qbs process to the awarding of architectural and engineering services contracts for:

• Aviation programs’ project grant applications;
• Mass transportation contract requirements, management, and architectural engineering;
• Military construction projects;
• Engineering services as competitive procedures for procurement purposes;
• River and harbor improvements;
• Surveying, mapping, charting, and geodesy contracts of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.

The QBS procedure is characterized by three basic steps: (1) the owner selects the professional engineer seen as best qualified to perform the required work without considering fee; (2) the owner and the selected professional engineer confer to determine and/or review the scope of work; and (3) a fee for engineering services is negotiated based upon the mutually developed scope of work.

Thus, cost is addressed at the appropriate time after the scope of services has been fully defined. Precontract communication between the owner and the engineer to jointly develop a scope of work, as called for in step 2, is critical to the success of the project and ensures a mutual understanding of the owner’s expectations for the work and the specific services the engineer will provide.

A poorly defined scope of required services can result in numerous change orders. Lacking specifics, each firm will, in order to be competitive, submit a price for the least amount of work reasonably envisioned. Detailed analysis of the problem and the search for innovative and lasting solutions—even a comparison of the obvious alternatives—are precluded. This approach is likely to result in minimal engineering work that will not properly reflect the overall cost of construction, operation, and maintenance of the project.

QBS procedures are most effective when administered by those who best understand the unique nature of the service being sought. The procurer’s experience with engineering organizations and proposed services, coupled with appropriate training in procurement matters, provides the required knowledge, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the civil works process.

The QBS process has been so successful at the federal level that it is recommended by the American Bar Association in its Model Procurement Code for State and Local Governments. More than 40 states have enacted their own qualifications-based selection laws for architecture, engineering, surveying, and mapping services. Others use it as a standard procedure. Today, no state has a specific law requiring bidding in obtaining architectural or engineering design services.

Design/Build Project Delivery
The design/build project delivery system is one of several innovative project delivery systems available to government agencies and private businesses. Its implementation by the Federal Highway Administration has been mismanaged, however.

Design/build project delivery—a client-driven innovation—initially was seen principally as a “fast track” solution to traditional delays in the construction of major public works projects. The methodology was thought initially to give less weight to cost and potentially allow many more contracts to be awarded outside the customary low-bid approach.

Design/build is a method whereby an owner can focus design and construction responsibility through a single contract. However, this contracting method presents certain challenges that must be addressed if quality is to be maintained. These issues are (1) procuring a highly qualified design/build team; (2) providing the contractual mechanism enabling the designer to fulfill its professional and ethical obligations to the owner as well as to the public; and (3) providing the contractual mechanism that expresses the owner’s requirements in the proposal and their fulfillment in the delivered project.

ASCE strongly supports the use of the two-phase competitive source selection process required by the Federal Acquisition Reform Act of 1996 (41 U.S.C., § 253m) for design/build contracts awarded by government agencies. The design/build team must be selected using the modified qbs criteria specified by the act. The owner must provide sufficient architectural and engineering services to prepare the design/build request for proposal (RFP) to identify the disciplines needed in the design/build team and to evaluate, manage, and assess the owner’s requirements throughout the project.

The contract between the design/build team and the owner must establish the means for direct communication between the owner and the designer as well as other team members. On complex projects, the owner must provide predetermined reimbursement for the firms selected to make complete design/build proposals.
The qualifications of the design/build team must be the primary consideration of selection. Team selection should be accomplished through a qualifications-based process that precedes evaluation of all other considerations. In order for the delivered project to meet owner requirements, the team’s designer, as designer of record, must be allowed to fulfill its professional and ethical obligations to the owner as well as to the public. The communication link between the designer and the owner must be firmly established at project inception.

Because of the high cost of preparing design/build proposals for complex projects, the owner must provide reasonable reimbursement to the firms selected to submit proposals.

Contracting Out
Government agencies should maintain staffs of experienced and highly qualified engineers to properly plan, develop, and maintain public works and environmental programs; to perform in-house engineering functions, tasks, and projects; to manage and oversee work contracted out to private engineering firms; and to maintain the mission and services legislatively mandated for the government agency. Long-range programs are unique to each agency and require continuity of agency engineers. This staff must develop and maintain technical expertise in order to obtain and maintain professional registration.

Consideration of the public interest, cost-efficiency, and effectiveness is of foremost importance in decisions regarding the use of in-house government or private engineering firms. The history of the civil engineering profession has clearly shown that the public is best served, the public trust maintained, and the mission of the government agency achieved by an effective blending of engineering services performed by in-house government engineers and private engineering firms.
During the process of authorizing, funding, and administering government engineering tasks and projects, concerns often arise regarding:

• The appropriate levels of in-house engineering staffs for the government agencies;
• The need for government engineers to develop and maintain technical engineering skills;
• The need of the profession for government engineers to be registered professional engineers;
• The optimum level of involvement by private engineering firms in government engineering projects; 
• Whether executive, administrative, or legislative controls or guidelines should be established setting a fixed percentage of an agency’s work to be contracted out to private engineering firms.

ASCE believes it is proper and desirable that civil engineers employed both in the public and in the private sector be allowed to perform engineering functions and tasks for government agencies.

It is in the best public interest for federal, state, and local government agencies performing engineering to maintain expertise within their organizations by employing civil engineers and providing for their professional development.

It is also in the best public interest for publicly supported institutions and agencies not to compete with engineers in private practice. Public-sector engineering projects that can be accomplished more efficiently by private engineering firms should be contracted out with proper oversight by the public agency. The resulting ratio of in-house to contracted engineering services should be based upon the agency’s ongoing project and policy requirements rather than on rigid rules or percentages fixed by legislation or regulation.

Conclusion
The lack of adequate investment in America’s infrastructure has left us with a vast backlog of deteriorated facilities that no longer meet our nation’s increasing demands. To remedy America’s current and looming problem, asce estimated in 2005 a $1.6 trillion investment in all categories of infrastructure over the next five years and called for a renewed partnership among citizens; local, state, and federal governments; and the private sector.

To accomplish the goal of rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, engineers, architects, contractors, and governmental agencies need to expand the tools available to them to deliver quality infrastructure projects. asce appreciates the committee’s willingness to address this important issue.

West Point Chapter Takes Ridgway Award

ASCE’s student chapter at the United States Military Academy (USMA) has been named the winner of the 2007 Robert Ridgway Student Chapter Award, making it the chapter seen as best exemplifying asce’s mission and ideals. Intended to promote excellence among the Society’s student chapters, the award was established in 1965 in honor of this former ASCE president. The winner is determined by the Committee on Student Activities on the basis of the annual reports submitted by the chapters, which describe their activities and projects during the past year.

The chapter was recognized largely for its service activities and outreach efforts both in the community and at the USMA. These activities included a visit to a local middle school, rebuilding a wall on campus, and cleaning up a major highway. “We picked up trash and debris from the past winter spread throughout the grass and woods along Route 9W,” David M. Flaherty, S.M.ASCE, the president of the chapter, noted in the annual report. “Overall, this event was a great success despite the cold, rainy weather. The semiannual highway cleanup is a great opportunity that our club takes to reach out into the community and do something good for everyone. Route 9W is a heavily traveled road and the people who travel it and live near it appreciate our effort to keep it looking nice.”

The chapter, which had 151 active members in 2006, held 20 professional meetings, delivered 12 presentations, and was well represented at all major events, including a workshop for student chapter leaders, a student regional conference, and ASCE’s annual conference. One of the group’s most challenging endeavors came during a Habitat for Humanity project that involved the demolition of an old house. “Due to constraints, the demolition had to be done by hand,” reported Flaherty. “We spread out throughout the house and worked utilizing a variety of simple tools. The work was hard but very rewarding as the group made a lot of progress over the course of the day. The supervisors Habitat for Humanity provided were very pleased with the amount of work that the group completed. In fact, our group filled the space allotted for waste from the demolition before our departure time, so we designated other locations in the house for waste and continued to put the group’s manpower to use.”

Colorado Section Renovates Children’s Center

Last month members of ASCE's Colorado Section participated in an all-day community service project that involved renovating a children’s day care and educational center in Denver. More than 70 volunteers joined forces on April 28 to improve the safety and functionality of the center, which offers developmentally delayed children a nurturing and therapeutic environment in which to enhance their cognitive abilities, academic readiness, social skills, and self-help knowledge.
“This is a great example of what engineers can do at the human level,” says Gary Brierley, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, who helped organize the project. “This effort demonstrates very directly the impact that engineers can have on people and how engineers go about improving lives.” Those participating addressed themselves to a variety of tasks, among them upgrading lighting and electrical systems, cleaning and painting a dome ceiling, and placing concrete for foundations for an outdoor shade structure.

Rebuilding Together, an organization devoted to revitalizing houses for low-income homeowners, also helped to organize and manage the event, and it worked closely with the Colorado Section in coordinating the logistics. “One of the joys of working with Rebuilding Together is showing the direct effect that civil engineers have on the lives of people,” says Christoph Goss, P.E., M.ASCE. “Rebuilding Day,” he says, “lets you see the impact of improving the infrastructure of a single house and how much better it makes the life of a single fellow human being. That is what I call job satisfaction.”

The section, which raised more than $10,000 for the project, recently received an award from Rebuilding Together recognizing its accomplishments and commitment. “The Colorado Section is a model for how to successfully do a Rebuilding Together project,” noted ASCE’s president-elect, David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE, in a recent e-mail. “Rebuilding Together is using this year’s project as an example that they will cite all over the country. ASCE needs to publicize this activity to the greatest extent possible. This is an excellent example of how a section can come together and make a significant difference.”

Last year the Colorado Section worked with Rebuilding Together in revamping a home for disadvantaged youths, an undertaking that involved restoring a retaining wall, replacing steps and doors, and renovating a kitchen. The section intends to continue working with Rebuilding Together on projects in the Denver region. On November 4, at the conclusion of this year’s annual conference, which will be held in Orlando, Florida, asce will participate in an all-day community service endeavor with Rebuilding Together, the fifth consecutive year that such an event will complement the annual conference. To volunteer for this year’s event or to obtain more information, contact Melissa Prelewicz, P.E., at mprelewicz@asce.org.

Judges Chosen for Concrete Canoe Competition

Together with basf Admixtures, Inc. (formerly Master Builders, Inc.), ASCE last month announced the names of the judges in this year’s National Concrete Canoe Competition. They are Kenneth L. Caubble, P.E., the president and executive director of the Ohio Ready Mixed Concrete Association; J. Mark D’Amato, P.E., M.ASCE, a principal of DCI Engineers, of Bellevue, Washington; Cary Kopczynski, P.E., M.ASCE, the president of Cary Kopczynski & Company, Inc., P.S., also of Bellevue; Kelly Patterson, P.E., M.ASCE, the director of engineering for the Oldcastle Precast Group, of Atlanta; and Rick Yelton, the editor in chief of the publications Concrete Producer, Masonry Construction, and Concrete Surfaces.

“Without the remarkable commitment of knowledge, time, energy, and enthusiasm on the part of the National Concrete Canoe Competition judges, this extraordinary learning experience would not be possible,” said asce’s president, W.F. Marcuson III, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE. “The students who participate in Concrete Canoe are the best and brightest of tomorrow’s civil engineers, and we must sincerely thank the competition’s judges for their commitment to the advancement of the profession.”

The national competition—a demanding three-day event that features a variety of races in canoes made of concrete—will be held in Seattle June 14–16 and be hosted by the University of Washington. Teams qualify for the event by placing first in one of the 18 regional competitions held throughout the country during the spring. Teams placing second in a regional competition behind a university that finished in the top five in the previous year’s national competition also are invited. To be eligible to compete, a team must be from an ASCE student chapter, club, or international student group.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the competition, and teams of student engineers from more than 20 colleges and universities around the country
will be doing their best to show how seaworthy concrete can be. The annual event is organized by asce and made possible by the generous financial
support of basf, the founding sponsor, and the American Concrete Institute; Baker Construction, Inc., of Spokane, Washington; Bentley Systems, Inc., of Exton, Pennsylvania; Holcim, Inc., of Dundee, Michigan; Norchem, of Hauppauge, New York; ICS Penetron, of Pittsburgh; Pennoni Associates, Inc., of Philadelphia; Propex Concrete Systems, of Chattanooga, Tennessee; and the U.S. Silica Company, of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. For more information about the competition, visit www.asce.org/inside/nccc2007/index.cfm.

Click here to view photos

SPONSORS

Private Reception to Honor Award Recipients
AECOM Technology Corporation
Bechtel Corporation
The Louis Berger Group, Inc.

OPAL Gala
Opal Circle
AECOM Technology Corporation
Bechtel Corporation
The Louis Berger Group, Inc.
Marsh Affinity Group Services, a service of Seabury & Smith, Inc.

Diamond Circle
FIGG

Emerald Circle
Parsons

Ruby Circle
ACEC
CDM
CH2M HILL
Charles Pankow Foundation
Clark Construction Group, LLC, and Atkinson Construction
Degenkolb Engineers
HNTB
Kiewit Federal Group, Inc.
McGraw-Hill Construction/ENR
Michael Baker Corporation
Turner Construction

Sapphire Circle
Aon Construction Services Group
GEICO
The Lane Construction Corporation
Moretrench
Pankow

Pearl Circle
Bank of America
CIANBRO CORPORATION
CSA Group
Gannett Fleming, Inc.
GeoServices Corporation
HDR, Inc.
JAM Communications, Inc.
Lehigh University: P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science
    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
ATLSS Engineering Research Center
Pennoni Associates, Inc.
RBF Consulting
Reed & Reed, Inc.
The Reinforced Earth Company
Topaz Circle
Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon, Inc.
Haley & Aldrich, Inc.
Hardesty & Hanover, LLP
Hazen and Sawyer, PC
In-Situ Soil Testing, LC
Paul C. Rizzo Associates, Inc.
Peckar, Abramson, Bastianelli & Kelley, LLP
Tetra Tech Rizzo
Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc.
Weston & Sampson, Inc.
Whitney, Bailey, Cox & Magnani
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.

Turquoise Circle
Akridge
D.W. Kozera, Inc.
Fay, Spoford & Thorndike
Manhattan College
Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers
PEER Consultants, PC
Portland Cement Association
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Survey & Ballot Systems
Transwestern
Tufts University School of Engineering

Roberts-Gerwick California Bridge Conference
September 17–21, 2007, Sacramento, California

Sponsor: ASCE Sacramento Section.

Paper Topics: The following list of suggestions is not to be construed as exhaustive: seismic design; bridges of lightweight concrete and concrete of normal weight; segmental concrete bridges; steel bridges; foundation aspects; movable bridges; and historically significant bridge projects in California. Papers are also sought on various other facets of California bridges.

Deadline: June 6, 2007, for abstracts, which are to be e-mailed to Alfred Mangus at mangusalf@aol.com.

Contact: Alfred Mangus at mangusalf@aol.com or telephone (916) 205-1962. Inquiries may also be directed to the asce Sacramento Section at asce@asce-sacto.org or telephone (916) 961-2723.

Technical Session on Foundations for Equipment and Machinery and Baseplate Grouting, American Concrete Institute 2008 Convention
March 30–April 3, 2008, Los Angeles

Sponsor: Committee 351 (Foundations for Equipment and Machinery) of the American Concrete Institute.

Paper Topics: Topics will include the design, analysis, and construction of static equipment foundations, dynamic machinery foundations, equipment and machinery anchorages, and grouting applications for static equipment and dynamic machinery.

Deadline: August 30, 2007, for abstracts, which are to be e-mailed to Patricia Warren at pbwarren@southernco.com.

Contact: Patricia Warren, Southern Company Generation, 42 Inverness Center Parkway, Bin B253, Birmingham, AL 35242; telephone (205) 992-6347; fax (205) 992-6411; e-mail pbwarren@southernco.com.

At ASCE’s annual leadership conferences, which were held earlier this year, national, regional, section, and branch leaders, along with younger member and student leaders, came together to exchange ideas, network, gain a better understanding of Society activities, and consider ways of leading their groups more effectively. As was the case last year, the 2007 conferences included sessions on engineering ethics that drew on material provided by the National Institute of Engineering Ethics. This month’s column discusses the second of two case studies presented at the ethics sessions. The case studies were prepared by William D. Lawson, Ph.D., P.E., and Brian Brenner, Ph.D., P.E., and are based on opinions issued by the National Society of Professional Engineers’ Board of Ethical Review.

SITUATION: Ethan Roberts, P.E., is a principal in charge of design for Tecxtrans Engineers (TE), a firm that has traditionally offered services on state highway projects carried out using the design/bid/build project delivery method. TE has worked on several large design contracts for the state of Euphoria’s Department of Transportation (EDOT) and enjoys a good relationship with the department. In its newest highway project, however, edot has decided to let the contract using the design/build approach.

Although TE has no design/build experience and is not accustomed to working as a partner with a contractor, Roberts feels that it is important to bid on the project to keep edot happy. Despite his personal belief that te is taking on undesirable risk, he negotiates an agreement with Specialty Transit, Inc. (STI), an out-of-state construction contractor. The two firms settle on a 50-50 partnership, te being responsible for design and STI handling construction. The contract does not address what to do in the event of a design conflict. The new partnership submits its bid for the project, and edot awards it the contract.

As the project is approaching 85 percent completion, Roberts encounters a serious problem. In reviewing subcontractor submittals, he notices that Marc Stanton, sti’s project manager, has authorized several field changes that he would have opposed. In an apparent attempt to keep costs under the guaranteed maximum, Stanton has substituted electronics hardware that Roberts considers inferior.

Roberts knows that in a design/build contract the engineer has no incentive to report such concerns to the owner because the engineer is employed by the contractor. Roberts also understands that he needs to learn how to operate within a different context, one in which he is not an impartial adviser to the owner. At the same time, Roberts is concerned about te’s reputation and its future dealings with edot. His misgivings arise from his professional obligation to serve edot, his own financial interests, and his legal obligations as a partner in a joint venture.

QUESTION: How can Roberts best address his concerns from an ethical point of view?

DECISION: Session participants were asked to consider the following options:

1. Roberts should discuss the matter with Stanton and explain his concerns about the design change. He should then trust Stanton to do the right thing in light of the available data.
2. Roberts needs to “push back” and remind Stanton that “design” comes before “build” in the design/build process. As Roberts is responsible for the design aspect, he alone must approve changes to system components.
3. Roberts and Stanton should retain an outside engineering firm to perform a peer review of the systems in question and offer recommendations on what should be done contractually with respect to EDOT.
4. Roberts must convince Stanton to bring the quality issue to edot’s attention. Together, they may be able to convince edot to pay for electronics of higher quality. The risks presented by equipment of poor quality are more important than the possibility that edot may feel the two are conspiring to submit an unauthorized change order. 
5. This situation is best considered “everyone’s problem.” Bring all the involved parties together and attempt to work out a cost-sharing agreement. Everyone will have to pay, but everyone will also get something in return.
6. When the project is over, Roberts and edot will still be in town, but Stanton will be gone. Roberts’s ultimate responsibility is to the public, so he must go to edot to apprise it of the situation. edot can determine a solution that protects its own interests and rewards Roberts for his loyalty.

Here we have a situation where the engineer’s obligation to “act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees” (canon 4 of asce’s Code of Ethics) seems to run counter to the engineer’s principal obligation to “hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public” (canon 1). Session participants saw the importance of communication and the need to weigh long-term interests against short-term gain. While votes were split among the various options, many participants believed that Roberts’s best course of action was to pursue a combination of options.

Participants suggested that Roberts might first discuss his concerns with Stanton and then attempt to arrange a compromise or seek third-party recommendations as needed. If all attempts to negotiate or push back are unsuccessful, Roberts must decide whether the design change is an issue affecting public health, safety, or welfare or is merely something that detracts from the project’s economic value. If the former, Roberts may have an ethical obligation under canon 1 to report his concerns to edot. If the latter, canon 4 may weigh against notifying edot. If canon 4 is the operative one, Roberts might consider protecting te’s long-term interests by having it bear the cost of the better electronics.

One further point of discussion in this session was the importance of anticipating potential issues during contract negotiations. If the contract language had defined a process for resolving design conflicts, Roberts would have had a ready course of action for addressing his concerns.

Members who have an ethics question or would like to file a complaint with the Committee on Professional Conduct 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.

President-Elect:

 D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., F.ASCE

Region Directors:
 
Region 2:
 Reza Darvishian, P.E., F.ASCE

Region 6:
 David M. Schnurbusch, P.E., M.ASCE

Region 7:
 Robert W. Stokes, M.ASCE

Region 10:
 Potenciano Leoncio, Jr., P.E., M.ASCE

At-Large Director:

 Henry J. Hatch, P.E., Hon.M.ASCE

Region Governors:
 
Region 1:
 Leonard Cilli, A.M.ASCE
 Anthony M. Puntin, P.E., M.ASCE

Region 2:
 Kim Parker Brown, P.E., M.ASCE
 Christopher J. Menna, P.E., M.ASCE

Region 3:
 David F. Pritchard, P.E., M.ASCE
 Donald G. Wittmer, P.E., M.ASCE

Region 4:
 Charles W. Black, Jr., M.ASCE
 David D. Dee, Jr., P.E., M.ASCE
 Theresa E. Harrison, P.E., M.ASCE

Region 5:
 E. Bruce Lawson, P.E., M.ASCE
 Norma Jean Mattei, P.E., M.ASCE
 Lisa S. Woods, P.E., M.ASCE

Region 7:
 Thomas A. Chapel, P.E., M.ASCE
 Michael A. Vander Wert, P.E., M.ASCE

Region 8:
 Dale A. Nelson, P.E., F.ASCE
 Dennis L. Richards, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE

Region 9:
 Anthony A. Akel, M.ASCE
 Joan Al-Kazily, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE

Constitutional Amendments:

1. Revise the title “honorary member” to “distinguished member” and add the membership grade “president emeritus.”
2. Eliminate the procedural requirement that a board-approved constitutional amendment be considered at the annual business meeting prior to being placed on the membership election ballot.
3. Replace the word “national” with “Society-level.”

A ballot for the election of ASCE's national officers will be included in the June issue of ASCE News. Voting members this year will choose a president-elect, region directors, region governors, and an at-large director.

In addition to paper balloting, the Society will again offer online voting in an effort to increase participation, provide added convenience to members, make biographical information about the candidates readily available, and obtain feedback from members about the voting process. The June issue will include additional information about electronic voting.

Although the laws of New York‹the state in which the Society is incorporated‹do not expressly permit electronic voting, they do permit nonprofit organizations to implement electronic proxy voting in which members may submit electronic proxy ballots that ultimately are cast by a designated proxy holder. In this case that proxy holder is the secretary of ASCE.

Members eligible to vote are those whose membership grade is at the associate member level or higher and whose dues for this year have been processed by May 15. Affiliate members and student members are not eligible to vote in the national election; the same is true for those who belong to an institute but not to asce. The voting will remain open from June 15 until 5 pm eastern time on August 14, and the results will be published in the September issue.

The June issue of asce News will be mailed only to the address of record shown in member profiles. Those wishing to check or change their address of record, upgrade their membership status, or pay their dues must contact member services at (800) 548-asce (2723) before May 15 or visit www.asce.org and click on ³Members Only.²

ASCE’s Board of Direction will be meeting in Detroit July 13–15. Among the items to be considered are amendments to the Society’s bylaws. Pursuant to subsection 11.1.2 of the constitution, Society members must be notified at least 60 days before board action on proposed amendments. The amendments to be considered at the July meeting are as follows:

1. Increase annual dues in all grades of membership except those of student member and honorary member by $10. Note: This bylaw amendment is presented pursuant to the provisions of subsection 11.1.3 of the constitution. A final proposed bylaw amendment to increase dues, if any, may include amounts less than, but not more than, the amount presented for first reading. Moreover, at the meeting it held November 11–12, 2003, the board approved an amendment to the Society’s rules of policy and procedure requiring that if the recommended annual operating budget calls for a dues increase, the Finance Committee shall also present an annual operating budget that does not call for a dues increase.
2. Eliminate the category “foundations” and move the Civil Engineering Forum for Innovation to the category “affiliated entity.”
3. Correctly reflect that the Building Security Council is a 501(c)(6) corporation.
4. Eliminate the category “student clubs” and convert current asce student clubs to student chapters.

The complete text of the proposed amendments may be found at www.asce.org/inside/bylaws. For more information, e-mail board@asce.org or call asce customer service at (800) 548-2723 or (703) 295-6300.