June 2014

Great outreach event or other activity? Let the whole Region know! If you’re a local ASCE leader and your Section, Branch, Younger Member Group, or Student Chapter has staged any special events, engaged in outreach from grade-school kids to lawmakers, done charity work, fund raising or anything of the sort, let ASCEnews Weekly know and we may include it in next month’s Region report. You may already have written about it and posted pictures in your newsletter, website, or social media. Share the details and any photos at asce.org/localnews. Got questions? Write to submissions@asce.org. See the other Region reports for June If you live adjacent to a Section in a different Region, or are merely interested in the other Region reports for June, click on each to view them:   Region 1   Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section, Buffalo Section, Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers Section, Ithaca Section, Maine Section, Metropolitan Section, Mohawk-Hudson Section, New Hampshire Section, New Jersey Section, Puerto Rico Section, Rhode Island Section, Rochester Section, Syracuse Section, Vermont Section Region 2   Central Pennsylvania Section, Delaware Section, Lehigh Valley Section, Maryland Section, National Capital Section, Philadelphia Section, Pittsburgh Section Region 3   Akron-Canton Section, Central Illinois Section, Central Ohio Section, Cincinnati Section, Cleveland Section, Dayton Section, Duluth Section, Illinois Section, Michigan Section, Minnesota Section, North Dakota Section, Quad Cities Section, Toledo Section, Wisconsin Section Region 4   Arkansas Section, Indiana Section, Kentucky Section, North Carolina Section, South Carolina Section, Tennessee Section, Virginia Section, West Virginia Section Region 5   Alabama Section, Florida Section, Georgia Section, Louisiana Section, Mississippi Section   Region 6   New Mexico Section, Oklahoma Section, Texas Section Region 7   Colorado Section, Iowa Section, Kansas City Section, Kansas Section, Nebraska Section, South Dakota Section, St. Louis Section, Wyoming Section Region 8   Alaska Section, Arizona Section, Columbia Section, Hawaii Section, Inland Empire Section, Montana Section, Nevada Section, Oregon Section, Seattle Section, Southern Idaho Section, Tacoma-Olympia Section, Utah Section Region 9   Los Angeles Section, Sacramento Section, San Diego Section, San Francisco Section Region 10   All international Sections, Branches, and Groups Missed last month's Region 2 update? See the May edition of  News Around Region 2  Share this page via social media and email:

PHILADELPHIA SECTION, PITTSBURGH SECTION University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown hosts, Drexel has strong showing at National Concrete Canoe finals Ed Rieker/AP Images for ASCE The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown played host to 22 universities’ student teams that came from across the country, plus Canada as well as China to take part in ASCE’s 27th annual National Concrete Canoe Competition last weekend . The campus proved to be outstanding for judging the various craft and nearby Quemahoning Lake, a former reservoir south of campus, was a great setting for the canoe races. Read about the event at the university’s website as well as in ASCE News. With its canoe Esssayons, the host team finished 15th overall, including a solid ninth place for their oral presentation. Ed Rieker/AP Images for ASCE Drexel University came from across the state with its canoe, Drage, and collected a first-place finish from the judges for its design paper. The team finished 10th overall. See the final results. See more photos of each team’s canoes in action, plus those of every team at ASCE’s Concrete Canoe photo gallery on Facebook. Funding provided by the ASCE Foundation makes ASCE’s National Concrete Canoe Competition possible.

PENNSYLVANIA SECTIONS With an overall C–, new 2014 Report Card for Pennsylvania released “Pennsylvania’s infrastructure matters,” so “we must prioritize strategic assets” to improve the state’s aging works, say the ASCE members who authored the new 2014 Report Card for Pennsylvania’s Infrastructure, released this week with an overall grade of C–. Across 16 categories, seven received D grades and six got Cs. Only the categories of freight rail, parks and recreation, and hazardous waste received Bs, and no categories were worthy of an A. Get details at the official Pennsylvania Report Card site. At the same time, the Report Card forecasts better grades, especially in transportation categories. “A major transportation funding bill (Act 89) was passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature and signed by the Governor in November 2013. We look forward to improvements in the grades for the transportation categories in the 2018 Report Card for Pennsylvania’s Infrastructure as a result of this new funding source,” the authors wrote.  Release events this week hosted by each of Pennsylvania’s four ASCE Sections received a great deal of attention and coverage in media across the state. See how the Report Card and its results were interpreted in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Harrisburg’s Patriot-News, Allentown’s Morning Call, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

PHILADELPHIA SECTION ASCE executive, a past president of the Philadelphia Section, elected ASCE Fellow John E. Durrant, P.E., F.ASCE, the Society’s senior managing director for Engineering and Lifelong Learning, and a past president of the Philadelphia Section, has been elected an ASCE Fellow by the Society’s Board of Direction. As ASCE’s managing director of Engineering Programs, Durrant oversaw the creation of ASCE’s eight specialty institutes and supervised ASCE’s technical activities, codes and standards, and specialty certification programs. Discover the other achievements that made Durrant worthy of Fellow status in ASCE News.