December 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 December If you live adjacent to a Section in a different Region, or are merely interested in the other Region reports for December, 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 9 update? See the November edition of News Around Region 9 Share this page via social media and email:

ORANGE COUNTY BRANCH Santa Ana younger member named a 2015 New Face of Civil Engineering Since joining URS (now an AECOM company) in 2013 as water/wastewater engineer, Nathan Chase, P.E., QSD, LEED AP ND, ENV SP, M.ASCE, had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of water, wastewater, and stormwater projects throughout the entire project lifecycle: from planning and design, through construction, and operation and maintenance. In pursuing his passion for providing water engineering solutions to people around the world, Chase participated in master planning projects that set the course toward more sustainable communities. Such early achievements made Chase  worthy of selection as one of ASCE’s 2015 New Faces of Civil Engineering. “I know that I am not alone along among civil engineers who get excited about finding creative solutions that are environmentally sensitive to the infrastructure and global challenges we face today,” says Chase, who graduated from Northeastern University with bachelor’s degrees in both civil engineering and environmental geology and from Stanford University with a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering. “I really think what I have learned thus far in my short professional career is that collaboration, innovation, and risk-taking are essential qualities for a civil engineer.” As the technical lead for a health and sanitation project with Engineers Without Borders-USA in Yamabal, El Salvador, he helped design and construct composting latrines, in addition to develop a water treatment system to provide clean drinking water. These solutions were designed in partnership with the local community to ensure they will be scalable and replicable by the community and surrounding communities. “I’m really excited about the opportunity that being a New Face of Civil Engineering brings highlighting the important role that engineers play in solving some of the most pressing challenges of our day, including the threats of climate change and how our infrastructure must adapt to be more resilient,” says Chase.  Branch website>>.

IN ASCE’S CIVIL ENGINEERING MAGAZINE ONLINE Pay trends indicate construction market changes Research reveals the emphasis that engineering and construction firms are placing on securing new business in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Explore a consulting firm’s results in ASCE’s online edition of Civil Engineering magazine.

IN ASCE’S CIVIL ENGINEERING MAGAZINE ONLINE Corps ‘embracing uncertainty’ in its project planning In adapting to climate change, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now models both historical and theoretical storms and consults a sea-level rise tool that it developed to gauge site vulnerability. Discover the Corps’ new approaches in ASCE’s online edition of Civil Engineering magazine.

SAN FRANCISCO SECTION 2015 New Face of Civil Engineering helps keep water supply safe from quakes Using hydraulic and reliability modeling, Aaron Lee, P.E., M.ASCE, a civil engineer in AECOM’s water group in San Francisco, is presently working on the recently completed capital planning study for San Francisco’s Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS). Lee’s work specifically uses probabilistic methods that determine project priorities to improve the system. The primary goal of this work says Lee, is to make San Francisco more resilient to potential impacts from fires following earthquakes. Such early achievements made Lee worthy of selection as one of ASCE’s 2015 New Faces of Civil Engineering. “I am most proud of my contributions to the capital planning study for San Francisco’s Auxiliary Water Supply System,” says Lee. “Prior to this work, the system had not been evaluated to determine its performance and to set performance goals. Through this project, we created and used unique modeling tools to guide us in making our recommendations, and I am particularly proud of our collaboration with all the project stakeholders in developing solutions that would greatly benefit public safety in San Francisco.” Involved with his local San Francisco Chapter of Engineers Without Borders USA, Lee is currently serving as the project manager to bring reliable and clean water to three villages in the Fiji Islands. In making several annual trips to the Fiji Islands, he has participated in five project implementations that have improved drinking water quality and made water source improvements. “I believe that this generation of civil engineers is very interested in being collaborative and working across disciplines, which I am wholly supportive of,” says Lee. “The complexities of our engineering challenges require a more open and agile mentality and I definitely hope to embody these principles through my career.” Section website>>

LOS ANGELES SECTION High speed rail engineer named a 2015 New Face of Civil Engineering Aside from gaining her professional licensure and serving as president of the Los Angeles Section Younger Members Forum, Jane M. Tran, P.E., A.M.ASCE, says one of the proudest moments in her career has been working on the conceptual design of the California High Speed Rail Project. An engineer in the Los Angeles office of Hatch Mott MacDonald, she was responsible for overseeing the production of more than 200 conceptual engineering drawings for railroad and roadway bridges throughout Southern California for the project. Tran’s early achievements made her worthy of selection as one of ASCE’s 2015 New Faces of Civil Engineering. “The project’s completion will one day allow riders to travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles [to travel] in less than three hours, and it is expected to promote to economic development, a cleaner environment and the creation of more than 450,000 new jobs,” says Tran. “I pride myself in contributing to a project that will one day become a milestone in American infrastructure.” Her success at this project has led her to other leadership roles within the HMM structural team, where she continues to excel in her technical capabilities. Currently, Tran is work on the Regional Connector Transit Corridor project, a $1.4 billion underground light rail transit line that runs 1.9 miles beneath downtown Los Angeles. As L.A. Section YMF president, Tran was responsible for some significant changes, including growing the K-12 outreach activities and revitalizing their P.E. Review Course. “I believe that engineers have the duty to give back to their profession, and that everyone has something invaluable to offer, whether it's visiting an elementary school to inspire kids about earthquake engineering, or helping to shape our profession by changing public policy,” says Tran. “I didn’t get to where I am today without the aid of or inspiration by others, and I don't think that we as a profession can get to where we should be without the volunteerism of our membership.”  Section website>>