February 2008
Volume 33, Number 2

Five civil engineering projects have been selected as finalists in the competition for the 2008 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award (OCEA award). The OCEA jury convened at ASCE’s headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, on January 14. During its meeting the jury selected the 2008 outstanding civil engineering achievement, and the Board of Direction’s Executive Committee approved the choice on January 16. However, the winner will not be announced until the Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) gala, which will be held on April 30 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport. The five projects chosen are the Tacoma Narrows Bridge; the Pasadena City Hall Seismic Upgrade and Rehabilitation Project; the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project; the Arsenic Crisis in the Indian Subcontinent: Sustainable Engineering Solution, West Bengal, India; and the Mission Valley East Light-Rail Transit Project.

The members of the OCEA jury were Thomas L. Jackson, P.E., D.WRE, f.ASCE, a former ASCE president and the jury chair; W.F. Marcuson III, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, the Society’s immediate past president; Ronald E. Smith, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, a former president of ASCE’s Geo-Institute; Cecil Lue-Hing, D.Sc., P.E., BCEE, Hon.M.ASCE, the president of Cecil Lue-Hing & Associates, Inc., of Burr Ridge, Illinois; Larry Klein, a producer for WGBH in Boston; Stephanie Johnston, the editor in chief of the magazine Public Works; Rob Carson, a special projects reporter for the News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington; and Anne Elizabeth Powell, the editor in chief of Civil Engineering and ASCE News and the nonvoting jury secretary.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension span built in the United States in four decades, officially opened to traffic in July 2007. The structure—one of the first major suspension bridges in North America to be delivered under the design/build contracting model—crosses the Tacoma Narrows, in Washington State, to link Tacoma and Gig Harbor. It was designed and built for the Washington State Department of Transportation by Tacoma Narrows Constructors (TNC), a joint venture of Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation, of San Francisco, and Kiewit Pacific Company, of Omaha, Nebraska. TNC retained Parsons/HNTB, a joint venture of Parsons Transportation Group and HNTB. Work on the $615-million lump-sum turnkey contract began late in 2002. By that time 90,000 cars a day were crossing the existing bridge, which was built in 1950 and designed to handle 60,000 cars per day.

The new bridge is adjacent to the existing one, which replaced a span that collapsed in spectacular fashion in 1940 just a few months after it opened. The event was captured on film and changed the way suspension bridges are designed.

The deck of the new bridge takes the form of a steel truss 5,400 ft (1,646 m) long, the main span being 2,802 ft (854 m) from tower to tower.

Major construction work included installing caissons for two 509 ft (155 m) tall towers, building the towers, spinning cables, and assembling the deck. During the final phase, 46 deck sections—each weighing an average of 459 tons (416.4 metric tons)—were lifted and attached to suspension cables.

Among the challenges that the project team faced were the proximity of the new bridge to the existing crossing; the high winds, strong currents, and tidal changes typical of the Tacoma Narrows; the importance of preserving the pristine environment of the area; and the need to work around the remains of the 1940 crossing, now resting at the bottom of the waterway.

The Pasadena City Hall Seismic Upgrade and Rehabilitation Project, the largest capital undertaking in city history, was initiated in 2005 by the City of Pasadena, California, to repair earlier earthquake damage and seismically strengthen the city’s most important civic icon, which was constructed in 1927 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Components of this $117-million undertaking included a comprehensive program of state-of-the-art structural seismic upgrades; interior renovation; the application of new building technology; the replacement of outdated building systems; the use of new fire safety systems; upgrades in keeping with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); and the restoration of historically important facets of the structure’s interior and exterior, along with landscaped areas.

The project’s primary focus was to seismically strengthen and protect the 80-year-old building during an earthquake through a system of structural upgrades, including the installation of 240 doubly concave friction pendulum base isolators beneath the building, new shear walls, and a surrounding moat to accommodate building movement during earthquakes.

The interior rehabilitation involved new mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire safety systems; technology upgrades; new and upgraded elevators; tactile sign-age; audible alarms; and ADA-compliant ramps. Interior renovations of nonhistoric spaces have provided new offices, restrooms, conference areas, floor coverings, lighting, and furnishings. The areas of historical importance, including council chambers, offices, and ceilings, were restored in accordance with preservation standards.

Exterior restoration refurbished original cast stone building elements, facade plaster, the courtyard fountain, copper roof cladding on the lanterns of the main dome and stair towers, exterior lighting, and landscaping. The project was submitted for silver certification to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

The Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project is revitalizing a crossing that has impeded regional travel for decades. With new gossamer twin spans supported by gracefully curving V piers, the new bridge has been carrying traffic since 2006, and the second span is to open in the middle of this year. The structure, which crosses the Potomac River just south of Washington, D.C., linking Maryland and Virginia, has already improved traffic flow by providing shoulders for vehicle breakdowns and requiring fewer openings of its drawspans. Under construction since late 2000, the $2.47-billion program has remained on schedule and on budget.

The project involved much more than replacing a bridge: it rebuilt almost 12 percent of the Capital Beltway—the ring road around Washington, D.C.—and reconstructed four interchanges in its 7.5 mi (12 km) corridor.

A high-tech marvel, the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge features eight massive bascule leaves, each with a deck encompassing at least 11,800 sq ft (1,096 m²). The most striking innovations include employing movable falsework for the bascule piers; using carbon dioxide to neutralize concrete wash water and then reusing the water to promote the settlement of dust; and adapting an epoxy gel method to seal posttensioning ducts. Future projects will no doubt use the specifications for the “contained bubble curtain” developed as part of this project to protect fish from the effects of pile driving. Using the old bridge as a trestle for the Capital Beltway’s inner loop saved 6 acres (2.4 ha) of dredging, preserving fragile underwater vegetation. Moreover, the project’s community and media outreach efforts have set new standards.

Dividing the superstructure bid package into thirds, along with value engineering and the prequalification of contractors, saved $362 million. Reducing delays from gridlock will save commuters countless hours, speed truck commerce valued at more than $60 billion annually, and spur local economic growth.

The Arsenic Crisis in the Indian Subcontinent: Sustainable Engineering Solution, West Bengal, India, deals with the problem of naturally occurring arsenic in drinking water drawn from underground sources, which is the cause of arsenic poisoning afflicting nearly 100 million people in Bangladesh and West Bengal, a neighboring Indian state. During the past 10 years 175 wellhead community-based arsenic removal units (arus) have been installed and are in operation in remote villages in this region. More than 150,000 villagers are drinking and using potable water from these arus, which are robust and easy to operate. Equally important, the arsenic removed from groundwater takes the form of a solid and does not pose any short- and long-term threat to the environment. The key attributes of the arus are as follows:

• The units are designed in such a way that no chemical addition, pH adjustment, or electricity is needed. The operation of the units is compatible with the cultural traditions of the region, and a robust adsorbent from an indigenous source is used in every aru.
• Only indigenous durable materials are used in constructing the arus. Many such units have been providing safe water for well over five years.
• Each unit is financed, maintained, and monitored by a villagers’ committee, and half of the committee members are women. The operation is self-sustaining and does not require outside assistance. Moreover, the arus have created employment opportunities for villagers.

The project is an outgrowth of a long partnership between Lehigh University and the Bengal Engineering and Science University and is partially financed by the organization Water For People, which is based in Denver.

The Mission Valley East Light-Rail Transit Project opened to the public on July 10, 2005. It created the Green Line by closing a critical 5.9 mi (9.5 km) gap between the Blue and Orange lines in the trolley system. First envisioned by the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) more than 25 years ago, the $506-million project gives San Diegans increased mobility within the busy Interstate 8 corridor.

The salient features of the project—undertaken by the MTS and the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG)—include a tunnel section constructed utilizing the new Austrian tunneling method applied to soft ground; eight bridges totaling more than 2 mi (3.2 km) in length; and four stations, including an underground station at the San Diego State University campus.

In addition to the eight bridges, the new guideway alignment required significant retaining walls, a U section, and a 1 mi (1.6 km) long triple-cell box culvert. Because of space limitations, much of the at-grade section encroaches on steep slopes above I-8 with cut walls above the track bed and fill walls below it. Altogether, more than 4 mi (6.4 km) of various types of retaining walls were required.

With its state-of-the-art low-floor trolleys, the Mission Valley project is on target to attract 11,000 boardings per day by the year 2015. With more than 2.5 million new riders expected in the metropolitan area by the year 2015, the project will be a boon to transportation within the busy I-8 corridor.

The Civil Engineering Forum for Innovation (CEFI) has announced the recipients of the 2008 Charles Pankow Award for Innovation and the 2008 Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research. Each winner was selected by a jury comprising civil engineering leaders from industry, academia, and government. The Pankow jury met in late November to select the winner, and the winner of the Michel award was selected in early December. Both selections have been approved by CEFI’s Board of Directors. The winners will receive their awards at the 2008 Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) gala, which will be held on April 30 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport.

The Pankow award was established by CEFI’s predecessor, the Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF), to recognize organizations working collaboratively to aid the design and construction industry by converting innovative ideas into practice. The award is named for Charles J. Pankow, CERF’s founder and an innovator and leader in civil engineering for five decades. This year’s winner is the Lightweight Modular Ceramic Composite Firewall System, developed by a team comprising Composite Support & Solutions, Inc., of San Pedro, California; Southern California Edison, a utility firm headquartered in Rosemead, California; San Diego State University; and the University of Southern California’s Center for Composite Materials. The fire wall system was developed to protect utility transformers from catastrophic fires.

A large portion of transformers in the United States are more than 35 years old, and insurance companies project that these aging transformers will soon begin to diminish the efficiency of the energy transmission infrastructure. Major transformers are situated in banks of four or more, and each transformer contains up to 14,000 gal (53 m³) of highly refined mineral oil. Transformer fires can quickly escalate, significantly increasing the extent and severity of power interruptions. Replacing the older transformers is prohibitively expensive, as each costs approximately $4 million to $6 million. Moreover, the preparation can take up to two years. A more cost-effective solution, the team reasoned, would be to construct a fire wall around each transformer, thereby isolating the damage from a catastrophic failure. Traditional fire walls could not be installed because there is not enough space between the transformers. Therefore, the team developed an innovative design/build solution to protect these costly and vulnerable energy assets.

The paucity of space inspired the lightweight modular system. The fire wall system takes the form of a 35 by 35 ft (11 by 11 m) wall made up of 28 panels assembled in four vertical sections. The five columns that hold these sections are prefabricated steel beams, which are protected from fire with durable covers that are bolted on, thereby facilitating assembly and disassembly. The team determined that chemically bonded ceramics (CBCs) would meet the project’s requirements. CBCs were used as dental cements in the 19th century, a use that demonstrated their formidable longevity and durability. The team used CBCs as a resin and created a composite material by combining the resin with glass and carbon fibers. The resulting composite material exhibited a mechanical toughness and a resistance to hydrocarbon fires that could not be obtained with the CBC resin alone.

The Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research, according to the award’s criteria, “recognizes and acknowledges leaders of the design and construction industry whose dedication and aggressive vision for the industry have provided the cornerstones for improving the quality of people’s lives around the world through research in the design and construction industry.” It is named in honor of Henry L. Michel, a former chairman of CERF’s Board of Directors. This year’s winner is Carl A. Strock, P.E., M.ASCE, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and a former commander and chief of engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Strock was chosen for his work with the Corps in promoting engineering innovations in research and technology.
The award descriptions and the 2008 recipients, along with a list of past recipients, are available at CEFI’s newly redesigned Web site, www.asce.org/cefi. A searchable database of some of the Pankow entries also is available.

The members of the Pankow jury were J. Richard Capka, P.E., M.ASCE, then the administrator of the Federal Highway Administration; Linda Ann Figg, a.M.ASCE, the president of the Figg Engineering Group, of Tallahassee, Florida; Thomas L. Jackson, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, a past president of ASCE, a consulting transportation engineer, and a former vice president and chief engineer of DMJM Harris, of New York City; Jon D. Magnusson, CERF, the chairman and chief executive officer of Magnusson Klemencic Associates, of Seattle; Priscilla P. Nelson, Ph.D., Hon.M.ASCE, the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the New Jersey Institute of Technology; and Anne Elizabeth Powell, the editor in chief of Civil Engineering and ASCE News and the jury chair.

The members of the Michel jury were Preston Haskell, M.ASCE, the chairman of the Haskell Company, of Jacksonville, Florida, the liaison to CEFI’s Board of Directors, and the jury chair; Sarah Slaughter, Ph.D., M.ASCE, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Jeremy Isenberg, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, the president and chief executive officer of Weidlinger Associates, Inc., of Atherton, California; Richard Kunnath, A.M.ASCE, the chief executive officer of Charles Pankow Builders, Ltd., of Pasadena, California; David J. Nash, P.E., M.ASCE, the president of BE&K, Inc., of Birmingham, Alabama; Benedict R. Schwegler, Jr., Ph.D., M.ASCE, the vice president and chief scientist of Walt Disney Imagineering, Research & Development, Inc., of Glendale, California; Norbert W. Young, Jr., A.M.ASCE, the president of McGraw-Hill Construction, of New York City; and Mary Elizabeth Michel, the late Henry L. Michel’s spouse and an honorary and nonvoting member of the jury.

—Brett Hansen

Engineers Week 2008 is taking place this month (February 17–23). This is the time of year when the public joins in a nationwide celebration of the engineering profession. ASCE is a founding member of a national Engineers Week coalition that brings together more than 75 engineering, professional, and technical societies and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. In 2010 ASCE will again chair Engineers Week, the third time it has done so since 1994. The week is an ideal way for ASCE to advance many of our strategic goals and to engage in activities that promote our profession. The Engineers Week coalition is dedicated to building a dynamic engineering profession by working toward an ethnically diverse and well-educated engineering workforce and raising precollege performance levels in math and science.

ASCE’s sections and branches are active in initiating and hosting Engineers Week activities while working with other interested organizations. Although the week falls in February, it is meant to increase public understanding of engineering all year long through innovative programs and celebrations around the country.

For a great example of how a section can work with other groups on outreach during the year, look at our Maryland Section. For years, the section has taken advantage of Engineers Week resources and run activities involving various engineering societies. The successful teamwork exhibited by organizations this year in Maryland has resulted in more than 17 challenges being offered at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. The Future City Competition gives participating teams an opportunity to design a city of the future with the aid of SimCity software. Other activities challenge students to construct bridges using glue and small pieces of basswood or drinking straws. The bridges thus designed must also be able to handle specified live loads. Engineers Week serves to boost momentum for local activities and to offer stimulating new ideas for outreach endeavors.

Some of the most exciting activities this year are linked to the TV series Design Squad, produced by WGBH, of Boston. ASCE’s partnership with WGBH in the series Building Big and in the outreach program ZOOM into Engineering laid the groundwork for this series. The outreach activities during Engineers Week that are linked to it have been designed to introduce kids and their families to the engineering design process. ASCE is a leading supporter of Design Squad and is represented on the advisory and funding board. Contributions from ASCE members helped with initial funding, and many ASCE members conduct outreach activities linked to the series throughout the year. Resources, training, and outreach materials are available from ASCE for conducting these activities. For example, in workshops conducted prior to our regional leadership conferences in January and February, members were acquainted not only with the outreach programs linked to Design Squad but also with a variety of other endeavors designed to foster an interest in science and engineering in precollege students at all grade levels. Design Squad’s new season includes an online competition with the theme “trash to treasure” that invites viewers to find new purposes for old items. Contest rules are to be announced in conjunction with Engineers Week. Additional information and streaming video of episodes are available at www.pbskids.org/designsquad.

The Discover Engineering Family Day is sponsored annually by Engineers Week and the National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C. Every year thousands of children of all ages eagerly pack the museum’s main hall to experience the exciting challenges of engineering. This year the event will be on February 16 and will feature dozens of hands-on activities for kids devised by local engineering groups and national organizations, including ASCE’s National Capital Section. The day will also feature appearances by Nate Hall, a host of Design Squad, and by Digit, one of the characters in the pbs series Cyberchase. More information is available at http://eweekdcfamilyday.org/.

As part of the Engineers Week coalition, ASCE is an informal outreach partner for Cyberchase, the only mathematics series for children on American television. The sixth season focuses on math in building and sports. Produced for students ranging in age from 8 to 12, each episode delivers positive messages about math by teaching concepts in a way that youngsters can understand and enjoy. Assistance is provided by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Cyberchase is broadcast on more than 350 PBS stations nationwide. Visit http://pbskids.org/cyberchase.

ASCE is also partnering with Scholastic and Universal Studios in promoting an outreach program linked to the pbs series Curious George, which is geared to students from kindergarten to grade 5. ASCE is taking the lead in soliciting volunteer support from the engineering community to support educators who are interested in using the Curious George curriculum.

Each year ASCE pays tribute to outstanding young civil engineers in connection with New Faces of Engineering, an Engineers Week program that showcases the accomplishments of young professionals from all engineering disciplines. This year’s “new face” in civil engineering is Javier Moncada, who is being recognized for his research work on the earthquake that struck southern Asia on December 26, 2004, and took a heavy toll of life through tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. Moncada has also done volunteer work building schools and educating youth about coastal engineering and has established an ASCE renewable energy and sustainability technical group. ASCE solicits nominations of outstanding young (up to age 30) civil engineers for this program. We shine the spotlight on these accomplished young civil engineers, highlighting their professional contributions and the benefits these contributions confer on society as a whole. Profiles of those selected for the New Faces of Engineering program are published in USA Today.

As mentioned above, the Future City Competition (www.futurecity.org/) looms large in the activities that form part of Engineers Week. Now in its 16th year, the contest is engaging the interest of more than 30,000 middle school students from a record-breaking 1,111 schools around the country. Student teams work with teachers and volunteer engineers to envision the future and construct models of the cities of tomorrow. The teams presented their entries at regional competitions in January. The regional winners will travel to Washington for the final round, which will be held February 18–20. The competition provides an exciting educational engineering program for middle school students and also puts a premium on teamwork, good communication, and problem solving. ASCE sections and branches host competitions across the country. Many of them, along with a variety of outreach activities, are funded through ASCE’s State Public Affairs Grants Program. To apply for a grant, members should visit the ASCE Web site to obtain guidelines on submitting proposals (www.asce.org/inside/spag.cfm).

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day 2008—February 21—will provide an excellent opportunity for ASCE members to take part in mentoring activities and to acquaint girls with the challenges and opportunities that await them in engineering. Thousands of women engineers and their male counterparts will be doing just that in activities built around this day. For information about events planned around the country, visit http://www.eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/2008_nationalpledgeroster.shtml.

Engineer Your Life, also part of Engineers Week, is a campaign that has grown out of the Extraordinary Women Engineers Project (EWEP). It will be launched on February 20, the day before Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day 2008. ASCE has served in a leadership role in the EWEP coalition and is intent on promoting efforts to encourage young women to consider careers in engineering. Engineer Your Life hopes to have a national effect on the way engineering careers are presented, particularly to girls in high school who are planning to attend college. Various messages in this vein have been developed and tested as part of the EWEP, and these will form the centerpiece of the Engineer Your Life campaign and Web site, www.engineeryourlife.org.

These programs are just some of the resources available to your section or branch. With them you can host an exciting program that will help students gain an insight into our profession. Why not organize a group of interested organizations and make outreach a priority during 2008? Engineers Week is an ideal time to launch your program. To learn more, visit www.eweek.org/.

—David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE

I am pleased to announce that issues of Civil Engineering and ASCE News are now available to members on new Web sites . To access them, simply click on “Member’s Only” at the Society’s Web site, www.asce.org. Pages can be turned with a simple click of the mouse, and readers can easily jump to a favorite department or search using a key term. The magazine will be posted by the 15th of each month, and the newspaper will be available by the 25th of each month. In addition to current issues, the Web site includes all 12 issues of Civil Engineering from 2006 and 2007. Issues of the magazine from 2005 will soon be added. The Web sites also include all 12 issues of ASCE News from 2007 and some from 2006.

In addition to receiving a hard copy of GeoStrata—the Geo-Institute’s bimonthly magazine, which features articles written by and for engineering professionals—Geo-Institute members may now access the current issue online, along with issues from 2006 and 2007, at the institute’s Web site, www.geoinstitute.org. (Issues before 2006 will be added in the future.) Members simply click on the “Members Only” button and follow the links. In addition to surveying industry news, GeoStrata contains articles on construction techniques, business management, unusual projects, and new technologies.

With the support of such stakeholders as asce, appropriations for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) exceeded $1 billion this fiscal year. In recent years asce has been a major advocate of increased funding for the usgs’s water programs. Society members have testified on the programs’ behalf, and representatives of asce have met with House of Representatives staffers, as well as with senior policy officials and officials from the Office of Management and Budget, to make the case for fuller support. Appropriations for the usgs this year totaled $1.006 billion, a 2.4 percent increase over the amount in fiscal year 2007. Appropriations for water programs increased from $215 million in 2007 to $221 million, and funding for the National Streamflow Information Program was increased by $3.5 million. Moreover, the amount appropriated for the usgs’s National Monitoring Network was increased by $1 million as part of an interagency plan to improve information on water quality.

In January asce promoted the profession through exhibits at the World of Concrete (WOC), which was held in Las Vegas, and the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), which was in Washington, D.C. Staff and members promoted the Society’s institutes, publications, conferences, and other services and benefits to the thousands of professionals attending the gatherings. At the WOC, the asce booth exhibited the concrete canoe built by students at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, and at the TRB meeting asce’s bookstore offered more than 70 titles.

Mark your calendars for asce’s annual Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) gala, which will be held on April 30. In addition to the presentation of the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award, awards will be conferred on five individuals for lifetime achievement (see page 1 of last month’s issue). The spotlight will also shine on the winners of the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research and the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation. Join us that evening at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport to honor the extraordinary accomplishments of the OPAL award recipients. To learn more about the gala, visit www.asce.org/opal.

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

As recent articles in this column have demonstrated, discussions of professional conduct frequently require consideration of state and federal law. While in most cases professional ethics and statutory requirements overlap, certain types of conduct may violate one standard while satisfying another. For example, plagiarism violates ASCE’s ethical requirement that engineers “give proper credit for engineering work to those to whom credit is due” (guidelines for canon 5), but state licensing laws do not necessarily subject the plagiarist to disciplinary action. Conversely, engineers who seal another’s design plan after careful review are in compliance with ASCE’s Code of Ethics, but many states have enacted laws imposing tight restrictions on the sealing of design documents. The following scenario illustrates the interplay between ethics and legal compliance.

SITUATION: A structural engineer licensed in Pennsylvania is hired by a large multistate employer to perform design work on a water treatment facility in western Pennsylvania. Upon completion of the project, the engineer learns that his employer is planning to construct a similar facility in Texas. The engineer learns from his supervisor that the firm is so pleased with his work that it would like him to take the lead on the Texas project. The firm offers a substantial package of incentives to encourage the engineer to relocate to its Texas office. Although the engineer is not licensed in Texas, the compensation package is tempting, and his family has no objection to the move. The engineer accepts the transfer, understanding that it is unnecessary for him to apply for Texas licensure as long as he performs work only for his current employer.

QUESTION: Under what circumstances would the above situation not represent a violation of state law or ASCE’s Code of Ethics?

DECISION: The practice of engineering is subject to licensure in all U.S. states and territories. State laws mandate that any person engaged in the practice of engineering be licensed by the applicable licensing board. An engineer who practices engineering in Texas while being licensed only in Pennsylvania would, by this definition, be an unlicensed practitioner and thus might be subject to civil penalties or even criminal prosecution under Texas law. While states may differ somewhat over what constitutes the “practice of engineering,” the facts described here are likely to be deemed such practice, suggesting that the engineer in this scenario has engaged in the unlicensed practice of engineering.

While ASCE’s Code of Ethics does not expressly prohibit engineers from practicing engineering in states where they are not licensed, paragraph (d) in the guidelines to practice for canon 5 has this to say: “Engineers shall not falsify or permit misrepresentation of their academic or professional qualifications or experience.” When an engineer performs engineering services for a client, the engineer is implicitly representing that he or she is fully qualified to perform those services. Any ASCE member who offers services knowing that he or she has not met the legal requirements to undertake such work is thus misrepresenting his or her professional qualifications and thus violates not only the state laws regulating engineering but also the Society’s Code of Ethics.

However, if the engineer’s employer in the above scenario is not a private firm but rather the U.S. government, the employee’s conduct is likely to be acceptable under state law and, by extension, ASCE’s Code of Ethics. Section 1001.054 of the Texas Engineering Practice Act reads as follows: “An officer or employee of the United States is exempt from the licensing requirements of this chapter during the time the officer or employee is engaged in the practice of engineering for the United States in this state,” and similar exemptions may be found in most, if not all, of the licensing regulations for other U.S. states and territories.

Although this exception is expressed in state statutes, its source can be traced all the way to the U.S. Constitution. Article IV (section 2) of the Constitution reads as follows: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof . . . shall be the supreme Law of the land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” Known as the supremacy clause, this provision means that when federal and state laws are in direct conflict and there is no language in the federal law allowing states to enforce conflicting legislation, federal law overrides the laws of the state.

In 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an Arkansas licensing board could not impose its licensing rules on a federal contractor hired to build facilities in the state for the air force. The Supreme Court observed that the federal procurement act that authorized the contract had set the standards by which the appropriate contractor was to be selected. The court found that imposing state rules on a federal contractor would “give the [s]tate’s licensing board a virtual power of review” over the U.S. government’s determination that the professional was qualified to perform the work and therefore would violate the principle that federal law is the supreme law of the land.

As a consequence of this decision, as well as of several subsequent Supreme Court decisions involving lawyers, private investigators, and other professionals subject to state licensure, the supremacy clause has been established to mean that only the federal government has the right to set qualifications that a professional must meet to perform work for a federal agency or employer. While federal regulations can, and generally do, require licensure for professionals engaged for federal work, the states have no authority to impose any particular requirements. As the Supreme Court observed, “It is the duty of the [federal] [d]epartment to employ persons competent for their work and that duty it must be presumed has been performed.”

If the engineer in the above scenario is performing work solely for the U.S. government, the engineer is not required to hold Texas licensure in order to practice engineering. Therefore, he or she is not “misrepresenting” his or her status as a fully authorized professional in violation of ASCE’s Code of Ethics. However, it must be noted that while the engineer remains unlicensed in Texas, he or she must strictly adhere to the narrow exemption for federal work. If the engineer offers consultation on a private matter or renders any service implying qualification as an engineer licensed in Texas, the engineer may again be subject to state law and to a potential charge of unethical conduct.

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.

ASCE Expands Offerings Of Online Seminars

In an effort to meet the growing demand for low-priced, convenient continuing education opportunities, ASCE is offering new live Web seminars (“webinars”) designed to address timely and important engineering topics. This year more than 175 webinars will be offered to members.

ASCE has been offering webinars for more than five years, and the demand for them continues to grow. In 2007 more than 45,000 engineers took advantage of the more than 125 webinars on offer. The new webinars this year will include the following:

• Design of Wood Beams and Joists
• Design of Wood Connections
• Deciphering Building Code Provisions for Structural Renovation
• Design of Wood Diaphragms and Shear Walls
• Long-Term Disaster Recovery Issues: Public Water Supply Lessons Learned
• Interviewing Skills
• Addressing Engineering Liability Issues
• The New Marketplace: Achieving Success through Stronger Client and Community Relationships

In addition to webinars in the Live P.E. Exam Review Series, the Society is offering a program called the Live Structural I P.E. Exam Review Series (see the Calendar section of this issue).

The growing popularity of the webinars since their inception is indisputable. Some have had enrollments of more than 1,000. In 2007 the Sustainable Development webinar had 1,244 participants, and Personal Time Management attracted 1,135. Scope Creep and Intersection Channelization each had nearly 1,000 participants.

Delivered live via the Web, webinars typically last 60 to 90 minutes and cover a wide variety of technical and management topics. The programs are designed to be practice oriented and to address topics of current interest. Participants pay a single site registration fee that permits an unlimited number of engineers to attend at that site. Participants view the instructor’s PowerPoint slides while he or she is presenting. They can also interact with the instructor and other participants and can receive immediate answers to their questions.

For additional information about ASCE’s webinars, visit http://www.ASCE.org/webinar/list.

Mongan Helps Choose History Channel’s City of the Future

ASCE’s president, David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE, served as one of the five judges who on January 15 selected Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP, headquartered in Washington, D.C., as a regional winner in the History Channel’s City of the Future: A Design and Engineering Challenge. Held in conjunction with the premiere of the History Channel’s television series Cities of the Underworld, the competition is unfolding in three cities: Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Atlanta. Teams there are given one week in which to envision what their cities will look like in the year 2108. The teams must create a detailed three-dimensional model and expound their vision to the judges. Beyer Blinder Belle was selected as the Washington winner for its design, “Capital FORTway” (“FORT” denoting future-oriented renewable technologies).

The design sees a Washington that will have centers for producing energy from wind and the sun. Hydroponic farming will be practiced within forts originally constructed for defense of the nation’s capital. An expanded subway system will meet the transportation needs of residents, and the city’s diagonal streets—signature elements in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s original city plan—will grace the capital as pedestrian greenways.

The competition is sponsored by Infiniti and IBM, and the History Channel is drawing on the expertise of ASCE and the American Institute of Architects. The winning teams in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and San Francisco each receive a $10,000 prize. During the next stage of the competition, the three regional winners will face an online vote to determine the overall winner. Descriptions and images of the winning designs will be featured on the History Channel’s Web site, www.history.com. The team with the most online votes will receive an additional $5,000 and will be named this year’s national champion.

Partnership with IAEM Promises To Promote Safety and Raise Awareness of Infrastructure Issues

On January 14, ASCE and the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) met at ASCE’s headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, to sign a memorandum of cooperation designed to raise public awareness of the state of critical facets of the nation’s infrastructure. The partnership also encourages the engineering community to actively support emergency managers.

In the memorandum, both organizations acknowledge “the need for additional funding and increased emphasis on coordination of all aspects of emergency management worldwide” as well as the need to improve the nation’s failing infrastructure. “It is imperative to design, develop, and construct critical infrastructure that is resilient from all hazards, and achieving that goal will be an integral part of this partnership,” noted ASCE’s president, David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE. “Both organizations recognize the importance of improving the integrity of our nation’s aging and overburdened infrastructure as a part of protecting public safety,” he said.

Founded in 1952 by the U.S. Civil Defense Corps, the IAEM is a nonprofit organization devoted to saving lives and protecting property during emergencies and disasters. “IAEM is looking forward to this new partnership with ASCE,” said Elizabeth B. Armstrong, the group’s executive director. “Our similar goals make this partnership a natural fit in our efforts to continually improve public safety,” she said. The IAEM is made up of more than 4,000 emergency management professionals from local, state, and federal governments as well as from the military, private industry, and volunteer organizations.

ASCE agrees to support “the sharing of information and the enhancement of disaster management efforts at local, state, federal, and international levels and the continued participation of all agencies and departments involved in emergency management.” For its part, the IAEM recognizes “the need to involve and obtain the support of the engineering community in the preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation phases of emergency management,” according to the memorandum.

Smith Named Government Civil Engineer of the Year
Larry J. Smith, P.E., F.ASCE, has been named the recipient of ASCE’s 2007 Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award. Smith was chosen for his service to the public sector as the chief of construction for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Sacramento, California, as well as for his service to the community as a volunteer firefighter. A recognized authority in contract administration in the Corps and an innovator in this area, Smith has developed a Web site (“Disk of Knowledge Library”) that provides a forum in which professionals can access and add to the body of knowledge for contract administration and facilities management. He is also recognized as an outstanding instructor in the Corps’s Proponent-Sponsored Engineer Corps Training Program (widely referred to as the PROSPECT program) and often serves as a guest lecturer. Smith was raised in southern Utah and attended Southern Utah State College (now Southern Utah University) and the University of Utah, where he obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering. He began his engineering career in 1971 with the Utah Department of Transportation and in 1974 joined the Corps. Smith is a registered engineer in California and Utah.

Ching Honored by Navy
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) has named Florence M. Ching, P.E., M.ASCE, its civilian engineer of the year. Ching is recognized for the management prowess she has exhibited in military construction projects totaling more than $167 million. Among the vitally important projects she has managed are the Pacific Warfighting Center, on Ford Island, Hawaii, and a helicopter flight training facility at a U.S. Marine Corps base in Hawaii. Ching’s contributions made it possible for the construction contracts to be awarded on time and the projects to be completed within their budgets. A registered engineer in Hawaii, Ching has completed 97 design projects for the navy in California, Nevada, Washington, Hawaii, and overseas.

Nine ASCE Members Appear In ENR’s Elite List
In January the editors of Engineering News-Record (ENR) presented their list of the 25 most newsworthy individuals of 2007, professionals whose innovations and achievements were highlighted in the magazine last year. Of these 25, 9 are members of ASCE. Their abilities and achievements have benefited both their communities and the profession.

José Abreu, P.E., F.ASCE, the director of Florida’s Miami-Dade Aviation Department, was selected for the leadership he showed in turning around a project at Miami International Airport to expand the north terminal, an endeavor that was behind schedule and over budget. Abreu used his engineering experience and leadership capabilities to settle 335 contractor claims at a third of the original cost and thereby improve the airport’s economic outlook. A native of Cuba, Abreu immigrated to the United States at the age of 13 and earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Miami in 1977. A licensed professional engineer, he became Florida’s transportation secretary in 2003. Abreu currently serves as a member of the advisory board of the University of Miami’s School of Engineering.

Michael A. Allegra, P.E., A.M.ASCE, the assistant general manager and chief capital development officer for the Utah Transit Authority (UTA), was selected for the leadership and management prowess he has shown in addressing Utah’s unprecedented growth in mass transit. Allegra began his career with the UTA in 1978 after obtaining a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Rutgers University and a master’s degree in civil engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He was heavily involved in planning the transportation system for the 2002 Winter Olympics, serving as a member of the organizing committee’s transportation group.

Clyde N. Baker, Jr., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, a senior vice president and senior principal of STS Consultants, Ltd., has been selected for his geotechnical engineering of the Chicago Spire, a 2,000 ft (609 m) tall structure currently under construction. This edifice, however, is only one of the tall buildings for which Baker is known. For the past 50 years he has served as the geotechnical engineer on many tall buildings in Chicago and around the world. Baker holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has served as a consulting geotechnical engineer on many of the world’s tallest buildings, including the Petronas Towers, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Taipei 101, in Taiwan.

Jeffrey S. Dailey, P.E., M.ASCE, the assistant executive director of project delivery for the North Texas Tollway Authority, was selected for his achievements as the chief engineer for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. In that position, which he vacated last December, Dailey worked on a 10-year, multibillion-dollar renovation and expansion program involving the area’s toll system, which is now nearly half completed. Among his achievements, he completed a 12.5 mi (3.8 m) portion of the system under budget and ahead of schedule. Dailey holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Ohio State University. Honored with the 2006 Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award by asce’s Illinois Section, he was named the 2007 person of the year by the Construction Management Association of America.

Ronald B. Johnson, P.E., M.ASCE, an associate partner in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Chicago office, is recognized for his innovative design of the Broadgate Tower, a 165 m high-rise in London that was erected after the structural raft had already been put in place for a lower building. Johnson was charged with accommodating the new height without disturbing traffic on an adjacent rail line. He designed the building to include a unique system of A-frames that would alleviate the loads on the tower’s existing raft. Johnson holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jon Khachaturian, P.E., M.ASCE, the president and chief executive officer of Versabar, a firm that specializes in heavy offshore lifting, is recognized for his invention and application of the Bottom Feeder. This specialized lifting system can reach depths of 400 ft (122 m) and has lifted the tops of oil platforms from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico after hurricanes toppled them from their towers. Khachaturian obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois in 1978.

William R. Knocke, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, the head of the civil and environmental engineering department at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), was recognized for the exemplary way in which he handled the tragedy that occurred on April 16, 2007, when a student went on a shooting rampage on the university’s campus, killing 30 people in an engineering building and 2 persons elsewhere. According to ENR, Knocke emerged as a spokesman on national television and successfully helped his department survive the ordeal. He told the magazine that no students abandoned the engineering program at Virginia Tech because of the tragedy. Knocke received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Missouri and a master’s degree and a doctorate in environmental engineering there. He joined Virginia Tech’s faculty in 1979 and was made chair of the department in 1995.

Cary Kopczynski, P.E., M.ASCE, the founder and senior principal of the structural engineering firm Cary Kopczynski & Company, Inc., P.S., of Bellevue, Washington, is recognized for overcoming reinforcing steel congestion in tall structures by specifying the use of 100 ksi (689,500 kPa) rebar instead of 60 ksi (413,700 kPa) rebar in columns that use 14,000 psi (96,530 kPa) concrete. The higher strength reduces the amount of rebar needed and the time required for beam-column connections. ENR stated that Kopczynski is perhaps the first structural engineer in the world to use 100 ksi (689,500 kPa) rebar for column confinement. His research supporting the use of the rebar has resulted in a new provision in the American Concrete Institute’s standard ACI 318-2008, which is expected to be adopted as part of the 2009 International Building Code. Kopczynski earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Washington State University and is a licensed professional engineer in Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Hawaii, Utah, Virginia, Ohio, Arizona, and Nevada.

Michael R. Markus, P.E., M.ASCE, the general manager of California’s Orange County Water District, was chosen for his supervision of a $480-million advanced water treatment plant constructed to address the problem of dwindling water supplies in the area. He managed the design and construction teams and also allayed the concerns of local leaders and the public about the treatment process. Markus holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from California State Polytechnic University and a master’s degree, also in civil engineering, from the University of Southern California.

Capka Steps Down as FHWA Administrator
J. Richard Capka, P.E., M.ASCE, has resigned from his position as the administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). In his January 23 letter of resignation to President George W. Bush, Capka said, “I will always appreciate your confidence in my abilities and the wonderful opportunity that you gave me to serve in positions of such great public responsibility.” Capka was sworn in as the administrator on May 31, 2006. He became the agency’s deputy administrator in August 2002 and beginning in August 2005 served as its acting administrator. During his appointments, he helped prepare the transportation reauthorization proposal for the Bush administration. Before his work with the FHWA, Capka served as the chief executive officer and executive director of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and in that capacity was involved in Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Project, or “Big Dig.” Capka is a retired U.S. Army brigadier general who served as the division engineer and commander of the Corps of Engineers’ division encompassing the southeastern part of the country and as commander of the division encompassing the country’s southwestern part. Mary E. Peters, the U.S. secretary of transportation, had this to say in an e-mail: “My friend and colleague Rick Capka leaves the department with an exceptional record of accomplishment. Under his guidance, first as my deputy and then as my successor as federal highway administrator, the agency has made significant progress in improving our nation’s mobility and keeping our roadways safe. His exceptional leadership in Minneapolis after the bridge collapse and in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina exemplifies Rick’s work ethic and ability to get the job done. I wish him and his family the best of success in their future endeavors.” As of press time no successor had been named.

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 distinguished members.

Robert A. Brown, P.E., F.ASCE, is the director of engineering for the Louisville Regional Airport Authority (LRAA), in Kentucky, where he has worked for 27 years. Before that he was a senior engineer with the Kentucky Department of Transportation. A licensed professional engineer and a licensed land surveyor in Kentucky, he holds a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of Kentucky. Brown directed the rebuilding of Louisville International Airport (LIA), an endeavor that included two new parallel runways and associated taxiways and a total of 125 ancillary projects. The overall cost was $780 million. The relocation and construction work involved an Air National Guard base, three corporate hangars, a Federal Aviation Administration control tower, a radar site, a 4,000-space parking garage, an LRAA maintenance facility, rental car facilities, and runway approach systems. The environmental work included the remediation and closure of a large industrial site and 130 underground storage tanks, the environmental cleanup totaling $13 million. Brown managed the noise mitigation program and oversaw the demolition of 1,500 houses purchased as part of the project. He was also involved in rebuilding all runways and taxiways at Bowman Field, which takes spillover from LIA. Brown has been a member of ASCE since 1977 and has served on the Transportation and Development Institute’s Airfield Pavement Committee. He is currently a member of a technical committee within Airports Council International–North America. His accolades include the 1997 Award of Achievement in Construction from the Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers and a distinguished service award conferred in connection with Engineers Week.

Christos A. Dovas, P.E., F.ASCE, is a senior project manager for Ardmore Associates, LLC, in Chicago. A licensed engineer in Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana, he holds engineering degrees from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now Polytechnic University) and New York University. Before joining Ardmore, Dovas served for 20 years in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel, and later held positions at other engineering firms. In addition to combat assignments in Vietnam, he was an instructor at Fort Benning, Georgia, and carried out civil engineering assignments for the Corps in Germany. His earlier work with other firms included serving as project manager for the preliminary design of the North–South Tollway (Interstate 355), converting school grounds into parks throughout the Chicago area, and designing and renovating public housing units in Chicago. He was also involved in the renovation of Chicago’s Soldier Field. His current assignment with Ardmore is the renovation of facilities at the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. Dovas has been a member of ASCE since his student days in the 1960s, and over the years he has served on technical committees dealing with transportation and the environment.

Tuncer B. Edil, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and the chair of the geological engineering program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he has taught since 1977. Earlier in his career he lectured at Northwestern University, worked in Chicago for the Mirza Engineering Company, and held engineering positions in Turkey. A licensed engineer in Wisconsin, Edil holds degrees from Robert College, in I˙stanbul, Turkey, and Northwestern University. Edil’s expertise in soils has been reflected in his development of geotechnical design specifications and standards, and his work as a teacher and mentor in the area of geotechnical engineering is widely recognized. His research has made important contributions to construction over soft and organic soils, the stability of coastal bluffs, and the transport of volatile organic compounds through landfill liners, and in the past two decades it has led to greater use of such recycled materials and industrial by-products as scrap tires, fly ash, and foundry sands. Edil’s numerous accolades include the 2003 International Achievement Award from the Industrial Fabrics Association International, the 1999 Outstanding Civil Engineer Award from the Southwest Branch of ASCE’s Wisconsin Section, and an award from the government of France in 1991. Edil has been a member of ASCE for more than 30 years. He has served as editor in chief of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, president of the Wisconsin Section, and chair of the Geo-Institute’s International Activities Committee and has been actively involved with the student chapter at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He has also served as president of the United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research.

Santiago Hernandez, Ph.D., Reg. Eng., F.ASCE, has been a professor at Spain’s Universidad de La Coruña since 1993 and served as a dean there from 1993 to 1999. A licensed engineer in Spain, he holds degrees from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Universidad de Cantabria. Hernandez began teaching in the school of mechanical engineering at the Universidad de Zaragoza in 1975 and was vice-chancellor there from 1986 to 1989. He has more than 25 years of experience in structural optimization, including university teaching, research, software production, and the writing and editing of textbooks. He has also conducted research on the aeroelastic design of cable suspension bridges and has pioneered an approach for linking aeroelastic analysis, sensitivity studies, design optimization, and computer animation to better understand the aeroelastic behavior of bridges. Hernandez is in charge of the aerodynamic wind tunnel at the Universidad de La Coruña. In 2004 he was involved in the bridge competition for Italy’s Strait of Messina. Hernandez has collaborated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on reliability-based problems in aerospace and with Airbus on the development of the A380 aircraft and the design of the A350. He has also worked on the structural restoration of buildings of historical importance and has directed restoration work on churches, including those on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage List in Spain. Hernandez has been a visiting researcher at the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. In 1995 he received a medal recognizing his contributions from Britain’s Wessex Institute of Technology. Hernandez lectures throughout Europe, Asia, and America and has been a leader in developing training programs in structural engineering in Europe.

Kyung Jun Kim, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is a regional manager for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), which he joined in 1987. An authority in load and resistance factor design (LRFD) as applied to both structures and geotechnical engineering, Kim has responsibility—from geotechnical investigations to design and construction engineering—for all geotechnical projects in the NCDOT’s eastern regions. Earlier in his career he worked as a project engineer and a field engineer in South Korea. A licensed professional engineer in North Carolina, South Carolina, and South Korea, Kim holds degrees from Seoul National University, in South Korea, the University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of North Carolina at Raleigh. Over the past 20 years he has designed or supervised the design of numerous bridge foundations, retaining walls, roadway embankments and slopes, and various other structures. In the widening of U.S. 64 in North Carolina, he directed the design and construction of the state’s first embankment of foamed concrete on driven piles over soft ground. Kim introduced the concept of risk-based geotechnical design at the NCDOT, pioneered the application of LRFD in geotechnical practice, and developed resistance factors for determining the static bearing capacity of driven piles. He has also written computer programs for reliability analysis and the reliability-based calibration of resistance factors for LRFD applied to foundations. A member of several technical committees within ASCE’s Geo-Institute, Kim also serves on the Transportation Research Board.

David J. Sands, P.E., F.ASCE, is the deputy practice leader for transit for Urban Engineers, Inc., in Philadelphia. A licensed engineer in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio, Sands earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at Villanova University. His 34 years of civil engineering experience include 21 years with Conrail and 5 years with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (DOT), and his specialty is the management of large rail, mass transit, and highway capital projects. In coordination with the Pennsylvania DOT, Sands developed a multiproject memorandum of agreement that the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission now uses in protecting resources of historical importance. The agreement embodies a programmatic approach to remediating any untoward effects on historical resources and helps construction projects stay on schedule. Sands was also involved in a capacity improvement project that used innovative technology to stack containers for shipment. He was the resident engineer during the first long-term shutdown ever of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s “El”, a halt made necessary by rebuilding work in Philadelphia at the Frankford Transportation Center. After a year of planning, the shutdown and relocation of the center’s guideway were successfully completed in 2003. For his contributions to various projects Sands has been the recipient of awards from the Delaware Valley section of the Project Management Institute, the magazine Railway Track and Structures, and Conrail. He has been a member of ASCE since 1973 and is active within the Philadelphia Section. Sands also serves on an advisory commission for planning and site plan approval.

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.

C. Allin Cornell, Ph.D., M.ASCE, died on December 14 at the age of 69. A professor of civil and environmental engineering, Cornell was a pioneer in earthquake shaking predictions and modern seismic building codes. He advised the U.S. Geological Survey on its widely used seismic hazard maps. Cornell was born in 1938 in Mobridge, South Dakota. He attended Stanford University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s degree and a doctorate in civil engineering. He was on the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1966 to 1983 and afterward returned to Stanford as a research professor. In recognition of his contributions to earthquake research, Cornell was made a fellow of the American Geophysical Union.

Joseph F. Friedkin, Hon.M.ASCE, died on January 14 at the age of 98. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he moved to El Paso, Texas, when he was six years old. He attended the Texas College of Mines (now the University of Texas at El Paso) and graduated with honors with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1932. Friedkin joined the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) in 1934 and worked there for more than half a century. In 1962 he was appointed commissioner of the IBWC by President John F. Kennedy, and he served in that capacity until his retirement, in 1986. In 1968 he was accorded the rank of ambassador by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and he received the U.S. Department of State’s Distinguished Honor Award in 1986 for his outstanding service and his contributions in settling a 100-year boundary dispute with Mexico. The settlement is known as the Chamizal Convention of 1963.

David N. Kennedy, F.ASCE, died on December 23 at the age of 71. Between 1983 and 1998 Kennedy served as the director of California’s Department of Water Resources. During that time, he faced three major floods as well as a prolonged drought. In his work on the California State Water Project, he improved the pumping capacity in the delta shared by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and promoted efforts to safeguard the area’s environment. Kennedy was born in 1936 in Ontario, Oregon. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1959 and a master’s degree, also in civil engineering, from the University of California at Berkeley in 1962. Honored by the university as a distinguished alumnus in 1997, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1998. After retiring, he accepted an invitation to speak in Japan on the California State Water Project, which in 2001 was named one of the most outstanding engineering achievements of the 20th century by asce. Kennedy was also a member of ASCE’s External Review Panel, which peer-reviewed the work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force—the body commissioned by the Corps to assess the performance of the hurricane protection system in New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana during and after Hurricane Katrina.

Daniel A. Okun, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, died on December 10 at the age of 90. The Kenan Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Okun was recognized worldwide for his work in water management, pollution control, water reclamation and reuse, and watershed protection. Okun began his career at the university in 1952 and served as the chair of the environmental sciences and engineering department from 1955 to 1973. During those years the department grew from 3 to 25 faculty members. Okun retired from teaching in 1982 but remained active as a writer, lecturer, and consultant. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and later to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. During his career Okun worked in 89 countries and did consulting work for municipal and legislative planning committees nationwide. He also helped design a water treatment plant in Bangkok (Krung Thep), Thailand; established a graduate program in sanitary engineering in Lima, Peru; and studied water supply and pollution control in China for the World Bank. In Chapel Hill, his home, he led the campaign to build the Cane Creek Reservoir, near Carrboro, in the 1980s.