On May 19, 2005, I attended the ASCE Colorado Section meeting in Denver along with some 55 other ASCE members. The meeting was lead by John Gromley, President of the Colorado Section. Also attending the meeting was Larry Mugler, another T&DI Governor, who is with the Denver Regional Council of Governments. The program, arranged by the Transportation Group under the leadership of Michelle Stevens, was presented by Larry Warner, Project Director for the Transportation Expansion Project. Larry gave a progress report on T-REX, as it’s called.  T-REX is the $1.67-billion project that is adding significant capacity and safety improvements to I-25 and I-225 in the Denver area along with 19 miles of a new double-track light rail line with 13 new stations. The project had its groundbreaking in September 2001 and is on schedule to be completed in late 2006. Thanks to the use of design/build, this is almost two years earlier than originally planned.

Also at the meeting, Christoph Goss, President-elect of the Colorado Section, presented a report on the Rebuilding Together Metro Denver project that ASCE members helped with. The Section’s activities for the annual Rebuilding project are coordinated by Gary Brierley. ASCE members along with other people from other local groups helped to fix up two homes. This effort serves as a great way for members to give back to their community as a volunteer.

On another note, once again Congress failed to get the new transportation bill completed before they had to pass the seventh extension to keep funding in place. This extension provides funding through June 30, 2005. Congress made progress in getting a new bill completed as the House passed a $284-billion bill and the Senate a $295-billion bill for transportation. However, time ran out to get the conference committee in place that has the job of reconciling the House and Senate bills so that one bill can go to the President for approval. The threat of a veto remains. Contacts to members of Congress by members of ASCE played a key part in getting the legislation passed. ASCE provides a free service to members who would like to send a message to their representative and senators. For more information on this, you can look at the web site http://www.asce.org/pressroom/publicpolicy/advocacy.cfm to see how easy it is to send such a message.

Robert (Bob) D. Stevens, Ph.D., P.E., AICP, F. ASCE

Last summer ASCE members voted to adopt broad changes in ASCE's governance structure. These changes represent the first significant restructuring in more than 30 years. The restructuring streamlines representation on the ASCE Board of Direction (BOD), adds Technical Directors from the Institutes and At-Large Directors to the Board and creates a new regional structure. On Saturday, January 15, 2005, the Technical Region Board of Governors met in Tampa, Florida and nominated its first two candidates: Jeffrey B. Bradley, Ph.D., P. E., D.WRE, F. ASCE (past EWRI President) and Stan R. Caldwell, P. E., F. ASCE, F. AEI (founder of AEI). The Technical Region Board of Governors oversees the process for nominating the Society President-elect from the Technical Region and for nominating the Technical Region Society Director. Society members eligible to vote in the election will be able to cast their vote electronically for one of the two candidates from June 15 to August 15, 2005. Institute-only members are not eligible to vote in the national election. The June issue of ASCE News contains a paper ballot for those who wish to cast their ballot via that method. 

To learn more about these candidates:

Bradley: http://www.asce.org/membersonly/election/#jeffrey.

Caldwell: http://www.asce.org/membersonly/election/#stan.

To learn more about the ASCE governance restructuring, please visit the ASCE Web site at htpp://www.asce.org/governance/.

OPAL Award Recipient

William P. Henry, P.E., President of ASCE (left),

C. Michael Walton, Ph.D., P.E. (center)

Patrick J. Natale, P.E., Executive Director of ASCE (right)

ASCE held its annual Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) awards ceremony on April 13, 2005.  C. Michael Walton, Ph.D., P.E., one of T&DI's governors was the recipient of the OPAL award for lifetime achievement in engineering education.  Dr. Walton is the Ernest H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.  He also holds a joint academic appointment at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at UT.  Dr. Walton is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.  T&DI President Robert Stevens, Vice President Eva Lerner-Lam, Treasurer Lou Cohn and Past President Kumares Sinha were also at the awards ceremony to help recognize Dr. Walton's contributions to engineering education.

Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for 2005

In its June lunch meeting, the FES Central Florida Chapter of the Florida Engineering Society awarded Dr. Essam Radwan the “Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for 2005”.

The Florida Engineering Society Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement is defined by the society as an award given each year to an individual who, as project engineer or project manager, has achieved particular distinction in his/her own technical field and mode of practice, which may be government, education, industry, construction or private practice. The technical achievement is one that enhances the engineering profession and contributes to the good of the public. The candidate shall have a record of active participation in professional and technical society activities and shall have a record of professional development through continuing education.

A. Essam Radwan, Ph.D., P.E.

Member of the T&DI Board of Governors

Airfield Pavement Committee Activities

The 2004 T&DI Strategic Plan includes an initiative to “Investigate, and if feasible develop specialty certification for a T&DI related area”.  The Airfield Pavement Committee (APC) has chosen to undertake this initiative and has established a task committee to investigate the need and feasibility for specialty certification in the area of engineering airfield pavements.  The task committee chair is Shiraz D. Tayabji, Ph.D. P.E.  Committee members include representatives from airports, academia, agencies, consultants and trade associations.  The task committee will determine if specialty certification is warranted by the end of 2005 and the APC will determine next steps (if any) at its January 2006 meeting.  If you would like to provide comments on APC's feasibility study, please send them to T&DI at tanddi@asce.org.

Shiraz D. Tayabji, Ph.D., P.E.

ASCE/Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI) Announce Public Comment Period

ASCE/T&DI will conduct a public comment period on revisions to ASCE 21-96, Automated People Movers (APM), Part 1 beginning July 1, 2005, and concluding on August 14, 2005.  For the rest of this article click here.

US 127 North—Application of a Context Sensitive Solution Process in Tennessee

Scope of Project          

Parsons Brinckerhoff, serving as a consultant to the Tennessee Department of Transportation, is working to apply the Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) approach to the highway planning process for the improvements to US 127 North from I-40 at Crossville to S.R. 62 at Clarkrange and prepare the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).  The US 127 North project is one of eight initial TDOT CSS projects.  CSS is a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that involves all stakeholders to develop a transportation facility that fits its physical setting and preserves scenic, aesthetic, historic and environmental resources, while maintaining safety and mobility (FHWA).  For the rest of this article click here.

Automated People Movers (APM),10th International Conference, a Success

T&DI held the 10th International Conference on APMs at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida in early May.  The conference sessions and tracks presented the current state-of-the-practice in APM planning, design and construction.  For the rest of this article click here.

Transportation & Development Institute Publications Committee Seeks Volunteers

The Institute Publications Committee administers the solicitation of technical papers, books, practice manuals and other publishable items that may be of interest to Institute members. It also identifies appropriate publication outlets for such publication materials in appropriate forums of the Institute including the Journal of Transportation Engineering, Journal of Urban Planning and Development, and Journal of Infrastructure Systems. For the rest of this article click here.

Federal Aviation Administration Seeks Comments on Draft Advisory Circulars

The Federal Aviaton Administration (FAA) has a number of Advisory Circulars (ACs) being revised.  Two draft ACs may be of interest to T&DI's members, AC 150/5100-14D, "Architectural, Engineering and Planning Consultant Services for Airport Grant Projects" and AC 150/5370-XX, "Airside Application of Artificial Turf."  For the rest of this article click here.

Continuing Education

Webinars and Seminars

Tuesday, August 30, 2005 ~ 12 Noon - 1:30pm Eastern Time

The Modern Roundabout As A Traffic Signal Alternative

·  Tuesday, September 20, 2005 ~ 12 Noon - 1:00pm Eastern Time

Access and On-Site Circulation for Commercial Development - Part 1

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Conferences

8th International Conference on Concrete Pavements - August 14-18, 2005, Colorado Springs, Colorado

IBTTA, 2nd Transportation Financing Summit, November 15-17, 2005, Washington, DC (T&DI is a co-sponsoring organization).  For more details go to www.IBTTA.org

T&DI Pavement Conference, April 2006, Atlanta, Georgia

11th International Conference on APMs, May 13-16, 2007, Vienna, Austria

The Transportation and Development Institute newsletter is a quarterly  publication of the Institute for its members.  Please direct any questions or comments about the newsletter to tanddi@asce.org

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