October 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 October If you live adjacent to a Section in a different Region, or are merely interested in the other Region reports for October, 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 3 update? See the September edition of  News Around Region 3 Share this page via social media and email:

REGION DIRECTOR'S REPORT Highlights of October’s ASCE Board of Direction Meeting John A. Frauenhoffer, P.E., S.E., M.ASCE, your Region 3 Director, is a member of the Central Illinois Section and is the Senior Structural Engineer of Engineering Resource Associates, Inc., a full service civil engineering firm located in Warrenville, Chicago, Geneva, and Champaign, Illinois. John represented you at the October 5-6 Board meeting in Panama City, Panama, held in conjunction with ASCE’s Global Engineering Conference 2014. The conference helped commemorate the 100th anniversary of one of civil engineering’s greatest achievements—the Panama Canal. Seeing the massive effort underway to expand the canal, and collaborating on the conference with ASCE’s partner Engineers Without Borders–USA, gave additional meaning to the Board members’ role of guiding the important work of ASCE and the profession. Also participating in this meeting as observers were ASCE’s incoming officers, who were formally installed during the annual business meeting later in the week. Among the issues the board addressed are the following: In response to the Board’s examination of ASCE’s policy statements on engineering licensure at the July meeting, the Board approved revisions to a number of policies and adopted new policies on the purpose of the Principles and Practice of Engineering Examination, Flood Risk Management, and Performance-Based Ownership of Infrastructure. Read more on that in ASCE News. The ASCE Committee on Technical Advancement presented its annual report to the Board. CTA covers all technical areas not within the domain of one of the 8 ASCE Institutes. Many of CTA’s efforts involve cross-cutting areas such as forensics, cold-regions engineering, and critical infrastructure. Among its activities this past year, CTA deployed a team to the Philippines to study the effects of Typhoon Haiyan, issued three new standards and nine new publications, and organized the successful Shale Energy Conference. CTA also reported that with a focus on improving infrastructure resiliency, CTA will establish a new division in early 2015, melding three existing technical groups. The new Infrastructure Resilience Division will encompass the Council on Disaster Risk Management, the Committee on Critical Infrastructure, and the Technical Council on Lifelines Earthquake Engineering. In addition, CTA sought the Board’s input on a proposal to establish a new institute on utilities infrastructure systems. The institute would bring together work presently being done within the Pipelines Division, as well as covering utilities and geomatics. As it finalizes its proposal for review by the board in March 2015, CTA was asked to consider whether this new division might cover the full range of technical work done by civil engineers in the utility and power industries. Amendments to the bylaws to allow for electronic-only elections and additional changes to the election procedures were approved. Declarations to run for the office of president-elect and technical region director are now due November 1, and the election will take place from May 1 to June 1. Finally, executive director Pat Natale presented his final report to the board as he prepares to retire on December 31. He shared not just this year’s achievements, but reflected on the advances ASCE as an organization has made in the 12 years of his tenure. Pat received a standing ovation as a display of the Board’s appreciation and affection. He will be missed, but the Society is looking forward to working with his successor, Tom Smith, as ASCE moves into a new chapter for the Society’s leadership. For more on the actions taken by the Board, see the story in ASCE News. Board members are interested in your views on the issues they are considering. To share your views, or other ideas on how ASCE can better serve its members and the profession, please email John.

CENTRAL ILLINOIS SECTION Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor earns ASCE’s Karl Terzaghi Lecture Gholamreza Mesri, Ph.D., M.ASCE, Ralph B. Peck Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the recipient of ASCE’s Karl Terzaghi Award in recognition of his pioneering work on soil mechanics and soil behavior, including consolidation and settlement analyses, shear strengths for static and seismic slope stability analyses, and undrained shear strength of soft clays and loose sands. Mesri is a world authority on the behavior of soils and a leader in the study of their compressibility and consolidation. Discover more about what made Mesri worthy of this distinguished honor in ASCE News.

WISCONSIN SECTION State ballot initiative would create transportation trust fund ‘lock box’ Among the decisions facing voters in Wisconsin is one with serious repercussions for civil engineers. A ballot initiative, Question 1, asks voters to decide if revenue allocated to the state’s Transportation Trust Fund should be dedicated solely to transportation-related projects, or if it can be tapped for general uses.  ASCE is urging a “yes” vote on Question 1. Learn why creation of a “lock box” will help ensure a reliable source of transportation funding without the creation of new taxes, tolls or user fees. See ASCE’s Save America’s Infrastructure report for details.    Section website>>

QUAD CITIES SECTION Section meeting includes tour of repairs to ‘worst bridge’ in the region Courtesy ASCE Quad Cities Section At their September meeting, Quad Cities Section members got to see firsthand the work done to rehabilitate what is commonly considered the “worst bridge in the Quad Cities,” the 74-year-old Centennial Bridge spanning the Mississippi, linking Davenport, IA, and Rock Island, IL. The tour and presentation was led by Al Swearingen, the Illinois Transportation Department’s assistant to the resident engineer. During initial repairs in early summer, inspectors found the bridge’s superstructure was in serious condition, suffering from significant rust, demanding more work than planned. After the necessary repairs shut down the bridge to all traffic for two months, the span reopened Oct. 20.    Section website>>

MICHIGAN SECTION University of Michigan professor receives ASCE’s Ralph B. Peck Award Donald H. Gray, M.ASCE, professor emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan, is the recipient of the Ralph B. Peck Award for developing new methodologies, design recommendations, and procedures for environmentally friendly biostabilization techniques, through the careful and comprehensive documenting of numerous case histories as published in scientific publications and books. Gray is recognized as an authority worldwide is the field of bioengineering, biostabilization, and geomorphic modification. Discover more about what made Gary worthy of this distinguished honor in ASCE News.