ASCE has chosen the winners of the 2009 Charles Pankow Award for Innovation and the 2009 Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research. Each winner was chosen by a committee comprising civil engineering leaders from industry, academia, and government, and both committees met in January. The honorees will receive their awards at the 2009 Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) gala, which will be held on April 23 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport, in Arlington, Virginia.
The Pankow award was established by the now defunct Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF) to recognize organizations working in concert to aid the design and construction industry by bringing innovative ideas into practice. It is named for Charles J. Pankow, the founder of CERF and an innovator and leader in civil engineering for five decades. This year’s winner is the Claremont Tunnel Seismic Upgrade Project, which was developed by a team made up of the East Bay Municipal Utility District, of Oakland, California; Jacobs Associates, a consulting engineering firm headquartered in San Francisco; Geomatrix Consultants, a geotechnical engineering firm headquartered in Oakland; Gregg Korbin, Ph.D., M.ASCE, an independent consultant from Lafayette, California; Alfred M. “Pete” Petrofsky, P.E., F.ASCE, an independent tunnel construction consultant from San Rafael, California; D. Scott Kieffer, Ph.D., M.ASCE, a professor and the chair of the engineering geology department at the Technische Universität Graz, in Austria; and Tor L. Brekke, Ph.D., M.ASCE, a professor emeritus of geotechnical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.
The Claremont Tunnel Seismic Upgrade Project pioneered innovative design features in upgrading a major water supply tunnel in the San Francisco Bay Area that serves more than 800,000 residents and crosses the Hayward Fault Zone. The bypass tunnel system provides a carrier pipe located within a seismically resistant vault section that is designed to resist significant earthquakes. This engineering approach reduced not only the cost and duration of the project but also the interruption of the water service, the amount of environmental waste and pollution, and the disruption of the surface area. The members of the team believe that this approach can help engineers and owners carry out similar installations in areas subject to severe earthquakes.
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 worldwide through research in the design and construction industry.” It is named in honor of Henry L. Michel, a former chairman of CERF’s governing board. This year’s winner is Vice Admiral Michael K. Loose, P.E.., M.ASCE, who led a comprehensive effort to overhaul the way the U.S. Navy invests in construction projects.
As the commander of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Loose carried out a systematic and comprehensive assessment of the conditions of naval facilities. His efforts led to the development of an investment strategy that continually ensures that facilities are properly sized, configured, and maintained and that they meet the requirements of the navy’s strategic plan. Loose also demonstrated his understanding of the important role that new technology plays in the design and construction industry.
The members of the Pankow jury were Robert K. Tener, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a representative of the Charles Pankow Foundation and the jury chair; Clem Hiel, the president of Composite Support & Solutions, Inc., of Rancho Palos Verdes, California; Linda A. Figg, M.ASCE, the president and chief executive officer of FIGG Engineering Group, of Tallahassee, Florida; Benedict R. Schwegler, Jr., Ph.D., M.ASCE, the vice president and chief scientist of Walt Disney Imagineering, of Glendale, California; and Robert Prieto, the senior vice president of Flour Corporation, of Princeton, New Jersey.
The members of the Michel jury were Preston H. Haskell, P.E., M.ASCE, the chairman of the Haskell Company, of Jacksonville, Florida, and the jury chair; Jane Chmielinski, the group chief executive officer of corporate development for AECOM, based in New York City; Carl A. Strock, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former commander and chief of engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who is now a project director with Bechtel Corporation, of San Francisco; Norbert W. Young, Jr., the president of McGraw-Hill Construction, of New York City; and Christopher E. Reseigh, P.E., F.ASCE, the global director and principal professional associate for Parsons Brinckerhoff, headquartered in New York City.
—Brett Hansen