October 2007
Volume 32, Number 10

As part of the heightened concern over the condition of the nation’s infrastructure caused by the collapse this summer of the Minneapolis bridge, two prominent members of ASCE have testified before Congress. Andrew Herrmann, P.E., F.ASCE, a managing partner and bridge engineer for Hardesty and Hanover, of New York City, and a member of ASCE’s Board of Direction, testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on September 5 and before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on September 20. On September 19, Kevin Womack, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, the chair of ASCE’s National Transportation Policy Committee, addressed the House Committee on Science and Technology.

In offering his testimony, Herrmann noted that the number of deficient bridges—those rated either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete—has steadily declined in the past 12 years, falling from 34.6 percent to 25.8 percent. Nevertheless, 31.2 percent of all bridges in urban areas have been classified as functionally obsolete. What is more, based on projections from 2006, removing or repairing all deficient bridges nationwide could take 57 years, if not longer in view of the fact that efforts to improve deficient bridges are “now slipping or leveling off,” Herrmann said.

Despite the obvious evidence that the nation’s bridges need additional resources, “deficient bridges are not the sole problem with our nation’s infrastructure,” Herrmann said. Roads, public transportation, airports, ports, and waterways also require attention. “As a nation, we must begin to address the larger issues surrounding our infrastructure so that public safety and the economy will not suffer,” he said.

Herrmann explained that the nation’s bridge inspection program—which has been in place since the early 1970s—has mandated biennial inspections of bridges longer than 20 ft (6 m) located on public roads and that certain bridges qualify for an exemption from the two-year inspection requirement. “Approximately eighty-three percent of bridges are inspected once every two years, twelve percent are inspected annually, and five percent are inspected on a four-year cycle,” he said. 

Bridge classifications and conditions are recorded in the National Bridge Inventory, which is maintained by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The criteria used to classify bridges are set forth in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Manual for Condition Evaluation of Bridges as well as in the FHWA’s Recording and Coding Guide for the Structure Inventory and Appraisal of the Nation’s Bridges. In addition to setting guidelines for determining a bridge’s overall rating, or sufficiency rating, these manuals provide criteria for ranking bridges as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. “A structurally deficient bridge may be restricted to light vehicles because of its deteriorated structural components. While not necessarily unsafe, these bridges must have limits for speed and weight and are approaching the condition [in which] replacement or rehabilitation will be necessary,” Herrmann said. “A bridge that is functionally obsolete is safe to carry traffic but has less than the desirable geometric conditions required by current standards. A bridge is functionally obsolete if the deck geometry, clearances, approach, roadway alignment, overall structural evaluation for load capacity, or waterway adequacy is rated less than or equal to three.” The structural rating scale runs from 0 to 9, he explained, and a rating of 3 therefore denotes a serious condition. 

Herrmann also pointed out that current national bridge inspection standards do not require bridge inspectors to be professional engineers. As he explained, “ASCE believes that nonlicensed bridge inspectors and technicians may be used for routine inspection procedures and records, but the preinspection evaluation, the actual inspection, ratings, and condition evaluations should be performed by licensed professional engineers experienced in bridge design and inspection.” Engineers possess the knowledge and expertise to recognize load paths, fatigue, and potential distress, he asserted. With this information, Herrmann noted, rapid, potentially lifesaving decisions can be made, for example, closing the bridge or one of its lanes or imposing load restrictions.

On August 8, shortly after the Minneapolis tragedy, Jim Oberstar, the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, announced legislation that would create a trust fund to address the repair, rehabilitation, and replacement of structurally deficient bridges. (See Policy Briefing, Civil Engineering, October 2007.) ASCE supports the rapid enactment of Oberstar’s initiative. However, Herrmann explained that while ASCE is pleased with Oberstar’s proposed legislation, “it is essential to remember that this legislation, while a good first step, is not the sole solution.” ASCE also recommends that the distribution of federal funds be based on a formula that considers public safety. “Any bridge safety program should be based on providing for public safety first,” he said. Moreover, the initiative must not detract from funding for the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). 

Herrmann then outlined ASCE’s policies regarding bridge funding and safety, warning that the Highway Trust Fund is in danger of becoming insolvent and therefore requires an increase “to provide orderly, predictable, and sufficient allocations to meet current and future demand.” By fiscal year 2009, the fund may be overdrawn by as much as $4.3 billion. What is more, insufficient funding for bridge rehabilitation projects will result in higher annual maintenance costs. “Investment to improve the condition and functionality of the nation’s bridges will reduce the required investment in the future,” he said.

ASCE advocates the establishment of bridge safety programs that incorporate the latest technology for analyzing bridges, post speed and weight limits on bridges that are deficient, institute regular maintenance schemes, and establish properly funded ways for prioritizing the replacement of functionally obsolete or structurally deficient bridges. As a national goal, the number of structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges nationwide should be less than 15 percent.

ASCE also recommends that “adequate revenues be collected and allocated to maintain and improve the nation’s transportation systems and to be consistent with the nation’s environmental and energy conservation goals,” Herr-mann said. To accomplish this, ASCE would have these funds come from such user fees as sales taxes on fuel. It also recommends that user fees be indexed to the consumer price index; that appropriations be procured from general treasury funds, revenue bonds, and tax-exempt financing; and that alternative funding sources be established at the regional, state, or local level. Furthermore, the federal budgeting process should include a capital budget mechanism that separates long-term investment decisions from daily operational costs, provides innovative financing mechanisms to properly distribute funds, and eliminates the diversion of transportation funds to unrelated purposes.

Womack incorporated much of Herrmann’s testimony into his own when he appeared before the House Committee on Science and Technology on September 19, but his primary focus was on bridge design and research and the distribution of funds to those areas. He affirmed that the Highway Trust Fund has been a crucial part of transportation research and technology funding for many years and that it has led to bridge improvements in the areas of materials and design methods and approaches, as well as in the application of intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies. Nevertheless, funding for these areas through SAFETEA-LU was “completely programmed or earmarked and overauthorized,” Womack said. Because of this, he maintained, the fhwa does not have sufficient discretionary funds for supporting such core research facilities as the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center laboratories.

Several aspects of bridge design and bridge research must be funded, Womack asserted. The research should focus on load resistance factor design, durable concrete, high-performance steel, fiber-reinforced polymers, bridge and tunnel security, and the ways in which bridges age and deteriorate and respond to such extreme weather as hurricanes. Moreover, funding is needed to properly maintain not only the deck of the bridge, often the focus of repairs, but also the structure itself. 

Womack cited the Minneapolis bridge collapse in explaining why bridge inspection procedures must be reformed. Referring to the collapse, he said, “It was inspected appropriately, issues were discovered, and then there were no strict guidelines as to what to do next.” As a result, he noted, it was decided to undertake visual inspections of the bridge, whereas it is more likely that analyzing the bridge with the aid of mechanical devices would have detected critical problems. Womack also said that research is needed to more clearly define inspection procedures that draw on the benefits of mechanical devices. “Whether or not this would have picked up the impending failure is something we cannot know, but chances would have definitely been better.”

In view of their increased cost and risk, many contractors are reluctant to use new bridge technologies, methods, or materials. Contractors also have very little financial incentive to develop and implement innovations. “The federal government should do more to [encourage] states to use new technologies without requiring the states to assume all the risk,” Womack said. Moreover, he contended that innovations should receive greater consideration during the bidding process: “Civil engineers, for example, are under increasing pressure to eschew innovation and to be conservative in their judgment because of lawsuits, rules, regulations, legislation, standards, budget expectations and restrictions, and a desire for financial predictability.”

But this approach to constructing bridges may impose a heavy price in the future, Womack warned. Bridge failures will continue or may increase, and the long-term consequences could be disastrous. Therefore, to maintain, rehabilitate, and replace deficient bridges, a risk management approach should be adopted that focuses on public safety, even though that could mean “that the bridges in the worst shape do not necessarily get the money for repairs if they have a low potential loss of life and economic impact,” Womack said.

“ASCE supports efforts to foster research and development related to infrastructure facilities. The goal is to enhance support of economic vitality while assuring public safety and disaster resilience through increased innovation, productivity, and security in design, materials, construction, rehabilitation, maintenance, and operations as applied to America’s infrastructure facilities,” Womack said. To realize this vision, ASCE would promote infrastructure innovation and research in the following ways: support legislation; provide incentives to develop new technologies; combine federal funding with local efforts; disseminate information on every level; limit risk and liability so that innovation is not discouraged; and develop strategies and technologies that mitigate the effect of disasters on the nation’s infrastructure. Federal research and development funding is imperative, and ASCE supports a research and development program for civil engineering research to improve the infrastructure. 

With respect to surface transportation research, ASCE recommends that state planning and research programs be continued to support state activities and that university research continue with support from the university transportation centers established as part of SAFETEA-LU. It also supports continuing the Strategic Highway Research Program beyond the existence of SAFETEA-LU and recommends that sufficient funding be provided to the Federal Transit Administration’s research program.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s new Research and Innovative Technology Administration needs to have a “well-defined scope and responsibility and appropriate funding,” Womack asserted.

Herrmann and Womack used the same language in concluding their testimony: “For the safety and security of our families, we as a nation can no longer afford to ignore this growing problem. We must demand leadership from our elected officials, because without action aging infrastructure represents a growing threat to public health, safety, and welfare, as well as to the economic well-being of our nation.”

The testimony provided by Herrmann and Womack was well received, and Oberstar gave the Society high marks for its work on infrastructure issues. He called ASCE “the watchdog” that provides lawmakers with badly needed information and advice and singled out for special praise the Society’s 2005 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.

—Brett Hansen

On September 18, civil and structural engineering experts convened in New York City for the Symposium on Emerging Developments in Multi-Hazard Engineering. The first of its kind, the meeting was a collaborative effort on the part of ASCE’s Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), which is based at the State University of New York at Buffalo. It included 11 presentations, most of them by ASCE fellows, that were designed to enlighten engineers about the primary issues and challenges that are encountered in a multi-hazard approach to the design of infrastructure systems.

The symposium opened with remarks by Amar Chaker, Ph.D., M.ASCE, the director of the AEI, and Michel Bruneau, Ph.D., P.Eng., a professor of civil, structural, and environmental engineering at the University at Buffalo and the director of the MCEER. Both discussed the reasons for the strong interest their organizations have in championing a multihazard approach and their strategies for change. Chaker stated that the AEI is committed to helping engineers and designers better protect their buildings and the occupants of those buildings by taking into consideration a multiplicity of hazards.

Bruneau described the MCEER’s vision, noting that “the overall goal of the MCEER is to enhance the disaster resilience of communities through improved engineering and management tools for critical infrastructure systems.” He then presented what he called the four Rs of disaster resilience—an approach that places a premium on robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness, and rapidity—and outlined the challenges that those seeking to adopt a multihazard perspective will face. Bruneau also described the role of public policy in this respect and explained how a systems approach can be used to consider a multiplicity of hazards while satisfying performance objectives in a cost-effective way.

Multihazard engineering does not presume that a number of hazards will act upon an infrastructure system simultaneously; nor does it envision hazards acting sequentially. Instead, it addresses all hazards simultaneously in an effort to optimize the design of structures so as to both meet the design requirements and minimize life-cycle costs. Both natural and man-made hazards are considered. A multihazard approach makes it possible to prioritize risks in the face of limited resources and to select the best options available. Concurrent hazards and such interdependent hazards as fires following earthquakes, floods following hurricanes, and tsunamis following earthquakes also were discussed.

Anne Kiremidjian, Ph.D., M.ASCE, a professor of structural and earthquake engineering and probabilistic methods at Stanford University and the chair of ASCE’s Council on Disaster Risk Management, discussed hazard occurrence modeling, vulnerability, and damage and loss modeling as key elements in a framework for a multihazard risk assessment of infrastructure systems. She also discussed how event and fault tree analyses can help quantify risk, determine the contributions of various risk components, and test the sensitivity of the results to assumptions and simplifications entering the fault tree model. Although mitigating the risk to infrastructure systems becomes significantly more difficult when a variety of hazards must be addressed, she explained that there are significant advantages in adopting a multihazard approach.

Bruce Ellingwood, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a professor of civil engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, provided a theoretical foundation of the basic risk equation based on the theorem of total probability. He demonstrated how the conditional probability of the loss exceeding a particular value can be obtained as the product of (1) the annual probability of the occurrence of the hazard, (2) the conditional probability of the damage state, or limit state, given the occurrence of the hazard, and (3) the conditional probability of the loss exceeding the particular value given the occurrence of the hazard and the damage state. By resolving risk into its constituents, the roles of hazard modeling, fragility curves, and loss modeling in assessing risk are highlighted, and this approach can form the basis of informed decisions that incorporate risk. Engineers can thus allocate limited resources in a more balanced fashion to mitigate the consequences of low-probability events with severe consequences arising from multiple hazards.

In his presentation, Mircea Dan Grigoriu, Ph.D., F.ASCE, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University, called for moving beyond the current method of focusing upon particular hazards toward a broader approach that considers the collective effect of a multiplicity of hazards in risk analysis. He outlined the elements of probabilistic multi-hazard risk analysis and demonstrated how the probability of system failure can be evaluated in the face of multiple hazards. Grigoriu also demonstrated the effect of hazard concurrence on system reliability and stressed the importance of ensuring that the strategies implemented to mitigate one hazard do not increase vulnerability to another hazard. An optimal design with respect to cost and reliability requires that all relevant actions be considered simultaneously, he asserted.

Grigoriu and Cagdas Kafali, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE, a former doctoral student of his and now a research engineer in Boston working for the modeling and technology firm air Worldwide, discussed how a typical offshore platform could be subjected to an earthquake and to wind and wave loads associated with a hurricane. They demonstrated how the seismic activity matrix, the hurricane activity matrix, and the system fragility can be combined to assess the probability of system failure at slight, moderate, and extensive damage levels. Their example also demonstrated how different hazards can become dominant at different reliability levels.

As an example of multihazard engineering, Grigoriu discussed an MCEER project in which studies were carried out as part of an effort to seismically retrofit and rehabilitate a hospital in Southern California. The engineers developed an optimal rehabilitation strategy using the concept of fragility surfaces for structural and nonstructural systems. The project demonstrated that a realistic assessment of performance must include the joint effect of different hazards.

Vilas Mujumdar, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., F.ASCE, who heads three of the National Science Foundation’s earthquake engineering research centers, discussed the need for a consistent approach in analyzing risk and stressed the importance of considering the interaction of certain hazards and the way in which the hazards can have a cascading effect. He also noted the way in which different utilities can be physically interdependent, as can structural and nonstructural components in a building, and called attention to current inconsistencies in the standards with respect to hazard risk acceptance.

Sreenivas Alampalli, P.E., F.ASCE, the director of the Bridge Program and Evaluation Services Bureau of the New York State Department of Transportation, noted that hazards interact as they affect a bridge, and he explained how a multihazard approach could be applied to bridge management. By way of example, he discussed a bridge retrofitted by placing riprap around its footings to protect it from scour and noted that such a measure, owing to the riprap’s effect on the column height, would result in higher costs in the future if engineers needed to retrofit the structure for earthquakes. In another example Alampalli cited, engineers discovered that the best location for sensors for monitoring the structural health of a bridge changed when a multihazard approach was adopted.

Joseph Englot, P.E., M.ASCE, the national director of infrastructure security for hntb Corporation, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, focused on issues of paramount importance in creating a resilient transportation infrastructure. He stated that as design practices have evolved to include load factor design and then load and resistance factor design and as seismic loading has become an increasingly important issue, engineers have begun to consider the probability of occurrence of each loading combination and have formulated designs that, while ensuring safe evacuation, allow for some residual damage and excessive structural deformation. Englot stressed that more needed to be learned about the progressive collapse of bridges and called attention to the absence of provisions regarding hydrocarbon fire, vehicular impact, terrorist attacks, and flooding in existing codes. He pointed out that the use of shielding and plating of critical connections, for example, could offer protection from blasts and hydrocarbon fire.

Rae Zimmerman, Aff.M.ASCE, a professor of planning and public administration at New York University and the director of the school’s Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, discussed the effects of extreme events on urban infrastructure and outlined the way in which critical infrastructure systems are interdependent.

Mohammed Ettouney, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, a principal of Weidlinger Associates, Inc., a former president of the AEI, and the cochair of the symposium, focused on the need to regard a multihazard approach as an optimization problem. He presented matrices that demonstrated the way in which the common hazards for bridges and buildings might interact. Ettouney cited two examples. The first showed how lateral stiffness capacity resulting from wind drift requirements affects the seismic design; the second illustrated how the gravity-load-carrying capacity of a floor beam system interacts with the system’s vibration properties, as any change in floor beam characteristics affects both capacity and vibration. Ettouney also discussed the inherent resilience that a multihazard approach can provide and stressed that codes should contain provisions covering this approach.

Ettouney then described how a 49-story braced-frame steel building was retrofitted for blasts and earthquakes. Rather than developing a blast retrofit design that was independent of the seismic design, the engineers employed a multihazard design strategy that satisfied both hazard requirements. As a result, the engineers reduced the structure’s life-cycle cost by 18 percent.

Milagros Kennett, an architect and project manager for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), focused on fema 452 (Risk Assessment: A How-To Guide to Mitigate Potential Terrorist Attacks against Buildings), a publication that was recently expanded to address a variety of hazards. The guide outlines the steps needed in a multihazard approach—among them assessing threats, hazards, asset values, vulnerabilities, risks, and mitigation options—and discusses such practical tools as risk assessment databases and vulnerability checklists.

Paul Mlakar, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a senior research scientist focusing on structural dynamics and the effects of weapons at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, drew on the lessons he learned in investigating the partial collapse of the Pentagon building as a result of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, and in studying the failure of the flood protection system in the New Orleans area during Hurricane Katrina. Mlakar stated that the existence of alternative load paths—or redundancy—the continuity of the reinforcing steel, and the energy absorption capacity of the spirally reinforced columns in the Pentagon gave the structure sufficient resilience to sustain severe local damage while remaining stable as a whole. In New Orleans, he explained, the hurricane protection system evolved incrementally, and scant consideration was given to the consequences of loads in excess of those foreseen in the design. Both cases illustrate the importance of considering the consequences of events in excess of the design condition. Mlakar stressed the need to design for failure and well as against failure.

The meeting concluded with a panel discussion involving three of the speakers that was enlivened by extensive audience participation. According to Chaker, the event was successful and “provided the elements of a road map to tap into the potential of multihazard engineering.”

—Brett Hansen

Time to Take Ownership!

For many ASCE presidents, this closing column has been a place to say good-bye and to boast a bit about the accomplishments of the year. But I want to use it for another purpose. I see this as my final opportunity to tell ASCE members it’s time to show the world we have courage.

Yes, it has been a tremendous pleasure to serve as ASCE president during the past year, but there is so much left to be done and so much that needs to get started now! During the year, I have come to appreciate how highly respected and influential ASCE is as an organization. We ASCE members need to take full advantage of that influence and power, if you will.

I’ve learned so much from students and younger members this year. I’ve reflected frequently on the future awaiting these clever, enthusiastic, and gifted young people. I am confident that this new generation is capable. But as civil engineers, young people are entering the profession at a time of uncertainty and enormous challenge, so there is no time like now to show the world what we’re made of!

The past couple of years have witnessed three catastrophic engineering failures: the breaches of the levees in New Orleans, the ceiling collapse in one of the tunnels of Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Project (“Big Dig”), and, most recently, the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis that carried Interstate 35W over the Mississippi. Together, these tragic incidents threaten to undermine the public’s trust in civil engineers. I describe them as engineering failures because in each case—although the circumstances were markedly different and the causes were complex—the warnings and concerns expressed by civil engineers were not enough to prevent the tragedies from occurring.

To earn the public’s trust, civil engineers are going to have to pay attention to detail, focus on the safety and welfare of the public, and take ownership of the public’s infrastructure and environment. Taking ownership is of paramount importance. Clearly, upholding our professional obligation to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public requires more than technical expertise. It requires moral conviction, which means taking responsibility to speak out when we see something that is not safe, even though others may be pressuring us to agree with them that it is “safe enough.” As engineers, we must always err on the side of safety!

It has become increasingly clear to me that as a profession we must consistently focus on long-term infrastructure improvement. Our profession must find a way to direct the attention of the public and of policy makers to our infrastructure crisis. Our “captains of industry”—those who are leading the major civil engineering enterprises—need to testify frequently before Congress and to speak loudly and clearly about what must change.

What can you do as a member to further our effort to improve infrastructure and promote leadership in our profession? You must get involved as leaders at all levels of society to help ensure that the voice of our profession is heard. Do civil engineers possess the skills needed to practice as professionals in today’s world? Are we prepared to lead the public and help it make the right decisions? Do we understand the consequences of failing to do so? Are we willing to assume the personal and professional risks required to exert our professional judgment? We all must take responsibility to do our part, each one of us, to ensure that the answers to these questions will be a resounding yes.

The public’s attention is readily captured immediately after a tragedy, as seen in August with the Minneapolis bridge collapse. But this window closes quickly, giving us little time to make the case for addressing our disintegrating infrastructure. This must change. America will need to invest at least $1.6 trillion over the next five years just to maintain its infrastructure at current levels. Resources are tight, but meeting the needs of our growing population will require an even greater investment. If we fail to persuade our nation to focus on this problem and devise means to fund solutions to it, our infrastructure will continue to crumble and will fail to support our thriving economy, which in consequence will no longer thrive.

ASCE has stepped forward to strengthen the caliber of our profession through the development of Policy 465 (“Academic Prerequisites for Licensure and Professional Practice”). And thanks to hard work during recent years, the model law for licensure drawn up by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) has been modified to reflect many of the principles embodied in this policy. The new model law says that by roughly 2015 a candidate will need additional qualifications to sit for the Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam. Anyone seeking licensure will need to have an accredited bachelor’s degree in engineering, an additional 30 credits of acceptable upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses, and four years of experience characterized by increasing levels of responsibility. The new requirements may also be satisfied by possessing a master’s degree in engineering and acquiring three years of experience characterized by increasing levels of responsibility.

Without ASCE’s leadership, this change would never have happened, and I am proud of this achievement. Working with the National Academy of Engineering, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the ncees, we are helping to ensure that after January 2015 professional engineers will be better qualified than ever. We have worked hard, but much more work remains. We are about to release a new edition of the report Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century. We are pressing hard to improve accreditation criteria and processes. We must continue this effort with enthusiasm and passion.

ASCE’s Summit on the Future of Civil Engineering, held in June 2006, helped to outline a vision of where we want the civil engineer to be in 2025. Led by our new president, David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE, this summit brought together the top leaders and thinkers in civil engineering and challenged them to define the role of our profession in a rapidly changing world. I’d like to personally congratulate and thank David for his leadership of this summit and for his continuing commitment and his work to realize this vision. You will hear more from David about Vision 2025 and about ways in which you can play a role during the next year. Please pay attention and please act!
Finally, I ask you, our members, to “take ownership.” By that I mean the following:

• Take ownership of public policy, seek resources to solve our infrastructure problem, and define a national timetable for action.
• Take ownership of public safety, health, and welfare by always making yourself heard when something looks as though it might not be safe, even when the probability of failure is small.

Together we can make a difference if we take ownership of these responsibilities.

I am pleased to welcome David to the office of president. He is indeed well prepared to take over, having served in almost every chair within ASCE in recent years. You are in great hands. So let’s get working now and show the world what we are made of!

Thank you, ASCE.

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

Hundreds of ASCE members answered the call in September as we asked Congress to help raise the grades of America’s infrastructure. After the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge that carried Interstate 35W over the Mississippi trained a spotlight on our deteriorating infrastructure, ASCE launched a monthlong campaign to inform lawmakers in Washington, D.C., of 11 “action steps” they could take to begin raising the grades. A media campaign was coupled with grassroots action on the part of ASCE members to encourage representatives and senators to approve legislative items to address our deteriorating roads, bridges, water systems, and dams. For additional information, visit www.asce.org/reportcard.

ASCE’s hard work in promoting greater federal investment in the nation’s infrastructure received another welcome boost lately. On September 18 the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) honored ASCE with its Clean Water America Award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. ASCE is a founding member of win, a coalition of more than 40 engineering, construction, and environmental groups and equipment manufacturers that was formed in 2000. The award cited ASCE for its efforts to increase public awareness of America’s failing infrastructure through its 2005 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.

I am pleased to announce the launch of an online feature that will enable ASCE members to conveniently apply for the grade of fellow. ASCE fellows, who constitute just 6 percent of the Society’s total membership, are individuals who have distinguished themselves through their achievements and their commitment to ASCE. An engineer who has been an ASCE member for 10 years and who has had responsibility for significant engineering projects or research may qualify for advancement to the grade of fellow. Applications are reviewed by the Membership Application Review Committee, which meets every six to eight weeks. To apply, visit www.asce.org/fellows.

I hope you plan on attending the 137th Annual Civil Engineering Conference, which will be held in Orlando, Florida, November 1–3. The theme is “Infrastructure for all Generations: Plan, Design, Build, Manage.” The conference will offer a wide variety of technical sessions addressing infrastructure, transportation, restoration work on the Everglades, and more. For additional information, visit http://content.asce.org/conferences/an07/program.html.

If you do have plans to join us in Orlando, Florida, for our annual conference, don’t miss the dinner planned for November 3 to honor our newest honorary members. The members of this year’s class are David B. Ashley, Ph.D., Hon.M.ASCE; Zdeněk P. Bažant, Ph.D., S.E., Hon.M.ASCE; Franklin Y. Cheng, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE; David E. Daniel, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE; Chris T. Hendrickson, Ph.D., Hon.m.ASCE; Robert D. Holtz II, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE; Jeremy Isenberg, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE; Bobby E. Price, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE; Clifford W. Randall, Ph.D., Hon.m.ASCE; and Marvin M. Specter, P.E., L.S., Hon.M.ASCE.

Friends or colleagues may acknowledge a recently deceased member by submitting memoirs for ASCE’s annual publication Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The deadline for submissions for the 2007 edition is December 20. For additional information and instructions, visit http://pubs.asce.org/authors/memoir.

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

Although the case presented this month is hypothetical, the situation described is one that many U.S. firms seeking to compete in foreign markets may very well encounter.

SITUATION: A U.S. engineering firm learns that a South American country is seeking proposals for a multimillion-dollar public works project. The firm has never bid on a project in that country, so the firm’s president—a professional engineer and a member of ASCE—hires a local agent to assist in the process. The agent explains that while the firm could itself submit its proposal to the decision-making body, the standard practice in his country is to retain a private consultant for the job, someone who can ensure that the bid comes to the attention of the appropriate parties. The agent offers the name of one such consultant, an individual who has had great success on such matters in the past.

While the firm’s president does not fully understand the type of service the consultant will provide, there is no doubt about the consultant’s connections; indeed, he is the eldest son of a senior member of the decision-making body. Still, the president is concerned about the ethical implications of hiring someone with such close ties to an official involved in the award process. The agent explains that, in contrast to norms in the United States, the appearance of nepotism in his country is not necessarily a drawback or something that creates suspicion, and he assures the ASCE member that nothing about the proposed deal violates the country’s laws or ethical norms.

The services of the consultant do not come cheap, but the agent cautions that if the U.S. firm does not move swiftly to engage the person’s services, one of the two European firms competing for the project will do so. Recognizing that the consulting fee—however steep—is still a drop in the bucket compared with the expected profit on the contract as a whole, the president authorizes the agent to hire the consultant.

QUESTION: Did the president’s decision to hire the consultant, despite his concerns about the nature of the services rendered and the potentially improper influence on a government decision, violate ASCE’s Code of Ethics?

DISCUSSION: While the transaction was presented as a legitimate fee-for-service agreement, several elements of the arrangement—the consultant’s close connection to a decision maker, the exorbitant consulting fee, and the lack of transparency regarding the type of work being done in exchange for the payment—are all red flags that should have warned the firm’s president that this was not a legitimate transaction but rather a thinly veiled bribe.

Canon 6 of ASCE’s Code of Ethics states that engineers “shall act in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and dignity of the engineering profession and shall act with zero tolerance for bribery, fraud, and corruption.” This obligation exists regardless of whether the behavior is an accepted practice in the country where the act occurs; as category (d) in the guidelines to practice for canon 6 notes: “Engineers should be especially vigilant to maintain appropriate ethical behavior where payments of gratuities or bribes are institutionalized practices.”

The outcome of an ethics investigation of this case would most likely depend upon the state of mind of the parties involved. If the Committee on Professional Conduct (CPC) found that the consulting fee was in fact an illicit payment and the firm’s president could not convince the CPC that his decision was a genuine mistake, the CPC would undoubtedly find that the member had violated canon 6 of the Code of Ethics.

It is interesting to note that, had this case been brought before the cpc in the early 1970s, it might well have received a different outcome. In October 1963 ASCE’s Board of Direction approved a footnote to the Code of Ethics carving out an exception for engineers competing for foreign contracts. Referred to as the when-in-Rome clause, the footnote read as follows: “On foreign engineering work, for which only United States engineering firms are to be considered, a member shall order his practice in accordance with the ASCE Code of Ethics. On other engineering works in a foreign country, he may adapt his conduct according to the professional standards and customs of that country, but shall adhere as closely as practicable to the principles of this Code.”

The when-in-Rome clause was a controversial provision from the very start. Its proponents argued that U.S. firms lost untold millions in unrealized profits when contracts were won by foreign competitors whose practices were not governed by codes of ethics, whereas its critics believed that ethical standards should be adhered to regardless of whether or not a particular nation had enacted laws to enforce the standards. But the 1970s witnessed growing concern on the part of the U.S. government over the operations of American businesses abroad and the effect of corrupt practices on U.S. foreign relations.

In October 1976 the Board of Direction voted to remove the when-in-Rome clause. Soon afterward, in December 1977, Congress passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which today imposes harsh civil and criminal penalties on U.S. citizens found to have offered improper payments to foreign officials or related parties in order to obtain or retain contracts.

Cases such as this are currently under study as part of the Global Anti-corruption Education and Training Program, an initiative that ASCE is spearheading and that in 2009 will be releasing a training package for use free of charge by firms and engineering colleges worldwide.

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. Please note that individual facts and circumstances vary from case to case and that the general summary information contained in these case studies is not to be construed as a precedent binding upon the Society.

Badgers Win International Concrete Canoe Competition

After a year of preparation and a journey of more than 4,000 mi (6,436 km), the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Badgers have become international concrete canoe champions, placing first overall in the Dutch Concrete Canoe Challenge, an event held September 7–9 in the Netherlands at the University of Twente. The team was invited to participate in the competition as winners of the 2007 National Concrete Canoe Competition, and their trip was sponsored by asce and the American Concrete Institute. The team’s 20 ft (6.1 m) long, 176 lb (81.2 kg) canoe, Descendant, also won in the Dutch competition’s construction and innovation categories for its design and its use of environmentally benign concrete. The team’s performance was impressive, as it took first place in the men’s 200 m, the women’s 200 m, and the coed 200 m events, as well as in the men’s 400 m and the coed 400 m events. Twelve teams, most of them Dutch or German, participated in the competition, which is also known as the Beton Kano Race.

The September 8 entry in the travelogue the team kept while in the Netherlands notes that “the overall first place came our way and we couldn’t be happier. Thoroughly exhausted, we made our way back to the hotel to prepare for the night’s activities. The day was a great success! The competition was fierce, and a lot of fun. Our canoe sustained a lot of damage but held together amazingly well considering the abuse.”
In June the Badgers paddled into first place for the fifth consecutive year in the National Concrete Canoe Competition, which was held in Seattle at the University of Washington. Organized by asce, the annual event offers engineering students the opportunity to apply classroom knowledge to an actual design. Students gain an insight into concrete mix designs and learn how various materials can be added to concrete to affect its performance. Teams qualify for the event by placing first in one of the 18 regional competitions held throughout the country during the spring. Teams are not eliminated, however, if they place second in a regional competition behind a university that finished in the top five in the previous year’s finals. To be eligible to compete, a team must be from a recognized student chapter, club, or international student group of ASCE.

Agreement Signed to Develop LRFD Standard 

ASCE and the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) signed a three-year agreement on September 6 to develop a preliminary standard for load and resistance factor design (LRFD) for pultruded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite structures. Such a standard would be an important design tool and would assist structural engineers and architects in using FRP composites in the design of building and transportation structures. In this way, the many benefits of composites, among them its strength to weight ratio, resistance to corrosion, long life cycle, and minimum maintenance requirements, could be placed at the service of the nation’s infrastructure.

“ASCE has a long-standing and proven history in producing professional standards such as this,” said ASCE’s president, W.F. Marcuson III, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE. “We commend the ACMA for their dedication and look forward to the successful outcome of this new partnership.”

The preparation of a consensus preliminary standard is a major undertaking that draws on the expertise of respected members of the professional community. ASCE, with the ACMA’s approval, has selected Mehdi S. Zarghamee, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a principal of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, to serve as the project coordinator. Zarghamee will ensure that the team benefits to the fullest possible extent from information sharing and good communication. He will also coordinate the work and the actual writing of the preliminary standard in accordance with the guidelines and schedule. At the project’s completion, the preliminary standard will be promulgated through the official ASCE codes and standards process. The expected release date is September 2010.

The ACMA’s Pultrusion Industry Council (PIC) will be leading the new program. asce has been working with the pic since 1995 in gathering information and data to guide the effort.

ASCE Releases Guidelines for Engineering Grades

In September asce released an updated version of its brochure “Guidelines for Engineering Grades: A Helpful Tool for Human Resource Professionals, Engineering Managers, and Engineers.” The guidelines were produced by the Committee on Employment of Civil Engineers (CECE), which operates under the auspices of the Committee on Professional Practice. The cece has revised the grades to help engineers and their employers properly recognize an engineer’s level of professional development and responsibility. The revised guidelines—the first update in 10 years—outline in a matrix format the knowledge, skills, and responsibilities typically associated with engineers at a particular grade. Because of the 10-year lapse, the cece found that many engineers were performing tasks on a daily basis that involved a number of different grades. The committee’s goal was to streamline the matrix to make it easier to use and to properly reflect conditions in today’s marketplace.

The guidelines attempt to summarize the responsibilities and expertise associated with engineers at each grade. The descriptions cover typical requirements for a wide range of engineering organizations and positions.

The brochure also lists useful resources for hiring civil engineers and for obtaining information about career development. To download the brochure, visit www.asce.org/files/pdf/professional/asceEngGuide_Web.pdf.

Virginia Tech’s Edwards Named MacArthur Fellow

Marc Edwards, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, the Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, has been named a MacArthur fellow for 2007 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Edwards will receive a five-year grant of $500,000 per year to use in any way he chooses.

The 24 new MacArthur fellows were selected from among hundreds of nominees for their creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future.

“As a group, this new class of fellows takes one’s breath away,” said Daniel J. Socolow, the director of the MacArthur Fellows Program. “As individuals, each is an original. To the person, they confirm that the creative individual is alive and well, at the cutting edge, and at work singularly and powerfully to make our world a better place. They are people who will change and influence our times.”

Edwards is cited by the foundation for “playing a vital role in ensuring the safety of drinking water and in exposing deteriorating water-delivery infrastructure in America’s largest cities. An expert in the chemistry and toxicity of urban water supplies in the U.S., he has made significant advancements in a number of areas, including arsenic removal, coagulation of natural organic material, and the causes and control of copper and lead corrosion in new and aging distribution systems.”

While investigating the water supply for the Washington, D.C, area in 2003, Edwards and his graduate students discovered that the addition of chloramine disinfectant to tap water increased the incidence of lead leaching in residential and commercial aqueducts. This research linked several cases of lead poisoning, earlier thought to be caused by lead paint, to local tap water. The findings also revealed systemic weaknesses in the regional water testing program, prompting the Water and Sewer Authority to replace lead service lines throughout the district.

In 2004 Time dubbed Edwards the plumbing professor and featured him as one of the nation’s leading scientific innovators. He is now expanding his research to other cities and is defining better ways to test water and predict the risk of chemical contamination in urban infrastructure. “Through his exhaustive research efforts,” says the MacArthur Fellows Program, “Edwards is making critical contributions to the health of individuals and communities throughout the U.S. in an often-neglected area of domestic public safety.”

Earlier this year Edwards was honored by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia in its Virginia Outstanding Faculty Awards program. This is the highest honor conferred by the commonwealth for teaching prowess.

Edwards came to Virginia Tech in 1997 from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where in 1996 he received a fellowship in the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Faculty Fellows program, one of only 20 young engineering faculty members in the nation to be so honored. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biophysics from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a master’s degree and a doctorate, both in environmental engineering, from the University of Washington.

The inaugural class of MacArthur fellows was named in 1981. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has an endowment of more than $6.4 billion and each year awards grants totaling approximately $225 million. For additional information, visit www.macfound.org.

Amadei Honored by Heinz Family Foundation

Bernard Amadei, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the founder of Engineers Without Borders–USA, has been selected as one of six Americans to share $1.25 million in awards conferred by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards are among the largest prizes in the world for individual achievement.

Engineers Without Borders–USA is a nonprofit organization composed of 8,000 members who during the past seven years have helped improve the quality of life for people in more than 40 countries. “Dr. Amadei is literally engineering change in pockets of our country and world that are bereft of even the most basic living infrastructures,” said Teresa Heinz, the chair of the Heinz Family Foundation. “As founder of Engineers Without Borders, he is harnessing the power of networks and design to improve the lives and fortunes of some of the world’s poorest people. His talented teams of academics, professionals, and students put to rest the tired notion that engineering and environmental protection don’t go together by demonstrating how creative thinking and high standards can benefit both people and the planet.”

Amadei shares the award with Susan Seacrest, the founder of the Groundwater Foundation, an organization that for more than a generation has been a driving force in improving the health of the nation’s groundwater.

Launched in 2000 with the help of fellow faculty members, professionals, and students at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Engineers Without Borders–USA weds professional expertise with humanitarianism in an effort to help people around the world. With funds it raises itself, the organization undertakes sustainable projects involving water, sanitation, energy, and education in villages in underdeveloped countries.

To help engineering students acquire a global perspective, Amadei has established a program at the university called Engineering for Developing Communities. The program serves as a blueprint for the education that engineers of the 21st century will need if they are to contribute to peace and security in a world facing many challenges.

Corley and Smith Will Help Guide NCEES

W. Gene Corley, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., Hon.M.ASCE, was inaugurated as the 2007–08 president of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveyors (NCEES) during the organization’s annual meeting, which was held in Philadelphia August 22–25.
A resident of Glenview, Illinois, Corley has served his profession in a wide range of capacities. He has more than 40 years of experience in structural and civil engineering and is licensed in 31 jurisdictions. The author of more than 170 technical papers and books, he has been a recipient of the American Association of Engineering Societies’ National Engineering Award for his leadership and of a lifetime achievement award in construction as part of ASCE’s Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) program.

Corley has been a member of the board of directors of the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois since 1993 and has been the board’s chairman since 2002. Within the ncees he held the position of vice president of the central zone from 2002 to 2004, and he has contributed to several NCEES committees.

In 1995 Corley was the principal investigator for ASCE and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in a study of the response of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in Oklahoma City, to the bombing that occurred that year, and he led the ASCE and FEMA investigation of the collapse of New York City’s World Trade Center towers during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

L. Robert “Larry” Smith, P.E., F.ASCE, of North Providence, Rhode Island, was inaugurated as the ncees treasurer. Earlier he served a two-year term as vice president of the NCEES’s northeast zone. Smith sold his business three years ago and is practicing forensic engineering on a part-time basis. He is active in asce’s Rhode Island Section and serves as the senior section adviser, a position he has held for almost 20 years. He is also a member of Rhode Island’s State Board of Registration for Professional
Engineers.

2008 ASCE Institute Presidents Elected

This month eight individuals will begin one-year terms as president of an ASCE institute. The institutes are discipline-oriented, semiautonomous organizations that operate with their own bylaws under the direction of their own boards but remain a part of the Society’s corporate structure. James R. Harris, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, the president of J.R. Harris and Company, of Denver, has been elected president of the Structural Engineering Institute. Arthur G. Hoffman, Jr., P.E., M.ASCE, a vice president of Gannett Fleming, headquartered in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, will head the Geo-Institute. Paul J. Rielly, P.E., M.ASCE, a vice president of Halff Associates, headquartered in Dallas, will serve as president of the Architectural Engineering Institute. Udai P. Singh, D.Eng., M.ASCE, a program manager in the San Francisco office of CH2M HILL, is the new president of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute. Jorge Martinez, a vice president of Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation, of San Francisco, will head the Construction Institute. Kam K. Movassaghi, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, the president of C.H. Fenstermaker & Associates, of Lafayette, Louisiana, will direct the affairs of the Transportation and Development Institute. James H. Blanchar, P.E., F.ASCE, a principal of jhb Consulting, of Davenport, Iowa, has been elected president of the Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute. Wilfred D. Iwan, Ph.D., M.ASCE, an emeritus professor of applied mechanics and the director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, will be the president of the newly formed Engineering Mechanics Institute. (See “Board of Direction Approves Formation of New Institute,” ASCE News, August 2007.)

Frangopol’s Papers Garner Awards

Daniel M. Frangopol, Sc.D., P.E., F.ASCE, has won the Outstanding Paper Award from the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) for a paper he coauthored with Fabio Biondini and Pier Giorgio Malerba—professors at Italy’s Politecnico di Milano—entitled “Time Variant Structural Performance of the Certosa Cable-Stayed Bridge.” He has also been named the recipient of Elsevier’s Munro Prize for a paper he coauthored with Seung-le Yang, Ph.D., and Luis C. Neves, Ph.D.—both former doctoral students of his—entitled “Optimum Maintenance Strategy for Deteriorating Bridge Structures Based on Lifetime Functions.” The IABSE bestows the Outstanding Paper Award each year on the authors of a paper published in its journal Structural Engineering International. Elsevier awards its Munro Prize each year to the authors of what it considers the best paper published in its Engineering Structures. The prize is named in honor of John Munro, one of the journal’s founding editors. Frangopol holds the Fazlur Rahman Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture at Lehigh University and is a professor in the civil and environmental engineering department within the school’s P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. He holds a doctorate in applied sciences from the Université de Liège, in Belgium, and before joining Lehigh he taught civil engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder for more than two decades. The founding president of the International Association for Bridge Maintenance and Safety and a former director of the Consortium on Advanced Life Cycle Engineering for Sustainable Civil Environments, Frangopol currently chairs the executive board of the International Association for Structural Safety and Reliability.

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.

M. Katherine Banks, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor of civil engineering at Purdue University and in 2006 was named head of the School of Civil Engineering there. A college professor for more than 18 years, Banks has imparted her knowledge of environmental engineering processes and design to hundreds of civil engineering students. She has made important contributions in elucidating the workings of biological remediation systems, and she has served as the principal investigator in multidisciplinary research grants totaling more than $18 million from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as well as from industry and state government. She has also served as director of the EPA’s Midwest Hazardous Substance Research Center, as associate director of the nasa Specialized Center of Research and Training for Advanced Life Support, and as codirector of the Center for Phytoremediation Research and Development, all of which are at Purdue. Banks has more than 100 journal articles, reports, and book chapters to her credit, and she served as editor in chief of ASCE’s Journal of Environmental Engineering from 2004 to 2006. A member of ASCE for 20 years, she is a registered professional engineer in Indiana and Kansas.

Alan B. Christopherson, P.E., F.ASCE, a principal engineer for pnd Engineers, Inc., in Anchorage, Alaska, is recognized for his dedication to the profession, his community, and young engineers embarked on careers in civil engineering. Christopherson holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Washington and a master’s degree, also in civil engineering, from the University of Alaska at Anchorage and has more than 32 years of engineering experience. His most notable technical achievements have involved foundations as well as projects incorporating driven piles. His research and development contributions, which have dealt with PND’s Cell technology and with vibracompaction, spin fin piles, sound attenuation for pile driving, and systems for water filtration and sediment control, have helped to lower costs, increase reliability, and make fuller use of local materials. The onshore and offshore structures he has designed have been in rivers and oceans; in frozen and granular soils; in sand, silt, and peat; in permafrost susceptible to thaw; and in remote arctic and subarctic areas. In 2002 Christopherson served on a commission dealing with privatization and the delivery of government services, and the following year he was named engineer of the year by ASCE’s Alaska Section. He is active in a number of national and local engineering and architectural organizations.

Ronald J. Ebelhar, P.E., F.ASCE, is the vice president for environmental services at the H.C. Nutting Company in Cincinnati. The geotechnical and environmental undertakings he has carried out or supervised have encompassed commercial, industrial, transportation, waste disposal, and public utility projects, as well as environmental site evaluations for commercial, industrial, and public utility sites. His experience also includes marine geoscience and engineering field explorations, including studies for the first deepwater developments in the Gulf of Mexico’s Viosca Knoll area and for the first oil platforms in South Africa’s Mosselbaai (Mossel Bay). He has also been involved in designing and obtaining permits for solid and hazardous waste facilities in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Utah, and, outside the country, in Indonesia and Thailand. Ebelhar has been a member of Committee D18 of ASTM International (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials) since 1981. The committee, which has more than 1,000 members, writes and maintains standards pertaining to soil and rock, and Ebelhar has chaired four of its subcommittees. He has also been instrumental in developing and upgrading astm International standards dealing with soil properties under dynamic and cyclic loading and with the testing of marine soils. Furthermore, he served on an industry group that reviewed rules in connection with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s revision of solid waste regulations, and he chaired a symposium on dynamic geotechnical testing. Ebelhar has been the recipient of numerous astm International awards.

Leslie R. Henley, P.E., F.ASCE, is the deputy director of the Clark County Public Works Department, in Nevada, where he has led the county’s roadway and flood control construction programs for nearly 17 years. During his tenure Clark County has regularly been listed as one of the fastest-growing communities in the United States. Henley has been responsible for the infrastructure construction program, which has included more than 400 projects valued at more than $1.2 billion with an average cost growth of less than 2 percent. Under his leadership, a 53 mi (85.3 km), $500-million freeway facility that passed through three neighboring jurisdictions was delivered on time and within budget. In addition to active participation within asce and the Southern Nevada Branch of its Nevada Section since 1990, Henley has been an active member of the American Public Works Association (APWA). His construction projects have won numerous project-of-the-year awards from that group, along with accolades in the transportation and landscaping categories. Henley also brought the Public Works Department into conformity with criteria set by the APWA, making it the first department in Nevada to attain apwa accreditation.

Mohsen A. Issa, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor of structural and materials engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago and director of the school’s Structural and Concrete Materials Laboratory. Issa’s work in structural and materials engineering over the past 25 years has led to advances in both theory and practice. His innovative and practical approach to the rehabilitation and replacement of bridge decks is widely used for the fast-track construction of highway bridges and has resulted in structures that are safe, effective, durable, and economical. Issa also developed an experimental technique for ascertaining the susceptibility of construction materials to fracturing, a technique that is helping to reduce life-cycle costs. His funded research totals more than $2 million and draws on support from, among other groups, the National Science Foundation, the Illinois Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Construction Engineering Research Laboratory. Results from his research on fibrous concrete overlays and full-depth precast-concrete segments will be used in the new bridge over the Mississippi connecting Missouri and Illinois just north of downtown St. Louis. The Council for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Illinois has honored Issa with awards for his outstanding contributions to the development of curriculum and for the unique teaching modules in concrete materials and structural systems that he developed. These contributions have increased the number of students interested in the field of infrastructure engineering. Issa has also been active in professional societies, serving as the faculty adviser for the ASCE student chapter at the university and as a member of various American Concrete Institute committees. Indeed, his publications for that institute have become essential reference tools for practicing engineers around the world.

Douglas W. Lamont, P.E., F.ASCE, is the deputy assistant secretary of the army for project planning and review for the civil works carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He is responsible for technical and policy clearance of all Corps studies prepared as part of congressional authorizations. Lamont has more than 31 years of experience with the Corps in the field of water resources planning and policy. As a supervisory civil engineer for more than 20 years, he has been responsible for the development, review, and approval of studies for more than 300 Corps projects involving more than $10 billion in new construction. He has also worked to develop project cooperation agreements for these undertakings. Lamont has provided technical engineering support to the secretary of the army on the forensic engineering of the New Orleans levee breaches, on a study to protect and restore Louisiana’s coastal regions, on a program to improve the coast of Mississippi, and on a project carried out by the Corps and the Bureau of Reclamation to safeguard the structural integrity of Folsom Dam, in Sacramento, California, and reduce flood damage there. He also chaired a group that reviewed the way in which the Corps develops preauthorization reports, and that group’s recommendations have helped to reduce the number of steps by 40 percent and to define and resolve issues earlier in the process. Lamont has applied these changes to the project for restoring Florida’s Everglades, an endeavor that is expected to serve as a model with regard to planning and authorization. Furthermore, he provided key oversight of the work done by the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) in studying the response of the protection system in southeast Louisiana to Hurricane Katrina. (The IPET’s work was peer-reviewed by ASCE’s External Review Panel.) Lamont developed the strategy and framework for the independent review of the ipet study by the National Academy of Sciences.

Barbara H. Mulkey, P.E., F.ASCE, is the president and chief executive officer of Mulkey Engineers & Consultants, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mulkey holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in civil engineering from North Carolina State University and has nearly 30 years of experience, specializing in civil and structural engineering services. After practicing in both the public and private sectors, she founded Mulkey Engineers & Consultants in 1993, and today the firm has more than 200 employees and offices in four states and offers a full range of civil engineering and related services. Mulkey has sought to influence the future of engineering by volunteering her time as a mentor, particularly in North Carolina State University’s Women in Science and Engineering program, and by sponsoring internships, accepting speaking engagements, and serving her community. She has been recognized for her leadership and accomplishments through numerous awards, including the Blue Chip Enterprise Award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and she was named a finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year competition. Moreover, North Carolina State University named her one of its distinguished alumni. As a recognized leader in the field of engineering, Mulkey has served in several expert advisory roles. For example, she has served as a board member for the American Council of Engineering Companies of North Carolina and as vice-chair of the Raleigh Convention Center Steering Committee. Moreover she has assisted her alma mater by serving on its board of trustees and working on behalf of its College of Engineering Foundation.

Frank W. Pita, P.E., LHG, F.ASCE, is a principal of Jacobs Associates. Pita is a consulting geotechnical engineer and a licensed hydrologist with more than 30 years of experience in the Pacific Northwest, and his work has included nearly all facets of soil, rock, and groundwater engineering. Indeed, his expertise has brought success to multifaceted projects replete with technical, political, and economic challenges. Two of those projects were honored with the Grand Conceptor Award from the Washington State chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies. One involved the enlargement and modification of Terminal 46 at the Port of Seattle, an undertaking that required the encapsulation of dredged spoils as general fill long before the current environmental and conservation movement. The other was a 21-day repair project in the Yakima-Tieton Irrigation District of a water conveyance system that had been damaged by the eruption of Mount Saint Helens. Pita has 21 technical papers to his credit and has made numerous presentations on environmental and geotechnical engineering
issues. He has long been active in ASCE, even setting a record by being the youngest person to be elected president of the Seattle Section. In 1974 he established a geotechnical group within that section. He has also lent his time and expertise to ASFE, serving on committees to help advance the business aspects of the geotechnical profession.

Arup K. SenGupta, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is the P.C. Rossin Professor at Lehigh University and a former chair of the school’s civil and environmental engineering department. A leader in environmental technology research and education, SenGupta has guided dozens of graduate students to successful careers in engineering practice and research. Moreover, he headed an international team of engineers in developing a sustainable treatment system that provides drinking water free of arsenic to tens of thousands of villagers in the Indian subcontinent. His award-winning research led to the development of new classes of hybrid ion exchangers that have been incorporated into water and wastewater treatment processes. SenGupta has expanded the field of ion exchange science and technology in solving environmental problems in both the developed and the developing world. He has four U.S. patents to his credit and he developed and helped to commercialize the first polymer-based absorbent for arsenic in the United States, a product that is currently being used at more than 200 installations. SenGupta’s innovations in environmental engineering and his collaborative work with university researchers and local engineers in developing nations have been recognized with a multiplicity of awards, among them the 2001 Frontier Research Award from the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, the 2004 International Ion Exchange Award from Cambridge University, the 2005 Mondialogo Engineering Award from Daimler-Chrysler and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, and the 2007 Grainger Silver Award from the National Academy of Engineering.

Billie F. Spencer, Jr., Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is the Nathan M. Newmark Professor in the civil engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Spencer pioneered the study and design of magnetorheological fluid dampers for protecting structures from earthquakes and high winds, taking the research from initial conception to full-scale implementation in just seven years. He was also instrumental in developing the software services (collectively referred to as the neesgrid) for the National Science Foundation’s George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). The neesgrid links 15 equipment sites to form a national virtual laboratory for earthquake engineering experimentation and simulation. Spencer also played a prominent role in developing maeviz, a Web-based seismic risk assessment framework with international applications, and he has been a visiting professor at universities in Norway, Poland, China, Japan, and Italy. He has been actively involved in technical committees within asce’s Structural Division and Structural Engineering Institute. The work done by the asce task committee he chaired from 1999 to 2004 dealing with the benchmark control of structures led to a special issue of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics. He also served on a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy advisory committee dealing with scientific and technological cooperation with Japan. The vice president of the International Association for Structural Control and Monitoring and the president of the Asia-Pacific Network of Centers for Research in Smart Structures Technology, Spencer has 2 books, 119 journal publications, and more than 260 conference publications to his credit. Before joining the University of Illinois he was on the faculty at Notre Dame, and while there he developed an outreach program that included activities in earthquake engineering for precollege students. Spencer has been recognized both nationally and internationally for his accomplishments as a teacher, and in 1999 he was one of the recipients of asce’s Norman Medal.

Berrin Tansel, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, is an associate professor in the civil and environmental engineering department at Florida International University and associate director of the school’s Center for Diversity in Engineering. Tansel has made notable contributions in various areas of environmental engineering practice as well as in experimental and theoretical research. In particular, she has been recognized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for research work that aided the development of a closed-loop water recovery system for space applications. She has also developed pretreatment processes for extending the operational life of membrane systems for drinking water treatment. Tansel has more than 60 refereed journal papers and more than 100 peer-reviewed conference papers to her credit and has worked on numerous research reports, 6 of them for the U.S. Congress on energy-efficient systems and solid waste management. She also contributed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Handbook: Estimating Sludge Management Costs. Active in outreach activities to attract women and members of minority groups to engineering, she set up and directed a program in environmental science and engineering at Florida International University as part of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates, an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation. Tansel has also developed programs in partnership with public and private organizations for student internships, teacher training, and alumni outreach. In addition to an award from nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in 2005, Tansel has been the recipient of numerous teaching accolades, and she was named the Kauffman Professor of Entrepreneurship at Florida International University in 2006.

Beile Yin, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is a principal associate for Hardesty & Hanover, llc, and has nearly 40 years of experience in successfully applying theoretical knowledge to engineering projects. Yin has been a pioneer in applying seismic analysis and design in the eastern United States, where his work on segmental, movable, and suspension bridges has drawn on advances in modeling technologies to construct numerical models with nonlinear features. He has incorporated foundation-ground interaction into the seismic analysis of bridges and has used such devices as dampers and isolators in bridge design. His notable projects have included the seismic analysis and retrofit study for New York City’s Queensborough Bridge and constructability consultations for the $1.5-billion Hangzhou Bay Bridge, in China, for New York City’s Third Avenue Bridge and Willis Avenue Bridge, for the Roslyn Viaduct, on Long Island, New York, and for a segmental bridge in New Jersey on Route 36. Yin also established a Hardesty & Hanover office in Beijing. He has been active in asce’s Metropolitan Section, especially in its infrastructure, geotechnical, and international groups. The founder and first president of the Chinese American Association of Engineering, Yin also takes part in the activities of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering.

Fellow applications may be obtained from ASCE’s world headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, by calling (800) 548-2723, extension 6289. From outside the country, the number is (703) 295-6289. The e-mail address is fellows@asce.org. The application may be found on the Web at www.asce.org/pdf/fellowmemapp.pdf. Completed applications may be submitted online at www.asce.org/membership/fellowgrade.cfm (click on “Online ASCE Fellow Application”). Questions concerning fellow guidelines (including guideline waiver inquiries) or the application process may be directed to Erin Santiago, the applications coordinator, at (703) 295-6289 or esantiago@asce.org. Completed applications are reviewed monthly by the Membership Application Review Committee.

Historic Bridges Conference
April 28–29, 2008, Columbus, Ohio

Sponsor: Ohio State University.

Paper Topics: The conference will provide a forum for the exchange of ideas between engineers and preservationists. Papers from both engineers and historians are welcome. Topics include engineering issues bearing on the safety, performance, preservation, repair, maintenance, and rehabilitation of bridges and other structures of historical importance. Attention will also be given to the historian’s perspective on the needs and techniques for preserving historically important engineering
structures.

Deadline: One-page abstracts are to be e-mailed to Hojjat Adeli, Ph.D., at adeli.1@osu.edu as soon as possible. An electronic copy of the full paper will be due by November 1.

Contact: Hojjat Adeli, Ph.D., Ohio State University, e-mail adeli.1@osu.edu.

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Inaugural International Conference of the Engineering Mechanics Institute
May 18–21, 2008, Minneapolis

Sponsor: ASCE’s Engineering Mechanics Institute.

Paper Topics: In solid mechanics the topics will include computational solid mechanics, probabilistic mechanics, dynamics and wave propagation, natural and manufactured materials, inverse problems and optimization, control and system identification, experimental solid mechanics, biomechanics, and fracture and damage mechanics. In fluid mechanics the topics will encompass computational fluid mechanics, fluid-structure interactions, biological fluid mechanics, environmental hydraulics, stream restoration, geophysical fluid mechanics, turbulence, experimental fluid mechanics, and moving boundaries.

Deadline: One-page abstracts are due by November 1, 2007. The abstracts are to be submitted electronically at www.ce.umn.edu/em08, where formatting instructions and electronic templates will be posted in the near future.

Contact: All technical inquiries concerning the conference should be directed to em08@umn.edu. The Web site is www.cce.umn.edu/conferences/em08/.

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Fifth International Engineering and Construction Conference
August 27–29, 2008, University of California at Irvine

Sponsor: ASCE Los Angeles Section and the University of California at Irvine.

Paper Topics: The objective of the conference is to focus on various topics related to energy-efficient and environmentally compatible engineering design and construction projects. Other state-of-the-art papers related to the built environment and energy conservation also are
encouraged.

Deadline: Abstracts not exceeding one page are to be e-mailed to Ayman Mosallam, Ph.D., the conference chair, at mosallam@uci.edu by November 20, 2007.

Contact: Ayman Mosallam, Ph.D., Henry Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2175; telephone (949) 824-3369; fax (949) 824-2117; e-mail mosallam@uci.edu.

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Special Issue (October 2008), Leadership And Management in Engineering: “Engineers, Infrastructure, and Politics”

Paper Topics: This special issue will focus on the evolution and state of infrastructure policy and decision making with its associated achievements, shortcomings, and future prospects for collaborative leadership. The topics will include the following: theories and practice of public integration and communication; different policy areas that support or impede effective public decision making; the project selection decision process, including dialogue with the public; case studies of engineers participating in the political process; the experiences of engineers who have been staff members of legislative committees; conceptualizing past, present, and future integration dynamics; economic and career risks for public- and private-sector employees; virtual public forums; the clarity of public accountability regarding the operation, maintenance, and replacement of infrastructure; blog-based dialogues; and the economics of technology-facilitated communities. asce welcomes joint or separate submissions from such fields as anthropology, architecture, communications, computer science, economics, engineering, geography, information studies, information systems, management science, political science, psychology, sociology, and telecommunications.

Deadline: October 31, 2007, for abstracts, which are to be e-mailed to the guest editor, W.M. Hayden, Jr., Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, at wmhayden@buffalo.edu.

Pursuant to subsection 7.3 of the Society’s rules of policy and procedure, the ASCE membership is hereby notified that the following vacancies will be available on the 2008 election ballot for terms beginning in fiscal year 2009. For information on how to apply for a vacant position, please contact the individual specified. The qualifications for the vacant positions are as follows:

• Region governor: A candidate must be a Society member in good standing and have an address of record within the region being represented and must have served as a section or branch officer, a member of a section or branch committee, or a member of a Society-level committee of ASCE.
• Region director: A candidate must be a Society member in good standing and have an address of record within the region being represented and must have served as a geographic region governor. Any person who has been inducted as Society president-elect or as a vice president is ineligible for reelection as a geographic region director.
• At-large director: A candidate must be a Society member in good standing at any level except that of student member and must possess expertise or a special perspective deemed desirable by the Board of Direction. The term is for two years, and the person holding the position is not eligible for reelection as a region director.
• President-elect: A candidate must be a Society member in good standing from an eligible region and must have completed one full term of service on the Board of Direction or have served as an institute representative on the Board of Direction between 2000 and 2005.

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Region	Title	Term	Number of vacancies	Restrictions	Contact
---	President-elect	2008–11	1	Shall reside within one of the following regions: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, or 10.	Patricia Jones, telephone (703) 295-6101
1	Region director	2008–11	1	Shall have an address of record within Region 1.	Daryl Morais,  telephone (703) 295-6042
1	Region governor	2008–11	1	Shall be a member of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section.	Daryl Morais, telephone (703) 295-6042
2	Region governor	2008–11	1	Shall have an address of record within Region 2.	Daryl Morais, telephone (703) 295-6042
3	Region governor	2008–11	2	One shall be a member of the North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Duluth, Central Illinois, or Quad Cities section; one shall be a member of the Michigan Section.	Narcy Ibanez, telephone (703) 295-6287
4	Region governor	2008–11	3	One shall be a member of the Virginia Section; one shall be a member of the North Carolina Section; and one shall be a member of the Tennessee Section.	Jennifer Lawrence, telephone (703) 295-6255
5	Region director	2008–11	1	Shall have an address of record within Region 5.	Michael Cook, telephone (703) 295-6121
5	Region governor	2008–11	2	One shall be a member of the Alabama Section; one shall be a member of the Mississippi Section.	Michael Cook, telephone (703) 295-6121
6	Region governor	2008–11	2	One shall be a member of the Oklahoma Section; one shall be a member of the Texas Section.	Michael Cook, telephone (703) 295-6121
7	Region governor	2008–11	2	One shall be a member of the Colorado Section; one shall be a member of the St. Louis Section.	Daryl Morais, telephone (703) 295-6042
8	Region governor	2008–11	2	Shall be a member of one of the following sections: Alaska, Arizona, Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, Oregon, Seattle, Southern Idaho, Tacoma-Olympia, or Utah.	Jennifer Lawrence, telephone (703) 295-6255
9	Region director	2008–11	1	Shall have an address of record within Region 9.	Narcy Ibanez, telephone (703) 295-6287
9	Region governor	2008–11	1	Shall be a member of the Los Angeles Section.	Narcy Ibanez, telephone (703) 295-6287
10	Region governor	2008–11	2	Shall have an address of record within Region 10.	Meggan Farrell,  telephone (703) 295-6024
---	At-large director	2008–10	1	Nomination is to be sought through any standing Board of Direction committee.	Patricia Jones, telephone (703) 295-6101

 

ASCE CONFERENCES
For further information on these conferences, unless noted otherwise, contact ASCE Conferences Department, 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191-4400; telephone (800) 548-2723 or, from outside the United States, (703) 295-6300; fax (703) 295-6144; e-mail conf@asce.org; Web site www.asce.org/conferences. Dates are subject to change.

ASCE 137th Annual Civil Engineering Conference, November 1–3, 2007, Orlando, Florida
http://content.asce.org/conferences/an07/Welcome.html

Third Structural Engineers World Congress, November 2–7, 2007, Bangalore, India
www.sewc2007.org/

World Congress on Urban Infrastructure In Developing Countries, November 12–14, 2007, New Delhi, India
www.worldcongress07.org/

International Conference on Forensic Engineering: Failure Diagnosis and Problem Solving, December 6–9, Mumbai (Bombay), India
www.icaci.com/

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ASCE CONTINUING EDUCATION
Develop your technical and management skills and earn pdhs/ceus through ASCE’s program of continuing education. Courses are offered in more than 40 cities across the country. ASCE also offers live Web seminars, on-demand online courses, and courses on DVD and CD. Customized on-site training also can be arranged. To register or to obtain additional information, contact ASCE’s continuing education department by telephone at (800) 548-2723, by fax at (703) 295-6144, or by e-mail at seminars@asce.org. The Web site is www.asce.org/conted/.

Construction
Residential Land Development Strategies (New!)
November 8–9, 2007, Chicago

Environmental
Environmental Boot Camp for Engineers
November 8–9, 2007, Baltimore

NPDES Storm-Water Permit Compliance
November 8–9, 2007, Cincinnati

Wetlands and 404 Permitting
November 15–16, 2007, New Orleans

Geotechnical
Pipe and Pipeline Renewal
November 1–2, 2007, Tampa, Florida

Soil and Rock Slope Stability
November 1–2, 2007, New Orleans

Geotechnical Aspects of Bioreactor Landfills
November 29–30, 2007, Kansas City, Missouri

Hydraulics and Water Resources
HEC-HMS Computer Workshop
November 1–2, 2007, Austin, Texas

Dam Safety and Rehabilitation
November 8–9, 2007, Portland, Oregon

Treatment Plant Hydraulics for Civil Engineers
November 8–9, 2007, Denver

Advanced Detention Routing: Improving The Operation and Effectiveness of Detention Facilities (Newly Updated!)
November 15–16, 2007, Scottsdale, Arizona

HEC-RAS Computer Workshop
November 28–30, 2007, Memphis, Tennessee

Low-Impact Development
November 29–30, 2007, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Management
Project Management
November 1–2, 2007, Boston

Risk Assessment and Management For Buildings and Infrastructure Security
November 7–9, 2007, Boston

Financial Management for the Professional Engineer
November 8–9, 2007, San Francisco

Leadership and Development for the Engineer (Newly Updated!)
November 15–16, 2007, Chicago

Liability of Engineers: How to Stay out of Trouble
November 15–16, 2007, Nashville, Tennessee

Techniques for the Modern Engineering Manager
November 29–30, 2007, Las Vegas

Structural
Design and Evaluation of Highway Bridge Superstructures Using LRFD
November 1–2, 2007, Los Angeles

Structural Condition Assessment of Existing Structures
November 1–2, 2007, Memphis, Tennessee

Structural Renovation of Buildings
November 1–2, 2007, Baltimore

Structural Design of Buildings and Industrial Facilities for Blast Loads And Accidental Chemical Explosions
November 7–9, 2007, Minneapolis

Designing Aluminum Structures
November 8–9, 2007, St. Louis

Earthquake-Induced Ground Motions
November 8–9, 2007, Lexington, Kentucky

Progressive Collapse Mitigation: Practical Analysis Methods and Proven Solutions
November 8–9, 2007, Dallas

Wind Loads for Buildings and Other Structures
November 8–9, 2007, Denver

Structural Vibration Analysis, Design, And Troubleshooting
November 14–16, 2007, Minneapolis

Steel-Framed Buildings: Practical Issues In Design and Renovation
November 15–16, 2007, Pittsburgh

Structural Design of Residential Buildings Using the 2006 International Residential Code
November 15–16, 2007, New York City metropolitan area

Seismic Design of Liquid Storage Tanks
November 16, 2007, Palm Springs, California

Design of Foundations for Dynamic Loads
November 28–30, 2007, Dallas

Bridge Rehabilitation
November 29–30, 2007, Las Vegas

Design, Construction, and Renovation Of Masonry Structures
November 29–30, 2007, Atlanta

Designing High-Performance Concrete Structures
November 29–30, 2007, Baltimore

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ASCE CONTINUING EDUCATION WEBINARS

Environmental
Disaster Debris Management, Part I: Disaster Debris Preparation
November 29, 2007, noon–2 pm (eastern time)

Disaster Debris Management, Part II: Disaster Debris Response
December 6, 2007, noon–2 pm (eastern time)

Disaster Debris Management, Part III: Disaster Debris Recovery
December 13, 2007, noon–2 pm (eastern time)

Disaster Debris Management, Part IV: Emerging Issues and Topics
December 20, 2007, noon–2 pm (eastern time)

Management
Leadership: Developing the Leader in You And Others, Part I
November 7, 2007, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Two Key Tools for Leading: The Power Of Feedback and Recognition
November 9, 2007, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Project Work Plans: Why and How?
November 13, 2007, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Leadership: Developing the Leader in You And Others, Part II
November 14, 2007, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Keys for Effectively Working with the Press: A Primer for Those Who Are Not
Communications Professionals
November 16, 2007, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Employee Evaluation and Development—The Key to Performance Improvement
November 30, 2007, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Structural
Wind Tunnel Testing for Wind Loads On Structures
November 6, 2007, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Reinforced Masonry: Design and Construction
November 8, 2007, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Design of Masonry Shear Walls
November 20, 2007, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Renovation of Steel-Framed Buildings
November 27, 2007, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Renovation of Masonry Facades
November 28, 2007, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Transportation
Traffic Impact Studies
November 1, 2007, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Traffic Control Devices
November 15, 2007, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)