Volume 21, Issue 3 June | July 2014

Infrastructure / technology

G e o r G i a

ENGINEER®

GeorGia DoT’sLonG Journey To PubLic PrivaTeParTnershiPs

2 GeorGia enGineer

Publisher: A4 Inc.1154 Lower Birmingham RoadCanton, Georgia 30115Tel.: 770-521-8877 | Fax: 770-521-0406E-mail: p.frey@a4inc.com

Editor-in-Chief: Roland Petersen-FreyManaging Editor: Daniel SimmonsArt Direction/Design: Pam Petersen-Frey

Georgia Engineering Alliance233 Peachtree Street | Harris Tower, #700Atlanta, Georgia 30303Tel.: 404-521-2324 | Fax: 404-521-0283

Georgia Engineer Editorial BoardThomas C. Leslie, ChairMichael L. (Sully) Sullivan, ACEC Georgia, PresidentGwen D. Brandon, CAE, ACEC Georgia, Chief Operating Officer

ACEC/Georgia RepresentativesB.J. Martin, PELee Philips

ASCE/G RepresentativesDaniel Agramonte, PESteven C. Seachrist, PE

ASHE RepresentativeJenny Jenkins, PE

GSPE RepresentativesTim Glover, PE

ITE RepresentativesDaniel Dobry, PE, PTOEJohn Edwards, PE

ITS/G RepresentativesBill Wells, PEShaun Green, PEKay Wolfe, PE

SEAOG RepresentativeRob Wellacher, PE

WTS RepresentativeAngela Snyder

The Georgia engineer is published bi-monthly by A4 Inc. for the Georgia Engineering Allianceand sent to members of ACEC, ASCE, ASHE, GEF, GSPE, ITE, SEAOG, WTS; local, state, andFederal government officials and agencies; businesses and institutions. Opinions expressed by the au-thors are not necessarily those of the Alliance or publisher nor do they accept responsibility for er-rors of content or omission and, as a matter of policy, neither do they endorse products oradvertisements appearing herein. Parts of this periodical may be reproduced with the written con-sent from the Alliance and publisher. Correspondence regarding address changes should be sent tothe Alliance at the address above. Correspondence regarding advertising and editorial material shouldbe sent to A4 Inc. at the address listed above.

G e o r G i a

ENGINEER

June | JuLy 2014 3

aDverTisemenTs

AECOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

American Engineering Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

AMEC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Burns & McDonnell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Cardno TBE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Columbia Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

CROM Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

EcoWise Civil Design & Consulting Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Edwards-Pitman Environmental Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Engineered Restorations Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Facility Design Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Georgia Power Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Hayward Baker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Back Cover

Hazen & Sawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

HDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Heath & Lineback Engineers Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

HNTB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

ITE Summer Seminar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

JAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Keck & Wood Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Kennedy Engineering & Associates Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

MH Miles Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Pond Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Photo Science Geospatial Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Prime Engineering Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Reinforced Earth Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

RHD Utility Locating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

ROSSER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

S&ME. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Schnabel Engineering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Stevenson & Palmer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

STV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Terrell Hundley Carroll Right of Way Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

T•H•C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

TTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

T. Wayne Owens & Associates, PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

United Consulting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover

Willmer Engineering Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Wolverton & Associates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

GeorGia enGineer4

T a b l e o f

CONTENTS GEORGIA ENGINEER JUNE | JULY 2014

June | JuLy 2014 5

Georgia DOT’s long journey to public-private partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Future batteries might need to learn to breathe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Solar roadways: highways made of glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Georgia Ports Authority, the low country powerhouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

The real impact of leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

The drones are coming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

HNTB celebrates its first century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Professional engineer, structural engineer registration in Georgia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Enhancing mobility with intelligent interchanges and intersections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Georgia Engineering News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

ACEC Georgia News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

ASEC Georgia News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

ASHE Georgia News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

GEF News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

ITE Georgia News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

ITS Georgia News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

SAME Atlanta News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Ron Koger named interim president of SPSU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

soLar roaDs: hiGhWays maDe oF GLass 12

6 GeorGia enGineer

visiT us aTTheGoerGiaenGineer.com

FEATURE

7June | JuLy 2014

RUSSELL MCMURRy | CHIEF ENGINEER & DARRyL VANMETER | DIRECTOR OF

INNOVATIVE PROGRAM DELIVERy | THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

In November, the Georgia Department of Transportation finalized the contract for our first Public/Private Part-

nership (P3) highway construction project – a $599 million agreement with Northwest Express Roadbuilders

(NWER), a joint venture of Archer Western Contractors, LLC, and Hubbard Construction Company.

Along with its lead engineering firm, Parsons Transportation Group, NWER will design and build the de-

partment’s Northwest Corridor (NWC), a reversible, barrier-separated managed lane system extending 30 miles

alongside busy Interstate Highways 75 and 575 northwest of Atlanta. Archer Western and Hubbard are con-

tributing $60 million to what in effect is a private equity bridge loan

for the project. Preliminary construction activities are now under-

way, and the variable-price toll lanes

are expected to open to traffic in

2018.

Georgia DOT’s long journey to public-private partnerships

Building the Northwest Corridor will bethe department’s largest single investmentby far. Expenses incurred to date push theproject’s total cost to nearly $834 million; ahuge undertaking, but one worth the price.When it opens, the NWC will restore amobility option to a corridor that routinelycarries as many as 230,000 vehicles a day;the project also will be a key building blockand linchpin of the department’s ManagedLanes System Plan—our ambitious strat-egy to extend this mobility choice through-out Metropolitan Atlanta.

Like our colleagues in other statetransportation departments, Georgia DOThas watched the gap between availablefunding and needed funding inexorablywiden each year. And because of what werefer to as our problem of prosperity—Georgia’s continuing economic and popu-lation growth—the gap here is widening ata quick pace. In Metropolitan Atlantaalone, for instance, we need to find literallybillions of unidentified new dollars to keeppace with a population predicted to growfrom five to eight million people in just thenext 30 years. We were hopeful when whatwe first called Public Private Initiatives –partnerships injecting substantial sums ofprivate sector capital (and innovation) intopublic sector projects – began to receive se-rious consideration. Chicago getting $1.8

billion for its 99-year lease of the ChicagoSkyway in 2005 was encouraging; Indiana’s$3.8 billion, 75-year Toll Road lease a yearlater downright exciting.

Georgia DOT also was consideringpublic/private ventures. Our General As-sembly had authorized them in 2003, andwe received several unsolicited proposals toconvert existing roads to tollways and buildnew tolled lanes on others, including theNorthwest Corridor. As we examined theoffers though, we realized they essentiallywere stand-alone projects—not intercon-nected to one another or to an overall man-aged lane strategy. Moreover, some weren’ton roads we considered our most pressingpriorities. It became apparent that the stateneeded to establish its own managed laneagenda and that the department needed todrive that agenda’s implementation. Work-ing with subsequent General Assembliesand our immediate governing body, thelegislatively elected State TransportationBoard, unsolicited public/private proposalswere prohibited and comprehensive plansdeveloped for managed lanes in Metro At-lanta and a continually evolving, tieredagenda of potential P3 projects. (This re-mains one of—if not the only—prospectiveP3 projects blueprint in the country; thepublic/private industry now knows whatGeorgia DOT considers viable P3 oppor-

tunities, our priority for development ofthose projects, and how they would link toand complement future efforts.)

A constant in the department’s evolv-ing P3 landscape has been the NorthwestCorridor. Atlanta’s aforementioned growthand the equally increasing freight traffic onI-75 make the corridor a highest priority.We continued negotiations on an unso-licited NWC proposal until well into 2009.Even there though, the scope of improve-ments had to be adjusted as we came tobetter understand the varying types of P3sand their attendant requirements. Our ini-tial corridor iteration, featuring truck lanesand a bus rapid transit network, came at aprohibitive price approaching $4 billion.

Transferring that risk to a private sec-tor partner, we learned, has its own cost.Understandably, as any private entity’s in-vestment in a project increases, so too doesits desire to control the circumstances thataffect recouping that investment. ‘Partner-ships’ become more complicated, however,as private sector business considerationsand decisions must acknowledge prevailingpublic sector opinion and meld with gov-ernance’s public policy. There likely is nouniversally applicable public/private tem-plate. What works in Chicago may notwork in Atlanta; what’s right for Indianamay not be right for Georgia. And whatapplies in Atlanta, Georgia, may be inap-plicable in Dallas, Texas, or Miami, Florida.Each state, each community, and each proj-ect must find its own unique balance, itsown appropriate terms.

For instance, from virtually the firstmoments we began considering public/pri-vate partnerships and the tolling scenariosthey usually necessitate, public sentimentexpressed by Georgians was that, whilethey could support tolls or user fees that fi-nanced new capacity, they did not believetolls should be charged on what were pre-viously free general purpose lanes, “roadsalready paid for,” as they described them.In 2005, the State Transportation Boardvoted to incorporate that view into depart-ment policy.

The board and the department re-mained committed, however, to fashioninga viable environment for public/ private en-

8 GeorGia enGineer

Photo credit: Atlanta Journal Constitution

deavors. In 2007, the board declared thatany new capacity added to limited accessroadways in Metropolitan Atlanta wouldbe managed lanes. The expectation re-mained that Public Private Initiatives,rechristened Public Private Partnerships, orP3s, would be a common, if not predomi-nant, delivery mechanism. In a 2010 so-licited procurement, three consortiumswere short-listed for consideration as thegroup to build a revived Northwest Corri-dor and also conduct preparatory engineer-ing and environmental work on managedlanes on Interstate Highways 285 and 20on Atlanta’s west side. Later that sameyear, Republican Congressman NathanDeal was elected governor.

In the literally hundreds of meetings

and thousands of conversations throughoutthe years of consideration of the NWC andother potential public/private projects, itbecame apparent that the price of securingthe billions, or even hundreds of millions,of dollars in private investment we initiallyhad envisioned would be steep. A conces-sion agreement essentially giving a privatepartner decades of control of the roadway,the authority to set the toll rates and firstrights to the toll revenues, usually accom-panied by restrictions on the department’sability to add or expand ‘competing’ infra-structure, would be necessary, reasonablebusiness expectations perhaps for a privatepartner; something less, at least in Georgia,from a public opinion, public policy per-spective. Late in 2011, Governor Deal and

the Transportation Board halted the pro-curement and directed the department tofind other delivery options.

Still remaining was the shared com-mitment of the Governor, board and de-partment to the NWC project and apublic/private partnership program thatwould be right for Georgia, a ‘better wayforward.’ Emerging from that commit-ment—the design/build/finance hybrid P3with NWER that now, a decade later, isconstructing the Northwest Corridor, thefirst real new capacity we’ve been able toadd to Metro Atlanta’s Interstate System indecades. No, there wasn’t a pot of billionsof private-sector dollars at the end of a P3rainbow, but there were private-sector in-novations and alternative technical ap-proaches that are saving Georgia DOThundreds of millions of dollars.

Moreover, there now exists a frame-work of shared knowledge from which toembark on future public/private partner-ships that will be in keeping with Georgiapublic opinion and consistent with Georgiapublic policy. In the years to come, thatknowledge base will prove to be just as im-portant and beneficial to Georgia as theNorthwest Corridor itself. v

9June | JuLy 2014

arely have the Lithium-IonBatteries established them-selves in energy storage thanattention is drawn to new tech-nologies. Batteries with cath-odes made of oxygen could

store multiple times the storage capacitiesof today’s systems and are viewed as theideal solution for economic energy and forelectric mobility storage. Still, before thesenew systems are commercially available, thebattery technology has a way to go.

The search for more powerful batter-ies is a world-wide effort. Particular at-tention is being paid to theLithium-Oxygen batteries, which canachieve an energy density of 1000Wh/kg- five times the capacity of the cur-rent lithium-Ionen batteries.

Instead of graphite or lithium titanate,these new technologies use anode lithiummetal and oxygen serves as the cathode.“Oxygen diffuses into the battery insteadof the cathode material being the rigid partof the battery. This allows for the new bat-tery to be light and compact,” explainedKai-Christian Moeller, Director of theProject Group of Electro Chemical storageat the Fraunhofer Institute of ChemicalTechnology, (Germany).

The car industry has shown particularinterest in these Lithium-Oxygen-Batteries as they would allow cars to go far-ther without being recharged and wouldbe equal to gasoline-engine-powered cars.The range aimed for is 650 miles beforerecharging. The current lithium-ion bat-teries allow for a range of up to about 250miles. “We hope to bring these Lithium-Oxygen batteries to market within the nextfive or ten year,” explains Reinhardt Loeserof the Association of e-mobility.

This technology also looks like apromising option for the storage of excesselectrical transmission generated by greenenergy. Today, lithium-ion and Redox

Flow Batteries serve as storage of windand solar overflow power which have thesize of containers, but due to its high en-ergy density the physical storage unitswould be much smaller while offering thesame storage capacity.

One of the problems of this technol-ogy is the life cycle of the batteries. Whenunloading, electro-chemical reaction occursin the cathode and in the conductive elec-trolytes, which causes irreversible damageto the batteries. Much research is neededto solve this problem, but the long andshort is that in order for the battery to berecharged during the discharge process, thecells, which acquired oxygen, would have torelease oxygen into the atmosphere, or, ifyou like, they would need to learn tobreathe.

The lithium-oxygen battery is an opensystem with a constant flow of air through-out. However because the lithium metalanode is highly reactive, it needs to be pro-tected from external influences. The microporous polymer membrane used in the cur-rent batteries would not offer the protec-tion needed.

Other research relates to the use of sil-

icon rather than lithium, which is a rarematerial, while silicon is available in un-limited quantity and it offers the same en-ergy density of 1000 Wh/kg. The feeling isthat the silicon oxygen battery could be asreliable a storage system as lithium-oxygen.Still, researchers think that it might takeuntil around 2030 before final power stor-age systems will be commercially available.

What might be more feasible, eventhough not much considered, is theLithium-sulphur battery, which could becommercially available within ten years. Itdoubles the energy output of the currentlithium-ion system. The problem with thesulphur storage is its stability, which hasnot yet reached acceptable levels. Sulphurexpands during charging and contractsduring discharge, which puts pressure onthe Cathode. Additionally sulphur dis-solves in the electrolyte, and thus the activematerial gets lost.

In short, lithium-air batteries couldmake electricity storage systems for renew-able energy much more compact and ulti-mately will increase the range of electriccars to a more acceptable 600+ miles beforerecharging. v

10 GeorGia enGineer

Future batteries might need to learn to breathe

BTranslation by Daniel Simmons | Staff Writer

http://www.hntb.com/

12 GeorGia enGineer

n 2009, Scott Bursaw won a$100,000 grant from the USDepartment of Transportationin response to its request for anew paving surface that couldpay for itself over time. Hiswinning idea involved using

interlocking, hexagonal, solar panels aspavers for the nation’s roads and highways,which could (theoretically) create enoughrevenue through power generation to payfor themselves and more.

The idea is pretty simple at it’s mostbasic level: replace roads with solar panels.After all, we have no shortage of openspace that is currently being occupied bypaved road surface and if we covered evena small portion of that in solar panels, wecould generate enough energy to satisfy theentire country’s annual demand. Further-more, Bursaw’s design involves embeddingmicroprocessors, LEDs, and heating ele-ments in each panel, which would allowthem to use the energy they generate to doa wide variety of other things, such aschanging road markings dynamically andeliminating the need for salt and snowplows by heating the road’s surface. Now,before getting into any of the technical de-tails associated with the project’s feasibil-ity, implementation, and maintenancecosts, or potential hazards, let me first notehow the idea’s popularity has recently takenoff like wildfire.

As of right now, the Solar Roadwaysproject has raised over $1.8 million of their$1 million goal on Indiegogo and is one ofthe most popular projects that thefundraising website has ever hosted. A $1million goal is incredibly ambitious in thefirst place, especially considering the factthat the average successfully funded proj-ect on Indiegogo is under $4,000 and, todate, only four projects have raised over $1million. Not only did Solar Roadways aimfor the $1 million mark, but they’ve almostdoubled it, and there are still 18 days left

on their campaign. But let’s remember where this money

came from and why it was donated. Thismoney came from average people brows-ing the internet who think that the proj-ect sounds cool. These people, themajority of those who donated money, arejust your average internet users who cameacross a crowdfunding project that theywould like to see come to life. This moneywasn’t raised from investors who had de-manded feasibility studies and cost pro-jections. The project isn’t moving forwardbecause it has undergone the scrutiny ofunderwriters who are deeply concernedabout the security of their investments.Instead, this project has been catapultedinto the public eye because of money thatSolar Roadways has been able to raisefrom thousands of small contributions byaverage people who have been romancedby what is essentially an abstract descrip-tion of a cool-sounding technology.

And when you think of all it prom-ises, who could say no? Solar Roadwayswould mean no more power plants, nomore dependence on foreign oil, no more

salt trucks or snow plows, and a wholehost of other benefits for the telecommu-nications industry, not to mention the factthat it would make nighttime cityscapeslook like something out of Tron, whichdefinitely helps. But when you take a seri-ous look at the feasibility of such a tech-nology and how it might actually beimplemented, Solar Roadways start tolook astonishingly impractical, and those$2 million that they have raised starts tolook like pocket change.

Let’s start with the obvious: cost. Cur-rently, most of our nation’s roads are pavedwith asphalt, a relatively cheap, very recy-clable byproduct of the oil industry. Whenyou get down to it, asphalt is only five per-cent asphalt/ bitumen and the other 95percent is aggregate; i.e. rocks. Even in the-ory, you couldn’t ask for a cheaper, moreplentiful resource with which to pave yourroads than rocks, and even then it’s not ex-actly cheap. Even though asphalt only costsaround $125 per ton, it costs somewhere inthe neighborhood of $650,000 to pave asingle mile of four-lane highway. Again,that’s with a material that’s mostly rocks.

Solar roadways: highways made of glass

IBy Daniel Simmons | Staff Writer

13June | JuLy 2014

Now imagine paving that same mile ofhighway with Solar Roadways pavers,each of which is essentially a miniaturecomputer, containing a microcontroller,printed circuit board, a number of LEDs,wiring, heating elements, and a temperedglass surface.

Speaking of the tempered glass sur-face, let’s take a look at how much a fullscale implementation of Solar Roadwayswould cost in terms of glass alone. On hisWeb site, Mr. Bursaw bases all of his cal-culations for the power generating poten-tial of Solar Roadways on a coverage areaof 25,000 square miles, or 60 billionsquare meters; roughly every paved surfacein the contiguous United States. Thepavers will use ½ inch thick temperedglass for their surface material, whichcosts around $300 per square meter. Justto be generous, let’s assume a 50 percentdiscount due to ordering in bulk. Evenafter that the price of all that glass, and re-member we’re only talking about glasshere, is in excess of 10 trillion dollars; or ⅕the combined GDP’s of every country inthe world. Just for the glass.

Let’s stay on the topic of this glass sur-face for a little longer, because it has a fewother properties that would seem to beproblematic as well, namely, traction. Whileglass isn’t exactly known for its ability toprovide traction, the Solar Roadways teamclaims to have overcome this challenge bymolding the glass with a textured surfacein order to meet the traction demands ofvehicles while simultaneously meeting thelight permeability requirements of solarpower generation. Mr. Bursaw even ad-dresses this very issue on his Web site,

“We sent samples of textured glass toa university civil engineering lab for trac-tion testing. We started off being able tostop a car going 40 mph on a wet surfacein the required distance. We designed amore and more aggressive surface patternuntil we got a call form the lab one day:we'd torn the boot off of the British Pen-dulum Testing apparatus! We backed offa little and ended up with a texture thatcan stop a vehicle going 80 mph in the re-quired distance.

Great! Problem solved, right? Well,

while this does seem to address the tractionissues associated with paving a road inglass, it says nothing about what will hap-pen over time. That is, after even a singleyear of having dust and grit dragged acrossthem by countless cars, trucks, and the oc-casional fully-loaded 50 ton tractor trailer,what’s going to happen?

Glass scratches and it scratches rela-tively easily. Furthermore, sand and stonegrit are powerful abrasives; ancient Egyp-tians used to use it to polish and shapegranite. This poses a problem that, overtime, will result in diminished traction dueto the wearing away of any molded textureon the surface while simultaneously de-creasing the glass’ ability to pass lightthrough to the solar panels beneath. It isdifficult to imagine that this isn’t a problemthat Bursaw, an engineer, would have fore-seen but there is certainly no mention of itin the various project descriptions andanalyses available from his Web site. Buthey, maybe we can just pay to have themreplaced since we’ll be making so muchmoney from generating electricity. Let’stake a look at that next.

In 2013, the United States consumedaround 3.75 trillion kilowatt hours. That isthe result of all electricity produced, plusimports minus exports. At an average cost

of 10.8 cents per kilowatt hour, this gener-ated a total revenue of roughly $378 billion.Now, Bursaw claims that a full scale imple-mentation of Solar Roadways would beable to generate three times the amount ofelectricity that the United States uses in asingle year. Assuming for the sake of argu-ment that the value of that extra energy asan export is roughly the same as it is whenconsumed domestically, and ignoring thefact that the Solar Roadways themselveswould require a significant amount of en-ergy for melting ice and powering LEDlights, that would put the (roughly esti-mated) gross earning potential of SolarRoadways at just over $1 trillion.

Now, let me remind you that the proj-ect began in response to a Department ofTransportation grant for a road that wouldpay for itself. That’s the big idea here. Ofcourse, generating clean electricity for theentire country is a noble goal, and it cer-tainly is interesting to imagine all the pos-sibilities that such a technology wouldopen the door to, but I’m afraid to say thatSolar Roadways might not be the way togo just yet. Given the enormous amount ofrepair and maintenance work that it wouldrequire and the astronomically high cost ofusing simple computers as pavers, it seemslike even $1 trillion per year in gross in-come won’t come anywhere close to break-ing even. But that’s not to say that the ideacouldn’t be tweaked and modified or thatadvances in materials science couldn’t comeup with a strong, durable, inexpensive sub-stitute for glass in this scenario.

But all of this does beg the question,“Why put the solar panels under the roadin the first place?” If it is even remotely fi-nancially feasible to pave roads in solarpanels (to the point that the DOT re-warded a grant for the idea), why not takethe driving surface issue out of the equa-tion and just install them alongside theroad? They wouldn’t have to be so small andmodular, we could angle them to face thesun, they wouldn’t have to contain micro-processors, heating elements, or LEDs, andthere would be no concerns about cars ab-braising their surface. But that wouldn’t behalf as cool. v

GeorGia enGineer14

or those who do not live nearthe low country of the Geor-gia and South Carolina coast,you may not realize the impactthat the Georgia Ports Au-thority has on your life. Whilethe Port of Savannah has been

around since the city’s founding in 1733,the current Georgia Ports Authority wasfounded in 1945, taking over the WorldWar II U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Depotin Garden City in 1948. From this humblebeginning the GPA has grown into an eco-nomic driver affecting the entire state ofGeorgia and the southeast region. Today,the Georgia Ports Authority directly em-ploys almost 1,000 trained logistics profes-sionals and accounts for more than 352,000jobs statewide, contributing $18.5 billionin income, $66.9 billion in revenue, and$2.5 billion in state and local taxes toGeorgia’s economy. As the fourth largestU.S. container port and the third largestU.S. auto port, GPA is a critical conduit forraw materials and finished goods flowingto and from destinations around the world.Chances are that many of the goods youbuy every day passed through one of theGeorgia ports.

The Georgia Ports Authority consistsof numerous terminals across the state in-cluding the Port of Savannah (Garden CityTerminal and Ocean Terminal), Port ofBrunswick (Colonel’s Island Terminal,Mayor’s Point Terminal, and Marine PortTerminal), Port of Columbus, and Port ofBainbridge.

But GPA is more than an industrialcenter and mover of cargo. They are aneighbor and part of the community. Ledby the Board of Directors and the ChiefExecutive Officer, Curtis Foltz, GPA hasimplemented an environmental sustain-ability program well beyond that requiredby any law or regulation. They have done

and continue to do what is right for theircommunity, the state, and the environment.The Georgia Ports Authority is widely rec-ognized as a sustainability leader amongeast and gulf coast ports.

GPA has voluntarily undertaken manyprojects to decrease the use of diesel fuelconsumption and the related CO2 emis-sions. Conversion of their entire ship toshore fleet of cranes at the Garden CityTerminal from diesel to electric saves1,857,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually. Afirst of its kind in the U.S., GPA is trans-forming their rubber tired gantry cranes toelectric, cutting their diesel fuel use by 95percent. GPA is also looking into the useof alternative fuel vehicles and upgradingtheir equipment fleet to further reducediesel fuel use. Overall, it is estimated thatthe GPA conserves more than 6.85 milliongallons of diesel fuel each year throughequipment upgrades and energy savingsprograms. These efforts have been recog-nized by the Environmental Protection

Agency, and the Southeast Diesel Collab-orative has awarded GPA a CommunityLeadership Award.

At the Earth Day 2014 event, theGeorgia Ports Authority celebrated thecreation of fourteen acres of wetland andtheir incorporation into the filtering systemfor site drainage providing protection forthe Savannah River’s water quality. In2013, the Georgia Port Authority dedi-cated a grove of twenty six southern liveoak trees, including two over 360 years old,as a protected area and central to the valuesof the Georgia Port Authority. These wet-lands and protected tree stands have re-sulted in wildlife rich areas.

Innovation is no stranger to the Geor-gia Ports Authority. When silting becamea problem along the Savannah Riverberths, they developed a system of low ve-locity water jets installed under the wharvesto keep the water moving and reduce silta-tion along the berths and the channel.When low dissolved oxygen levels in the

Georgia Ports Authority, the low country powerhouse

FBy Raymond L. Cox, P.E. | Program Manager | CH2M HILL

June | JuLy 2014 15

16 GeorGia enGineer

Savannah River were noted, the GeorgiaPorts Authority installed air bubblers to in-crease the supply.

Unlike many public agencies, theGeorgia Ports Authority leadership is alsowilling to try new technologies. The Geor-gia Ports Authority is currently installing23,000 linear feet of Rubber Tire Gantryrunways using a concrete that includes noportland cement. Using coal fly ash poz-zolan with a chemical binder, the concreteachieves strength in as little as seven days,with less shrinkage and higher density thanstandard concrete. Once past the initiallearning curve, the contractor has been ableto place 1,000 feet of runways on a seven toten day cycle, thereby minimizing the dis-ruption to the container storage operations.Bid against standard portland concrete, thehigher flexural strength resulted in a thinnersection and the winning bid. The materialhas the potential to be used elsewhere in theGeorgia Ports Authority for apron slabs,roadways, and other locations where clo-sures must be minimized.

As lighting technology changes, sodoes the GPA’s approach to such. Afterinstalling a number of trial lighting types,the Georgia Ports Authority recentlycompleted the removal of old high pres-sure sodium lights and replaced themwith energy efficient High Energy Dis-charge (HID) lights throughout the Gar-den City Terminal’s container yards.Going from 12 to five fixtures per pole,the GPA saw a 30 percent reduction intheir lighting costs, as well as better,whiter light and less sky upglow. The re-placement of older light fixtures with flu-orescent or Light Emitting Diode (LED)in warehouses for improved lighting andreduced energy costs is ongoing.

Time and safety is money at a busyport. The Georgia Ports Authority is al-ways looking for ways to save time in cargoturnaround cycles as well as ways to im-prove the safety of the staff and truckers onthe terminals. A new cross terminal road-way was placed in Garden City serving asa central throughway from one end of theterminal to the other, reducing travel time.A round about intersection was developedto eliminate an accident prone four way

stop and has been so successful that othersare being planned. These and other im-provements have reduced truck turn timesby eight minutes each, saving costs to theconsumer and also reducing truck emis-sions by reducing idle time of the morethan 2,000 trucks that service the GardenCity Terminal each day. At the Port ofBainbridge, a recent agreement with thelocal fire protection service and recent im-provements has substantially improved theresponse time and protection of the termi-nal facilities.

Where is GPa going?

With the planned deepening of the Savan-nah River channel, new ship to shorecranes, and other improvements, the Gar-den City Terminal is expected to continueto increase its share of containerized cargo.The Colonel’s Island Terminal facility is setto double in size to accommodate the in-creasing demand for roll on/roll off(RO/RO) auto imports and exports. Co-ordinating and partnering with the Geor-gia Department of Transportation’s JimmyDeloach Connector improvement project,the Georgia Ports Authority is developingplans for new transit gates that the con-nector will directly serve. Once completed,the 8,000 trucks that visit the Garden CityTerminal each day will have a limited ac-cess roadway direct from Interstate 95 andeventually to Interstate 16. BramptonRoad from the Garden City Terminal toState Route 21 and 80 is also scheduled forimprovement, reducing truck travel timeand congestion. These new roadways andgate improvements are expected to reducetraffic on the local streets, reducing con-gestion, and provide safer travel.

The Georgia Ports Authority is on

track for another record breaking year. Athe end of the Georgia Ports Authority’sthird quarter in March, they achieved thehighest month on record in March, mov-ing 2.61 million tons of cargo—a 15.5percent increase over the same month ayear ago. Containers saw a 12-percent in-crease in March and have seen a 6.8-per-cent increase over last year.

Offering deep water facilities close toblue water and effective connections to thepopulation centers of the Southeast by railand road, the Georgia Ports Authority de-livers top notch service for containers, autos,grain, paper, and just about everything itscustomers and the consumers want.

The Georgia Ports Authority … A neighbor. Acommunity leader. A low county economicpower house.v

17June | JuLy 2014

illiam James, the famed Amer-ican philosopher and psychol-ogist, once said, “When twopeople meet there are really sixpeople present. There is eachperson as they see themselves,each person as the other per-

son sees them, and each person as they re-ally are.” As a leader, how do you seeyourself ? And even more important… howdo the people you lead see you?

Realize that every action you take andevery interaction you have leaves a lastingimpact on others. You can have the best ofintentions, but if your impact isn’t alignedwith the intention, then your leadershipmay not be as effective as it could be. Why?Because in the end, what matters is not whoyou think you are, but the experience thatother people have with you.

Now before you say, “I don’t care whatother people think of me,” realize that you

don’t need to care what they think. You do,however, have to care about the impact youhave on others, on your organization, andyour industry. Your impact leaves a lastingmark. What mark do you want to leave inthe world?

In order to make sure you have a pos-itive impact and are viewed as a leader oth-ers actually want to follow, take thefollowing steps.

Detail the kind of impact you want

to have.

Most leaders have never detailed their per-sonal creed. But doing so can be incrediblypowerful. Therefore, get clear about whoyou think you are. Who are you and whatdo you stand for? What do you value?What is your personal creed or stance in theroles that are most important to you in yourlife? How do you want to be known in yourcompany and industry?

Once you have those questions an-swered, ask the most important question ofall: “How do the things I just detailed showup when I’m frustrated or when thingsaren’t going well? Who am I then?” It’s easyto be all of those lovely things when every-thing is going well. But what about whenthings aren’t going well? How do you wantto show up during the hard times? How doyou want to be known when things aretough? How do you want people to experi-ence you in the midst of adversity? Mostleaders lose credibility when things are badbecause they haven’t thought about whothey are in those situations and the kind ofimpact they’ll have.

Find out how others view your impact.

There are two ways to get informationabout your impact: you can ask for feed-back either indirectly or directly. An indi-rect approach is doing an online andanonymous survey of some sort using a toollike Survey Monkey. While it’s simple todo, the results are not always specific.

A direct approach is to talk withsomeone you trust face-to-face and askspecific questions so you can get key in-sights. The secret to making direct ques-tions work is to phrase them properly. Ifyou ask someone, “Can you give me feed-back on my leadership style?” you won’tget the information you need. That’s a dif-ficult question for most people to answerbecause it’s not focused enough, and noone wants to hurt another person’s feel-ings. Additionally, if they’re not preparedfor the question, they can feel like they’rebeing put on the spot. Therefore, ask amore focused question, like, “Duringtoday’s meeting, I think I may havesounded defensive when I told Chris thatthe idea would never work. How did itland for you? What was your experienceof being in that meeting?”

Notice that you’re not asking for anevaluation. You’re pointing out a specific

The real impact of leadership

WBy Alesia Latson

GeorGia enGineer18

incident or behavior and asking the personabout their personal experience during thatmoment—the impact you had. Of course,this doesn’t guarantee that the person isgoing to tell you the truth, but it does cre-ate a condition where they’re more likely tobe open.

change your impact, not you.

If the results of the feedback you receivedon’t align with your personal perceptionsabout yourself, it’s time to make somechanges—not to you, but to your impact.First, get curious about the mismatch, notfurious about the information. A goodquestion to ask yourself is, “Under whatconditions might a person experience methis way?” This validates not that you agreewith the feedback, but that it is a legitimateperception. Because here’s the truth: youmight be a motivating, empowering, anduplifting kind of leader, but under certainconditions, even the most esteemed personcan come across as harsh, cold, and defen-sive. So you need to get mindful of thekinds of conditions that can hinder yoursuccess. In other words, know your blindspots so you can shed some light on them.

With this new knowledge, you cantake steps to consciously alter the impactyou have on others. If taking one approachisn’t getting you the results you want, whatother approach can you try? No matterwhat approach you try, you’re still the sameperson, just doing certain things in a dif-

ferent way to have a more positive impact.As long as the new approach you try sup-ports your values and what you deem im-portant, then you’re acting in integrity andin alignment with your goals.

Get real

There’s no avoiding it: all leaders leave alasting impact. What’s yours? And is it thelegacy you want? When you can align whoyou think you are with how others per-ceive you, you’ll be the kind of leader peo-ple naturally gravitate toward, and yourenduring mark on the world will be a pos-itive one. v

June | JuLy 2014 19

about the author

Alesia Latson is a speaker, trainer,coach and founder of Latson Leader-ship Group, a consulting firm special-izing in management and leadershipdevelopment. With more than 20years of experience, Latson helps or-ganizations and leaders expand theircapacity to produce results while en-hancing employee engagement. Formore information on Alesia’s speakingand consulting, please contact her atalesia@latsonleadershipgroup.com orvisit www.latsonleadershipgroup.com.

hroughout the history of engi-neering, you can pinpointtechnological advances thattotally changed the way we ap-proach projects for our clients.Think about it: the slide ruler,

HP calculator, GPS, computers, fastercomputers, CAD software, the internet,laser scanners…

All of these advances represent signifi-cant paradigm shifts in our industry andchanged our lives and work in a major way.

Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) will have at least as big an effect onour lives as any of the technologies men-tioned above. They will fundamentallychange the way we engineer, survey, andconstruct. They will allow us to do thingsthat up until now have not been possible.

As a disclaimer, let me say that I donot sell any type of drones or UAVs or pro-vide that service. As the president andowner of LandAir Surveying, I have beenstudying this technology and collecting ar-ticles from around the world regarding thecurrent uses of drone technology and someof the successful workflows. That said,here’s where I think this technology isheaded in our industry.

Legal status

Currently, the United States is the onlycountry on the planet whose citizens andbusinesses are forbidden to use this tech-nology for commercial use. The FAA hasbeen tasked to come up with new rules andregulations for the civilian and commercialuse of drones by September 2015. By theirown admission, they do not expect to makethe deadline.

The only case that has been prosecutedby the FAA was overturned by JudgePatrick Geraghty of the National Trans-portation Safety Board. Geraghty heardthe appeal of the $10,000 FAA fine againstRaphael Pirker and ruled Thursday that

there was “no enforceable FAA rule” or reg-ulation that applied to a model aircraft suchas the one Pirker was flying. The FAA hasappealed and reaffirmed their rights ofcontrol until the appeal runs its course.

Some companies have begun to selldrone services; others are in a ‘wait and see’mode.

What’s at stake here? According to theAssociation of Unmanned Aerial VehiclesSystems, the economic benefit of drones inthe United States over the next ten years is$80 billion and thousands of new employ-ment opportunities. The opportunity losscomes to $25 million a day! And remem-ber: companies in Asia, Europe, and Africahave been using drone technology for over20 years.

Types of drones

So what are these machines and what canthey do? For this article, I will limit mydiscussion to SUAVs or Small UnmannedAerial Vehicles. Military drones are muchlarger and have long-range capabilities.There are two categories of SUAVs: fixed

wing, which are shaped like a small air-plane, and multi rotor.

Fixed wings use a basic airplane de-sign, can cover a large area, and carry agood sized payload. They can stay aloftlonger as they usually have one motor andrequire less battery power.

The second type of SUAV is the multi-rotor. The Hex-copter pictured above is acustom UAV built for the specific purposeof high precision photography.

Both are excellent at what they do,but have very different uses. The flighttime aloft for all UAVs depends on severalcommon factors. Weight is a big factor. Apayload of five lbs is a lot. Wind speed isalso important as it takes energy to main-tain a course in windy conditions, as is thesize and weight of the airframe. Multi-ro-tors are generally heavier than fixed wings,but are more versatile in their flight char-acteristics.

Fixed wing models can cover more areabecause they are aerodynamic. These dronesare used to map large sites up to severalhundred acres per flight and have the abil-

The drones are coming!

TBy Tate Jones | President | LandAir Surveying

Hex-copter Photograph provided courtesy of Joe Harrington Skycraft Media

20 GeorGia enGineer

ity to make multiple flights per day. Theseaircraft are excellent for long corridor doc-umentation. Industries that would use thesewould include agriculture, mining, trans-portation, power generation, and large con-struction projects.

I deliberately use the term ‘documen-tation’ in place of mapping. The reason isthat most of this type of aircraft can carrymultiple sensors. High resolution 16megapixel cameras are the most basic sen-sor, but the advantage of these systems overtraditional systems is that they can beflown at an altitude of 300 to 400 feetabove ground level (agl). This greatly in-creases the quality of data.

Other common sensors are infraredsensors which can detect water, multispec-tral sensors, which can see bands of lightthat the human eye cannot see, and ther-mal sensors, which can detect heat changes.These systems can detect crop damage be-fore it is discernible by the human eye.

Both systems can produce engineer-ing-quality topographic data with theright software and survey grade controlpoints. And with the correct workflow,they can achieve an accuracy of one totwo centimeters.

Multi-rotor copters are opening upapplications that have never been consid-ered before due to the cost of a helicopterand pilot. These aircraft typically have four,six or eight propellers and are excellent forclose range documentation. Engineeringapplications would include structuralbridge inspection, tower inspection, urbancorridor mapping, thermal imaging, andgeneral open space documentation.

case study i:

construction Documentation

Joe Harrington, an avid drone pilot and theowner of Skycraft Media, works for theBeck Group.

He flew his drone over a constructionsite and took this photo of the concretedeck of a building under construction priorto the final slab pour. He then created anortho photograph of the image. Because hehad a model of the proposed building anda scaled photograph, he ‘mapped’ the photoprecisely on the Revit model.

With this complete, he was able to usethe relation of the photo on the Revitmodel to index the elements below the slabafter it was poured.

“I believe the precision is +/-6” or so,but for this purpose, it is plenty accurate,”he said. “Mainly, we are looking to docu-ment the actual as-built condition of thepost-tensioning cables buried in the ele-vated slabs. Often, in future renovationwork, they will penetrate the slab and hit-ting one of these steel tendons can be ex-tremely dangerous and costly to repair.”

To my knowledge, this was the firsttime this type of documentation was everattempted. Beck used this in-house and did

not pay for the service, but the experimentworked, and I am sure it will become a na-tionwide best practice.

One clear photograph taken by aUAV—combined with a precise 3Dmodel—can prevent a future construc-tion accident that could cost thousandsof dollars.

case study ii:

Drone Transportation corridors

of the Future

Andreas Raptopoulos and his colleagueshave a dream of building a drone trans-portation corridor throughout third worldcountries. (You can visit the link below to

Photograph taken from http://www.ted.com/talks/andreas_raptopoulos

Photograph Provided Courtesy of Joe Harrington Skycraft media

21June | JuLy 2014

see his TED presentation.) His proposition is to build a trans-

portation network of drones that can carrypackages of medical supplies and criticalnecessities to areas with few roads.

One billion people in the world live inareas where there are few or no reliabletransportation corridors. To build roads toall of these places would take decades andcost billions. His plan? Build a network ofdrone vehicles that can fly autonomouslyfrom station to station.

Landing platforms and distributioncenters would be constructed in known safeareas and packages delivered by dronesguided by GPS and charged by solar-pow-ered batteries. The estimated delivery cost issix cents per mile. This system could getmedicine to clinics in hours instead of days.

Consider this on a larger spectrum.With our major cities clogged with over-stressed transportation corridors, whatcould a secondary aerial drone delivery sys-tem do? Trust me, it will happen. Whowould spend the money for it—Amazon,FedEx, UPS? They certainly understand

the benefits of this new technology. Drones will impact our lives, our busi-

ness, and hopefully our profit margins. Theyare definitely here to stay, and their impacton our future will be significant.

Tate Jones has over 40 years of experi-ence in land and aerial surveying and wasone of the country’s earliest adopters of 3Dlaser scanning technology. A nationally rec-

ognized expert in the field of 3D data cap-ture and drone technology, he has workedwith hundreds of clients in the engineer-ing, architectural, and construction indus-tries. Contact Tate attjones@lasurveying.com or visitwww.landairsurvey ing.com. v

GeorGia enGineer22

www.ted.com/talks/andreas_raptopoulos_no_roads_there_s_a_drone_for_that

was a big yearfor begin-nings. TheFirst WorldWar brokeout; thePanama Canalwelcomed its

first steamship. And in Kansas City, Mis-souri, HNTB was born.

The firm’s partners espoused theprinciples of technical mastery and deliv-ering innovative, high-quality work. Bydoing so, they helped solve the challengesof moving a growing country across itswaterways via ever more modes of trans-portation. Focusing at first on railroadbridges, HNTB grew to encompass a fullrange of infrastructure services. The com-pany’s first 100 years reflect the growth,struggles, trials, and triumphs of the U.S.infrastructure industry. Like the industryand America itself, the story of HNTB isone of adapting and improving in order tothrive amid numerous changes. Indeed,the founders of HNTB would be amazedif they could see all the changes that havetaken place.

HNTB traces its official beginning tothe creation of Harrington, Howard & Ashin 1914. But HNTB's roots go back evenfurther—to 1886. That was the year whenJohn Alexander Low Waddell opened anengineering office in Kansas City and dis-tinguished himself as a designer of move-able bridges for railroads. The SouthHalstead streetcar bridge in Chicago,completed in 1895, was the realization ofa groundbreaking lift-bridge design.

Project A1, a vertical lift steel bridgeover the Willamette River in Portland,Oregon, opened on July 21, 1912. It was anunparalleled technical achievement: theworld’s only bridge with two moveabledecks in which the lower level could beraised independently from the upper.

HNTB’s long, productive history in

Georgia began in Atlanta in the early1920s. As a city that grew up around arailroad, a system of elevated roadwayswas necessary to span the tracks and pro-vide pedestrian and vehicular access be-tween the north and south halves of thecity. The Spring Street Viaduct was one ofthose elevated roadways and was de-

signed by Harrington, Howard, and Ash in1922. It stood for nearly 75 years until itsrecent replacement.

The firm then known as Ash-Howard-Needles & Tammen was barely ayear old when the stock market crashedon Oct. 29, 1929, triggering the Great De-pression. It survived through the next few

HNTB celebrates its first century

1914By Rob Slimp | CEO | HNTB Corporation

The Flint River Enclosure, constructed in the 1980s, contains the flow of the Flint River as it passes underneath Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport.

June | JuLy 2014 23

years on backlogged projects. One wasthe Burlington-Bristol Bridge over theDelaware River, which was the longestvertical-lift bridge in the world when itopened in 1931.

But the intrepid firm soon found itselfstruggling, and it was forced to lay off em-ployees in order to survive. It was stillhanging on when President Franklin Roo-sevelt, elected in 1932, committed $3 bil-lion to spending on public works such asroads and bridges. The firm worked hardto cultivate relationships with governmentofficials in Washington.

In 1933 the firm won two early proj-ects awarded by the Public Works Ad-ministration and its sister agency, theEmergency Reconstruction FinanceCorp.: a lift bridge over the Harlem Riverin New York and the South Omaha tollbridge over the Missouri River in Ne-braska. The work allowed the firm to turnthe corner, indeed to expand, at theheight of the Depression.

In 1941, the firm reorganized as

Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff,the name that—later turned into theacronym HNTB—exists to this day. And asHNTB, the firm helped meet the challengesof World War II through projects such asthe Army’s Southwestern Proving Groundsin Arkansas, a 49,500-acre testing site foraerial bombs and artillery shells.

A month before the Japanese sur-render ended the war in 1945, HNTB se-cured a project that had been suspendedby the war: the Maine Turnpike. The first47-mile section opened on December 13,1947. HNTB soon took on numerousother toll road projects, including theNew Jersey Turnpike.

In 1954, HNTB’s track record with tollroad financing helped it land a huge proj-

24 GeorGia enGineer

1887 HNTB’s roots go as far back as 1887when Dr. John Alexander Low Waddellopens a consulting practice in KansasCity, Missouri.

1941 The firm changes its name to Howard,Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff. HNTBbroadens its scope to include highwaydesign and aviation making it a leader inthe transportation industry.

1989 HNTB’s aviation practice grows so ex-pansive that one of every four domesticairline passengers in the United States isusing an airport served by HNTB.

Dr. John Alexander Low Waddell

ect in Miami, where it was chosen to sup-port a bond sale to expand Miami Inter-national Airport. HNTB also won thecontract to design the expansion. Thesuccessful delivery of the Miami job cata-pulted HNTB into a new line of business,and by the end of the 1960s the firm hadalmost 300 airport projects under its belt.HNTB's aviation achievements in Georgiahave taken flight from a design office thefirm opened in Atlanta in 1968. One yearlater, HNTB joined in one of the mostamazing feats of airport construction inhistory. While providing design servicesfor Hartsfield Atlanta International Air-

port, the firm was part of an effort to re-place 10,000 feet of runway and taxiwayin 40 days. HNTB continued to serve theairport as part of its general engineeringconsultant team for a period of 27 years,and was instrumental in leading the air-port through its major mid-field expan-sion program in the 1970s and 1980s.

As aviation took off, so did the high-way market. When America started build-ing the interstate highway system in 1956,HNTB's track record with bridges andturnpikes helped it win initial assignmentslocating and estimating costs for morethan 1,000 miles of interstate and design-

ing 1,500 miles of highway, including theAkron North Expressway in Ohio.

Currently, one of the biggest chal-lenges to departments of transportationis the need to ease traffic congestionwhile providing a transportation networkthat meets public needs. One of the mostcutting edge solutions is priced managedlanes, and HNTB is in the forefront.

Priced managed lanes, also referredto as express lanes, are tolled lanes oper-ating in the middle of non-tolled high-ways. The price to use the tolled lanesvaries to ensure a speed of at least 45miles per hour.

25June | JuLy 2014

Henry C. Tammen Ruben Bergendoff Enoch Needles

John Lyle Harrington

In Georgia, HNTB is providing techni-cal, advisory, and procurement supportservices to GDOT for the I-75/I-575Northwest Corridor reversible pricedmanaged lanes project. This project in-volves the construction of approximately30 centerline miles of new barrier-sepa-rated priced managed lanes. These laneswill be dynamically priced to maintain anoptimal speed floor and a reliable traveltime. The Northwest Corridor will beGeorgia's first transportation project de-livered through a design-build-financemodel, which enables large, complex proj-ects to attain greater efficiency.

Other major HNTB projects in Geor-gia include the I-85/I-285 Interchange,the MARTA Dunwoody Station, and vari-

ous aerial and underground line sectionsthroughout the MARTA system; the Geor-gia 400 Toll Plaza; and the Wall StreetViaduct replacement. HNTB’s ongoing ef-forts include the design of various sec-tions of the Governor’s RoadImprovement Program, the planning anddesign of metro-Atlanta’s HOV system,GDOT P3 advisory services, MARTA GEC,Norfolk Southern Rail and bridge design,and federal aviation projects.

As I said earlier, HNTB’s commitment

to integrity has remained constant duringour first century. We have turned downbusiness, declined partnerships, redonework, and spent millions of dollars to dothe right thing and make things right for aclient—knowing that doing what’s in aclient’s interest is also in the firm’s inter-est. Integrity has served as our bedrockvalue for 100 years, and integrity willguide us through the next century as well.*Being HNTB: The Story of HNTB, by PeterS. Hawes, served as the basis of this article.v

GeorGia enGineer26

ackground: reasons for up-

dating Professional engineer-

ing registration of structural

engineers in Georgia

Since April 2011, the Na-tional Council of Examiners

for Engineering and Surveying, NCEES,has set a 16-hour structural exam as thestandard for demonstrating minimumcompetence in the practice of structural en-gineering, the only professional engineer-ing discipline requiring more than aneight-hour exam. An NCEES task forceworked for two years evaluating structuralengineering examination content and sur-veying hundreds of practicing structuralengineers. That study concluded that aneight-hour multiple choice exam cannotdemonstrate adequate knowledge of struc-tural engineering principles in today’s prac-tice environment. Building codes,referenced structural standards, structuraldesign methodology, and material sciencehave advanced exponentially in the last 25years, and if Georgia’s professional licens-

ing laws are to continue to at least mini-mally safeguard the public, our means of li-censing structural engineers in the statemust advance accordingly.

NCEES has also refined their modellaw standard, used to assist states in devel-oping professional engineering laws, to in-clude a model law structural engineer(MLSE), which has been adopted by theAmerican National Standards Institute(ANSI) through their consensus process,specifically requiring the 16-hour structuralexam to license structural engineers, in ad-dition to certain other education and expe-rience criteria.

The 16-hour structural exam containsan essay component in addition to the mul-tiple choice questions and tests for breadthand depth of knowledge with integrateddesign, analysis, and detailing questionspertaining to entire structural systems, notjust isolated components. The intent is tocomprehensively assess the knowledge thatis really needed to design and detail com-plex structures and to understand and com-ply with ever evolving building code anddesign methodology advancements. Theprofessional practice of structural engi-neering is vital to the life safety of thoseusing and occupying the structures we de-sign. The rationale for enhanced examina-tion is simple - engineers who possess amore complete and robust skill set demon-strated by passing the 16-hour exam willbetter safeguard the public - which is thedriving force behind all of our licensinglaws.

The Structural Engineering LicensureCoalition (SELC), which represents allfour national structural engineering organ-izations (NCSEA, ASCE-SEI, CASE,and SECB), has endorsed the MLSE stan-dard and advocates that jurisdictions re-quire compliance with that standard forengineers who design significant structures.SELC also recommends that the licensing

board in each jurisdiction designate whichcategories of structures must be designedby an engineer meeting the MLSE stan-dards, including passage of the 16-hourexam.

Many states have already decided notto accept standards less than those recom-mended by the NCEES model law andhave changed their laws. Structural engi-neering licensure in some form is now a re-quirement in 15 state jurisdictions. At leastseven other states, including Florida, Texas,Oklahoma, and Connecticut, are currentlyin the process of creating similar require-ments, and there are a half dozen otherstates just beginning the process.

In recognition of the NCEES TaskForce studies and structural exam content,and since Georgia currently has no desig-nated form of structural registration, theGeorgia Board of Professional Engineersand Land Surveyors (PELS Board) re-quires, by policy, the 16-hour exam for allnew applicants whose primary experienceis structural engineering. This currentGeorgia policy is not a law and is not con-sistent with the growing national consensusfor licensing professional and structural en-gineers or with the licensing policies ofother jurisdictions.

Goal: review and revise Georgia Law for

the Practice of Professional structural en-

gineering to best serve the engineering

community and the citizens of Georgia

The new NCEES Model Law with itsstandard of a 16-hour structural exam istriggering a revision in licensing laws acrossthe country. SEAOG believes it is criticalthat we proactively address the exam intentand licensing consequences in our state,and manage the transition to the 16-hourexam in an equitable way that is beneficialfor all Georgia citizens, owners, and codeofficials, and is fair and reasonable for all

B

Professional engineer, structural engineer registration in GeorgiaBy Robert M. Weilacher, PE, LEED APBD+C | President | SEAOG

June | JuLy 2014 27

GeorGia enGineer28

interested parties. SEAOG has met withseveral engineering and other affectedgroups representing transportation engi-neers, civil engineers, GDOT engineers,geotechnical engineers, architects, and oth-ers. In addition, we have sought commentsfrom a broad array of structural engineersin the state, within our own organization,and from ASCE-SEI.

When informed and educated, there isa wide consensus among engineers andother construction related professionalsthat advanced qualifications for structuralengineers for certain categories of con-struction will indeed better safeguard thepublic by providing identifiable credentialsto the public, to clients, and to building of-ficials. Such credentials could be assuredprior to execution of any project, a far bet-ter tactic for protecting the public than thecurrent practice which relies on sanction-ing registrants for inadequate standard ofcare only after engineering problems with abuilt project are demonstrated.

SEAOG has attempted to address andincorporate all of the concerns we have en-countered, but certainly remain interestedin hearing from others. SEAOG’s goal isto have the support of all other engineeringand affiliated groups in the state.

Proposal: revise current Pe statutes to

create a Pe, se, Describe Designated

structures, and Grandfather current Pe’s

seaoG proposes that Title 43, chapter 15

of the Georgia statutes be revised such

that the engineer of record in responsi-

ble charge of structural design of any des-

ignated structure must be a “Professional

engineer, structural engineer”, (Pe, se) as

defined in the statute revisions, and that

a definition of ‘designated structures’ be

established by rule of the PeLs board.

The term ‘Professional Engineer, StructuralEngineer’ would mean a professional engi-neer with specialized knowledge and ex-pertise in the practice of structuralengineering acquired by professional edu-cation and practical experience. Passingthe 16-hour structural exam will be a re-quirement for becoming a new PE, SE.Only a PE, SE would be able to serve as

engineer of record for a ‘designated struc-ture’ in the State of Georgia. A PE, SEregistrant could also serve as engineer ofrecord for non-designated structures or fornon-structural work if that work is withinthe registrant’s area of expertise as currentlyrequired by board rules.

‘Designated structures’ will be definedby the PELS Board of Georgia. A jointSEAOG/ASCE-SEI/ASCE-GI commit-tee was formed to propose a definition ofthe types, kinds, and classes of structuresthat will be regulated in the state of Geor-gia as a ‘designated structures.’ That jointcommittee recommended that the Ruleadopted by the PELS Board contain thefollowing definition of a designated struc-ture:1. For bridges and other transportation

structures under the jurisdiction of thestate of Georgia or other county ormunicipal agencies: a. A designated structure is as de-

fined by the Georgia Departmentof Transportation

2. For buildings and other structures re-quiring a building permit as requiredby the International Building Codewith Georgia Amendments in currenteffect in the state of Georgia:

a. A Designated Structure is anybuilding or other structure whichmeets any one of the followingcriteria:i. Has risk Category of III or

IV in accordance with Table1604.5 of the InternationalBuilding Code with GeorgiaAmendments,

ii. Has a covered gross area of25,000 square feet or greater,or

iii. Has an occupied floor eleva-tion that is 30 feet or moreabove the average groundlevel of the building or otherstructure.

In order not to affect the livelihood of cur-rent Georgia PE’s, a transitioning or grand-fathering clause will be contained in thelegislation that will grant PE, SE registra-tion to Georgia PEs who currently practicestructural engineering. Any ProfessionalEngineer currently registered in Georgiawho submits a signed affidavit to the boardwithin a stipulated timeframe that he/she isnow practicing structural engineering asdefined in the proposed statute will be

granted PE, SE registration without fur-ther examination.

clarifications:

The information provided below clarifiesthe recommendation that the jointSEAOG/ASCE-SEI/ASCE-GI commit-tee is providing to the PELS Board. Ulti-mately, the PELS Board will set the rulegoverning this designation.

if you are currently a registered Georgia

Pe, practicing structural engineering…

Any Professional Engineer in the state ofGeorgia currently practicing structural en-gineering can transition to a PE, SE bysubmitting a signed affidavit as notedabove. Professional Engineers may con-tinue to design non-designated structuresin Georgia as a PE, without transitioningto a PE, SE.

if you currently practice structural

engineering in Georgia, but are not yet

registered

If you are not yet registered, you must takethe 16-hour exam to be able to be an engi-neer of record for designated structures, oryou may opt to take the eight-hour civilexam with structural emphasis if you willnot be engineer of record for designatedstructures. Another option is to take theeight-hour exam first to become a PE, fol-lowed by the 16-hour exam to become aPE, SE. The law would be a change fromthe current board policy in which all appli-cants with structural experience are re-quired to take the 16-hour exam.

if you are a Geotechnical engineer…

Only PE registration (not PE, SE) wouldbe required to be engineer of record forgeotechnical related studies and reports,whether related to a designated structureor not, and for structural design of foun-dation related structures which have theprimary purpose of providing lateral sup-port of earth only, such as retaining walls,soil nail walls, or soldier piles, so long asdesign of such structures is within the reg-istrant’s area of expertise. Likewise, de-sign of soil modification systems whichhave the primary purpose of enhancing

soil capacity to carry vertical load , such asrammed aggregate piers may be done by aGeorgia PE (without a PE, SE registra-tion) so long as such work is within theregistrant’s area of expertise.

if you are a civil engineer…

The engineer of record for any civil worknot qualifying as a designated structuremay be done by a PE or a PE, SE, so longas such civil work is in within your areaof expertise.

Note that the ‘designated structure’definition indicates that the Georgia De-partment of Transportation will governwhen and if a ‘Professional Engineer,Structural Engineer’ is needed for bridgesand other transportation structures.GDOT engineers will need to conform toGDOT policy regarding registration andexamination requirements.

if you are a specialty engineer and not an

engineer of record…

Any specialty engineer (defined in Georgiarules as responsible to the engineer ofrecord for a project) who performs and isresponsible for structural design for specificand discreet portions of a project such ascurtain wall, cold-formed-metal framing,or wood trusses, and is not the engineer ofrecord for a project would normally need aPE and not a PE, SE even if the projectwhich his/her portion is a part of is a des-ignated structure.

It is possible that a governing jurisdic-tion or owner would require the PE, SE ifthat component constituted the majorityof, or critical part of, the primary structureof the building. That would be at the dis-cretion of the governing entity or owner. Ineither case, the engineers currently regis-tered may transition to a PE, SE by sub-mitting a signed affidavit as noted above.

conclusion

SEAOG strongly believes that the pro-posed law modification is important and inthe best interest of the people of Georgia. Itembodies the latest national standards re-lated to structural engineering practice andlicensing and elevates both the qualifica-tions of those engineers who do structural

design and the safety of the public. Ad-vanced materials and analysis techniquesrequired for today’s significant structuresalso require an advanced level of demon-stration in structural competency.

SEAOG has expended substantial en-ergy and effort in making this proposal fairand reasonable, and we believe it addressesthe concerns of all stakeholders.We are verygrateful for the time and effort that all thepeople from multiple other organizationshave invested to review our proposal, helpus understand and input their thoughts, andhelp us shape it into something we can allsupport without reservation. Any readers ofthis article that may have additional con-cerns or questions are urged to contactSEAOG (www.seaog.org). v

June | JuLy 2014 29

30 GeorGia enGineer

nnovative technology, de-

signs, and delivery methods

are producing safer, more ef-

ficient facilities faster

Innovative designs, tech-nology, and alternative deliv-ery methods are helping

departments of transportation dramaticallyexpand the capacity, safety, and mobility ofurban interchanges and intersections with-out the cost of physical expansion and theneed to acquire right of way.

Technology dramatically

expands capacity

According to an October 2013 HNTBAmerica THINKS survey, many Ameri-cans expect their travel experiences togreatly improve in the next two decadesthanks to innovation. One of the most ex-citing innovations in interchange and in-tersections is adaptive traffic signal control.According to the Federal Highway Ad-ministration, DOTs can expect improve-ments in efficiency, ranging from tenpercent to as much as 50 percent in areaswhere signals are particularly outdated.

Unlike conventional signal systems,adaptive traffic signal control collects real-time traffic information and then adjuststhe signal timing plan to facilitate maxi-mum throughput at an intersection. Thesoftware is smart enough to respond on acycle-by-cycle basis to the level of trafficcurrently on the system, providing anamazing increase in efficiency.

adaptive signal control technology:

• Continuously distributes green lighttime based on prevailing traffic condi-tions

• Improves travel time reliability by pro-gressively moving vehicles throughgreen lights

• Reduces congestion by creatingsmoother flow

• Prolongs the effectiveness of trafficsignal timing

• Reduces vehicle idling, which reducesharmful emissions

Although the technology can greatly im-prove efficiency, it requires a significantamount of stationary sensing equipmentand the software can be complex, which ex-plains why only two to three percent oftraffic signals in the United States have thistechnology. As the technology evolves, wemay see greater adoption and adaptive traf-fic signal control used to its highest poten-tial as part of an integrated corridormanagement program or as probe vehicledata availability increases.

no-tech or low-tech designs improve

safety, capacity

Today, there are collision-resistant inter-sections, where high-speed, right-anglecrashes are things of the past. Round-abouts, displaced left-turn intersections,median U-turn intersections, restrictedcrossing U-turns, and quadrant roadwayintersections are surprisingly effective inkeeping project costs down while drivingsafety and efficiency up.

Cost-effective diverging diamond in-terchanges are helping resource-strappedDOTs bring relief and greater levels ofsafety to congested highway junctions byeliminating left-turn crashes and rear-endcollisions.

innovative delivery speeds construction

At a time when public agencies have a sig-nificant backlog of transportation infra-structure needs and insufficient funding toaddress those needs, design-build and dy-namic-design-bid-build (D2B2) are deliv-ery methods being used for massiveinterchanges and large intersections. Fur-ther, D2B2 conforms to conventional pro-curement processes and can be instituted

almost immediately.Executed on the right projects, design-

build and D2B2 also can enhance a DOT’scredibility among key decision-makers andconstituents, putting the agency in a favor-able position to receive additional fundingwhen it is available.

There is no doubt the future will bringeven more advances. HNTB has been pro-viding infrastructure solutions for 100years. We have seen tremendous advancesin interchanges and intersections. One day,likely within the next 50 years, we could seethe elimination of traffic signals once vehi-cle-to-vehicle communication becomesmainstream. Until then, DOTs can rely oninnovative technology, design, and deliverymethods to produce safer, more efficientassets faster. v

I

Enhancing mobility with intelligent interchangesand intersections

about the authors

Pete Rahn is HNTB’s national transporta-

tion practice leader, where he develops

and directs strategies that enhance

HNTB’s service to state departments of

transportation across the country. Rahn

has served as director of the Missouri De-

partment of Transportation and cabinet

secretary of the New Mexico State High-

way and Transportation Department,

making him one of only a handful of peo-

ple who have led a DOT in two states. He

also is past president of the American As-

sociation of State Highway and Trans-

portation Officials. Contact him at (816)

527-2034 or prahn@hntb.com.

Jim Barbaresso is HNTB's national in-

telligent transportation systems practice

leader. His 35-year transportation career

is a mix of public- and private-sector ex-

perience. Prior to joining HNTB, he was

vice president for 10 years at a company

specializing in ITS. Before that, he served

18 years in various capacities at the Road

Commission for Oakland County, Mich.

Contact him at (313) 961-3330 or jbarba-

resso@hntb.com.

By Pete Rahn | HNTB’s National Transportation Practice Leader &

Jim Barbaresso | HNTB’s National Intelligent Transportation Practice Leader

Dataforensics is proud to announce the

next evolution in geotechnical and envi-

ronmental field data collection—pLog

Tablet.

Dataforensics, developer of geotechnical andgeoenvironmental data management solu-tions, announces that pLog Tablet for An-droid is now available for immediatedownload from the Google Play store.

e evolution of pLog now allows usersa new range of hardware options for fielddata collection, furthering the digital datacollection model that Dataforensics has beena proponent of from the inception of thecompany ten years ago.

is iteration of pLog greatly enhancesusability by allowing users to leverage newhardware options with bigger screen sizes,faster processors, greater storage capacity, in-tegrated GPS, and real time data sharing.(Availability of cellular network as well asWIFI connections will determine real time capabilities).

pLog Tablet features include:

• A new, customizable user interface withgreater flexibility. Customize which datacollection parameters are shown in eachmodule and in what order the items areshown.

• Graphical Log Preview. e ability toview a standardized borehole log ingraphical format as data is entered hasbeen a common request from our users.at dream is now a reality as you canview the log graphically on the data col-lection device so you can better visualizethe investigation as it is happening.

• Real-time data sharing. e ability tosend the data and/or the standardizedlog report electronically directly fromthe field makes sharing data with yourcolleagues a simple process enabling bet-ter communication between field andoffice staff.

• A simpler, direct data export to gINT.Users will no longer be required to syn-chronize their handheld/tablet withtheir PC before working with their datain gINT. pLog Tablet will directly ex-port field data to gINT, eliminatingconfusion for the user and simplifyinginstallation and reducing the IT re-sources necessary to run the system.

• More streamlined navigation. No moretapping between screens to input a spe-cific type of data –all data can be ac-cessed for a particular module from onescreen.

“pLog Tablet is a major milestone in the ef-fort to move the geotechnical and geoenvi-ronmental field personnel towards digitaltechnology. pLog Tablet streamlines the datacollection process even further to create evengreater efficiencies in the process. We can’twait for users to experience pLog Tablet” saidScott Deaton, President of Dataforensics.

availability

pLog Tablet for Android is now availablefrom the Google Play Store:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dataforensicspLog Tablet for Windows is available directlyfrom Dataforensics.Dataforensics is a leader in developing anddeploying geotechnical and geoenvironmen-tal software applications which help geolo-gists, geotechnical and environmentalengineers, and engineering technicians ac-complish field and office work in less time,with more accuracy, and with higher qualitydata. Dataforensics leads the digital data col-lection effort in geotechnical/geoenviron-mental investigations and will further pushthe industry with pLog for Android andWindows 8.v

Tim Kassa appointed

Transportation Planning Lead in Georgia

Tim Kassa is the newly appointed trans-portation planning lead for AECOM's

31June | JuLy 2014

ENGINEERING NEWSDataforensics‘ pLog Tablet | Tim Kassa appointed Transportation Planning Lead in Georgia

GeorGia

32 GeorGia enGineer

multimodal planning practice in Georgia.In this role, Tim will apply his 12 years ofexperience in transportation policy re-search, federal and state agency coordina-tion, technical analyses, and performancemeasurement to the management of multi-modal transportation studies on a local, re-gional, and statewide level for AECOM'stransportation clients.

Prior to joining AECOM in 2013,Tim worked as planning branch chief forthe office of planning at the Georgia De-partment of Transportation (GDOT). Asbranch chief, he led the research and de-velopment efforts for the planning office;served as GDOT's project manager duringthe Transportation Investment Act of2010; collaborated with elected officialsand stakeholders across the state; and part-nered with metropolitan planning organi-zations to assess urban transportationneeds and future plans for programmedprojects on the state highway network.

Tim earned his Bachelor of Arts inPolitical Science at the University of Geor-gia and Master of Public Administration atGeorgia State University. He is a memberof the American Planning Association. v

White house Transportation bill Would

allow Tolls on interstate highways

Reprinted by permission - NCPPPMay 2, 2014The $302 billion surface transportation billthe White House released Tuesday wouldreverse the long-standing federal prohibi-

tion on charging tolls to use interstatehighways.

“We believe that this is an area wherethe states have to make their own deci-sions,” Transportation Secretary AnthonyFoxx told the Washington Post. “We wantto open the aperture, if you will, to allowmore states to choose to make broader useof tolling, to have that option available.”

The administration’s major shift ontolls comes in light of the recent news thatthe Department of Transportation esti-mates the Highway Trust Fund to be bank-rupt by August, which could cause majordisruptions in surface transportation con-struction this summer. According to theAmerican Road and TransportationBuilders Association, most states rely onthe federal government for half of theirtransportation funding.

The trust fund, paid for by an 18.4-cent gas tax, has eroded as vehicles have be-come more energy-efficient.

The White House’s bill also calls forthe expansion of a popular loan-guaranteeprogram used by state and local govern-ments to fund transportation projects andwould increase funding for transit systemsand intercity rail from $12.3 billion to$22.3 billion. v

newcomb & boyd consultants and engi-

neers announces Promotions

Newcomb & Boyd announces the follow-ing promotions:Director of Energy and SustainabilityServices William L.S. Stafford, PE, LEEDAP and Electrical Engineer Justin L.Ziegler, PE have become Associate Part-ners in the firm.

Audio-Visual Consultants Josef H.Henschen, CTS-I and Douglas L. Dill-man, CTS-D, CTS-I; Electrical EngineersRichard O. Dozier, PE and Nicholas A.Mazzolini, PE; and Mechanical EngineerWalker C. Jones, PE have become SeniorAssociates in the firm.

Acoustical Consultant Jessica S.Clements, INCE; Commissioning Engi-neer K. Pawn Chulavatr; CommunicationsEngineer Jason E. Barton, PE; MechanicalEngineer Salvatore M. Lizzio; and Plumb-ing Engineer Robert C. Grant, PE have

become Associates in the firm. Newcomb & Boyd is a multidiscipline

consulting and engineering firm providingcreative solutions for facility design, con-struction, and maintenance. The firm offersclients a single source for mechanical, elec-trical, plumbing, fire protection, energymanagement, building automation, com-missioning and retrocommissioning, sys-tems training, acoustics, audio-visual,communications, theatrical systems, secu-rity, and lighting needs.

Newcomb & Boyd serves clientsthroughout the United States and interna-tionally. The firm was founded in 1923 asRobert S. Newcomb, Consulting Engineer;the name was changed to Newcomb &Boyd in 1931 when Spencer W. Boyd be-came a partner. v

Tim Kassa

Justin Ziegler

stanton stafford

33June | JuLy 2014

GeorGia enGineer34

In our technology-dependent world, a ca-reer like engineering can be thought of as‘last century.’ It doesn’t necessarily have the

excitement, the constant movement, andthe global reach of the more obviously in-novative or technology-driven fields thatare attractive to today’s high school andcollege graduates. But it has its place, andwe are dependent on engineering to buildour future.

After all, engineering is the basis ofthe creation of the latest technologies. En-gineering may seem ‘old school’ but it’s aplace for innovation and new ideas. In fact,the word engineering comes from theLatin word ingenium, meaning cleverness.The first engineers were definitely clever;they invented things like the pulley and thewheel, new and innovative technologies forthe ancient world that continue to change

and build our world even to this day. Today’s engineers are creating some of

the world’s coolest and newest technologies- cars that run on their own with zeroemissions, environmentally-friendly andsustainable buildings that create their ownalternate energy sources, and water treat-ment options that create a smaller footprintand cost less to maintain. Engineering isforward-thinking, and we need to work asa community to make our youth aware ofthe future of engineering.

The movement towards STEM (Sci-ence, Technology Engineering, and Math-ematics) education includes engineeringfor a reason—it’s included in the science,technology, and math-driven world of our

acec Georgia

Political Advocacy• Advocating at all levels of government to advance policies that impact

the business of engineering in Georgia.• Monitoring the regulatory issues and government agency actions that

affect engineers.• Working for a more pro-business climate and defending against unfair

business practices.• Fighting to protect the professional engineering practice.

Business Development• Providing networking opportunities, meetings, and programs that put

you in contact with potential clients, industry peers, and the leaders ofthe engineering profession.

• Hosting the Georgia Engineers Summer Conference, TransportationSummit, P3 Summit, and other programs that expand your professionalknowledge and network.

• Offering informative and relevant seminars, programs, and webinarswith presentations from leaders who affect our industry andcommunity.

Firm Operations• Providing a forum for the exchange of business and professional

experiences.• Offering programs and resources on best business practices for

member firms.• Sponsoring the Future Leaders Program to build the next generation of

leaders within member firms and the engineering profession.• We provide executive development training for emerging leaders and

firm management.

The Value of ACEC GeorgiaServing your firm’s business

interests through:

News

Jay Wolverton, PE

Chair

ACEC Georgia

June | JuLy 2014 35

Board of DirectorsJerry (Jay) Wolverton, ChairmanDarrell Rochester, Chairman-Elect

Roseana Richards, Treasurer / Charles Ezelle, SecretaryDon Harris, Vice Chair / John Heath, Vice Chair / Doug Robinson, Vice Chair

David Wright, National Director / Edgar (Eddie) Williams, Past ChairmanAnita Atkinson / Jim Case / David Estes / Scott Gero / Rob Lewis / David McFarlin / Kevin McOmber / Taylor Wright

StaffMichael “Sully” Sullivan, President & CEO

Gwen Brandon, Chief Operating Officer

Jennifer Head, Member Services Manager

Mia Wilson, Finance Manager

CommitteesDarrell Rochester, Government Affairs/PACDavid Wright, ACEC PAC ChampionRob Lewis, Business DevelopmentJim Case & Don Harris, Firm Operations John Heath, Coalitions Doug Robinson, CommunicationsBrannen Butts & David McFarlin, Leadership Development Charles Ezelle, MembershipEddie Williams, NominatingEddie Williams, Past Presidents/Chairmen David Estes & Rob Jacquette, Programs Scott Gero, Transportation Forum

ForumsBill Griffin, Building Systems

Corky Welch, Environmental

Chris Marsengill, Transportation

Brannen Butts, Leadership

future. A report by the Joint EconomicCommittee of the U.S. Congress in 2012stated that at least 50 percent of the eco-nomic growth in our country can be attrib-uted to the skills associated with STEM,and that to remain competitive in our tech-nology-driven future, we have to increasethese skills in American children.

We need to build up our industry tothe youth and pass the torch of our indus-try to the next generation of clever, for-ward-thinking, and innovative engineers.As we progress in our careers, we need tolet those behind us understand what anecessary and rewarding job it is to be anengineer.

Likewise, the time has come for meto pass the torch as President of ACECGeorgia. I am thrilled to welcome DarrellRochester in this role and look forward toworking with him to do our part to pushour industry forward. It has been an honorto serve you this year. I am passionate

about the work that ACEC Georgia doesand will continue to be active and in-volved. As always, you can reach me at

jay.wolverton@wolverton-assoc.com or byphone at 770-447-8999. I would love tohear from you. v

ACEC GEORGIA MEMBER FIRMS

36 GeorGia enGineer

Hello members and friends! We have hadsuch an exciting year so far. • In January, we released the Georgia

Infrastructure report card at the statecapitol. We got some good local pub-licity and are still trying to promotethis valuable tool. If you have not re-viewed it yet, I encourage you to do soat: http://www.ascega.org/georgia-re-port-card/

• In February, we had some GA ASCEmembers take the report card to theirstate and local legislators, and wehosted a legislative appreciation recep-tion with the Georgia Section of ITEand ITS Georgia.

• In March, we held the Founding Fa-

thers Conference, a joint venture withthe South Carolina Section of ASCE.This was the first conference theGeorgia Section has hosted whichgave us opportunities to meet mem-bers from our neighboring state. Allreports from conference attendeeswere positive, so we look forward toplanning more of these in the future.

• Also in March, we had six GeorgiaSection Members visit Washington,DC to participate in the ASCE 2014Legislative Fly-In. As part of thisevent, Georgia ASCE members wereeducated on active legislation impor-tant to the civil engineering commu-nity and got to meet with their Senateand Congressional staff about infra-structure funding. We also took copiesof ASCE’s Report Card for America’sInfrastructure and the Georgia Infra-structure Report Card to all ourelected officials. I’d like to thank Re-becca Shelton, Melissa Wheeler, RayWilke, Joe Castronovo, and DavidFrost for making the trip to DC withme and taking on this important work.

• To close out March, we hosted ourfourth annual Middle school compe-tition—‘What Do Civil Engineers

Do?’ with the winning students recog-nized at our May meeting.

• In May we have Georgia State Leg-islative Representatives talk to usabout their perspectives on transporta-tion and infrastructure.

• Finally to close out our year in June,we have Congressman Rob Woodwallgive us the National Perspective ontransportation and infrastructure.

As you can see, Infrastructure and Govern-ment Relations have been hot topics for theGeorgia Section this year. Our goals havebeen to mobilize many of our members tomeet with their legislators to not only pro-vide them with our report card as impor-tant research on our state and localinfrastructure, but to make sure they areaware that ASCE is available to them as atechnical resource.

If you are interested in getting involvedin government relations, ASCE National’sGovernment Relations program is a greatplace to start. Programs like ‘Key Contact’can help you become engaged in importantlegislative issues for our profession and cankeep you abreast of timely information onlegislative activities year round. ASCE’sKey Contact Program is the Society's grass-roots advocacy program. Through the Key

Katherine Gurd,

P.E., President

American Society

of Civil

Engineers,

Georgia Section

www.ascega.org

News

Katherine.Gurd@aecom.com

President: Katherine McLeod Gurd, P.E.AECOM | katherine.gurd@aecom.com

President-Elect: Rebecca Shelton, P.E.Gwinnett County DWRrebecca.shelton@gwinnettcounty.com

Vice President : Richard Morales, M.Sc., P.E.LB Foster Piling | rmorales@LBFoster.com

Treasurer : Dan Agramonte, P.E.O’BRIEN & GERE | Daniel.agramonte@obg.com

External Director : Shaukat Syed Georgia EPD, Watershed | Protection Branch

Shaukat.Syed@dnr.state.ga.us

Internal Director : Christina Vulova, P.E. ARCADIS U.S. Inc. | christina.vulova@arcadis-us.com

Secretary : Julie Secrist, P.E.T.Y. Lin International Group | Julie.Secrist@tylin.com

Technical Director : Luis E. Babler, P.E. Geo-Hydro Engineers Inc. | luis@geohydro.com

Younger Member Director: Benjamin L. Moss O’BRIEN & GEREbenjamin.moss@obg.com

Savannah Branch Director : Laurel M. WebbO’BRIEN & GERE | laurel.webb@obg.com

NE Georgia Branch Director : J. Matthew Tanner, PEBreedlove Land Planning Inc.mtanner@landplanning.net

South Metro Branch Director: Bob NickelsonPortland Cement Association BNickelson@cement.org

Past-President: Lisa S. Woods, P.E.JACOBS | lisa.woods@jacobs.com

ASCE/GEORGIA SECTION 2013 - 2014 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

asce Georgia

37June | JuLy 2014

Contact Program, members can learn aboutpublic policy issues important to the civilengineering profession and help advancethe priorities of the profession through in-teraction with elected leaders.

The Key Contacts program providesmember resources for civil engineers tolearn about and participate in public policyat all levels. The program provides:• Briefings when there are important

legislative issues to act on

• A platform for members to researchlegislation at the federal and statelevels

• Advice on contacting your officials atfederal and state levels, and

• Materials to use for at-home visitswith legislative officials.

In closing, I’d like to thank our board

members that have helped us have such asuccessful year. I’d also like to thank oursponsors whose contributions have allowedus to take on this valuable work: AECOM,ATG, Belgard Hardscapes, CH2MHill,Haywood Baker, John Group International,and LBFoster. Please contact me if yourfirm is interested in supporting the Geor-gia Section.v

united states secretary of Transportation, anthony r. Foxx, speaking to the asce Fly-in Delegation

Joe castronovo, ray Wilke, rebecca shelton, Kat Gurd, and melissa Wheeler at the asce Dc Fly-in.

2014 ashe Golf Tournament

On Thursday, May 8, ASHE held its an-nual golf tournament at River Pines Golfin Johns Creek. As always, the tournamentwas a huge success with 124 participants.All proceeds from the tournament went di-rectly to the Jim McGee Memorial Schol-arship fund. ASHE Georgia sincerelyappreciates our generous sponsors thatmake our events possible. Thanks to Ash-ley Chan, Nikki Reutlinger, and JennyJenkins for planning another successfultournament. We look forward to anothergreat time next year—see you there! v

President ~ Michael Bywaletz, GreshamSmith and Partners

First vice President ~ Brian O’Connor,T.Y. Lin International

second vice President ~ Rob Dell-Ross,City of Roswell

secretary ~ Mindy Sanders, LoweEngineers

Treasurer ~ Richard Meehan, LoweEngineers

co-Treasurer Rick Strickland, MichaelBaker Corporation

Past President ~ Ron Osterloh, Pond &Company

national Director ~ Nikki Reutlinger,Atkins

Director ~ Shawn Fleet, Heath andLineback

Director ~ Karyn Matthews, GDOT

chairs

nominating committee chair ~ TimMatthews, GDOT

Program chair ~ John Karnowski,Foresite Group

membership chair ~ Scott Jordan, CobbCounty

scholarship chair ~ Sarah Worachek,Gresham Smith and Partners

ashe student chapter Liason ~ JenniferStephan, T.Y. Lin International

Technical chairs ~ Dan Bodycomb,AECOM; Chris Rudd, GDOT

communications chair ~ Jenny Jenkins,McGee Partners

social chair ~ Holly Bauman, ARCADIS

Golf Tournament chair ~ Ashley Chan,HNTB

Web site chair ~ Pervez Iqbal, Parsons

ashe Georgia

Michael Bywaletz

President

American Society

of Highway

Engineers /

Georgia Section

News

chris haggard, brian o'connor, mindy sanders, Jacob achorn

GeorGia enGineer38

June | JuLy 2014 39

2014 ashe Golf Tournamentsponsors

Eagle Sponsors:AECOMARCADISEcological SolutionsEdwards-Pitman Environmental Inc.McGee Partners, Inc.Southeastern Engineering Inc.

Birdie Sponsors:United ConsultingGresham Smith and PartnersHeath & Lineback Engineers Inc.Thompson EngineeringFoley Products Company

Par/Hole Sponsors:American EngineersAtkinsBakerCardno TBECH2M HillClark Patterson LeeCollins Engineers Inc.ECSHNTBKeck & Wood, Inc.Kimley Horn & AssociatesLandair SurveyingLong EngineeringMulkey Engineers & ConsultantsParsonsSTVTerrell, Hundley & CarrollTHCT.Y. LinTransystemsWolverton & Associates

Door Prizes/Goodies:CH2M HillPond & CompanyUnited Consulting GroupURS Corporation

40 GeorGia enGineer

The Georgia Engineering Foundation’s

scholarship application process began on

April 1st and concludes August 31st.

Make sure your Georgia engineeringstudents go to www.gefinc.org to start theapplication process.

Since 1971 the Georgia EngineeringFoundation, on behalf of Georgia’sengineering organizations, has given outmore than 800 scholarships to Georgiastudents who have demonstratedcompetence in academics, have begundeveloping engineering careers, have beeninvolved in school and communityactivities, and have expressed a financialneed.

Selected students will be awarded theirscholarship checks at the spectacularDunwoody Country Club at our AnnualBanquet on November 13, 2014.

Chartered in 1971 as a 501 (c) 3nonprofit organization, GEF is able toreceive tax-deductible donations which areused in awarding engineering scholarshipsto deserving students.

GEF provides the followingscholarship services in which all memberorganizations are welcome to participate:• GEF obtains applicants through

advertisements with Georgia highschools, colleges, and universities. Onaverage, 200+ applicants are receivedfor 40 scholarships annually.

• GEF maintains a central web site forelectronic filing of applications

• GEF certifies that applications meetthe basic requirements

• Certified transcripts

• Resident of Georgia

• Appropriate letters ofrecommendation

• Enrollment or acceptance in anABET-accredited College orUniversity (does not necessarilyneed to be a Georgia College orUniversity)

• GEF establishes interview committees

• GEF conducts personal and, ifnecessary, telephone interviews withall applicants

• GEF establishes an award committeethat makes final selection ofapplicants for each scholarship award

• GEF organizes an annual awardbanquet and program for scholarshipawardees, guests, and donors

Engineering firms have the opportunity tobe a sponsor for the 2014 Annual AwardsBanquet at the following Levels: Platinum at a $1,200 contribution

Gold at a $800 contribution

bronze at a $400 contribution

• GEF provides donors with certifieddocumentation of their donationsmeeting IRS requirements.

Ways to provide tax-deductible gifts to theGeorgia Engineering Foundation (GEF)• Individual scholarships

• Personal donation to the GeneralScholarship Endowment Fund

• GEF determines the scholarshipcriteria

• GEF determines the amount of theaward

• GEF determines the frequency of theaward

• Personal donation for a NamedScholarship

• Donor can determine the scholarshipname (person/firm/society)

• Donor can determine the criteria

GeF News

James R.

Crowder, PE

President

Georgia

Engineering

Foundation

• Donor can determine the frequencyof the award

• Personal donation for a LifetimeScholarship

• Donor contributes a principalamount which GEF invests as apermanent endowment providing anannual scholarship from earnedproceeds.

• Donor can determine the scholarshipname (person/firm/society)

• Donor can determine the criteria

• Donor can determine the frequencyof the award

annual Pass-through scholarship

• Donor can be an engineering society,engineering firm, private firm,university, etc.

• Donor can determine the scholarshipname (person/firm/society)Donor can determine the criteria

• Donor can determine the frequencyof the award

• Donor provides funding to GEFeach year

What other activities does GeF provide

for your organization?

The GEF BOARD, May 2014, workingfor you.

• GEF is an organization whichpromotes engineering as a professionfor future generations.

• GEF relies upon volunteers from eachof its member organizations topromote, administer, and select thescholarship recipients, as well assupport other educational endeavorsfor the following organizations:

• Exploring Engineer Academy, now in its 15th year

• Benjamin Mays Math & ScienceHigh School

• Rockdale Magnet School

• State Science Fair Awards

• Future Cities

• MathCounts

become a member of the Georgia

engineering Foundation

• Engineering Organizations pay anannual fee based on local membership.Each Member Organization isentitled to a seat on the Board ofDirectors.

• Universities and colleges may join asAssociate Members;

• Associate Member Organizations arecomprised of educational, civic, orother non-commercial interestedgroups active in Georgia, who, byassociate membership in theFoundation, may contribute to, and beassisted by, the Foundation.

Anyone with a passion for advancing theengineering profession can volunteer towork with the Board of Directors, and mayseek an officer position on the Board andbecome a voting member.

Life Memberships are awarded to thosewho served as President of GEF. v

41June | JuLy 2014

Greetings from Georgia ITE headquartersagain to all Georgia Engineering Magazinereaders! As we’ve moved from spring (akathe ‘yellow season’) to the heat of summer,I hope that everyone is engaging in somefun, get-away summertime activities. Sum-

mertime for Georgia ITE members meansone thing—Summer Seminar at St. Si-mons Island! Definitely our premier eventof the year, and we are proud to tell othersthat ours is the largest conference of theyear held at the historic King and Princehotel. If you can make it to any one ITEevent this year, please come and join us July20th through 23rd. It is not only an excel-lent source of technical training and PDHhours, but the camaraderie of profession-als, friends and family has no equal (thebeach and pool ain’t all that bad either).The very first year I took my family, uponreturn they all pleaded for me to be sure tocome back every year, certainly a motivat-ing factor to getting on the ITE Board(now I have to attend on official businessand all…..) It’s not too late to sign up—seethe details on our Web site athttp://www.gaite.org/summer-seminar/.

Well, enough self-aggrandizement aboutour best-in-the-world conference and ontothe key magazine topic of innovation—oneof my favorite topics to write about. I havelong held the opinion that if companiesand organizations—and in particular engi-neering companies—are not constantly in-novating their approach to customers,product, and delivery, their product willquickly become a commodity and the in-dustry will lose the interest of the best andbrightest thinkers of tomorrow. Most ofour members dwell in the realm of trans-portation planning and design, and by thenature of the industry often provide com-modity work product. Most firms offer astandard fare of services and professionals,as how many new or different ways arethere to design a roadway, traffic signal, orbridge? And we all follow the same stan-dards (engineers love our standard refer-

Jonathan Reid, PE

Georgia Section,

Institute of

Transportation

Engineers

News

example of a continuous Flow intersection (Dayton, oh)

iTe Georgia

42 GeorGia enGineer

ence materials) that drive us toward uni-formity in design, and for the right reasons.Motorist safety is dependent on uniformityof design, and there is risk in innovation(read, potential for lawsuit) when deviatingfrom national and/or state design stan-dards. However, despite these constraints,I believe there is a great deal of room andneed for innovation in our industry.

Some projects require innovation tobring needed projects to fruition thathave, for some reason, been stalled in thepast. Perhaps environmental regulationspresented roadblocks. There is a historicor natural resource in the way. There arealways financial constraints, especiallywhen right-of-way costs can approachone-third of the construction budget. Wemust be willing to look for innovative so-lutions that fit within affordable impactsand construction costs, without sacrificingsafety or the useful life of the project.These special non-run-of-the-mill proj-ects should challenge and excite the engi-neer towards finding innovative solutions.

In the last decade, the transportationindustry has evolved to meet challenges inneed of innovation through an initiativecalled ‘context sensitive solutions’ (CSS).Though certainly a key component, CSS ismore than design that is sensitive to its en-vironment as its name might imply. CSS isa “collaborative, interdisciplinary approachthat involves all stakeholders in providing atransportation facility that fits its set-ting…that leads to preserving and enhanc-ing scenic, aesthetic, historic, community,and environmental resources, while im-proving or maintaining safety, mobility, andinfrastructure condition.” When followed,CSS principles have led to numerous land-mark transportation projects that wouldhave never been built without innovationand collaboration on many levels. ITE hasbeen a leader in the development of a con-text sensitive design framework and guid-ing principles and publications, including aCSD Recommended Practice Guide, sup-plemented by information and materials onits national Web site: (seehttp://www.ite.org/css/). While wholebooks have been written about CSD, itscore principles guide engineers in the de-

velopment of innovative solutions in har-mony with the goals of the project, itsstakeholders, and the motoring public.

If there is any silver-lining to the eco-nomic doldrums of the last half-decade, ithas forced transportation engineers tothink differently about how we best servethe public trust with the finite dollars thatare allocated to the many transportationchallenges we face. I have heard the mantrathat we as engineers need to ‘work smarter’my entire career, but only lately has thatmantra been a call for survival. In my post-graduate days, I researched and wrote a lotabout ‘innovative’ intersection designs.Roundabouts were part of that discussion,but there were a number of other burgeon-ing designs with strange names like ‘con-tinuous flow intersections,’ ‘superstreets,’‘quadrant roadways,’ and ‘diverging dia-

mond’ and ‘contraflow left’ interchanges.Most of these designs were not yet imple-mented in the United States, but showed alot of promise of potential operations andsafety improvement to us traffic-engineer-ing types. Well, when the economic down-turn suddenly elevated attention tocost-saving measures and with increasedfederal attention to safety, these innovativeintersection designs got more attention. Anumber of these designs got their first teston US roadways and many exceeded ex-pectations in operational and costs savings.The most celebrated design of late is thediverging diamond, which through its in-novative crossover design, eliminates theneed for left turn storage lanes on inter-change cross streets, which in turn reducesbridge costs and in some cases has negatedthe need to widen or replace sufficient

Board Position Member E-mail PhonePresident Jonathan Reid reid@pbworld.com (404) 364-5225Vice President Andrew Antweiler aantweiler@roswellgov.com (678) 639-7540Secretary/Treasurer Sean Coleman sean.coleman@kimley-horn.com (404) 419-8700Past President Dwayne Tedder dwayne.tedder@urs.com (404) 406-8791District Representative David Low dlow@roswellgov.com (770) 594-6422District Representative Vern Wilburn vwilburn@wilburnengineering.com (678) 423-0050District Representative Marion Waters marion_waters@gspnet.com (770) 754-0755Affiliate Director Meg Pirkle mpirkle@dot.ga.gov (404) 631-1025

Committee Activities Chair(s) E-mail PhoneActivities Kate D’Ambrosio kdambrosio@dot.ga.gov (404) 635-2842Annual Report David Low dlow@roswellgov.com (770) 594-6422Audio/Visual Mark Boivin markboivin@alltrafficdata.net (404) 374-1283Awards/Nominations Dwayne Tedder dwayne.tedder@urs.com (404) 406-8791Career Guidance Amy Diaz amy.diaz@jacobs.com (678) 333-0283Clerk Elizabeth Scales escales@thompsonengineering.com (404) 574-1985Comptroller Jim Pohlman j.pohlman@icloud.com (404) 790-3569Engineers Week Amy Diaz amy.diaz@jacobs.com (678) 333-0283Finance Charles Bopp charles_bopp@hotmail.com (678) 380-9053Georgia Engineer magazine Dan Dobry ddobry@croyengineering.com (770) 971-5407Georgia Tech Liaison Chris Rome crome@fg-inc.net (770) 368-1399Historian Charles Bopp charles_bopp@hotmail.com (678) 380-9053Host Meredith Emory meredith.emory@kimley-horn.com (404) 201-6133Legislative Affairs Bill Ruhsam bill@jbwr.net (404) 931-6478Life Membership Don Gaines dgaines@gcaeng.com (404) 355-4010Marketing/Social Media Patrick McAtee pmcatee@thompsonengineering.com (404) 574-1985 Membership Sunita Nadella sunita.nadella@parsons.com (678) 969-2304Monthly Meetings Andrew Antweiler aantweiler@roswellgov.com (678) 639-7540Newsletter Vern Wilburn vwilburn@wilburnengineering.com (678) 423-0050 Past Presidents Todd Long tlong@dot.ga.gov (404) 631-1021Public Officials Education Scott Mohler scott.mohler@urs.com (678) 808-8811Scholarship Betsy Williams betsy.williams@transcore.com (770) 246-6247Southern Poly Liaison Bryan Sartin bryan_sartin@gspnet.com (678) 518-3884Summer Seminar Marco Friend marco.friend@jacobs.com (678) 333-0408Technical France Campbell france.campbell@aecom.com (404) 965-9738Web site Vamshi Mudumba VamshiM@LAIengineering.com (770) 423-0807 Winter Workshop Jonathan Wallace jonathan.wallace@arcadis-us.com (770) 431-8666

43June | JuLy 2014

bridge structures. Because of the cost sav-ings and improved safety and operationsbeing realized by these first US projects,several of these interchange types havebeen built in the metro Atlanta region andmany are being considered elsewhere inGeorgia. And to continue that trend of de-sign innovation, it is likely that Georgiawill see its first continuous flow intersec-tion (in Cumming) and contra-flow left in-terchange (in Augusta) opened by 2015.These and other innovative design solu-tions have tested Georgia’s design engi-neers and have helped engender trust withthe pubic that engineers can think innova-tively. And to survive and thrive as an in-dustry and attract the top thinkers oftomorrow, I believe that is a good thing.

The Institute of Transportation Engi-neers is an international educational andscientific association of transportation pro-fessionals who are responsible for meeting

mobility and safety needs. ITE facilitatesthe application of technology and scientificprinciples to research, planning, functionaldesign, implementation, operation, policydevelopment, and management for anymode of ground transportation. Through

its products and services, ITE promotesprofessional development of its members,supports and encourages education, stimu-lates research, develops public awarenessprograms, and serves as a conduit for theexchange of professional information. v

44 GeorGia enGineer

Proposed Design of contra-Flow Left interchange in augusta Ga

The ITS Georgia annual meeting is alwaysa successful and rewarding event that is ofgreat benefit to our member organizationsand individual transportation professionalswho attend. It is an event that I look for-ward to and enjoy every year.

In 2013 for example, we recorded 130registrants, 16 sponsors and 24 exhibitors.The meeting is a great place to catch up onProfessional Development Hours, see thelatest ITS technology, and share experi-ences with colleagues. We also recognizethe best of ITS in Georgia on a project, or-ganization, and individual basis. This yearpromises to be even bigger and better.

For 2014, we are teaming with ITS

Florida and Gulf Region ITS (GRITS) tohold a joint annual meeting in Mobile, Al-abama, called the ITS 3C Summit. Havingseveral states involved in one meeting willprovide those attending the opportunity tosee more exhibits and new technology andhave more varied technical sessions. Iwould like to thank Grant Waldrop, ourcurrent vice president for leading the ITSGeorgia involvement as well as our othermembers who have contributed to theplanning of the 3C Summit.

This four-day event will be filled withmany opportunities for participants tolearn about ITS, network with fellow con-

45June | JuLy 2014

News

ITS GEORGIA CHAPTER LEADERSHIP

President

Tom Sever, Gwinnett DOT

vice President

Grant Waldrop, GDOT

secretary

Jennifer Johnson, Kimley-Horn

Treasurer

Ashlyn Morgan, Atkins

immediate Past President

Scott Mohler, URS

Directors

Mark Demidovich, GDOTEric Graves, City of Alpharetta

Winter Horbal, Temple Inc.Keary Lord, Serco

David Smith, DeKalb County TransportationPrasoon Sinha, ARCADIS

Mike Holt, Parsons Brinkerhoff, Yancy Bachmann, World Fiber,

Kenn Fink, Kimley-Horn, Kristin Turner, Wolverton Associates

state chapters representative

Shahram Malek, Arcadis

ex officio

Greg Morris, Federal Highway Administra-tion

Andres Ramirez, FTA

iTs Georgia missionWe believe that ITS is a valuable tool forimproved management of any trans-portation system, regardless of the in-herent complexity of the system. ITS canhelp operate, manage, and maintain thesystem once it has been constructed.

We believe that ITS should be sys-tematically incorporated into the earli-est stages of project development,especially into the planning and designof transportation projects.

We believe the best way to achievethis systematic incorporation into theprocess is through a coordinated, com-prehensive program to ‘get out the word’on ITS to constituencies that might nototherwise consider the relevance of ITSto their transportation system.

iTs Georgia

Tom Sever, P.E.

ITS President

Track 1 Technology and innovation

Session 1 New ITS Technology and Deployments

Session 2 Automotive V2V and V2I Initiatives

Session 3 TMC and Ops of the Future

Session 4 Telematics

Track 2 operations and Traveler

information/Dissemination

Session 5 Social Media and ITS

Session 6 Making Sense of Data Collection and

Dissemination

Session 7 Multimodal Ops and Travel Information

Session 8 TMCs and 511 Operations

Track 3 safety and mobility

Session 9 ITS Safety Studies and Results

Session 10 First Responders/TIM

Session 11 Mobility and Data across Modal Platforms

Session 12 Integrated Corridor Management and Cross

Platform Studies

Track 4 Planning, Funding, and measuring

Session 13 Funding ITS

Session 14 Freeway/Toll Performance Measures

Session 15 ITS Planning

Session 16 Arterial ITS/ATMS Performance Measures

46 GeorGia enGineer

ference attendees, and have fun in a relax-ing environment. A series of sessions willbe offered featuring informative presenta-tions and challenging discussions. Industryexperts will share best practices, lessonslearned, and new strategies to ensure fur-ther success of ITS. In addition, trainingand professional tours will be available to

provide participants with the knowledgeand tools necessary to effectively plan anddeploy ITS technologies in their own ju-risdictions.

There will be four general sessions andfour tracks from which to choose. Thetracks are currently listed in the box below.

Be sure to mark your calendar for Sep-

tember 14-17. Visit www.its3csummit.comfor more details. Sponsorship and exhibitopportunities are still available.

Below is a list of the remaining ITSGeorgia chapter meetings for 2014. Join usfor networking and informative topics. Wewill also hold a meeting in Atlanta later thisyear to recognize our award winners.v

Control Technologies

Utilicom

Temple

Arcadis

Atkins

World Fiber Technologies

Kimley-Horn & Associates

Southern Lighting & Traffic Systems

Delcan

Gresham Smith & Partners

Grice Consulting

Jacobs

Parsons Brinkerhoff

Quality Traffic Systems

URS

Transcore

OUR 2013/2014 SPONSORS

our chapter meetings are the fourth Thursday of each month January—august. Join us for networking and informative topics.Thursday, June 26, 2014 Kari Watkins/John bartholdi onebusaway/Georiga Tech Wavetronix/mike Kline

Thursday, July 30, 2014 muhammad rauf city of roswell Tcc Temple inc.

Thursday, august 28, 2014 shahram malek Technologies reviving Legacy infrastructure Temple inc.

SAME Atlanta Post was honored to pro-vide three $1,000 scholarships to ROTCstudents at Georgia Tech on Friday, April25, 2014. Colonel Donald L. Walker,Commander of the South Atlantic Divi-

sion of the US Army Corps of Engineers,was in attendance to present Navy ROTCMidshipman Sean P. Sweeny, ArmyROTC Cadet Matthew R. Brooks, and AirForce ROTC Cadet Addison H. Fishertheir awards.

Atlanta Post is gearing up for a greatgolf tournament this year. Our goal is toraise $35,000 for the SHARE Initiative atthe Shepherd Center. $35,000 is enoughto provide one patient with a full eight-12week treatment program for a service manor woman who has sustained a mild tomoderate traumatic brain injury or PTSD.The tournament will be held on August 25,2014 at the St. Marlo Country Club inDuluth. Sponsorships and registration willbe open soon. This year's event is expectedto offer great prizes to the winning four-some and to winners of individual events(closest to the pin, longest drive, etc.). We

hope that you can join us!Building our membership continues to

be a priority in 2014. SAME is an engi-neering organization dedicated to “devel-oping and enhancing relationships andcompetencies among uniformed services,public- and private-sector engineers, andrelated professionals, and by developing fu-ture engineers through outreach and men-toring,” (from the SAME MissionStatement). I am often asked if you have tobe an engineer to join—the answer is no. Iam also asked if you have to be former orcurrent military—the answer to that is alsono. We are a diverse group of profession-als dedicated to preparing for and over-coming natural and manmade disasters andto improving security at home and abroad.Learn more about the benefits of SAMEmembership on our Web site atwww.sameatlantapost.org.

Pamela

Little, P.E.

President,

SAME Atlanta

same Atlanta News

If you are already a member, join us for ameeting and maximize your membershipby getting involved. We have volunteer op-portunities on our financial committee, vet-eran’s and community outreach committee,communications committee, programscommittee, golf committee, and scholar-ship committee. If you are interested ingetting involved or golf sponsorships,please let us know! For more information,please visit www.sameatlantapost.org. v

47June | JuLy 2014

From left to right: 1st Lieutenant Christie

Lamond, US Army Corps of Engineers;

Army ROTC Cadet Matthew Brooks; Air

Force ROTC Cadet Addison H. Fisher;

Colonel Donald L. Walker, Commander of

South Atlantic Division US Army Corps of

Engineers; Pamela Little, President of

SAME Atlanta Post

University System of Georgia ChancellorHank Huckaby has named Dr. RonKoger as interim president of SouthernPolytechnic State University (SPSU).

Dr. Koger, who is currently SPSU’svice president for Student and Enroll-ment Services, will take over the respon-sibilities from current President LisaRossbacher, who will step down this sum-mer to assume the presidency of Hum-boldt State University in Arcata,California.

Dr. Koger will become interim pres-ident on July 1, 2014, but Dr. Rossbacherhas appointed him acting president dur-ing the month of June, when she will betraveling and using vacation time. He willremain interim president until the con-solidation of SPSU and Kennesaw StateUniversity (KSU) is completed in January2015. Dr. Daniel Papp is president ofKSU and will continue as president of theconsolidated institution.

“Ron has a long history with South-ern Poly and is the right person at this im-portant point in the institution’s history

to help provide leadership and guidanceto faculty, staff and students,” said Huck-aby. “We are glad he has accepted this im-portant leadership role.”

“I have known and respected Ron for17 years since I started at Southern Polyas interim president," said Dr. Papp. “Hisexperience and expertise will serve SPSUwell, and I look forward to working withhim as we bring our two universities to-gether.”

“Ron’s experience in higher educationand his deep knowledge of SouthernPolytechnic’s programs and people willserve the university well,” said Rossbacher.“His strong commitment to buildingcommunity and supporting students willgreatly benefit SPSU in the comingmonths.”

“I am honored to have been asked tolead Southern Polytechnic,” said Dr.Koger. “I hope to maintain the incrediblemomentum President Rossbacher hasbuilt and preserve the rich heritage exem-plified by our alumni.”

Dr. Koger has been in his current po-

sition at SPSU since 2000. Prior to this,from 1997-2000 he served as vice presi-dent of enrollment management at theuniversity.

During his years at SPSU, Dr. Kogeralso has taught as an adjunct facultymember, and was interim chief informa-tion officer and interim executive directorof Advancement.

He came to Southern Polytechnicfrom the University of Alabama inHuntsville, where he was assistant vicepresident for Enrollment Services andalso taught.

Dr. Koger has served in both teach-ing and administrative positions at uni-versities in Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas,and also has worked in the health care in-dustry and as a secondary school teacher.

He received a bachelor of science ineducation degree from Pittsburg StateUniversity, Pittsburg Kansas, and both hismaster’s and doctoral degrees in educationfrom the University of Kansas inLawrence. v

ron Koger named interim president of sPsu

http://www.haywardbaker.com