Progressive Engineer Magazine News

ATC Associates celebrates 30th anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:48:00 +0000

ATC Associates, an engineering and environmental consulting firm specializing in geotechnical engineering, construction materials testing, special inspections, industrial hygiene, and environmental engineering services, is celebrating its 30^th anniversary this year.

Over the last three decades, ATC has worked behind the scenes for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies and was on the scene within hours of several national disasters. From working with the WTC recovery and redevelopment efforts to environmental testing in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as well as providing geotechnical services and construction materials testing on hundreds of major capital improvement projects across the country, ATC has served as a resource for organizations in petroleum, real estate, retail, manufacturing, financial services, insurance, construction, telecommunications, education, government, and hospitality.

ATC was founded in 1982 in Sioux Falls, SD as an analytical laboratory. The company’s initial services included water quality, lake restoration, and general analytical testing. As demand for ATC’s services grew, it added drug screening for the dog and horse racing industries as well as agricultural consulting and informational research. Adapting to an evolving market, ATC began conducting asbestos analyses and air monitoring services in the same decade, birthing a new direction for the growing company.

“Asbestos management was a hot topic in the early 1980s,” said Don Beck, one of ATC’s first employees, now a senior VP overseeing the North Region’s 30 offices. “In response to EPA regulations, asbestos abatement gained momentum, changing the face of our company from an analytical lab to environmental consulting firm.”

Driven by contractor and clients requests, ATC continued to expand its reach and opened several offices nationwide including New York City, Denver, Lincoln and Omaha, NE, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City and Los Angeles. During the 1990s, to increase geographic influence and continue to satisfy its diversified client base, ATC acquired more than 10 companies and 50 additional offices nationwide. Today with more than 71 offices in 39 states, ATC generates more than $200 million in services annually and employs over 1,600 professional, technical, and support personnel nationwide. Learn more at www.atcassociates.com.

Atkins goes to Alcatraz

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:41:00 +0000

The National Park Service (NPS) has selected Atkins to provide construction management services for structural repairs to the famous federal penitentiary building on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.

Located approximately one mile north of San Francisco, Alcatraz Island is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and contains numerous structures. The most notorious—Building #68, the cellhouse—served as a U.S. penitentiary for a concentration of “difficult-to-manage prisoners” from 1934 to 1963. Popularly known as “The Rock,” Alcatraz has been featured and creatively imagined in many movies, TV shows, books, and games.

The cellhouse improvements are part of the ongoing Alcatraz Historic Structures Stabilization project and will involve repairs to failing beams in the citadel and shower room areas that support the cellblock structures. This will include replacing beams that support the cellhouse floor to stop and repair structural damage, repairing the cellhouse structural floor and associated non-structural patching, and repairing/restoring salvageable beams to protect them from further deterioration.

“Atkins has had the great opportunity to work on many of America’s National Historic Landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, Hoover Dam, Faneuil Hall, and now Alcatraz,” says senior group manager Gary Self, PE. “We look forward to addressing the unique challenges of this project, such as working on an island that is only accessible by boat, with no land lines for telephone or data services. Not to mention we’re facing the cold, strong, hazardous currents of the San Francisco Bay and the penitentiary’s chilling past.”

Atkins’ services will include on-site inspections, construction contract administration, office services, and site visits.

KS Associates offers 3D laser scanning services

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:33:00 +0000

KS Associates, a multi-disciplined civil engineering and surveying firm, has announced that it now offers 3D laser scanning services. This next-generation technology provides architects, engineers, real estate professionals, facility managers, and design professionals an unprecedented level of precision and detail at a fraction of the time.

KS Associates has procured a Leica ScanStation C10, which collects thousands of points per second at the push of a button. The ScanStation C10 can scan an entire room in less than two minutes and can generate richly detailed computer models of the scanned environment. The ScanStation C10 generates “point clouds,” or three-dimensional, photo-realistic datasets representing the external surface of objects. The result is a reliable, robust, and detailed basis for design of the built environment.

According to Mark Skellenger, P.E., vice president of KS Associates, “3D laser scanning allows our clients to virtually revisit the project site throughout the entire design process, which can save time and enhance the design process. Clients appreciate the ability to extract datasets at any time. They have access to information that might not have been considered critical at the time of field data capture, data that would be time-consuming and costly to re-capture.”

3D laser scanning offers additional benefits, such as the ability to non-intrusively capture data for areas that were otherwise inaccessible, such as high-level bridges and overpasses; intricate, hard-to-reach piping systems; or historically preserved off-limit areas, which can now be scanned remotely. Applications ideal for laser scanning include building design and construction, interior design, civil/site modeling, transportation engineering, historical renovation, process engineering, and as-builts.

According to Skellenger, “Not only will 3D laser scanning enhance our surveying capabilities, it will allow us to serve clients for new, interesting applications, such as industrial refineries and plants, mining and exploration, and possibly forensics.”

Based in Elyria, OH, KS Associates is a civil engineering and land surveying firm founded in 1987. The firm provides land survey and mapping services; design, bidding and construction administration of public infrastructure and transportation projects; and site development engineering services for residential, commercial and institutional projects. For more information visit: www.ksassociates.com.

Michelle Halle Stern joins HDR as director of sustainable design services

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:25:00 +0000

Michelle Halle Stern, AIA, P.E. and LEED Fellow recently joined HDR Architecture as director of sustainable design services out of the firm’s Chicago office. Formerly an associate at Perkins + Will, Halle Stern is well known for her work in sustainable design for private and public sector organizations, including healthcare, government, and academic projects. She is a registered architect and engineer with over 20 years of diversified experience in the industry. A frequent guest speaker, author, and educator on green design, LEED, and the integrative design process, Halle Stern will serve as a leader and mentor for HDR designers. A strategic thinker with a record of building consensus and developing strong team relationships, Halle Stern will implement new sustainable design strategies and provide assistance on projects and other key initiatives.

Halle Stern is committed to Chicago and sustainable design, having started Chicago’s local U.S. Green Building Council Chapter. She is a Core Member of the USGBC Environmental Quality Technical Advisory Group as well as a member of the USGBC Project Based Learning Working Group. She also serves on the USGBC LEED Faculty and is an adjunct faculty member at Robert Morris University. Halle Stern holds a Master of Science in Public Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago as well as a Bachelors of Science in Architectural Studies and Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

GZA GeoEnvironmental wins ACEC Engineering Excellence Award

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:27:00 +0000

GZA GeoEnvironmental, a geotechnical and environmental consulting firm, has received the 2012 Engineering Excellence Special Recognition Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Maine for their embankment preload program as part of the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge Replacement Project in Portland and South Portland, Maine.

The South Portland Approach for the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge Replacement faced difficult constraints, including waterfront construction over the mudflats, permit-based limits on the allowable disturbance area, and a subsurface profile including up to 90 feet of moderate-strength, compressible marine clay. The preliminary and final design and construction of a preload program for the South Portland Approach was executed by the design-build team to provide a cost-effective, safe solution that met the project performance and safety criteria. GZA was the engineer-of-record for the South Portland Preload portion of the project, responsible for design and construction documents and a member of the Reed & Reed / T.Y. Lin International design-build team.

GZA envisioned a 25-foot high earthfill preload embankment supported by temporary, anchored, sheet pile cofferdam to limit the environmental impact on the mudflats and developed this concept for preliminary design. During final design, GZA developed a subsurface model for geotechnical engineering evaluations and evaluated short-term and long-term global stability, long-term settlement adjacent to proposed piles, and general approach embankment areas and designed and installed wick drains to promote consolidation. The design met the constraints imposed by the Design-Build RFP, allowed for efficient foundation design, and was constructible for the contractor. The South Portland embankment concept saved over $1 million compared to alternative design approaches. The design incorporated Maine DOT, highway and bridge designer, and constructor collaboration through detailed design reviews at the 50 and 80 percent submittal stages.

Geotechnical instrumentation was designed, installed, and monitored to assess the performance of the preload, including settlement plates, piezometers, and inclinometers. The instrumentation confirmed that the preload goals had been achieved, and GZA recommended removal of the preload in winter of 2011, approximately five months ahead of schedule.

Founded in 1964, GZA GeoEnvironmental is a multi-disciplined firm providing environmental consulting, geotechnical and geo-civil engineering, environmental remediation, regulatory compliance, litigation support, air quality, solid waste services, specialty construction, occupational health and safety, and site development services. GZA maintains corporate offices in Norwood and has 550 employees and operates 24 offices in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Great Lakes regions. For additional information, visit www.gza.com.

Virginia Tech professor's research questions urban development planning relating to flooding

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:12:00 +0000

Extreme weather can result in a violent act of nature, and in the past year, much attention has been paid to the disastrous impacts of flooding during the spring and summer. For example, residents of cities and agricultural farmland found themselves at odds when the Army Corps of Engineers wrestled with opening floodgates to channel water away from the metropolitan areas of New Orleans and Baton Rouge in May 2011 and directing the floodwaters to small Louisiana towns and farms.

Water became the enemy, but it might have been an unnecessary role. "The relationship between flood conditions and the spatial distribution of urban development has been poorly studied, often because of limitations on available data about stream flow or the common use of generic watershed models in urban hydrologic modeling," says Glenn Moglen, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. Moglen holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and works in the university's National Capital Region.

Moglen has spent years studying the issue of limiting impervious surfaces such as pavements that act as impenetrable materials to water. He has called for planners "to allow a safety margin when regulating land based on imperviousness, to steer development to already urbanized locations and away from relatively undisturbed locations, and to take advantage of situations that mitigate the deleterious effects of imperviousness on stream ecology." His expertise garnered him an appointment as a special guest editor of an issue of the American Society of Civil Engineers' Journal of Hydrologic Engineering. And he has current funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to calculate flood magnitudes as part of the agency's efforts to modernize its maps.

In addition, Moglen and his former Ph.D. student Alfonso Mejia of Washington, D.C., who has now graduated from the University of Maryland, have developed a number of distinct models of urbanization that show patterns of impact from both sprawl and clustered development that reduce impacts to water resources. Their work was published in the April 2009 Journal of Hydrologic Engineering. Moglen says their approach differed from previous studies because they looked at distributed effects within a watershed and not the aggregate results at the watershed outlet. They also focused on impacts generated by the spatial forms of urban patterns. In the article, they cast doubt on land management policies promoting a fixed threshold of impervious surfaces. They show that this can result in the unintended consequence of favoring sprawl-type development. "Those within the planning community who espouse threshold-based controls on land development" should be concerned, they wrote.

In another study for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Moglen and Dorianne Shivers of Takoma Park, MD, who also worked with Moglen when she was a student, used data from 78 urbanized stream gages across the United States for a study on urban flood frequency. They compared their models to previous results, and a key finding was a new method for estimating floods at ungaged sites using common, easily obtained data. This method eliminated the need to perform costly site visits to make urban flood estimates.

Their USGS study also indicated which mathematical models on peak discharges of water performed best: an imperviousness distribution model and a population density distribution model. "These models depend on three predictors each: rural discharge, imperviousness or population density, and imperviousness or population density uniformity. The imperviousness or population density predictor serves to scale up the rural discharge, and the imperviousness or population density uniformity predictor scales down the discharge. This uniformity predictor quantifies the homogeneity of the development in a watershed," they concluded.

Mike Frischmann of Michaels Energy to present at IEPEC in Rome

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:59:00 +0000

Michaels Energy announces that Mike Frischmann, an energy engineer at Michaels, was selected as a presenter for the 2012 International Energy Program Evaluation Conference (IEPEC) in Rome, Italy.

Mike submitted a paper to the IEPEC conference planning committee on the subject of "On-site Measurement and Verification Versus Project File Review." This paper will demonstrate the quantitative and qualitative differences between file reviews and on-site evaluations. Over 210 abstracts were submitted, and his paper was among those accepted for publication and presentation at IEPEC in Rome on June 12-14, 2012. A CD will also be produced with presentation papers and made available to all attendees of IEPEC.

IEPEC is an annual professional conference for energy program implementers; evaluators of those programs; local, state, national and international representatives; and academic researchers actively working in the field of evaluation. The purpose of the conference is to provide a forum for the presentation, critique, and discussion of objective evaluations of energy programs. For more information, visit www.iepec.org.

Michaels Energy, a division of Michaels Engineering, specializes in energy efficiency consulting and provides technical, program management, and administrative support for utility demand-side management (DSM) programs. Michaels also provides services to end-users including investment grade feasibility studies, retrocommissioning studies, and LEED consulting. Michaels provides a wide range of energy and engineering support services to utilities, government agencies, and non-profit corporations that administer energy efficiency programs for end users.

Entech Engineering receives citation from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:43:00 +0000

Entech Engineering has announced that The House of Representatives of Pennsylvania recognizes the firm’s high standards of service and contributions to the well-being of the community and the commonwealth and is celebrating the momentous occasion of its 30th

anniversary in business. This citation was sponsored by the entire Berks County House Delegation: Representatives Thomas Caltagirone, Dante Santoni, Jr., Douglas Reichley,

Jim Cox, Gary Day, Mark Gillen, David Maloney, and Mike Tobash.

Located in downtown Reading, Pennsylvania, Entech is a full-service provider of engineering and architectural services, from planning through design and construction. Satellite offices are located in Pottsville, Schuylkill County; Mountaintop, Luzerne County; and Lititz, Lancaster County. For more information, visit www.entecheng.com.

Patent assigned to Laird Technologies telematics and wireless M2M inventors

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:31:00 +0000

Laird Technologies, Inc., a designer and supplyer of customized performance-critical components and systems for advanced electronics and wireless products, has been awarded a U.S. patent for the work of three of its wireless and M2M inventors: RF Engineer III Joseph Combi, Director of Engineering Ayman Duzdar, and RF Engineer III Gary Reed.

U.S. Patent #8045592 was issued for work with multiple antenna multiplexers, demultiplexers, and antenna assemblies. The multiplexers and assemblies receive signals from the multiple antennas in a system and combines those signals for transmission into a single output. The demultiplexers receive the single input and output the signal onto separate receivers. The antennas used in this patent included GPS (1574 to 1576 MHz) and world cell frequencies (824 to 960 MHz and 1710 to 2170 MHz).

“The benefit of this technology is that it reduces the number of cables required in a long cable harness, mostly in the OEM automotive market, as they have control over the receiver,” says Ayman Duzdar. “It can also be used in tandem with a demultiplexer of the same nature to separate the combined signals into multiple receivers. It reduces cost spent on the harnesses by reducing the number of cables necessary.” The antenna multiplexers are ideal for any market where multiple antenna signals are being delivered from one antenna module to multiple receiver modules and where GPS and cell functionality is required.

Laird Technologies is a designer and manufacturer of telematics products with a product portfolio consisting of antennas and integrated reception systems designed to meet the multiple communications requirements of modern vehicles. This includes performance-critical products for wireless and other advanced electronics applications as well as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, thermal management products, specialty metal products, signal integrity components, and antenna solutions, as well as radio frequency (RF) modules and wireless remote controls and systems. Custom products are supplied to all sectors of the electronics industry including the handset, telecommunications, data transfer and information technology, automotive, aerospace, defense, consumer, medical, mining, railroad and industrial markets. A unit of Laird PLC, Laird Technologies employs over 12,000 employees in more than 49 facilities located in 16 countries.

International award for Syracuse Green Data Center technology

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:19:00 +0000

GEM Inc., of Walbridge, OH and Capstone Turbine Corporation of Los Angeles, CA have received the 2011 NOVA Award from the Construction Innovation Forum (CIF) for microturbine technology at Syracuse University's Green Data Center, one of the most energy-efficient data centers in the world.

GEM’s subsidiary, BHP Energy, and Capstone received the award for the hybrid uninterruptible power source (UPS) microturbine system first used at the Syracuse data center. As a new technology that improves reliability and reduces energy cost, the Capstone Hybrid UPS system anchors a larger integrated power system designed by GEM.

The Capstone Hybrid UPS will be installed next at the University of Toledo. GEM is designing and building a power system for the university’s Green Data Center, which shares fundamental attributes of the Syracuse system. The University of Toledo project, to be complete in late 2012, will showcase modular construction and integration techniques that may result in plug-and-playapplication at mission critical facilities across the globe.

More than 600 nominations from 20 countries were considered for the 2011 NOVA award. "Each year, the NOVA Awards honor top innovations in construction from around the world that increase quality and efficiency and reduce cost," says Rasha Stino, CIF Vice Chair. "An expert jury carefully selects award-winning innovations with the assistance of leading engineers serving as investigators. Capstone's Hybrid UPS MicroTurbine technology uniquely addresses the needs of power-critical applications."

"The Hybrid UPS MicroTurbine is an innovation, changing the world of mission critical energy delivery," said David Blair, President of BHP Energy, a GEM Inc. subsidiary.

The Hybrid UPS Microturbine is the first onsite power system in the world to integrate low-emission microturbines with a dual-conversion UPS to provide power for mission-critical loads. The system delivers uninterrupted electrical power, while overall system efficiencies reach 85-90 percent, reducing energy costs, fuel consumption, and maintenance costs.

Hussien Shousher, president of GEM Inc., says, “As we move further into the 21^st Century, most industry and government studies predict a future with more grid electrical interruptions and higher energy costs. Our packaged solution, which includes Hybrid UPS turbines, can be rapidly implemented to keep critical infrastructure both operational and financially viable.”

Editor's note: See our feature story on the Syracuse Green Data Center at www.progressiveengineer.com/features/Orange-Goes-Green.htm

Sewall forms multidisciplinary Environmental Sciences group

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:04:00 +0000

James W. Sewall Company has formed a new multidisciplinary Environmental Sciences group to deliver solutions in water resources and water quality management to government, industry, and commercial clients. Under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey S. (Steve) Kahl, the Environmental Sciences group integrates Sewall expertise in engineering, GIS mapping, and natural resources to conduct research, seek grant funding, and implement large-scale projects in stormwater and watershed management, water quality monitoring, and environmental assessment, planning and permitting. In collaboration with partners in academia, business, government, and the nonprofit sector, the group will help clients adopt best practices and protocols that meet regulatory compliance, reduce liability and costs, and incorporate the newest and best environmental concepts.

“Water resources are the basis for assessment in most environmental regulations, but the latest research methods are rarely used,” says Dr. Kahl. “There are newer, less-expensive methods to manage stormwater, for example, than the mainstream pavement, pipe, and pond approach. We will provide our clients with practical and sustainable solutions that both protect water resources and influence public policy.”

Stormwater utilities, according to Kahl, are another sustainable solution that can help communities meet regulatory requirements at lower cost. “There are thousands of stormwater utilities in the United States, but only a few in New England. This gap represents an untapped financial opportunity for communities in the region to address flood and erosion control, water quality management, ecological preservation, and annual pollutant loads contained in stormwater discharges.”

Dr. Kahl brings to the group 30 years’ experience in environmental research and monitoring, watershed analysis, and natural resource and energy policy and program development. Prior to joining Sewall in April 2011, he was founding director of the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory and Senator George Mitchell Center at the University of Maine and of the Center for the Environment at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. He was instrumental in founding the Maine Water Conference as well as PEARL, the on-line GIS Maine lakes database, and has been awarded more than $25 million dollars in grants and contracts for universities and nonprofits to address such critical issues as acid rain, mercury, road salt, Atlantic salmon recovery, and water quality best management practices. He is also a member of the graduate faculty at University of Maine and a former staff member of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Core members of the Environmental Sciences group include Senior Environmental Scientist Chester Bigelow, III, PWS and Staff Engineer Eeva Hedefine. A professional wetlands scientist for 25 years, Bigelow specializes in water quality monitoring, wetland restoration, and ecological conservation and management. Hedefine has expertise in utilities GIS and experience in environmental permitting, environmental site assessments, and analyses for windpower projects.

The group will also engage the in-house expertise of Sewall Senior Project Manager Michael Riley, PE. A new hire, Riley brings 20 years’ experience in water/wastewater engineering for both private firms and municipal utilities. As project manager, consultant, and chief engineer, he has supervised multi-disciplined water utility projects and designed over $100 million in public infrastructure in Maine. Most recently, he managed the Brewer Water Department, a municipal utility serving 10,000 customers.

Through the Environmental Sciences group, Sewall is also offering clients grant writing services to secure funding that meets their project needs. Dr. Diane Vatne, an experienced grant writer, will assist Sewall clients and the Environmental Sciences group in securing grants to fund a range of environmental projects. Dr. Vatne has written over $2,500,000 in successful grants for nonprofit organizations in Maine prior to joining Sewall.

According to Vice President Scott Graham, PE, “The Environmental Sciences initiative gives us a unique opportunity to bring Sewall staff together with the best professionals from academia, government, and business to help solve the challenging environmental problems our clients face.”

For more information on Sewall’s Environmental Sciences Group and the integrated services they offer, visit the Sewall web site at www.sewall.com/solutions/environmental/.

Founded in 1880, Sewall is an integrated team of geospatial, engineering and natural resource consultants who partner with clients to create practical, sustainable solutions. The company’s diverse portfolio is based on 130 years' experience in surveying, forestry consulting, and civil engineering; 60 years' in aerial mapping; and 20 years' in geospatial systems and software. In the last 10 years, Sewall’s offerings have expanded to include traffic, environmental, and structural engineering; renewable energy development; and geospatial web services.

Binghamton University opens new engineering and science facility

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:46:00 +0000

Binghamton University recently opened its new Engineering and Science Building in a ceremony attended by elected officials, local leaders, and University representatives. The facility is located next to the Biotechnology Building, which is part of the University’s Innovative Technologies Complex (ITC).

The $66 million, two-story glass, metal and stone building will accommodate the expansion of the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science. Adding about 125,000 square feet to the ITC, the new building features state-of-the-art, flexible student and research laboratory space as well as suites for new business startups and offices that support the University’s ongoing and expanding industry partnerships.

“The Engineering and Science Building marks another exciting moment in the development of our University’s research programs,” says Binghamton University President C. Peter Magrath. “As a hub for innovation and discovery in the coming decades, the new facility, with its flexible and adaptive interior design, will encourage interdisciplinary work and help faculty researchers answer significant scientific questions. With cutting-edge sustainability features and space to grow faculty-industry partnerships, the Engineering and Science Building and our first-class programs position us well for even greater public service in the years ahead.”

The new building is home to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and the Watson dean’s office. A large rotunda feature connects the two ITC buildings, offering access to laboratories and fostering closer interactions between departments and the research centers currently housed in the biotechnology facility.

The building is tracking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum standards, incorporating passive solar energy for heating, geothermal technology for heating and cooling, energy-efficient windows and skylights to allow for maximum use of daylight. It also includes the latest technology for heat recovery and humidity control. And these green features are already earning recognition. The Engineering News Record recently named the facility the top ‘Green Project of the Year in the New York Region’ in its annual competition.

“The cutting-edge research cores, data center, green features and flexible student spaces in the Engineering and Science Building will serve as a catalyst for collaboration and discovery,” said Krishnaswami “Hari” Srihari, dean and distinguished professor of the Watson School. “The building provides our remarkable faculty, staff and students with the innovative and practical working environment that will further strengthen and enhance our research, partnership and scholarship opportunities throughout the region, state and beyond.”

Several unique features have been incorporated so that some building systems, such as the mechanical systems driving the building’s heating and cooling equipment, remain accessible to serve as a teaching tool for engineering students. The design has also taken into consideration the core research model, which will give faculty and students in developing research areas such as microelectronics or network security, the ability to share equipment and ideas, and thereby foster collaboration and limit the duplication of resources.

Additionally, the building’s mechanical equipment is located in a tower structurally separated from the building so vibrations do not adversely affect specialized laboratories and research. The building’s two-story photovoltaic wall will provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate research in solar technology.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign starts construction on electrical and computer engineering building

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:19:00 +0000

The $95 million Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Building at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, designed by SmithGroup, has recently begun construction. The new ECE building will create 230,000-square feet of instructional, research, and office space in the heart of the university’s engineering campus. The move will consolidate functions currently dispersed over multiple locations into a single facility, creating a flexible environment to inspire and support interdisciplinary learning and collaboration. When completed in fall 2014, the project will be a major addition to the university’s Urbana-Champaign campus. The university has received $47.5 million in funding from the state of Illinois and has secured $37.5 million in private support. Fundraising is ongoing for the remaining $10 million.

The new facility will be constructed on the northern edge of campus adjacent to the circa-1989 Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology and across from the Coordinated Science Laboratory, both SmithGroup-designed facilities. The building program includes classrooms; teaching and research laboratories, including an instructional clean room; an auditorium; faculty and administrative offices; and student gathering areas. It will also house laboratories for research in the fields of thin film and charged particles, optical physics, and electromagnetism, along with varied spaces for the university’s power and energy systems, materials research, remote sensing, and space sciences groups.

“SmithGroup has enjoyed a longstanding history on UI’s Urbana-Champaign campus,” said Andy Vazzano, FAIA, LEED AP, leader of SmithGroup’s Corporate Science & Technology Practice. “This new building is where future innovations and sustainable research practices are imagined and refined.”

“This building will be a great benefit to our students, not only in the ECE Department, but in our college and beyond,” says ECE Department Head Andreas C. Cangellaris. “This new building is designed to inspire engineering education driven by societal needs and opportunities. With these new facilities and labs, we will continue to educate the leaders in our profession for generations to come.”

The ECE building will also establish a sustainability prototype for future University of Illinois projects. Minimizing the facility’s carbon footprint and optimizing energy efficiency were key drivers behind its design. Sustainable considerations include a terra cotta rainscreen cladding system in conjunction with an R-30 thermal envelope for enhanced energy performance. Passive solar design features such as building orientation, 30 percent overall glazing, and exterior shading devices lend to greater daylighting and reduced energy loads. In addition to maintaining a consistent material palette that harmonizes with the neighboring brick buildings, terra cotta baguettes act as exterior shading devices on 80 percent of the glazing. The building is targeted to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the highest level of building efficiency, and is anticipated to receive an EPA Energy Star rating of 99 on a 100-point scale.

The ECE Department is also striving to attain a net zero energy design that will enable the building to supply one hundred percent of its energy demands over each year by incorporating renewable energy systems after construction. SmithGroup’s architects and engineers from KJWW have integrated a range of systems that will aid in achieving this goal, including infrastructure for a future array ofphotovoltaic cells, displacement and demand control ventilation, heat recovery chillers with net metering, and a chilled beam system for cooling and heating the classroom tower.

The building will incorporate many notable contributions of ECE faculty and staff. It will feature the most sophisticated LED and fluorescent lighting, complex energy conversion systems utilizing advanced power electronics, and intelligent systems and interfaces supported by ever-evolving control and computer technologies.

Based in Chicago, SmithGroup is a large architecture and engineering firm composed of client industry-focused practices serving the education, science & technology, workplace, and healthcare markets. A national leader in sustainable design, SmithGroup has 354 LEED professionals and 67 LEED certified projects.

New profile posted: Mechanical engineer Nick Fenelli heads Vehicle Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:58:00 +0000

Nick Fenelli

Material Handling and More

By Tom Gibson

In spring 2008, Nick Fenelli found himself at a crossroads in his engineering career. He had gone to work for Airtrax in Trenton, NJ as a consultant several years earlier and had become a right-hand person of company founder and owner Peter Amico in running the business. Airtrax pioneered a unique type of wheel that makes forklift trucks more maneuverable and has spawned a new breed of mobility platforms.

But Amico died in 2006, bringing a change in management. “We had established a plan to move forward, but the new management didn’t appreciate that and decided to go down a different road,” Fenelli recalls. “They brought in a group of private investors who saw the company as an opportunity to make some quick money and did that and in the process caused the company to collapse.”

“When we were all handed our pink slips that day, we talked about what we could do,” Fenelli continues. A group of four former employees, nearly the entire technical staff, decided to band together and carry on as equity partners, calling themselves Vehicle Technologies, Inc., Vetex for short. They poured in their personal savings and sweat equity. After about a year, they convinced the directors of Airtrax to give them a limited license to build the Sidewinder, the forklift they had developed using their special omni-directional wheel.

“We were happy doing the work, and we thought it had a potential besides being able to generate a quick buck for some investors. We thought we could actually change the way people do things and improve efficiencies in a whole lot of fields,” Fenelli relates. Today, he finds himself the president of Vetex and leading it into new territory.

The Sidewinder has four unique omni-directional wheels, each consisting of six pairs of polyurethane-covered steel rollers mounted on a hub with tapered roller bearings and angled at 45 degrees to the wheel itself. Each wheel runs on its own AC motor, transmission, brake, and controller.

Despite having no steering mechanism, the Sidewinder can travel in any direction and in any manner a standard vehicle goes, and more – think of a skid-steer that can move straight sideways. Fenelli calls it easy to use. “Wherever you point the joystick, that’s the direction you go, and the more you push the stick, the faster it goes.” If you twist the stick, the vehicle rotates on its own axis. For the vehicle to move laterally to the left, the two left wheels spin toward each other and the two right wheels away from each other.

Playing with a New Toy
As I enter Vetex’ office, Fenelli shows me a prototype demonstration vehicle with the omni-directional wheels, complete with radio control. Here’s my chance to tinker with it. The radio control unit has three joysticks, one for translational movement and two for rotational. He shows me how they can program a vehicle to rotate around any vertical axis you choose.

Festooned with plastic rollers, the omni-directional
wheel lies at the heart of Vehicle Technologies
and Finelli’s efforts.

Fenelli then explains to me how the wheel concept works. “It’s all force vector balancing.” With the roller arrangement, the wheel imparts a force 45 degrees to the axis of the vehicle as it turns. If you spin the front and rear wheels in opposite directions, the fore-and-aft components of the forces will cancel out, but the sideways components will add to each other, making the vehicle go sideways. By varying the speed and direction of all four wheels, you can make the vehicle move any way you want.

I could feel Fenelli’s excitement for this concept. “It is always such a thrill to watch someone’s face when they first see it. Their expressions go through phases of bewilderment, understanding, awe, and joy,” he says. “There is no better feeling than the satisfaction we get sending a vehicle out into a new application for the first time, knowing it is going to dramatically change the way someone works, making their job easier, and enabling them to work smarter and more efficiently than before.”

With the omni-directional wheel on the Sidewinder forklift, warehouses can make more efficient use of their space. “It’s ideal for so many applications where there are space limitations or where just moving back and forth in one direction is inefficient to perform a task,” Fenelli explains.

Paul Hvass, senior research engineer at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has tested the technology on robotic machines and comments, “There’s huge potential for this platform. As the cost comes down, I think we’ll see wide adoption, especially for warehousing where the additional maneuverability is so superior. They’ll get a lot of interest from folks like us and then I think more broadly from other OEMs who want to integrate on top of their platform.”

Peter Amico started Airtrax to market the omni-directional wheel after buying the rights to the technology from the U.S. Navy, which had acquired the patent from a Swedish engineer, Bengt Erland Ilon, who invented the wheel in 1972. After spending millions of dollars and many years developing it, Airtrax sold the first Sidewinder in 2005.

Having come from Ewing, NJ, a suburb just northwest of Trenton, the 57-year-old Fenelli worked with hydraulic presses and process conveying systems earlier in his career. He also designed Yale and Hyster forklifts, working in Lancaster, PA for a while. He started consulting for Airtrax in 1998, designing several prototype vehicles, and came on full-time in 2005 to get U.L. approval for the company’s designs. He also set up a production facility and staffed it.

The first beneficiary of the wheel was the Sidewinder
fork truck, which can maneuver in tighter spaces
than conventional types.

Vetex has an office and lab in an industrial park in Ewing, and when I pull up, the sign outside confuses me at first because it says Alpha Automation. But Fenelli explains that Alpha is their landlord and also a vendor, through a friend. Specializing in electronic component fabrication, they make circuit boards for Vetex. The firm has a machine shop at this facility, one it shares with Alpha Automation. “We do limited production here, mainly subassemblies.” They have a larger manufacturing facility and warehouse in Bristol, PA near Philadelphia. “That plant has a loading dock, so we build bigger stuff there. But this office has air conditioning, so it’s nice for development work. We build the smaller systems here.”

Regional Engineering Workforce
A private employee-owned company, Vetex now has three equity partners, with Fenelli being the only degreed engineer – he has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh. His wife Mary is a principal and handles financial duties and purchasing; she also worked at Airtrax. Another partner, Bruce McLenegan was an electronic technician at Airtrax and now works as a systems engineer. Robert Cunningham serves as a part-time partner; he worked in quality control at Airtrax. They also have a programmer who was a consultant for Airtrax and an electrical engineer who consults with them. Another consultant develops electronic equipment and circuit boards, and a designer models designs using Autodesk Inventor. The consultants do the software programming using algorithms devised by Fenelli and McLenegan. With all these people spread out in central and southeastern PA and NJ, Fenelli muses, “A high degree of communication takes place via e-mail.”

They assemble the omni-directional wheels from parts supplied by several vendors. They build 21” wheels in their Bristol plant because they get used on Sidewinders there, while 17” wheels and prototypes are built in the Ewing facility. A vendor in California makes the rollers for them. Using a proprietary process, they mold the polyurethane oversize onto a metal bearing housing, and then a machine shop in Ewing machines the polyurethane down to the proper wheel profile.

As Fenelli tells it, “We have 60-plus fork trucks out there doing pretty well. We’re proud of the performance so far. They’re designed to be maintenance free.” He claims the rollers don’t wear out. “We have a bucket of rollers over in the corner that we’re still waiting to send out.” He tells me the idea sells to users, but it’s a hard sell to accountants because it costs three times as much as a standard truck.

This may partially explain why Vetex has put many of its eggs in another basket. They have developed a family of so-called mobility platforms based on the omni-directional wheel. These come into play for installing long or bulky loads, accurately positioning or docking a vehicle or piece of equipment, or simply maneuvering something in tight spaces.

Nick Fenelli shows how a roller is fabricated and assembled on to a wheel.

“One of the most exciting and visible markets we are in is the theatrical market. The technology has been showcased in two major motion pictures and featured in two TV series, but the latest and greatest is the introduction of our equipment into live theater,” Fenelli reports. In theatre applications, they typically build a set on an omni-directional platform. “You can move it about the theatre before, during, or after the performance, and you can set up a scene and have the scenery active in the production.” He explains how in one application, four of their vehicles move boats in a play called Jonah at the Sight and Sound Theatre in Lancaster, one of the biggest theaters in the world. The boats move by remote control via an iGPS navigation system, with the front of one of them extending out over the audience.

Vetex has also seen significant interest in mobility platforms for assembly and maintenance work on aircraft as well as loading weapons and manufacturing applications for missiles. Fenelli adds, “In construction applications, one of the main uses is for plumbers, pipefitters, and HVAC contractors to put plumbing and duct work up into the ceilings of buildings. They can accurately position and easily maneuver long loads where they have to go up in the air.”

Robots No Longer Stationary
Carrying this notion further, Fenelli likes to talk about a concept dubbed RoboMate, which involves putting a robot on a mobile platform. “For 40 years, you’ve had robots working in industrial environments bolted in one location and rotating, doing something over and over again. The next best thing coming down the pike is mobile robotics, having these platforms able to transport the robot and its functionality so it can perform tasks in multiple locations.”

“The robot can move around the manufacturing area and multi-task, bringing flexibility. It can use GPS, lidar, and infrared sensing,” Fenelli adds. A vehicle could use GPS in going outside between buildings and then radio control inside buildings. “There are a tremendous number of applications of this technology we haven’t even scratched the surface on.”

Two examples of mobility platforms that use the wheel.

SwRI has developed several new robotic systems for industries and processes that aren’t conducive to conventional robotics. Paul Hvass researches robotic applications such as aircraft paint stripping and says they came across Vetex’ technology a few years ago. They have applied it to their MR ROAM system, which uses a Nikon laser metrology system to locate a machine globally no matter where it’s located. “We’re trying to show the feasibility of using mobile-based robots. You can use more off-the-shelf components and reduce cost. Mobile is modular.” And he adds, “The omni-directional platform gives us freedom to optimize how the robot gets in position with respect to the work piece, to give the robot the most range of travel without encountering some kind of collision.”

This leads to what Fenelli describes as possibly the company’s main mission. For the RoboMate, “Almost everybody we come across wants a customized turnkey system. Our primary role is as a systems integrator merging different types of products. Anything people want to be mobile, we’ll put it together.” They use many technologies such as wire guidance and computer control. Besides omni-directional wheels, Vetex provides engineering assistance, drive system components, and compatible accessories to OEMs. Vetex also brings in technologies like MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor), sensors, and closed-loop control and can provide a complete 2WD or 4WD CAN (computer area network, like LAN but for vehicles). This bus-based traction system comes with torque or speed control, regenerative braking, automatic parking brake, and onboard diagnostics.

Fenelli rests easier these days knowing that he not only has a stable career but that Vetex is staffed by passionate engineers and technicians who see the full potential of the funky omni-directional wheel and its many possibilities. “It seems like customers are coming to us with new applications every other day,” he says. As their designs play out over time, they should prove that a quick profit isn’t always the answer.

For more information on Vehicle Technologies, visit www.vetexinc.com

For more information on Southwest Research Institute’s robotic research, visit www.mobilemanipulator.swri.org

New Company Launches Product that Could Change the Elevator Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:29:00 +0000

SmarTork of Boerne, TX has recently launched its much-anticipated spirator elevator hoistway door closer, which has received rave reviews in pre-production trials and promises to solve an age-old door-closing problem caused by wind. The company stands poised to begin manufacturing 2000 reel closers a week.

This brings to fruition a novel engineering effort that began many years ago. Kelly Marshall conceived the SmarTork reel closure in 1986 in conjunction with his sons Dean and Chris. The family ran an elevator business, and Dean needed ideas on how to stop persistent callbacks involving elevator doors subjected to high winds on the Gulf Coast. Kelly sketched a conical spiral that might solve the problem, citing the design used on garage door closers. Dean gathered garage door parts from the company’s garage door repair division and combined them with elevator parts to design the first prototype.

Kelly spent years on research and development, eventually using plastic mold injection to make cost-effective parts and create an operational prototype. He put a business plan together and arranged financing. But Kelly passed away in 2004, putting his dream on hold until October 2010, when his Chris and his family picked up the reins. They started SmarTork Inc. in 2010 and officially launched their door closer at the 2011 NAEC (National Association of Elevator Contractors) Exhibition in New Orleans. The company has teamed with an injection molding company and a spring manufacturer to develop tooling and produce production units.

Development of this product stems from the fact that elevators everywhere experience wind problems. For starters, all elevator shafts vent to the outside, as required by fire codes. “Any time somebody opens a door to the outside of the building, it automatically creates a pressurization or vacuum. You’ve always got air going in and out of the shafts,” says Chris Marshall, president of SmarTork. This makes the hoistway door harder to close.

A motorized operator opens and closes the doors on an elevator, both in the cab and hoistway. But this operator only closes the exterior door to a certain point before a clutch disengages it within the last one or two inches. “You need the spirator to assist that hoistway door to close that additional inch. And that’s where you get the tremendous amount of blowthrough,” Marshall explains.

The closer mounts on the interior of the shaft and moves back and forth with the hoistway door. It takes the form of a reel closer with a coil spring inside a spool that powers a cable. With conventional closers, the spring actually winds up when the door opens, meaning the torque and tension are at their lowest when the door is closing that last crucial inch or two, when you need the most force. Most spirators have a flat surface for winding the cable, so the torque is directly proportional to the tension on the cable. As one problem, the spring wears to the point that it occasionally needs to be rewound, resulting in many service callbacks.

The SmarTork spirator employs a conical helix design that puts the cable closer to the center of the hub at the critical stage of the windup cycle, yielding greater tension for a given torque. By crossing the torque and tension ratios, it actually increases tension at the door-closed position and reduces it in the open position with the spring winding up.

With tension applied more efficiently, the amps required to drive the door operator drop, resulting in power savings. Building owners may qualify for lower taxes by submitting to ASHRAE 90.1 as part of the overall building power savings, and it may improve their EPA and Energy Star ratings, which can also yield lower electricity rates and insurance premiums.

Besides a reduction in callbacks resulting from reduced spring wear and lower energy use, the spirator also offers increased safety because it closes the elevator door completely, engaging interlock switches to ensure safe operation.

For more information, visit www.smartorkinc.com

Ohio University Electrical Engineering Professor Receives Top Honor

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:39:00 +0000

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) recently awarded Frank van Grass, Russ Professor of Electrical Engineering at Ohio University, with the 2011 Dr. John C. Ruth Digital Avionics Award recipient. Van Graas was honored at the 30th annual Digital Avionics Systems Conference in Seattle, WA for outstanding lifetime achievement in GPS navigation.

The professor at the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology is best known for his work on the Federal Aviation Administration’s Local Area Augmentation System for GPS approach and landing systems. His team at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton Roads, VA, was the first to prove that a differential GPS system could be used for aircraft autoland applications. He also led the team that developed the Integrated Multipath Limiting Antenna, which allowed GPS signals to be received with little distortion. Van Graas’ system is now installed at the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J.

AIAA’s Dr. John C. Ruth Digital Avionics Award honors outstanding achievement in both technical management and implementation of digital avionics in space or aeronautical systems, including systems analysis, design, development or application. AIAA is the world’s largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession, with more than 35,000 individual members worldwide and 90 corporate members.

Code Council and ASHRAE Partner on Energy-Saving Publication

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:32:00 +0000

With safe and sustainable construction near the top of the national and global construction agenda, the International Code Council and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) have collaborated to create a publication with the most innovative energy-efficiency requirements for residential and commercial buildings. This new publication contains both the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2010 Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings in one volume to help ensure newly built and renovated buildings are in compliance with the latest codes and standards.
“Because the Code Council and ASHRAE documents complement each other, publishing them in one book benefits architects, designers, engineers, contractors and code officials,” ICC Product Development Senior Vice President Mark Johnson says. “This collaboration between the Code Council and ASHRAE provides the latest advances in energy regulation at a lower cost compared to purchasing the books separately. Because ASHRAE/IES 90.1-2010 is a referenced standard in the 2012 IECC, many professionals use both sets of requirements in their daily work.”
The 2012 IECC will be at least 15 percent more energy efficient than the 2009 edition, according to U.S. Department of Energy estimates. The code contains improved requirements for windows, doors, skylights and HVAC systems. The ASHRAE/IES 90.1-2010 has been expanded to include a broader scope, more detailed requirements and changes from more than 100 addenda improving all four of the major building components: envelopes, mechanical systems, lighting systems and service water heating. The significant changes in the two documents remain consistent with the American Recovery and Re-investment Act as required in federal laws.
“This new compilation will go far in helping the building industry reduce energy use and help to meet our nation’s energy goals,” ASHRAE President Ron Jarnagin said. “With publication of Standard 90.1-2010, ASHRAE and its partner Illuminating Engineering Society met an aggressive goal of 30 percent savings over the 2004 standard, reached in part thanks to significant public input from those in the building industry who helped us to increase the stringency of our flagship energy conservation standard."
The International Code Council is a member-focused association dedicated to helping the building safety community and construction industry provide safe and sustainable construction through the development of codes and standards used in the design, build and compliance process.
ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of some 52,000 persons. ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education. ASHRAE and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America jointly developed Standard 90.1.

Jacobs Associates Welcomes William Gates

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:23:00 +0000

Jacobs Associates welcomes William Gates, PhD, PE, PG, as a senior asssociate in its Seattle office. Dr. Gates is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) officer and specializes in geotechnical and rock engineering, blasting, and hydrogeology. He has 44 years of experience dealing with engineering geology and geotechnical problems worldwide. His solutions have covered a wide range of interrelated geological and geotechnical disciplines attendant to rock mechanics, rock slope engineering, construction blasting, hydrogeology, fluvial geomorphology, soils engineering, instrumentation, and site characterization.

Dr. Gates is nationally recognized for his rock slope and blasting expertise and is often receives invitations from the Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists to conduct one- and two-day short courses on rock slope engineering design and blasting. Dr. Gates’ additional specialties include photogeologic terrain and fracture trace analysis, fracture flow, and fracture mechanics. He developed and published the Hydro-potential Value (HP-value) technique, a method to semiquantitatively evaluate rock fracture characteristics and predict well yield, specific capacities, seepage, and no-flow conditions.

Dr. Gates is currently the lead rock engineer on Seattle City Light’s (SCL) Boundary Dam Rockfall Mitigation in Metaline, WA, where he conducted a detailed geologic investigation of the engineering characteristics and rockfall problems of the rock mass that houses the turbines and transformer bays.

Jacobs Associates provides solutions for underground projects in the water, wastewater, and transportation sectors. With an emphasis on tunnels and shafts, the firm offers a full range of design and construction management capabilities. They also offer the broader heavy civil construction industry a package of claims and dispute resolution services. Jacobs Associates has offices in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Pasadena, San Diego, Boston, New York, Auckland, and Melbourne. For more information, visit www.jacobssf.com.

HNTB Survey Says Rough Ride for Highway Funds

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:13:00 +0000

According to the latest America THINKS survey from HNTB Corporation, people are fed up with congested, crumbling roads and are looking for decisions from local and regional officials about how to prioritize fixing them. Many Americans are bothered by the condition of their highways, with slightly more than one in two (54 percent) having a problem with the poor road conditions and half (50 percent) saying these byways are too jammed. "We can no longer ignore the growing liability our aging roads present to U.S. economic competitiveness and the mobility of our citizens," says Pete Rahn, leader of HNTB's national transportation practice. "Americans are feeling the pain every day as they commute and cross the nation's highways and bridges."

Congestion can be caused by several factors, such as a lack of alternative modes of transportation and continued population growth in today's "mega regions." In fact, 46 percent of Americans think there is excessive traffic in urban areas. Aging, inefficient highway lanes – whether there aren't enough of them or they are clogged with "slow moving" semi-trucks – also are seen as a cause of congestion. More than one-third (38 percent) of Americans are distressed by having to share lanes with large trucks and 25 percent think there aren't enough lanes. Perhaps fewer Americans would feel frustrated about the country's highways if trucks had space of their own. One-quarter (25 percent) think creating dedicated lanes required for large trucks would make the biggest difference in reducing traffic or bettering efficiency of freight delivery.

In 2007, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a groundbreaking plan to highlight the need to reconstruct and expand six critical interstates, which carry 22.7 percent of the nation's daily interstate travel and are crucial to the efficient flow of freight traffic. These interstate highways – Interstates 5, 10, 15, 69, 70 and 95 – were designated "Corridors of the Future."

According to the latest HNTB research, nearly 7 in 10 (69 percent) Americans would be likely to support funding long-term improvements of these particular interstate highways. "Given the support these interstates generate among many Americans, focusing on them could be a key to providing voters a new vision for addressing America's future mobility needs. They truly are corridors for the future," says Rahn. "However, investing in these unique routes will require a special combination of funding mechanisms, including lifting the current federal restriction on tolling these existing interstate corridors."

Previous America THINKS research has shown many Americans prefer tolling over increased gas taxes. This latest HNTB survey shows many Americans (66 percent) also would like their toll money to go toward solving the wear-and-tear and congestion issues that cause so many to have problems with our highways. Forty-one percent of these people would be willing to chip in for repairing or rebuilding worn-out roads and bridges. Others would prefer their tolls went to developing dedicated truck lanes (30 percent) or adding lanes to existing roads (24 percent). In fact, more than half (54 percent) of Americans would prefer taxes and highway toll money went to long-term interstate highway upgrades, such as creating truck-only lanes or high-occupancy lanes than short-term highway maintenance projects.

According to Rahn, tolls likely will be an expanding source for future interstate highway funding. "A variety of different funding strategies, such as tolling, will be needed as inflation, aging infrastructure, increased construction costs, alternative fuels and improved fuel economy vehicles continue to eat away at the purchasing power of the federal gas tax," he says.

While most Americans don't have a problem with the tolls on highways, they do have a range of what they would like to pay. More than 4 in 5 (82 percent) Americans think the average toll rate for every 10 miles on an interstate highway should be a dollar or less. In addition, 56 percent think the average toll rate for every 10 miles should be 50 cents or less.

More than seven in ten (72 percent) Americans feel that interstate highway funding decisions should be made at the local or state level, while far fewer (27 percent) think this should be a federal responsibility. Transportation departments – including state departments of transportation (28 percent), local and regional transportation authorities (28 percent) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (24 percent) – top the list of who many Americans think should be the primary decision makers for addressing the needs of interstate highways. Far fewer think this responsibility should be left to local (8 percent), state (7 percent) and federal (3 percent) elected officials.

Similarly, nearly half (41 percent) of Americans think the state departments of transportation – not federal or other state entities – should handle approving the addition of tolls on specific highways, bridges or tunnels. "It's clear Americans want to take the politics out of transportation prioritization and funding," says Rahn. "It's time for our elected officials to do the same so our critical interstate highway system remains a valuable, viable asset."

HNTB Corporation is an employee-owned infrastructure firm serving federal, state, municipal, military and private clients. Professionals nationwide provide planning, design, program management, and construction management services. For more information, visit www.hntb.com.

Additional Survey Results:

More Americans in the Northeast, Midwest and West than in the South think highways are in poor condition (60 percent versus 45 percent). And slightly more than half (53 percent) of Northeasterners, Southerners and Westerners think highways are too congested, compared to 37 percent of those in the Midwest.
More than half (53 percent) of those in the Northeast and West have an issue with overcrowding on highways in urban areas, versus 42 percent of those in Midwest and South.
More women than men (47 percent versus 29 percent) have an issue with sharing highway lanes with big trucks, while men are more likely than women (29 percent versus 22 percent) to have a problem with the lack of lanes on highways.
More men than women (59 percent versus 50 percent) would rather tax and toll money went to interstate highway improvements that would last a long time.
Those in the Northeast and West are more likely than those in the Midwest and South (50 percent versus 36 percent) to most support tolls for improving interstate highways that are crucial to commerce and congestion relief.
More women than men (78 percent versus 64 percent) think these decisions should be made at the local or state level.
Slightly more than one-third (34 percent) of Northeasterners think the federal government should handle these decisions, versus 25 percent of those in other regions.
Americans living in the South and West regions are more likely than those in the Northeast and Midwest (45 percent versus 36 percent) to believe the State Departments of Transportation should approve additional tolls.
Americans ages 45+ are more likely than those 18-44 (89 percent versus 74 percent) to think tolls for each 10 miles of interstate should not be more than one dollar.
Eighty-four percent of those in the Midwest, South and West regions don't think tolls for each 10 miles on an interstate should be more than a dollar, compared to 75 percent of those in the Northeast.

UTEP to Oversee Push for Green Engineers and Scientists

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:06:00 +0000

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a four-year, $3.2 million grant to the University of Texas at El Paso to oversee a multi-university effort to produce more scientists and engineers who can develop new alternative energy sources and ways to increase energy efficiency. Heidi Taboada, Ph.D., assistant professor of industrial, manufacturing and systems engineering, is the principal investigator of the BuildinG a Regional Energy and Educational Network (BGREEN) project.

Interdisciplinary teams from UTEP, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Texas State University-San Marcos, and New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM, will work with the USDA and agricultural agencies to prepare students and graduates who can develop efficient renewable energy sources, incorporate biomass conversion, improve feedstock logistics, optimize supply chains and processes, and develop green infrastructure as they enhance the competitiveness of our nation in the global economy. “Demand for professionals with sustainable energy knowledge is increasing as employers need graduates who can better respond to energy challenges in all professional and business contexts,” Taboada says. “This demand also will create green-collar jobs in the industrial sector and in new technology fields and will put our country on track to a sustainable, low-carbon energy future.”

The program will help place student interns and train graduate students at sites in Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, as well as Panama City, Panama. Taboada will work alongside her UTEP colleagues: co-principal investigator Jose Espiritu, Ph.D., assistant professor of industrial, manufacturing and systems engineering; William Hargrove, Ph.D., director of the Center for Environmental Resource Management; Salvador Hernandez, Ph.D., and Shane Walker, Ph.D., assistant professors of civil engineering; and Juan Noveron, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry.

Jason Ross, P.E. Leads HMMH Rail Group

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:57:00 +0000

Harris Miller Miller & Hanson Inc. (HMMH) has announced the promotion of Jason Ross, P.E., to the position of director of transit noise and vibration. In his new role, Ross is responsible for leading the firm's transit noise and vibration services practice group, managing and supporting projects, business development activities, and resource allocation. Ross has previously held the positions of principal engineer and senior consultant at HMMH.

Ross’ project experience includes environmental assessments and impact statements, compliance testing, development of noise and vibration data measurement systems, analyses of vibration-sensitive equipment, public meetings participation, course instruction, and expert testimony. Ross currently manages the update of the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Noise and Vibration Impact Assessment Guidance Manual and preliminary engineering of noise and vibration mitigation for the MBTA Green Line Extension Project. Ross has a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, a Master’s degree in acoustics and is a registered Professional Engineer in Massachusetts and Texas. Ross also serves on HMMH’s board of directors.

“I am very excited to provide Jason an opportunity to expand his corporate leadership to one of our most exciting practice areas.” said Mary Ellen Eagan, President. “Jason’s combination of solid engineering skills and consulting expertise will position us well in this dynamic field.”

Dagher Engineering Projects Featured in Architectural Record

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:44:00 +0000

Architectural Record magazine's special commemorative issue "The Death and Life of a Great American City: New York 2001-2011," honors New York City as a 21st-century design capital. In a section titled, "The City Reimagined: The Future of New York," Record's editors name the top 12 projects that are spearheading the transformation of the cityscape today. Dagher Engineering, based in New York, was involved with five of these projects, including:

Fresh Kills Park

Dagher Engineering designed a 770 square-foot photovoltaic arrayshade system and battery enclosure as the lead electrical and plumbing design consultant for the North Park Schmul entrance.

West 57th Street

Dagher Engineering is providing sustainable strategies and design as the lead MEP consultant for the Durst Organziation's latest cutting-edge venture with BIG.

Hudson Park & Boulevard

Dagher Engineering is helping transform the area from a desolate industrial neighborhood to a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly mixed-use district as the lead MEP consultant for the green center of the new Hudson Yards, the Hudson Park & Boulevard.

The BAM Cultural District

Dagher Engineering provided the MEP design for the Visual Arts Plaza and the streetscape of this new cultural district around the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Governor's Island Park & Public Spaces

Dagher Engineering is the lead MEP consultant for a visionary scheme for 87 acres of public space on Governors Island that is expected to generate a small scale construction boom.

WSP SELLS Acquires WAZ Engineering

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:31:00 +0000

WSP SELLS announces the acquisition of WAZ Engineering, PC by the firm. WAZ Engineering provides consulting and engineering design to public and private clients throughout the Southeast and specializes in hydraulic engineering ranging from flood studies, stormwater management, and drainage design to stream and wetland restoration.

WAZ Engineering Principal Amy Wazenegger, PE, CFM will lead the WSP SELLS Water Resources Group from the Cary, NC office. Wazenegger formed WAZ Engineering in 2005 to provide hydraulic engineering services while encouraging a healthy work life for employees with an emphasis on long-term environmental sustainability. Prior to starting her own company, she worked for an international engineering firm and the NCDOT Hydraulics Unit and has more than 13 years of experience in the water resources field. She has participated in the hydrologic study and design for a variety of roadway and highway improvement projects. In addition to her work with hydraulics projects, Wazenegger has participated in the study, analysis, design, construction, and monitoring of stream restoration and mitigation projects for a variety of clients and has an in-depth knowledge and understanding of federal, state, and local environmental regulations. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from North Carolina State University, is a licensed Professional Engineer in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, and is a Certified Floodplain Manager.

Headquartered in Westchester County, NY, WSP SELLS has provided bridge design/inspection, transportation engineering, development infrastructure, water resources, land surveying/GPS, photogrammetric mapping, and GIS services to public and private sector clients since 1925. With a 230-person staff, WSP SELLS is part of WSP Group, a 9,000-person global design, engineering, and management consultancy.

KSA Engineers Launches New Portfolio of Environmental Services

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:19:00 +0000

KSA Engineers has introduced Environmental Services, which offers an extensive set of environmental-related services and solutions. Traditional environmental projects that KSA has completed include environmental site assessments, site cleanups, air permitting, and waste management/disposal. This new list of services will allow the firm to work with clients through environmental permitting and compliance for additional types of capital improvement projects. The new portfolio includes a range of services beyond permitting, which include developing biological assessments of habitats to avoid impacting endangered species, delineation of wetlands, wetland permitting support, and conducting overall field assessments and documentation required for a project's National Environmental Policy Act review.

"We are extremely excited about the opportunity to diversify our services and provide our clients with more options for their environmental work," says Lanny Buck, project manager at KSA. "We look forward to expanding our range of services in the environmental area." The introduction of Environmental Services marks another step in KSA's strategy of strengthening its position as a provider of professional services to municipalities, airports, industry, and the oil and gas industry.

KSA Engineers provides a broad range of consulting, management, engineering, planning, surveying, and construction services. Founded in 1978, the firm has grown to over 150 employees located in eight offices throughout Texas. For more information, visit www.ksaeng.com.

METRO Takes Design-Build Approach with Light Rail Extension

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Gibson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:02:00 +0000

Phoenix, Arizona's METRO light rail will take advantage of the competitive market and gain the early insight of a contractor with a design-build delivery method for its 3.1-mile Central Mesa extension. This decision is a departure from METRO’s typical project delivery approach of design-bid-build, but it works in favor of building a quality product in this economy and in a way that supports the local business community.

“The challenging economy presents us with an opportunity to think creatively about how we move projects forward,” said METRO CEO Steve Banta. “A quality design/builder can help us navigate towards a successful project that will best serve the neighboring community and the public dollar. It will also benefit the project’s timeline.”

A strong benefit of the design-build approach is that the construction contractor will come on board early to work directly with the designer to build plans that are workable for both parties. Contractor expertise will also help to build a construction schedule that meets the needs of the agency, project, and community. “The City of Mesa supports the design-build option for the Central Mesa light rail extension,” Mesa Councilmember and METRO Board Vice Chairman Dennis Kavanaugh said. “It will advance the schedule and put Arizonans to work.”

The Central Mesa project team is now finalizing preliminary engineering. These plans will be delivered to a design-build team for further development in spring 2012. A Request for Qualifications, to initiate the Design-Build procurement, has been issued . Future project milestones remain intact. Utility relocation will begin in spring 2012 with the project to be complete in 2016.

The Central Mesa project is a 3.1-mile light rail extension that will travel east from the current end-of-line through downtown Mesa on Main Street to Mesa Drive. The extension will provide East Valley residents with greater connection to the regional transit system and help support the growth of downtown Mesa. For more information, visitwww.metrolightrail.org/centralmesa.

METRO develops and operates the region’s high-capacity transit system. The first 20-mile light rail line opened December 2008. METRO serves an average of 40,000 riders each weekday while also planning for six extensions that will create a 57-mile system by 2031. METRO had 1,258,711 total boardings in October, an eight percent increase over October 2010 and the highest in the system’s history. For more information, visit www.metrolightrail.org.

Editor's note: See our feature story on the METRO light rail system at http://www.progressiveengineer.com/features/lightRail.htm