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


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See the September edition of News Around Region 1

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REGION DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Highlights of October’s ASCE Board of Direction Meeting

Mark P. Rusnica, M.ASCE, your Region 1 Director, is a member of the Mohawk-Hudson Section. He retired this year after 35 years of service with the State of New York.

Mark 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. This was Mark’s last board meeting as your region director. Please welcome Leonard Cilli to that role and wish him the best.

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.
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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 Leonard. 



VERMONT SECTION
Section issues 2014 Report Card with improved C for state’s infrastructure




Noting some modest gains since their last release in 2011, the civil engineers of ASCE’s Vermont Section have given the state an overall grade of C in the new 2014 Report Card for Vermont’s Infrastructure released this month. After the shocking damage to the state’s infrastructure backbone by Tropical Storm Irene in  2011, Vermont made significant investments through catch-up and emergency funding. In addition, the state’s most recent transportation funding package provided close to $700 million, the largest such investment in state history. Explore the Report Card and the media coverage it attracted in ASCE’s Save America’s Infrastructure report.   Section website>> 
BOSTON SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS SECTION
State passed several CE-friendly bills in 2014, Section’s legislative fellow says

Massachusetts civil engineers can look back on a number of successes in the state Legislature in the term just ended, with the adoption of several bills that moved the state toward a more sustainable infrastructure, reported Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section Legislative Fellow David Westerling. Among the highlights of the Session Laws of 2014: . 
  • Financing state transportation system projects. Among these: design and construction of the South Coast Rail Improvement Project ($2.3B) and extension of the MBTA Green Line ($1.3B).
  • Creation of a program to improve and preserve the state’s energy and environmental assets.
  • Funding for state government facility repairs and improvements.

    Read more about these in Westerling’s report on page 10 of the BSCES October newsletter.   Section website>>  
BOSTON SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS SECTION
‘No’ vote urged on ballot question that limits gas tax adjustments

In Massachusetts, Question 1 on the ballot is a measure that would eliminate the annual adjustment for inflation to the state’s gasoline tax. ASCE is urging a “no” vote on Question 1. Elimination of gas tax indexing would be a step backward for the state, causing roads and bridges to fall into further disrepair. Question 1 would freeze the gas tax at 21.5 cents per gallon. See ASCE’s Save America’s Infrastructure report for details.  Section website>> 
METROPOLITAN SECTION
Leader of post-9/11 structural team, former Thornton Tomasetti president dies

Daniel A. Cuoco, P.E., F.ASCE, former president and CEO of Thornton Tomasetti Inc., who led the World Trade Center structural engineering disaster response team in the assessment of buildings in the immediate collapse area following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack, died September 21 at the age of 68. With Mr. Cuoco as leader, the World Trade Center structural engineering disaster response team investigated demolition and temporary stabilization procedures along with the design of grillages, they analyzed the existing structures to support construction equipment, they coordinated the survey monitoring of the existing damaged structures, and they inspected approximately 400 buildings in the area surrounding the collapse site. Discover more about his distinguished career in ASCE News.
SYRACUSE SECTION
Cornell professor and Distinguished Member elected to Royal Academy of Engineering

Thomas D. O’Rourke, Ph.D., Hon.D.GE., FREng, Dist.M.ASCE, NAE, Thomas R. Briggs Professor of Engineering at Cornell University, has been elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering as an International Fellow. O’Rourke, who this year became a Distinguished Member of ASCE, was elected “for developing engineering solutions for problems concerning foundation performance, ground movement effects, retaining structures, pipelines, earthquake engineering, tunneling, and infrastructure rehabilitation, both on a research and consulting basis.” As a professor at Cornell, O’Rourke is recognized worldwide for his work with seismic protection of water, gas, liquid fuel, and transportation facilities; design/construction of deep excavations; pipeline engineering; earthquake and construction ground-movement effects on buildings/utilities; and infrastructure resilience. Discover more about what made O’Rourke worthy of this distinguished honor in ASCE News.
BOSTON SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS SECTION
Climate science research professor at Amherst elected an ASCE Fellow

Richard N. Palmer, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, department head and professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been elevated to ASCE Fellow status by the Society’s Board of Direction. Palmer’s primary areas of interest are the fields of climate impacts on water resources and urban infrastructure and the application of structured planning approaches to water and natural resource management. Among Palmer’s major accomplishments have been helping develop the field of “shared vision modeling” in water resources planning and pioneering the use of “virtual drought exercises.” Discover more about what made Palmer worthy of election as an ASCE Fellow in ASCE News.