Monday, August 16, 2010

Engineers on the Rise at Reaveley Engineers + Associates




Reaveley Engineers, a structural engineering firm in Salt Lake City, Utah, congratulates the following employees on their recent appointments:

Michael Buehner, SE has been made a principal of the firm. A graduate of the University of Utah, he has been with Reaveley Engineers for 12 years. During that time he has worked some of Reaveley’s most significant projects including the Huntsman Cancer Institute Phases IIA and IIB, the University of Utah Warnock Engineering Building, the University of Utah Marriott Library Seismic Upgrade, and the Utah State University Bingham Entrepreneurship & Energy Research Center in Vernal, Utah.

Justin Nadauld, SE has been with Reaveley Engineers for seven years and was made an associate of the firm. Justin is a graduate of the University of Utah. He has gained engineering expertise through the O.C. Tanner Flagship Retail Store Seismic Upgrade and Renovation, his extensive K-12 experience, and currently the Salt Lake City United States District Courthouse.

Roger Nadauld, SE came to Reaveley Engineers as a Precast/GFRC specialist. He has 30 years experience in this highly specialized area and manages RE+A precast work. His portfolio includes the precast on the retail portions of the City Creek Center, 222 South Main, Eaglegate Tower, and Energy Solutions Arena.

Bonestroo Welcomes Dave Boyle as Senior Civil Engineer


Bonestroo welcomes Dave Boyle as a senior civil engineer in the firm’s Waupun, WI office. Boyle brings more than 25 years of experience on a wide variety of civil engineering projects including municipal infrastructure, state and local transportation, site development, and facilities. His expertise includes stormwater drainage studies, watermain, sanitary sewer, and recreation. Boyle also brings extensive experience in planning, estimating, funding, designing and constructing these types of projects. Boyle earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Michigan Technological University and is a registered Professional Engineer in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Kansas.

GAI Consultants Names Environmental Manager to Charlotte Operations

Melvin Stroble, Sr. has joined GAI Consultants as senior environmental manager in GAI’s Charlotte, NC office. In this role, he performs environmental assessments for electric utilities, natural gas and oil pipelines, and related energy industry companies. He also supports GAI’s business development throughout the Southeast, particularly the Carolinas.

Stroble brings more than 23 years of environmental management experience in the electric and natural gas industries. He provides technical and management support on environmental compliance matters, including requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act. Stroble holds a B.S. in biology with a minor in chemistry from the University of South Carolina.


Having operated for over 50 years, GAI is a 700-person, employee-owned, multidiscipline engineering and environmental consulting firm serving clients worldwide in the energy, transportation, real estate, water, municipal, government, and industrial markets from offices throughout the Northeast, Midwest, and Southeast. For more information about GAI’s history, services, and people, visit www.gaiconsultants.com.

Ruekert/Mielke Announces Organizational Changes



William Mielke, P.E., R.L.S., president and CEO of Ruekert/Mielke, Inc. has been named chairman of the board, replacing John Mielke, P.E., who has retired after spending 64 years as a director of the company he founded. William Mielke joined Ruekert/Mielke in 1971 and has expanded the firm and its services to include Geographic Information Systems (GIS), supervisory control and data acquisition design, landscape architecture services, and asset management services, in addition to opening offices in Kenosha and Madison. The firm has also established two divisions: Aquifer Science and Technology (AST), specializing in groundwater studies and investigations nationwide, and Municipal Economics & Planning (MEP), providing financial and planning services to municipalities.

Michael Campbell. P.E., senior vice president and chief operating officer, has been named to the Board of Directors. Campbell joined Ruekert/Mielke in 1984, becoming chief operating officer in 1999. Campbell has performed as project manager on a variety of municipal and private development projects including TIF Districts, industrial parks, downtown development, major sanitary sewerage, lake sewer, and storm water management. In addition, he is the firm’s expert on stream modeling, floodplain analysis, and small diameter pressurized sewer systems. He serves as the village engineer for the villages of Thiensville and Elm Grove.

John Mielke and Frank Ruekert started moonlighting in their homes at night designing subdivisions for the housing market driven by returning WWII veterans. John came home from a commission in the Army Corps of Engineers to join Frank, then an engineer with the City of Waukesha, Wisconsin. Ruekert/Mielke was formed on May 6, 1946, with the company located in a two-room, upstairs office at 203 North Grand Avenue in Waukesha.

In 1951 a building was constructed at 420 Frederick Street to serve as professional office space. There was one conference room, one office for both principals, and one wall telephone used by all employees. By 1955, the partnership became a corporation, and the firm concentrated on community sewer and water systems. Ruekert/Mielke assisted many communities in their development, such as the incorporations of the Village of Menomonee Falls and Oconomowoc Lake and the Cities of Brookfield, New Berlin, Muskego, and Pewaukee. The firm also designed sewer and water systems for all these communities as well as the majority of municipal wells and water towers throughout Waukesha County.

Today, Ruekert/Mielke of Waukesha, WI is a multidisciplinary consulting firm offering engineering and municipal services. The firm assists clients with water and wastewater management, stormwater management, municipal and financial planning, landscape architecture, construction review services, GIS, and SCADA control system projects.

Alpha Corporation Selected as Construction Manager for Rehabilitation of Historic Independence Hall Tower

Alpha Corporation has been selected to provide construction management services for the National Park Service for the rehabilitation/repair of the historic Independence Hall Tower, which once housed the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. This project will arrest deterioration of the Tower due to water damage and replace and refurbish selected deteriorated elements including roofing, wood siding, decorative wood elements, balusters, and the copper urns on the tower. A new lightning protection system will also be installed.

The tower, one of the earliest examples of Colonial Revival architecture, was designed by William Strickland and built in 1828, replacing the original tower, which dated from 1750. This project will be funded by the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009”. In addition to full-time on-site CM, Alpha Corporation will provide special inspections, project controls, and contract administration during the construction,which will take approximately 18 months and will take place while Independence Hall is open to the public, requiring stringent safety procedures.

This project will add to Alpha’s track record of engineering and construction management on Historic National Monuments and Memorials such as the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Jamestown Island, Ellis Island, Pentagon Memorial, etc. The Independence Hall Tower Project also represents one of twenty recent ARRA-funded NPS projects awarded to Alpha for CM services, totaling over $100 million in construction value.

Alpha Corporation is a full-service consulting firm offering program/construction management and engineering services to government agencies, municipalities, institutions, private enterprises, developers and contractors. The firm includes professional engineers, program and construction managers, cost estimators, schedulers, and risk managers. Our experience encompasses project development and delivery: planning, design, construction, commissioning, operations, and maintenance for building, transportation, civil infrastructure, and utility/energy projects. The firm is headquartered in Dulles, Virginia and maintains multiple regional offices in the U.S. as well as three additional international offices - Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and Bogota, Colombia. For more information, visit www.alphacorporation.com.

Bay Design Group Opens Office in Morehead City

Bay Design Group, an engineering, surveying, and land planning firm, has opened a new office in Morehead City, North Carolina. Jason Miles, P.E., a principal with the firm, and Bill Forman, P.E. are the senior consulting engineers for the company at their new location. Forman is a longtime resident of the Morehead City area and an expert in waterfront, coastal, and municipal engineering. Miles looks forward to moving his family to the “Crystal Coast” from the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. His expertise, gained through design and construction of engineering and development projects throughout Richmond and Hampton Roads, complement Forman’s experience and service in the local and regional communities of coastal North Carolina.

Formed in 1996 from parent companies established in 1974 and 1982, Bay Design Group specializes in land and waterfront development, municipal, environmental and coastal engineering. The firm operates through office locations in Richmond, the Middle Peninsula, and Northern Neck areas of Virginia and their newest location in Morehead City, North Carolina.

Project at Cornell University Celebrates Final Top-out of Steel Trusses

After months of pre-construction planning, scheduling, and logistics management, the last of the steel trusses were put in place recently at Milstein Hall at Cornell University’s Ithaca campus. The project is being led by the construction management firm Welliver McGuire of Montour Falls, New York. The Paul Milstein Hall will be the new home to the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning and features a unique design, unparalleled by any other on campus. The building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who previously studied at Cornell University, founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) located in Manhattan and Rotterdam, Netherlands. The 47,000 square-foot building will have a glass and concrete façade over two stories with a sub-basement. The interior is an open-air design to allow for ever-changing studio and critique space. A concrete dome in the center provides elevated auditorium seating and a staircase to the second floor while the underside of the dome creates a unique ceiling in the gallery space.

Welliver McGuire and Cornell University project managers controlled the schedule and logistics of transportation and installation of the 17 trusses that weighed between 47,000 and 130,000 pounds each. The hybrid trusses are being installed to support two cantilevers, one on the south end of the building and one over University Avenue. Only a few companies in the world could produce these specialized trusses, and the chosen firm was Canatal Industries from Quebec City, Canada. Each truss was delivered individually by truck, escorted to the U.S./Canada border by the Canadian police and then picked up by New York State Police and taken to campus. Timing had to be just right for the trusses to be installed before the next one was delivered due to the small amount of lay-down area on-site. To install these massive truss pieces, a special hydraulic crane was brought in from Syracuse, NY. Clark Crane and Rigging is the owner of the 600-ton crane, the largest in New York State, which was able to lift and hold the pieces in place until crews set them. “Welliver McGuire and its subcontractors completed one of the largest and most complex steel installations on our Campus,” stated Project Director for Cornell University, Gary Wilhelm.

Milstein Hall is an intended U.S. Green Building Council LEED Gold project. Environmental aspects include a vegetative roof, skylights, an indoor garden, chilled beams for cooling the building, and radiant-heat flooring.

One of many Welliver McGuire-led projects on the Cornell campus, Milstein Hall is on track to be completed before the fall semester 2011. Other projects Welliver McGuire is working on at Cornell include the Plantations Welcome Center, Cornell Rowing Center, Phase 2A of Martha Van Rensselaer 1933 Hall renovations, and renovations to Bruckner Hall. The company provides construction management, design/build and general construction services to the higher education, K-12, healthcare and science and technology markets throughout Upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania. Live video feeds of select Welliver McGuire job sites can be found on our website at www.welliver-mcguire.com.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Whitehead & Associates Brands its Energy Solutions Group

Whitehead & Associates, an Atlanta-based electrical manufacturer’s representative, has been partnering with electrical manufacturers for more than 40 years. For the past 15 years, it has augmented its status as a manufacturer’s representative by also offering energy efficiency consulting services to customers already specifying efficient electrical components. Within the past two years, the group known internally as Whitehead Energy Solutions has grown its independent customer base significantly, launched its own website and employed sales efforts to engage new customers.

President at Whitehead & Associates, Scott Whitehead, explains, “Where once our Energy Solutions group only got involved as an added benefit to existing customers, new interest in energy efficiency and cost savings has also created a demand for this kind of consulting. With our expertise in the industry and partnerships with manufacturers, it was a natural fit to support this group and eventually give it its own identity.”

Whitehead Energy Solutions has provided turnkey energy-saving solutions and energy-efficient lighting products and controls for more than 15 years. It serves distributors, commercial contractors, and end-users in many industries, including commercial, industrial, utility, hospitality, retail, and residential.

Whitehead & Associates has two other offices in Nashville, TN and Birmingham, AL and employs more than 20 people. For more information visit www.whiteheadassoc.com or www.whiteheadenergysolutions.com.

Dominic Sabatini Joins STV as Vice President of Systems

Dominic Sabatini, P.E., has joined STV as vice president of the firm’s Transportation and Infrastructure Division’s systems group. He will be based in Philadelphia and report to Christopher Holliday, P.E., senior vice president, vehicles, systems and security services. In this role, Sabatini will be responsible for STV’s systems practice, which includes traction power, signals, communications, intelligent transportation systems, and fare collection. He will work with John Ponzio, senior associate and director of systems.

Sabatini has more than 40 years experience as a program manager, regional manager, project manager, and engineer. Throughout his career, he directed many transit projects in many different capacities including engineering and design, design-build, and construction. Immediately before joining STV, Sabatini was a senior vice president for a global transportations system company. Prior to that position, Sabatini was a program director for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) for seven years. At SEPTA he oversaw the reconstruction of the Market-Frankford Elevated Subway System Blue Line, a 13.8-mile, heavy rail, electrified transit system. Because the project was so complex, Sabatini developed a detailed program management plan to handle the numerous consultant and construction contracts.

Sabatini earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Drexel University and is a registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania.

With more than 1,700 employees in 33 offices, STV provides planning, engineering, architectural, construction management, and environmental services for transportation systems, infrastructure, buildings, and other facilities. STV is 100 percent employee-owned and maintains a web site at www.stvinc.com.

Dovalovsky Promoted to Chicago Transportation Department Manager

Stacie Dovalovsky, P.E., civil engineer at Clark Dietz, Inc., has been promoted to manager of the Chicago Transportation Department. Ms. Dovalovsky is a licensed professional engineer in Illinois and Indiana and holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and is pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree from DePaul University in Chicago. Ms. Dovalovsky has been with Clark Dietz since 1998 and has transportation planning, design, and construction experience for road, bridge, transit, and building improvement projects. Her new responsibilities will include the management and leadership for transportation infrastructure improvements in northeast Illinois.

Clark Dietz is involved in transportation, civil, environmental, mechanical, electrical, and structural engineering with over 140 professional staff in regional offices in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

Prominent Napa Valley Vintner Goes to Green Production


A plan for solar-powered winemaking is working “even better than expected,” according to the electrical engineers who developed it. One of the noted glamour projects of 2009, the Hall Estate Winery in Napa Valley, CA was designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry for owners Craig and Kathryn Hall, the prominent financiers and art patrons.

When this A-team constellation of architecture, art, and influence sought an engineer to green-power their landmark $100-million project, they turned to Los Angeles-based IBE Consulting Engineers. “We build sustainable systems into every assignment, a process that starts early in project conversations,” says Alan Locke, PE, founder of IBE Consulting Engineers. “The Hall Estate Winery was an especially productive effort, as the owner and architects were committed to true environmental stewardship.” A mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineering firm, IBE Consulting Engineers crafts building systems to complement owner and architect visions of sustainable, livable built environments.

The Hall Estate Winery project anticipates 120,000 square feet of new development within a 33-acre vineyard near St. Helena, CA. The winery’s Visitors Center has not yet been built, but the two-building, 41,900-square-foot production facility was recently completed and is operating. Master-planned by Gehry, the production facility was designed by St. Helena, CA-based Lail Design Group.

Among other assignments, IBE Consulting Engineers was tasked to design the production facility’s MEP systems to cut energy use, both total and from the grid. IBE conceived systems for both rooftop solar power and radiant flooring to control production-room temperatures. For the solar-powered system, IBE Consulting Engineers developed specifications and reviewed vendor options before designing a 42,000-square-foot installation that provides 35 percent of the winery’s energy needs. William Dahl, Jr., senior associate at IBE, consulted with Gehry to select panels and configurations that fulfilled the architects’ aesthetic criteria. For the radiant system, water piping was installed into the winery’s cement floors, allowing cold or warm water to run through the substrata to efficiently regulate production-room temperatures. Radiant heat is one of the most-efficient room-temperature control methods.

As a result of the collaboration among owner, architects, and engineer, the Hall Estate Winery has earned a LEED Gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. The vintner’s solar-power system is actually slightly exceeding expectations, says Dahl. “We are producing a little more power over our estimate with brand new and clean panels,” he says. “The panels can be washed, and output is monitored online.”

URS to Provide Construction Management Services for Rehabilitation of Spokane Viaduct

URS Corporation has been selected by the City of Seattle’s Department of Transportation to provide construction management services for Phase 2 of the South Spokane Street viaduct rehabilitation and reconstruction of the surface roadway. URS is providing construction management and contract administration services for the $60 million project, which will widen the existing viaduct. The project will nearly double the width of the existing viaduct and will expand traffic flow from two 10-foot wide lanes with no shoulders to three 11-foot lanes with shoulders in each directions. The work is expected to be completed in summer 2012.

A new ramp to and from 1st Avenue South will be constructed as part of the project, and an existing ramp at 4th Avenue South will be demolished. The project extends nearly three quarters of a mile, contains 158 drilled shafts up to 120 feet long, and includes three different types of bridge deck construction – pre-cast concrete girders, structural steel, and cast-in-place box girders. The work involves demolition and removal of access ramps and other portions of the existing system, retrofit of the viaduct structure, relocation of drainage and other utilities, and a closed circuit television system.

URS Corporation provides engineering, construction, and technical services for public agencies and private sector companies around the world. The company offers a broad range of program management; planning, design and engineering; systems engineering and technical assistance; construction and construction management; operations and maintenance; and decommissioning and closure services. URS provides services for power, infrastructure, industrial and commercial, and federal projects and programs. Headquartered in San Francisco, URS has approximately 42,000 employees in a network of offices in more than 30 countries (http://www.urscorp.com).

NEA Building Receives USGBC LEED Gold Certification

The National Education Association (NEA) has achieved LEED Gold certification through the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is the USGBC’s system for designing, constructing, and operating the world’s greenest, most energy efficient, and high performing buildings.

"The best decision we made as we undertook the LEED certification process was to work with the FEA team. They understood our needs and developed a plan that was consistent with our goals and the resources that we were able to bring to the project," said Richard Nuanes, Director of Conference & Facilities Management at NEA.

Before FEA (Facility Engineering Associates) joined the NEA certification effort in 2007, NEA observed the growing popularity and value of building certification as a milestone in demonstrating their commitment to sustainability in their facility. As a result, the goal of NEA’s sustainability facility management plan, which started with energy savings, evolved and targeted building certification as validation of their efforts.

FEA is a nationally based consulting engineering firm specializing in existing facilities. Our services provide solutions to extend the lifecycle of your facility. Our mission is to make buildings last by implementing practical and cost-effective strategies. FEA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has additional offices in Boston, MA; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; and San Francisco, CA. Visit www.feapc.com.

GeoDesign Wins Engineering Award for Vermont Agency of Transportation Study


GeoDesign, with offices in Windsor and South Burlington, VT; Middlebury, CT; and New York earned the 2010 American Council For Engineering Companies Vermont Section Engineering Excellence Merit Award. The Evaluation of the Variability of SPT Hammer Energy for the Vermont Agency of Transportation won in the Studies, Planning and Consulting Engineering Services category.
The award submissions were based on meeting and exceeding the client’s needs, new application of existing techniques, social and economic benefits, level of complexity, and technical value to the profession.

GeoDesign’s engineers and scientists, led by project manager Shawn Kelley, Ph.D., evaluated nine different SPT hammer configurations to gain a more accurate understanding of soil properties when conducting the standard penetration test and sampling of soil. The incorporation of the energy correction values developed by GeoDesign gives engineers greater confidence in the field-measured values, reducing the need for more costly and time-consuming lab testing for soil strength.

Established in 1995, GeoDesign (www.geodesign.net) is a privately held engineering consulting firm that completes environmental investigation and remediation projects, geotechnical projects, and construction engineering services throughout the Northeast for private clients, industry, developers, contractors, and municipalities.

Sewall Releases VirtualAsset Online for Managing Municipal Assets

James W. Sewall Company has released VirtualAsset Online, a software-as-a-service solution for managing municipal infrastructure assets. With VirtualAsset Online, municipal utilities and public works departments can access the complete suite of CartêGraph asset maintenance management software over the web for a fraction of the cost it takes to install, operate, and maintain the software and support systems in-house. VirtualAsset Online, which interfaces with desktop or mobile devices, requires a current version of the Windows operating system and an Internet Explorer connection, allowing organizations to take advantage of CartêGraph’s powerful toolset on a limited budget.

“VirtualAsset Online,” says Clarence Young, Sewall Senior Project Manager, “extends the power of Sewall’s web-enabled interfaces by providing a standard way for delivering integrated ESRI GIS and Cartegraph asset management software. For customers looking to reduce IT costs associated with asset record maintenance, the services delivered with this solution will provide dramatic returns on the small annual fee.”

Developed in partnership with CartêGraph, VirtualAsset Online joins web, desktop, and mobile technologies in a flexible environment in which solutions are tailored to best fit the needs of the client organization. Although the standard package is designed to support organizations with eight or fewer simultaneous users, the concept is scalable to larger user groups by introducing a Citrix server or similar delivery component.

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 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 services in environmental engineering, renewable energy, and web-based technologies.