civil engineering design for green building...cennews.com gets a makeover • in mid-august, ce news...

ce NE WSSeptember 2009

www.cenews.com

CIVIL ENGINEERING DESIGN FOR GREEN BUILDING

ALSO INSIDE

List of civil engineering firm Top Performers 2009

Cleaning up the Keys

www.cenews.com September 2009 CE NEWS 3

contents

on the coverCivil engineers’ role in green engineer-ing is significant and multifaceted. Learn how you can design more sustainable projects on page 30.

features

projects40 Chisholm Trail gets five-level

interchange Design team relies on collaboration software

to connect engineers in more than a dozen locations for a complex project.

BY ANGUS STOCKING, L.S.

42 Cleaning up the Keys Vacuum sewers reduce wastewater problems

that threaten the islands’ aquatic environment and economy.

BY STEVE GIBBS

26 Strategic M&A boosts prospects

New focus on infrastructure will stimulate buyers and sellersBY NICHOLAS V. BEARE

30 Civil engineering design for green building

Improved stormwater management and water qualityBY CHARLENE HARPER, P.E.

37 Everything water

WEFTEC.09 offers training and technology for wastewater, potable water, and stormwater management.

CENnews.com gets a makeover

• In mid-August, CE News received a much-needed makeover to its website. What’s new? The presenta-tion is cleaner, the photo-graphs are bigger, and the navigation is easier.

September 2009

PDH 1 Pipe Joints and Critical Performance Requirements by System Application

BY DARRELL SANDERS, P.E.

professionaldevelopment series

40

exclusive

20 CE News Top Performers 2009 Growth, profitability, and innovation

propelled these firms to peak performances, even in an unstable marketBY LYNN PETRAK

42

4 CE NEWS September 2009 www.cenews.com

CE News is published monthly by Stagnito Media, 330 North Wabash, Suite 2525, Chicago, IL 60611. Telephone: 312-628-5870. Copyright© 2009, Stagnito Media (ISSN 1051-9629). Articles may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of Stagnito Media. Unsolicited manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Subscriptions: Annual domestic subscription rate is $42 for 12 issues. Call or write for international rates. To subscribe or update your subscription information online, go to http://www.subscribefreetoday.com, or mail subscription requests and changes of address to Circulation Dept., CE News, P.O. Box 2184 Skokie, IL 60076-7884. Or call 847-763-9613, or fax 312-628-5878. Postmaster: Send changes of address to CE News, P.O. Box 2184 Skokie, IL 60076-7884. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL, and additional mailing offices.

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Volume 21, Number 8

www.cenews.com

news 10 Public- and private-sector engineers clash in Calif.

12 ASTM committee proposes new concrete standards

14 Events

14 FEMA awards floodplain mapping contract

15 Parsons Brinckerhoff selected to design Dallas light rail extension

16 Moffatt & Nichol selected for new Port of Montreal terminals

departments 6 Comment

8 Letters

18 Association News

47 AECWorkForce.com

48 Marketplace

49 Reader Resource

columns 24 Risky Business Getting the complete subrface story BY JOHN P. BACHNER

50 Beyond Words The evolution of firm governance BY DOUG THOMPSON

products 34 Advances in wastewater collection

and treatment New technologies promote sustainability,

engery efficiency, and cost effectiveness. BY BOB DRAKE

46 New & Noteworthy Stormwater systems, software, pipe fittings,

and septic chambers

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER / PUBLISHING

Kollin Stagnito, 312-368-6001, [email protected]

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT / MARKETING & STRATEGY

Ned Bardic, 312-368-6013, [email protected]

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Shanon Fauerbach, P.E., 843-724-5006, [email protected]

EDITORIAL

Bob Drake, Editor, 330-966-2454, [email protected]

Solomon Lieberman, Associate Editor, 312-368-6009, [email protected]

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Uddhava Saradadasa, Art Director, 312-368-6012, [email protected]

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

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EVENTS

Russ Ryan, Director of Conferences & Expositions,

508-651-1559, [email protected]

CIRCULATION

Cindy Cardinal, Circulation Director, 847-438-4577, [email protected]

COMMENT Shanon Fauerbach, P.E.

Shanon Fauerbach, P.E., [email protected]

S ince I started working at CE News 10 years ago, much has changed with our publication, from how we communicate with you, to the topics we cover. Back then, we were just a magazine with an old-fashioned website. Today, we are a multimedia brand, with

a magazine; biweekly e-newsletter; state-of-the-art website (which we just launched last month); webcasts; online channels; and live events.

We deliver content in unique ways to help you address challenges, keep abreast of new industry develop-ments, refresh your technical skills, and learn about new products. For example, our sponsored Professional Development Series (see PDH 1 in this issue), which allows you to earn continuing education credit — for free — if you pass a quiz after reading a technical article. These popular special supplements to CE News are also available online, if you’d like to check for past articles in this series; go to the Continuing Education tab at CENews.com.

Additionally, our sponsored webcasts are free and worth one Professional Development Hour for registered attendees; there’s one coming up about transportation on Oct. 14, 2009. To learn more, go to the Stagnito Media Events tab on our website and then click Webcasts.

Further, we’re embarking on new initiatives such as hosting our first Engineering Design Technology eCon-ference, an online event with three webcasts, scheduled chats, and a virtual tradeshow, taking place Oct. 8, 2009 (see page 19 to learn more). We’ve just launch a new BIM Channel (www.bimchannel.com), an online resource for news, features, and events about building information modeling (BIM) — a topic I hadn’t heard of back in 1999.

Such initiatives are in response to the new, diverse ways professionals want to be educated. We also have plans for social networking, live video chats, a searchable online products-and-services directory, and more, so stay tuned.

Hot topics such as 3-D modeling, BIM, sustainable design, and collaboration weren’t part of my daily con-versations back then; But the truth is, our profession today is reliant on these topics, at some level, every day. Only through efficient use of advanced technology and working in collaboration with multidiscipline partners will projects achieve the sustainability goals necessary to protect our environment, improve our infrastructure systems, and use available funding prudently.

As Charlene Harper, P.E., Timmons Group, wrote in her article, “Civil engineering design for green building” (page 30), “For civil engineers to integrate seamlessly into the green building movement, we must all abandon the idea that each discipline is distinct and independent; we must rethink our design process to build a more comprehensive and collaborative vision.”

Our industry is doing exciting things to propel us toward these goals. For example, just this week I discov-ered the Zofnass Program for Infrastructure Sustainability at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (www.gsd.harvard.edu/research/research_centers/Zofnass). According to its website, “The primary goal of the Zofnass Program is to identify the issues and complete an ‘alpha’ version of the recommended guidelines for sustainable large-scale projects. To achieve this goal, the Zofnass Program will study quantitative methods that can be used for measuring sustainability, as well as the integration of sustainability into the design of infra-structure and large-scale projects from the earliest stages of their development.”

With abundant newsworthy information, exciting industry developments, and the ever-broadening impor-tance of civil engineers, it’s great fun to fill the pages of CE News — whether they be paper or digital — with interesting, progressive, and relevant content. I can’t even imagine what the next 10 years will bring!


New website and more


LETTERS We welcome your opinions. Please send comments via mail or e-mail to: CE News Letters, 330 North Wabash Avenue, Suite 2525, Chicago, Illinois 60611, or [email protected].

SWPPP omissionsI don’t want to come off as a sup-

posed expert with a contrary opinion, but I do take exception to one of [the] items of SWPPP omissions as listed in the article, “Top Five SWPPP Omis-sions,” in the July 2009 edition of CE News (page 28). Item No. 3 indicates that copies of agency consultation letters should be included in the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP). The item goes on to explain that many Construction General Permits require analysis of threatened or endangered species and their habitat or historic properties. What could any agency (Fish & Game, etc.) in a consultation letter specifically dealing with endan-gered species tell a SWPPP developer that would affect the implementation of best management practices (BMPs) for water quality? This information may be important to the overall project development, but for BMP implemen-tation, I’m not so sure.

Developers of SWPPPs need to stick to potential water pollution problems and BMP implementation. To require more information for the sake of adding more information makes the regulated less inclined to comply. Water quality on a construction site is a tough sell to the average developer/contractor. I know because I’ve been trying to sell it to contractors for 15 years. I guess the bottom line in developing a SWPPP can be characterized by the old phrase, “Keep it simple, stupid.”

Dave SlugaCypress, Calif.

Transportation sustainabilityI am employed by the New York

State Department of Transportation (NYDOT). My area of specialty is storm-water management and erosion and sediment control. Samuel I. Schwartz, P.E., noted, “Nothing like [LEED] quite exists for transportation projects” (“Sustainability in practice today,” CE News, June 2009, page 50). I would

like to refer you to a program devel-oped by NYDOT called GreenLITES, recognizing outstanding leadership in Transportation and Environmental Sustainability. For more information on this program, please go to www.nysdot.gov/programs/greenlites.

Pauline Burnes, L.A.Hornell, N.Y.

Public-sector benefitsIn the August edition of CE News

I was amazed to see a letter from W.T. Foster, P.L.S., concerning public-sector benefits (page 8). He [wrote], “Here in California, the public employee wage for engineers and surveyors is [equal to] or greater than the private sector. ... Public employees have: jobs for life, platinum parachute retirement plans, great health coverage, 15 paid holidays (about seven [in the] private [sector]), three-plus professional days, over two weeks vacation accrued the first year, etc. … Public employee wages and benefits are on track to bankrupt every public agency in California.”

I don’t know where he gets his mis-information, but I’d like to correct it. To check my statements, see the Memo-randum of Understanding (MOU) between Unit 9 employees (Professional Engineers) and the California Depart-ment of Personnel Administration at www.pecg.org.

Wages — Until one year ago, state engineers were paid as much as 35 per-cent less than the private sector. It took several years for us to gain parity.

Jobs for life — Tell that to the engi-neers that have been demoted or laid off to subsidize California government. I was an associate highway engineer, demoted to assistant highway engineer, then down to highway engineering technician. If six more engineers had been laid off, I would have been out of work. Hundreds were.

Platinum retirement plans — Engi-neers hired in recent years have a poorer retirement plan than I do. California

now has a two-tier system, which dis-courages new engineers. Of course, we are blessed with the Public Employees Retirement System, which safeguards our retirement funds. Does Foster think our retirement funds should be at risk like in the private sector?

Great health coverage — Yeah!Fifteen paid holidays — No way!

The MOU (2003-2008) provided for 11 paid holidays. This year, bargaining changed it to 10 holidays.

Three-plus “professional days” — What is he referring to? It’s not in the MOU! Of course, Foster may mean training to keep us sharp and up to the current standard. Private industry does have training, I know.

Two weeks vacation accrued the first year — No way! The MOU says no vacation is accrued for the first six months. It accumulates at seven hours per month for the next three years. That means our new employees accrue 42 hours of vacation the first year, a couple hours more than one week.

Public employees are going to bank-rupt us — the governor’s own figures show that contracting out to a private-sector engineer costs about $233,000, as compared with $107,000 [for] a state employee. But the governor is still contracting out engineering jobs.

Public employee wages and benefits have been held down for years, below the private sector, to subsidize the budget. And the Public Employee Retirement System has gone very easy on the state for years and years, thanks to sound investment.

Foster says if elected officials who get campaign donations from pub-lic employee unions vote on public employee issues it’s graft. I disagree. I have as much right to ask a legislator for support as an employer does.

Martin R. Bragen, P.E.Union City, Calif.

For more on this debate, see “Pub-lic- and private-sector engineers clash in California,” on page 10.


NEWS

Public- and private-sector engineers clash in Calif.

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — The Profes-sional Engineers in California Govern-ment (PECG), which represents 13,000 engineers, architects, land surveyors, and related professionals who work for the state of California, launched a major statewide multimedia campaign in August intended to draw attention to the work of California’s public servants. The online (www.workingforcalifornia.org) and radio campaign targets what PECG calls “the waste of taxpayer money due to the outsourcing of no-bid contracts for engineering and related services.” Additionally, the campaign emphasizes that the average public employee pension is less than $2,000 per month.

The American Council of Engineer-ing Companies – California (ACEC California) said in a statement in response to the PECG campaign, “In today’s difficult economy of layoffs and furlough notices, it is incomprehensible to us that PECG is spending tens of thousands in taxpayer-generated dol-lars to create and run a series of ads attacking contracted-out services and spreading misinformation about state pensions. … PECG chooses expensive means and misinformation to sway public opinion into believing that state-employed engineers are a cheaper option than private companies and that restricting contracted-out services will save the state money.”

According to ACEC California, a 2007 report by the former head of the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office showed the comparable cost of in house (state-employed) engineers ranged from $173,434 to $209,212, while the average cost of an outside (privately-employed) engineer was $193,000.

However, PECG Executive Director Bruce Blanning told the Capitol Weekly that an engineer employed by the state costs taxpayers an average of $103,000, including salary, benefits, and all pen-

sion contributions, while a contract engineer costs the state $232,000 per year. He said the California Depart-ment of Transportation (Caltrans) is currently paying about 1,300 outside contract engineers.

But, according to ACEC California, “when you consider the extra liability per state worker in pension and health care benefits — sometimes more than a million dollars — short-term contracts are a much cheaper option for the state and can actually help reduce costs.

“PECG’s misleading ad campaign states that pension benefits are only $2,000 per state worker per month,” ACEC California said in its statement. “In fact, a PECG member employed by Caltrans with a term of employment of 22.7 years (the average) would have to earn less than $60,000 in the final year of employment to receive a pen-sion of $2,000 a month. Since PECG claims that a Caltrans engineer costs over $100,000 in salary, the pension benefit for PECG members is more than $4,000.

“Furthermore, less than 10 percent of transportation engineering and design work conducted by the state is contracted out to private engineering companies. Ninety percent is handled by state employees. In light of this dramatically one-sided statistic, it is disingenuous of the union representing state workers to suggest that cost savings of any kind can be made by further restricting contracts. If anything, the opposite is true.”

CH2M HILL employees support Water For People

DENVER — As a result of a May work-place giving campaign, employees at CH2M HILL contributed $229,000 to non-profit agency Water For People to help bring clean drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene education to people in 10 developing countries. For eight years, CH2M HILL has hosted an annual workplace giving campaign across its global operations to encour-

age employees to contribute to Water For People. The effort has steadily grown, and the company’s 2009 cam-paign set new records for workplace giving.

“For the last two years, CH2M HILL employees have set the record as one of our largest workplace giving campaigns,” said Water For People CEO Ned Breslin. “The people of CH2M HILL understand and share our mission. They provide valuable leadership and volunteer technical sup-port in addition to vital funding to help us reach our goals.”

According to Water For People staff, the cost of providing someone in a developing community with clean water or improved sanitation is $42. In 2008, Water For People provided clean water to 91,722 beneficiaries, sanitation to 92,983 beneficiaries, and hygiene education to 153,843.

“A large portion of our work is in the water and sanitation business, and we’ve chosen Water For People as a strategic partner to help achieve a shared vision of a world where all people have access to safe drinking water and sanitation and no one suffers or dies from a water- or sanitation-related disease,” said CH2M HILL Water Business Group President Bob Bailey. “Our people are extraordi-narily passionate about this cause.”

Elisa Speranza, CH2M HILL’s Operations and Maintenance Busi-ness Group president, currently serves

CorrectionAn incorrect photo accompanied

the Beyond Words column in the August 2009 issue of CE News (page 50). The correct picture of the column author, Vinay K. Polepalli, P.E., PMP, appears here.


as president of the Water For People board of directors. Employees from 165 CH2M HILL offices participated in its 2009 workplace giving campaign, including 20 offices outside of North America.

ASTM committee proposes new concrete standards

W. CONSHOHOCKEN, PA., — Proposed new standards for aggregate resistivity, lightweight aggregates, methacrylate bonding systems, and semi-adiabatic calorimetry are among those currently being developed by subcommittees under the jurisdiction of ASTM Com-mittee C09 on Concrete and Concrete Aggregates. All interested parties are invited to participate in the standards developing activities of ASTM Com-

mittee C09 subcommittees.Aggregate resistivity — Reinforce-

ment embedded in embankment walls during construction is affected by the environment’s resistance to corrosion. A proposed new test method will be useful in measuring how resistant the aggregate used for such reinforce-ment will be. ASTM WK24621, Test Method for Measurement of Aggregate Resistivity Using the Two-Electrode Soil Box Method, is being developed by Subcommittee C09.20 on Normal Weight Aggregates.

John Yzenas, director, Technical Ser-vices SMSG, Edward C. Levy Co., and a member of Committee C09, said that, in addition to Subcommittee C09.20, Subcommittee G01.10 on Corrosion in Soils, part of ASTM International Committee G01 on Corrosion of Met-als, has also been involved in the devel-

opment of ASTM WK24621. “G01.10’s original work resolved

many questions that previous test methods had left unanswered, such as adequate description of 100-percent saturation, ability to test various size materials, and testing materials in ‘as-received’ condition,” said Yzenas. “This proposed test method is a variation of G01.10’s work, dealing specifically with aggregate.”

Yzenas noted that, upon its approval, ASTM WK24621 will be useful to designers, specifiers, and testing com-panies because current corrosion test methods are based on soils and may not adequately characterize aggregates.

Lightweight aggregates — The pro-posed new standard, ASTM WK23421, Specification for Lightweight Aggre-gates for Internal Curing Applications, is being developed by Subcommittee

NEWS

C09.21 on Lightweight Aggregates and Concrete because lightweight aggregates are used differently during the internal curing process than when they are used for other purposes.

“Instead of using lightweight aggregates to reduce the density of the concrete, the pre-wetted or precondi-tioned lightweight aggregates are used in relatively small quantities in high-performance normal weight concrete to provide internal moisture reservoirs throughout the cross-section of the concrete,” said Jeffrey Speck, vice pres-ident-sales and marketing, Big River Industries Inc., and chair of C09.21.

Speck said that users of ASTM WK23421, once it is approved, will be design engineers who are designing structures built of concrete with a very low water/cementitious materials ratio and by concrete producers supplying the concrete for such structures.

Highway engineers will also find the proposed standard useful, since lightweight aggregates used for internal curing are proving to be effective in reducing concrete pavement cracking.

Methacrylate bonding systems — Methacrylate is used to strengthen and fortify finely cracked concrete and to minimize the ingress of contaminants such as chlorides and deicing salts that could further degrade concrete. Once approved, a proposed new standard, ASTM WK24405, Specification for Reactive Methacrylate Bonding Sys-tems for Concrete, will provide guidance on relevant properties for these bond-ing systems and how to evaluate such properties to enable users to determine acceptable material performance.

ASTM WK24405 is being devel-oped by Subcommittee C09.25 on Organic Materials for Bonding. According to Quentin Hibben, senior research chemist, Simpson Strong-Tie Anchor Systems, and a member of the subcommittee, the proposed new stan-dard will primarily be used by specifiers, engineers, and material producers for bridge maintenance, parking deck, and airport tarmac projects. Departments

of transportation could also poten-tially use the proposed standard for a variety of projects.

Hibben noted that the subcommit-tee is seeking input and guidance for relevant properties and acceptable values for low-viscosity methacrylate-based resin systems, as well as assis-tance in reproducibility testing.

Semi-adiabatic calorimetry — Thermal measurements of hydrating cementitious mixtures, referred to as semi-adiabatic calorimetry (SAC), can be used to evaluate behavior of con-crete mixtures and concrete-making materials, as well as for troubleshoot-ing certain types of abnormal con-crete performance. Interest in using SAC for these purposes has grown in recent years, along with increased availability of both generic hardware that can be used for SAC and manu-

factured systems designed specifically for the process.

A proposed new standard, ASTM WK23967, Practice for Measuring Hydration Kinetics of Hydraulic Cementitious Mixtures Using Semi-Adiabatic Calorimetry, will help guide users in planning and implementing productive SAC testing programs for concrete mixture evaluation. WK23967 is being developed by Sub-committee C09.48 on Performance of Cementitious Materials and Admix-ture Combinations.

Tim Cost, senior technical service engineer, Holcim (U.S.) Inc., and chair of the task group that is developing the practice, said that, when approved, ASTM WK23967 will provide standard protocols for conducting tests that will help assure meaningful and repeat-able results and will help users avoid



methods and test conditions that have been shown to produce confus-ing or misleading data. The proposed standard will be used by ready-mixed concrete producers, suppliers of concrete-making materials, contrac-tors, testing firms, researchers, and academia.

Doug Hooton, University of Toronto, and chair, Subcommittee C09.48, said that this new practice will help both suppliers of materials and concrete producers to pinpoint the source of fresh concrete problems in increasingly complex concrete mix-tures and can be used to help prevent future problems as materials properties, mixture proportions, and placing tem-peratures change.

FEMA awards floodplain mapping contract

SAN FRANCISCO; FAIRFAX, VA.; AND RALEIGH, N.C. — Risk Assessment, Map-ping and Planning Partners (RAMPP), a joint venture between URS Corpora-tion, Dewberry, and ESP Associates, was awarded a contract by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist the agency in identi-fying flood hazards, assessing the asso-ciated risks, and providing mitigation activities throughout the United States and its territories.

The $600 million contract over five years stipulates that RAMPP provide comprehensive floodplain mapping, GIS, and hazard risk mitigation ser-vices for FEMA to include specifically serving FEMA Regions II (New York City), III (Philadelphia), and VI (Den-ton, Texas).

RAMPP will be responsible for operating Regional Support Centers located near the FEMA regional offices, processing Letters of Map Correction, and providing production and techni-cal services for flood insurance studies, as well as digital flood insurance rate map production, studies, hazard risk assessment and mitigation planning,

outreach, and other services. RAMPP will initially focus on completing tasks similar to FEMA’s Map Modernization program, as well as attending to priority needs such as levees and coastal analy-ses. Following this phase, RAMPP will assist FEMA with the implementa-tion of Risk MAP, which will involve expanding the traditional flood map-ping scope to include risk assessment and mitigation products.

Southern California desalination project receives final approval

REDONDO BEACH, CALIF. — West Basin Municipal Water District’s Ocean-Water Desalination Demonstration Project received all regulatory approvals needed to move forward with con-struction next year. The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board recently approved the National Pol-lutant Discharge Elimination System permit. The California Coastal Com-mission approved the coastal develop-ment permit application in April 2009. Once built, the demonstration project will operate for two years.

The project, to be built in Redondo Beach at the L.A. Conservation Corps’ SEA Lab aquarium and educational center, will provide full-scale testing of membrane technologies — either micro- or ultra-filtration and reverse osmosis — to be used in a future 20 million-gallon-per-day desalination plant.

The demonstration project will test new intake technologies to evaluate impingement and entrainment and maximize protection to marine life. Wedgewire screen technology at the 1- to 2-millimeter level will be tested. Sub-ocean floor intake technology will also be tested at the piloting level to assess the feasibility of withdraw-ing and filtering seawater through the ocean floor.

“Ocean-water desalination is now cost effective and energy efficient enough to be part of West Basin’s future

NEWS

EventsBest Firm To Work For SummitSept. 22-23, 2009ChicagoFocus: Creating a great workplaceInformation: www.bestfirmsummit.com

Eighth National Conference on Transportation Asset ManagementOct. 19, 2009Portland, Ore.Focus: Emerging issues in transportation asset managementInformation: www.trb.org/conferences/2009/asset

Bentley Roads and Bridges ConferenceOct. 19-21, 2009Charlotte, N.C.Focus: Design with Bentley softwareInformation: www.bentley.com/en-us/corporate/events

34th Annual Conference on Deep FoundationsOct. 20-23, 2009Kansas City, Mo.Focus: Deep foundation designInformation: www.deepfoundations09.org

Short course: Constructing with Fabricated GeomembranesOct. 23, 2009DenverFocus: Designing with and specifying constructed geomembranesInformation: www.fabricatedgeomembranes.com

139th Annual Civil Engineering ConferenceOct. 29-31, 2009Kansas City, Mo.Focus: From builders to integrators — civil engineers leading the wayInformation: www.asceannualconference.org


water portfolio,” said West Basin Board President Edward C. Little. “We need this high-quality, reliable supply to meet future water shortfalls.”

As part of West Basin’s research, a special aquarium will be installed at SEA Lab to monitor and ensure that the concentrated salt water from the desalination process is safe for sea life in Santa Monica Bay. It will be adjacent to a Santa Monica Bay natural environment aquarium. These aquariums are part of West Basin’s educational outreach program to share research findings with the public and educate the community about its fragile water supply.

West Basin is currently creating exhibit space at SEA Lab to share the Water Reliability 2020 Program with the community — with a goal to pro-vide 10 percent of West Basin’s water supply from desalted seawater and the

remainder to be supplied through water recycling, water conservation, ground-water, and imported water by 2020.

West Basin will additionally test a system to recover and reuse energy that could otherwise be lost in the desalina-tion process and to minimize energy consumption.

Parsons Brinckerhoff selected to design Dallas light rail extension

DALLAS — Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), as part of a design-build team, was awarded a contract to provide engi-neering design services for an exten-sion of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Blue Line light rail transit system (LRT). The contract is with Austin Bridge & Road, LP, which was selected by DART to be the design-

builder for the project. PB will serve as the lead engineering firm, providing civil, trackwork, structural, architectural, geotechnical, traffic, and certain systems engineering design services.

The project runs from the exist-ing Downtown Dallas Garland LRT station to a new Downtown Rowlett LRT station. It will consist of 4.5 miles of double-track LRT along the exist-ing DART right-of-way that parallels the Dallas Garland and Northeastern Railroad freight tracks. Portions of the alignment will be elevated over rail, cross streets, and waterways.

The Downtown Rowlett LRT station site will be designed to accom-modate an at-grade platform and park-and-ride facility that will accommodate 800 parking spaces. A bus transfer facil-ity within the site will include multiple bus bays.


Construction on the project is scheduled to begin later this year, with revenue service starting in December 2012. Moffatt & Nichol selected for new Port of Montreal terminals

LONG BEACH, CALIF. — Moffatt & Nichol was selected by the Montreal Port Authority to prepare the detailed development plan, complete preliminary engineering, and develop contracting strate-gies for construction of the new Hochelaga-Viau container terminal, and re-development of the Laurier-Tarte break-bulk terminal. This mandate is related to Phase two of the Port of Montreal’s Vision 2020 strategic plan.

Moffatt & Nichol, through its Vancouver office, completed the Port’s Ten Year Master Plan in 2007 and concept plans for the Hochel-aga-Viau container terminal in 2008.

This new four-phase contract will comprise developing and expanding concept plans into a comprehensive integrated master plan, which will rely on planning and simulation models developed by Moffatt & Nichol earlier when preparing the Port’s Ten Year Master Plan.

The firm will then collect and prepare primary data, studies, draw-ings, specifications, budgets, schedules, and contracting strategies to develop the many facets of the project, which will include container, liquid bulk, dry bulk, and break-bulk facilities. The centerpiece will

be the new 510,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per annum Hochelaga-Viau container terminal.

The Montreal Port Authority (MPA) operates the world’s largest inland port. It is a leader among container ports, handling more than 28 million tons of cargo annually. In 2008, the Port of Montreal handled more than 1,473,000 TEUs.

The Port of Montreal operates its own rail network, providing direct access to berths, and is linked to two major railways and a highway system. It also operates a grain terminal and a marine passenger ter-minal. All other terminals are operated by private stevedoring firms. Through its activities, the Port of Montreal generates 18,200 jobs and $1.5 billion annually in economic spin-offs.

Firms seek to redevelop landfill

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A team led by Geosyntec Consultants, an international environmental consulting firm, and including Whit-man, an environmental, engineering and management firm, was awarded a contract to aid in redevelopment of a former landfill area for the Borough of Somerville, N.J. The Geosyntec/Whitman team is working collaboratively with the New Jersey Department of Environ-mental Protection (NJDEP) to perform environmental assessment and remedial investigation activities associated with redeveloping the former landfill site and surrounding area.

The redevelopment area encompasses 160 acres, extending from the Somerville Railway Station to the Raritan River. The current rede-velopment plan envisions green space, as well as commercial and residential land uses. The development seeks to convert the former landfill area into a vibrant community resource incorporating open space and development adjacent to the Transit Center rail access. The landfill redevelopment is currently being performed under a Hazard-ous Discharge Site Remediation Fund (HDSRF) grant. The project brings together the state, NJDEP, Somerville Borough, and private industry to achieve the redevelopment vision.

“Development on top of and adjacent to a closed landfill pres-ents many engineering and environmental challenges that most developers do not encounter on a regular basis,” said Barry Skoultchi, president and CEO of Whitman. “There are issues of land settlement, maintenance of the landfill’s integrity, and a host of other consider-ations that the Geosyntec/Whitman team is uniquely qualified to handle. Fortunately, we have a lot of experience in this regard. We have assembled a versatile, multi-faceted team with the necessary experience to address these concerns and are eager to start work on this project, which has been in discussion since the 1980s.”

Key issues at the site include ensuring that site investigation prop-erly characterizes the suitability for development, securing adequate funding for the project, working with the NJDEP on environmental protection and regulatory compliance issues, as well as partnering with the community and other stakeholders to ensure the long-term success of the project.

NEWS


Advisories seek to prevent disputes

SILVER SPRING, MD. — ASFE pub-lished two new model advisories for firms that provide construction materi-als engineering and testing (CoMET) services.

“Important Information about This CoMET Quality-Assurance Proposal” was developed by ASFE’s CoMET Committee for insertion into mem-ber firms’ CoMET proposals to help prevent misunderstandings and the disputes misunderstandings can lead to. According to ASFE Executive Vice President John P. Bachner, “CoMET services are among the most important insofar as project risk management is concerned. They commonly represent the last line of defense for all parties to a project. Nonetheless, owners and other design professionals make some unfortunate mistakes and assumptions about these services, and so compromise their value. This document is designed to provide a ‘heads-up’ and clarity.”

“Important Information about This CoMET Quality-Assurance Report” is structured similarly. According to Bach-ner, “Assumptions and misunderstand-ings about CoMET reports continue to lead to a variety of unfortunate conse-quences. This new advisory is designed to prevent that from happening.” The report advisory can be used as a stand-alone document or can be printed onto the back of an ASFE-member firm’s daily field report and similar forms.

Only ASFE-member firms are per-mitted to use the documents as insert sheets. Others can use them to develop language of their own. For non-mem-bers, the cost of the two documents is $50 each and can be ordered from ASFE’s website at www.asfe.org.

The Society of Women Engineers to meet in Calif.

CHICAGO — The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Annual Confer-ence (WE09) will take place in Long

Beach, Calif., Oct. 15-17, 2009. More than 6,000 engineering professionals, collegians, educators, and recruiters are expected to attend the event featuring more than 200 exhibitors, 120 seminars, and networking opportunities.

Keynote speaker Darlene Solomon of Agilent Technologies will address the importance of women working together and innovating to advance the world of technology. Solomon is responsible for developing Agilent’s long-term technology strategy and overseeing its research and development activities.

Workshops and seminars will cover a wide range of topics such as career and life transitions, inclusion and cultural awareness, and innovations in technology and business. Attendees can search the full conference schedule by event type, track, and audience using the WE09 website at www.swe.org/we09.

HDPE pipe approved for nuclear plants

IRVING, TEXAS — The Plastics Pipe Institute, Inc. (PPI) said that high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe was given “a paramount approval and an official welcome by the nuclear power plant community.” Applications include safety-related piping for cooling water systems.

“The implementation of HDPE pipe in nuclear power plants, with all the stringent guidelines, regulations, rules, and inspection practices that this industry has developed and followed for decades, certainly is a vote of confidence for the integrity and performance of HDPE pipe,” said Tony Radoszewski, executive director of the PPI.

The PPI and its members worked with the industry and American Society of Mechanical Engineers on performance standards, test procedures, fusion processes, and other criteria cul-minating with the inclusion of details in Code Case N-755 for the use of HDPE pipe in nuclear power plants.

New website for stormwater equipment information

ST. PAUL, MINN. — The Stormwater Equipment Manufacturers Association launched a new website — www.storm-waterassociation.com. The website contains information about the associa-tion’s activities, membership, technical information, and a buyers guide. The buyers guide is a free resource for end users needing information about storm-water equipment and other services. The association website was developed to assist end users of stormwater best management practices in specifying and using manufactured products to keep watersheds clean.

AWWA supports water infrastructure bank

DENVER — The American Water Works Association (AWWA) is urging members of Congress to create a federal water infrastructure bank to help Amer-ica invest in its aging water systems. In testimony before the House Subcom-mittee on Water Resources and Environ-ment, Chips Barry, a former member of AWWA’s Water Utility Council and cur-rent manager of Denver Water, told the committee that the United States is best served by water systems that sustain themselves through consumer rates and other local financing. However, the federal government can help by provid-ing access to low-interest loans.

“The federal water infrastructure bank would provide direct low-interest financing or loan guarantees for proj-ects of regional or national significance, or which were simply too large for the state to accommodate,” Barry said in delivering AWWA’s testimony.

The federal water infrastructure bank would be authorized to borrow money through the federal treasury system at very low rates, just as commercial banks do. In turn, the water infrastructure bank would make low-interest loans for larger water projects.

ASSOCIATION NEWS


EXCLUSIVE

W hether you are a pro-fessional athlete, a prized pianist, or an engineer of sustain-

able structures, a strong performance isn’t always accompanied by accolades. But at a time when the definition of performance is evolving as a result of the ongoing economic crisis, CE News chose to spotlight firms that have maintained, or even improved,

their financial performance during these trying times. Some of these notable firms are the nation’s top revenue-producing companies — large, multidiscipline civil engineer-ing service providers — while others are small firms, carving out a healthy business by providing a niche service.

About the listThe inaugural CE News Top

Performers 2009 presents a list of firms — in order by revenue — that responded to a public invitation to participate and met financial criteria set by CE News. Financial perfor-mance data used for evaluation and presented here was submitted by a representative of each firm.

Firms included on the Top Performers list reported that they achieved at least three of the five

CE News Top Performers 2009Growth, profitability, and innovation propelled these firms to peak performances, even in an unstable market By Lynn Petrak

Company *

Firm leader

Revenue (millions)

Public/ Private (%)

Market sectors

Fluor Corporation Irving, Texas, 42,000 (60) www.fluor.com

Alan L. Boeckmann, chairman & CEO

$22,326.0 4/96 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 17, 20, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41

Black & Veatch Overland Park, Kan., 9,600 (100) www.bv.com

Len C. Rodman, president, CEO, & chairman

$3,237.5 26/74 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 18, 19, 25, 26, 31, 36

HDR Omaha, Neb., 7,393 (165) www.hdrinc.com

Richard R. Bell, chairman & CEO

$1,280.3 60/40 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41

Stantec Irvine, Calif., 9,653 (145 www.stantec.com)

Bob Gomes, president & CEO

$1,270.0 58/42 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41

Burns & McDonnell Kansas City, Mo., 3,000 (20) www.burnsmcd.com

Greg Graves, chairman, president & CEO

$1,108.0 35/65 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 36, 41

ARCADIS Highlands Ranch, Colo., 14,000 (200) www.arcadis-us.com

Steven Blake, CEO & chairman

$930.9 33/67 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41

Michael Baker Corporation Moon Township, Pa., 4,800 (52) www.mbakercorp.com

Bradley L. Mallory, president & CEO

$699.4 90/10 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 36, 40, 42

UniversalPegasus International Houston, 1,915 (20) www.universalpegasus.com

Jerry Mayfield, CEO

$455.0 - 2, 6, 7, 9, 24, 25, 42

Gannett Fleming Harrisburg, Pa., 1,924 (55) www.gannettfleming.com

William M. Stout, P.E., chairman & CEO

$253.0 80/20 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 40, 41

*Company; headquarters, # employees (# offices); website


criteria set by CE News, including the following:

• Total revenue from professional services performed in 2008 exceeded the first quartile of participating firms.

• Average percent growth over the last three fiscal years was 10 percent or more.

• Average net pre-tax, pre-bonus profit/loss percent for 2007 and 2008 was 5 percent or more.

• Revenue per employee exceeded the first quartile of participating firms.

• Description of 2009 backlog as of June 1, 2009, compared with one year ago is higher or about the same. Backlog is defined as work under contract not yet performed.

Diverse perspectivesFor their part, the civil engineering

firms featured on this list recognize that the measurement of success goes beyond any one number and is increasingly personal.

“The definition of performance changes from firm to firm or individual to individual,” observed Rajan Sheth, president, CEO, and chairman of Mead & Hunt, Inc., Madison, Wis., who added that despite the global

financial meltdown, a confluence of factors can lead to a firm’s general stability or success. “There will be firms that are able to grow because of their market mix, strategies, or

Don’t miss out in 2010!If you would like to be contacted

about the 2010 Top Performers list, submit your company name and your e-mail address at http://tinyurl.com/topperformers. You’ll receive information about the application process as soon as it is available.

Company

Firm leader

Revenue (millions)

Public/ Private (%)

Market sectors

Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. Babylon, N.Y., 1,001 (22) www.gpinet.com

Steven B. Greenman, P.E., president & CEO

$156.0 - 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 41

KCI Technologies Inc. Sparks, Md., 958 (27) www.kci.com

Terry F. Neimeyer, P.E., chairman & CEO

$142.0 70/30 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41

Golder Associates Inc. Redmond, Wash., 1,187 (44) www.golder.com

Mark Swallow, president

$141.0 - -

Parametrix, Inc. Auburn, Wash., 604 (14) www.parametrix.com

Jeff Peacock, CEO

$91.9 - -

Barr Engineering Company Minneapolis, 482 (6) www.barr.com

Doug Connell, CEO

$66.6 - 1, 2, 11, 13, 19, 25, 26, 31, 42

Mead & Hunt, Inc. Madison, Wis., 378 (15) www.meadhunt.com

Rajan Sheth, president, CEO & chairman

$52.1 85/15 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 36, 40, 42

BKF Engineers Redwood City, Calif., 220 (7) www.bkf.com

David A. LaVelle, president & CEO

$51.5 55/45 1, 5, 6, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41

Key codes for market sectors served1=stormwater, 2=power and energy, 3=telecommunications, 4=marine

5=sustainable design, 6=GIS, 7=construction oversight/management, 8=program management, 9=facilities maintenance/operations, 10=laser scanning, 11=geotechnical/drilling, 12=utility management, 13=air pollution, 14=residential services, 15=transit, 16=parks and recreation, 17=high-speed rail, 18=potable water, 19=wastewater, 20=bridges, 21=roads and highways, 22=traffic management and analysis, ITS, etc.,

23=land development, 24=land surveying, 25=structural engineering, 26=environmental, 27=hydraulics/hydrology, 28=commercial (office, conference centers, parking structures, retail, etc.), 29=multi-unit residential, 30=institutional, 31=governmental, 32=industrial, 33=high-rise, 34=K-12 schools, 35=single-family residential, 36=infrastructure, 37=stadiums, 38=mixed-use, 39=hotel, 40=university, 41=healthcare, 42=other

Top Performers list continues on page 22


blind luck.” That fusion was evident in a recent Mead & Hunt project: the restoration of Lake Delton, a popular tourist lake in the Wisconsin Dells that emptied to the basin after severe flooding caused a break in a highway dike wall.

Stantec, Inc., Irvine, Calif., has maintained its presence in the civil engineering field by providing services to clients across diverse geographic regions, through distinct but comple-

mentary practice areas, and via all phases of the infrastructure lifecycle, according to President and CEO Bob Gomes. “This three-dimensional, sustainable approach ensures that we do not have to depend on any single geographic region, practice area, or life-cycle phase for our business, help-ing us mitigate risk while continuing to increase our revenue and earnings,” explained Gomes. One example he noted is the firm’s urban land practice,

which through more environmental service offerings, was enhanced dur-ing a decline in development in the western part of the country.

Mid-sized and smaller firms also have adjusted to a softer market and are gauging performance in new ways. “I would define it as staying in business — keeping your doors open and keeping current staffing levels,” said James Higday, president of Hardey Engineering & Associates,

Company

Firm leader

Revenue (millions)

Public/ Private (%)

Market sectors

Winzler & Kelly Santa Rosa, Calif., 299 (11) www.w-and-k.com

Iver Skavdal, CEO & president

$49.0 62/38 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42

Century Engineering, Inc. Hunt Valley, Md., 375 (6) www.centuryeng.com

Francis X. Smyth, CEO & president

$43.5 65/35 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 40, 41

Weston & Sampson Peabody, Mass., 300 (11) www.wseinc.com

Michael J. Scipione, president & CEO

$37.0 80/20 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 36, 40, 42

Tectonic Engineering & Surveying Consultants P.C. Mountainville, N.Y., 337 (6) www.tectonicengineering.com

Donald A. Benvie, P.E., president & CEO

$37.0 60/40 1, 2, 3, 7, 11, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40

Garver, LLC Little Rock, Ark., 290 (10) www.garverusa.com

Brock Johnson, P.E., president

$34.2 95/5 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42

S E A Consultants Inc. Cambridge, Mass., 176 (7) www.seacon.com

Anthony Zuena, P.E., president & CEO

$33.0 92/8 1, 2, 5, 6, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 25, 26, 27, 31, 36, 40

J.L. Patterson & Associates, Inc. Orange, Calif., 85 (2) www.jlpatterson.com

Jacqueline L. Patterson, president

$18.6 75/25 7, 8, 15, 17, 36

Bridgefarmer & Associates Dallas, 50 (2) www.bridgefarmer.com

Mansoor Ahsan, CEO $16.0 99/1 1, 8, 15, 20, 21, 22, 27, 36

Traffic Planning and Design, Inc. Pottstown, Pa., 124 (5) www.trafficpd.com

Kevin L. Johnson, P.E., president

$14.8 20/80 7, 21, 22, 25, 26, 31, 36

Passero Associates Rochester, N.Y., 88 (4) www.passero.com

Wayne F. Wegman, P.E., president and COO

$11.4 60/40 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42

Harper Houf Peterson Righellis Inc. Portland, Ore., 77 (4) www.hhpr.com

Charles L. Harper, P.E., president

$9.1 70/30 1, 5, 7, 12, 14, 15, 16, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41

P. W. Grosser Consulting Bohemia, N.Y., 53 (4) www.pwgrosser.com

Paul W. Grosser, Ph.D., P.E., president & CEO

$9.0 - -

EXCLUSIVE


Company

Firm leader

Revenue (millions)

Public/ Private (%)

Market sectors

Sam Schwartz Engineering New York, 70 (5) www.samschwartz.com

Samuel I. Schwartz, president & CEO

$8.5 88/12 5, 6, 7, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 26, 28, 30, 36, 37, 40, 42

S.T.A.T.E. Testing LLC East Dundee, Ill., 43 (3) www.statetestingllc.com

Jay Behnke, president

$8.0 - 7, 11, 20, 26, 28, 31, 36

Digital Engineering and Imaging Inc Kenner, La., 52 (3) www.deii.net.

Kurt Evans, president

$7.8 80/20 1,6,7,8,18,19,21,31,36

ESI Consultants, Ltd. Naperville, Ill., 40 (3) www.esiconsultantsltd.com

Joseph Chiczewski, president & CEO

$5.6 90/10 1, 5, 7, 8, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40

Foresite Group Inc. Norcross, Ga., 40 (3) www.foresitegroupinc.com

Brett C. Basquin, P.E., president

$5.2 10/90 1, 3, 5, 16, 22, 23, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 35, 38, 40

Infrastructure Engineers, Inc. Saint Cloud, Fla., 48 (6) www.infrastructureengineers.com

David R. Reser, P.E., president

$4.8 2/98 4, 20, 21, 31, 42

Julien Engineering & Consulting, Inc. New Orleans, 19 (2) www.julien-engineering.com

Kerwin E. Julien Sr., P.E., president

$3.5 90/10 1, 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40

Hardey Engineering & Associates, Inc. Medford, Ore., 25 (1) www.hea-inc.com

James Higday, president

$3.3 55/45 1, 2, 5, 7, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41

Classic Consulting Colorado Springs, Colo., 16 (1) www.classicconsulting.net

Kyle R. Campbell, division manager

$2.7 10/90 1, 7, 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 31, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41

Civil Design, Inc. West Palm Beach, Fla., 7 (1) www.civil-design.com

Jeff Trompeter, president

$1.1 76/24 1, 16, 23, 27, 28, 29, 35, 36, 38

Inc., Medford, Ore., which is moving ahead on a major community park and other broad-scale civil projects.

Looking forwardAs for the future, performance is

likely to be tied to areas directly con-tributing to the economic recovery, namely sustainable design, including Leadership in Energy and Environ-mental Design programs, and infra-structure improvements funded by

stimulus dollars. Higday, for his part, predicts that more government funds will be invested in transportation projects and says he hopes funds will be funneled to local agencies as well.

At Stantec, Gomes indicated that his firm is also focusing on those areas. “Many cities have infrastructure that have exceeded their life expectancy. The additional federal stimulus fund-ing is partially addressing this need and thereby creating opportunities,”

Gomes said. “And on the environ-mental side, we see that federal and state environmental regulations are only getting stricter, and there is a larger emphasis on green design and construction.”

For now, as these top firms turn funding logjams into backlog and completed projects, they are showing that while not everyone is crossing the finish line, moving forward is a feat in itself.

Key codes for market sectors served1=stormwater, 2=power and energy, 3=telecommunications, 4=marine

5=sustainable design, 6=GIS, 7=construction oversight/management, 8=program management, 9=facilities maintenance/operations, 10=laser scanning, 11=geotechnical/drilling, 12=utility management, 13=air pollution, 14=residential services, 15=transit, 16=parks and recreation, 17=high-speed rail, 18=potable water, 19=wastewater, 20=bridges, 21=roads and highways, 22=traffic management and analysis, ITS, etc.,

23=land development, 24=land surveying, 25=structural engineering, 26=environmental, 27=hydraulics/hydrology, 28=commercial (office, conference centers, parking structures, retail, etc.), 29=multi-unit residential, 30=institutional, 31=governmental, 32=industrial, 33=high-rise, 34=K-12 schools, 35=single-family residential, 36=infrastructure, 37=stadiums, 38=mixed-use, 39=hotel, 40=university, 41=healthcare, 42=other


S ubsurface issues are the No. 1 source of construc-tion-industry disputes. And those disputes lead to allegations of fault that grow quickly into claims and litigation that can entangle most of a project’s

principal parties. As such, those parties have a vested interest in avoiding disputes, and settling quickly any disputes that arise despite their best efforts. Obviously, subsurface issues need to be more of a concern if the principal parties are to better manage their project-based risks.

One of the most effective ways to prevent subsurface prob-lems is to retain the geotechnical engineer of record to observe earthwork. To save their time and their clients’ money, geo-technical engineers base their preliminary recommendations (included in their final report) on subsurface samples. They finalize their recommendations in the field by observing what the earthwork reveals.

Risk increases significantly when the owner retains an alternative geotechnical engineer to observe earthwork, because no one knows as much about project-specific, site-subsurface issues as does the geotechnical engineer of record. Making matters worse, the alternative firm’s technical person-nel (field representatives) are rarely in a position to identify a discrepancy, and when they do, they’re not likely to contact the geotechnical engineer of record for guidance because it is a competing firm.

As a consequence, the preliminary recommendations that get implemented as final are inappropriate for actual condi-tions. This can aggravate risk still more, given that astute geotechnical engineers, by contract or other means, disclaim responsibility for errors that occur in the field when they are not on site to catch them. And when geotechnical firms are retained solely to observe earthwork, they commonly disclaim responsibility for discrepancies given that their role is to ensure compliance with recommendations and specifications.

So why don’t all owners routinely retain the geotechnical engineer of record to perform construction observation? First, some owners don’t know any better because no one has taken the time to educate them. As a civil engineer, you do know better, and it’s your professional responsibility to ensure that owners’ representatives know better, too. If you don’t, you could be caught up in a dispute in which the cost far outstrips your fee.

And then there are the owners’ representatives who know better but don’t care. They tend to believe that all geotechnical engineers are more or less the same, so it’s appropriate to put construction observation out to bid. It’s your responsibility to remind owners’ representatives that it’s unwise to risk costly

delays and disputes in the search for economy. There are also the owners who forbid geotechnical engi-

neers from observing construction as a matter of policy, believing they would authorize a change order to hide their “mistakes.” That’s like routinely switching physicians because you believe doctors who diagnose problems cover up diagnos-tic mistakes during treatment.

All engineers are duty-bound to uphold professional eth-ics. To have a policy that “no geotechnical engineer shall be permitted to perform a complete geotechnical engineering service” is akin to saying no geotechnical engineer can be trusted. Any large barrel of apples contains at least one piece of bad fruit, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat it! Just examine the apple before putting it into your mouth, which is what qualifications-based selection is all about.

Also consider this : It’s highly likely that what’s discovered during excavation will differ from what was opined to exist, which is why the observational method was developed in the first place. Being incapable of seeing what is hidden by earth, rock, and time is not an error, and certainly not a negligent one. Geotechnical engineers have no reason to authorize a cover-up extra because they have nothing to hide.

And given that the failure to detect the undetectable can-not comprise negligence, owners have no basis for recovery against geotechnical engineers when unanticipated conditions are found. But even if they did, all constituents of the subsur-face belong to the owner. An owner may be disappointed by a budget overrun, but the difference between the budgeted expense of earthwork and the actual expense is not damage; it’s merely the amount the owner has to pay because geotech-nical engineers are not omniscient.

In short, when one firm is used to develop recommenda-tions and another is used to observe earthwork, the owner can be left holding the proverbial bag. However, owners have a natural aversion to bag-holding and generally retain counsel to force the geotechnical engineer of record, the alternative geotechnical engineer, the civil engineer, the structural engi-neer, and various contractors to lend a hand, which, of course, should in each case be gripping a wallet.

RISKY BUSINESS By John P. Bachner

John P. Bachner is the executive vice president of ASFE, a not-for-profit association that provides programs, services, and materials to help geoprofessional, environ-mental, and civil engineering firms prosper through pro-fessionalism. Visit ASFE’s website at www.asfe.org.

Getting the complete subsurface story


A lthough merger and acquisition (M&A) activ-ity has been frozen in recent months, as many

firms avoid decisive action because of current economic volatility, there is a strong possibility this may change in the second half of 2009.

As a result of the bonding require-ments intrinsic to the engineering, pro-curement, fabrication, and construction industries, many engineering and con-struction firms are sitting on cash that exceeds what’s needed for bonding rela-tive to current levels of backlog. Backed by strong balance sheets, engineering and construction firms have split into

two schools of thought: 1) ride out the storm with current cash and wait for the weaker players to surrender, or 2) use this trough in the cycle as an opportunity to buy smaller players that may open new growth avenues.

When the markets eventually nor-malize and capital spending returns, the best positioned companies will be those that exhibit strength not because other players have been weakened, but because the companies made strategic moves to enhance their business mod-els. Expansion will most likely come in the form of acquisitions, and we could see transactions as early as the second part of 2009.

StimulusPresident Obama made it no secret

that his plan to reinvigorate the U.S. economy involves a vast series of infrastructure projects. Enthusiasm about the engineering and construction industry appeared in equity prices of publicly traded companies. In the last six weeks of 2008, infrastructure stocks prices were up 66 percent, according to Stephens Inc. Unfortunately, this rally proved premature and stock prices ceded their gains. On the coattails of strong results from URS Corp in early March 2009, per-share prices of engi-neering and construction firms shot up again. The sector was also boosted

BUSINESS STRATEGIES

Strategic M&A boosts prospectsNew focus on infrastructure will stimulate buyers and sellers By Nicholas V. Beare

For buyersOther than looking to acquire smaller competitors that may

be more susceptible to the difficult business environment, stra-tegic buyers seeking to maintain their competitive advantage should study the following action items:

1) Consider opportunities that expand the product and ser-vices reach. Many engineering and construction firms have traditionally served specific markets, such as oil and gas, civil work, chemical, etc. After the crash in the oil and gas market, some realized the sole market provider model may not be in-fallible. Market expansion may be achieved by venturing into deals with engineering companies and electrical contractors specializing in environmental retrofitting — especially if gov-ernment buildings are retrofitted for energy efficiency — or electrical contracting. Still others may want to branch into new specialty areas such as water treatment.

2) Build a comprehensive portfolio of services. Proposing a turnkey approach (including the design, engineering, technol-ogy, fabrication, construction, and/or follow-up service/main-tenance) holds tremendous appeal to government agencies as they begin awarding large contracts. Recognizing the impor-tance of the “value add,” many engineering and construction companies are looking to acquire maintenance, repair, and

overhaul specialists to provide a cradle-to-grave solution. For example, KBR bought BE&K for $550 million in May 2008.

3) Expand the geographic reach. Some engineering and construction CEOs may want to consider looking to interna-tional markets with growth potential, for example the Middle East, and India, to supplement unfilled order books and ensure survival. Developing a strong client base in any new territory (international, national, or regional) will help engineering and construction firms reduce the impact of the downturn in other markets and start building a long-term project stream.

4) Identify and invest in new technologies essential to the next stage of industry development. Strategic engineering firms will also be on the lookout for smaller engineering com-panies that have patented technology or design prototypes and techniques. For example, the new $234 million I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis, designed by Figg Engineering Group Inc., of Tal-lahassee, Fla., contains hundreds of sensors that will collect data.

5) Focus on deals that have the ability to generate meaning-ful cost and revenue synergies by eliminating redundant ex-penses and leveraging product and service opportunities into the acquired company.

because broad rally on Wall Street after word of a possible Chinese economic stimulus package.

The American Recovery and Rein-vestment Act earmarked $27 billion for the nation’s roads and bridges, and another $18 billion for marine-oriented infrastructure. The government’s infra-structure spending could prove a boon to the top engineering and construction companies; yet there is no certainty as to timing or the ultimate beneficiaries. Interest in the sector undoubtedly will draw competition among firms trying to capture more engineering and con-struction business, or smaller players vying for a bigger piece of the pie.

AcquirersThe prospect of future infrastructure

projects has already added fuel to the M&A market’s fire. Last year, some

of the most significant merger activity in the infrastructure sector included AECOM’s acquisitions of Earth Tech and Boyle Engineering. Other deals included Perini Corp.’s acquisition of Tutor-Saliba Corp., and URS Corp.’s purchase of LopezGarcia Group and Tryck Nyman Hayes Inc. Some of 2008’s acquisitions proved immediately accretive, with a good example being U.K. engineering and construction group Balfour Beatty PLC, which reported a 30-percent increase in full-year net profit.

We expect Balfour and other stra-tegic buyers to continue this trend, including the following: McDermott International, KBR, Shaw Group, Fluor Corporation, Jacobs Engineer-ing, Foster Wheeler, General Cable, and Chicago Bridge & Iron. Already in 2009, McDermott has completed the

acquisition of Nuclear Fuel Services; Aecon Group acquired Lockerbie & Hole, Inc.; and Parsons Corp., bought out McMunn Associates.

Smaller deals have also come to the forefront in 2009: In January, heavy industry group Rexnord LLC acquired water engineering company Fontaine-Alliance Inc., based in Quebec, Canada, for $24 million. In June, Terracon, an employee-owned engineering consult-ing firm, announced the acquisition of AMEC Earth & Environmental Inc.’s Construction Services Group in Redmond, Wash. Also in June, Dessau Inc., one of Canada’s largest engineer-ing-construction firms, announced the acquisition of Naylor Engineering Associates, a Kitchener-based consult-ing engineering firm.

To capitalize on the strong tail-wind, engineering and construc-



tion companies needed to start positioning themselves today for what is expected to be a profitable infrastructure build-out in the years ahead. Acquisitions can change the fundamental dynamics of an engi-neering and construction business by redefining the breadth and scope of the services and markets in which it can compete.

For sellersIt stands to reason that potential sellers, seeking attractive sales value, should

carefully analyze their business structures before entering M&A discussions. Consider the following questions:

1) Is the company being managed and operated efficiently? Identify strengths and weaknesses at a corporate level. Streamline business to optimize free cash flow and profitability. Make better use of excess capital, by investing it or returning it to shareholders.

2) Is there a premium for good will? Intangible assets, such as a company’s name, reputation, and management team, also have value. Potential acquirers scrutinize the management team and its demonstrated ability to drive sales and operations. Relationships with customers are also important when considering intangible value.

3) What are your value-added services? Shine in this category above all others. Demonstrate the ability to provide valued services, from niche technologies to specialty services. Promote this industry “advantage” in every possible market venue, including earnings calls, press releases,etc.

4) Are you a regional/industry leader? Most potential acquirers are looking to expand their operations on both a geographic and market level by picking off those businesses that have already established their brand and reputation. Geographic or market leaders must demonstrate their “first mover knowledge” and have long-standing relationships.

Nicholas V. Beare is a managing director at Stephens Inc., where he specializes in engineering and construction services investment banking. Stephens Inc., is a full-service investment banking firm headquartered in Little Rock, Ark., with offices across the country. For further information, contact Beare in the firm’s Dallas office at [email protected].

BUSINESS STRATEGIES


W hen people hear buzz about the green building movement, they often think of

low-flow showers and waterless urinals; alternative power sources such as solar or wind; and green power credits. Yes, the green building movement is about all of these things, but also so much more. Minimizing the environmental impacts of land development also includes protecting natural systems, reducing impervious footprints, and keeping stormwater in check. That’s where we come in: the civil engineers.

In the green building movement, our role as civil engineers is significant and multifaceted. It requires us to integrate sustainability goals into every step of design, from site layout and materials selection to stormwater management and erosion control. It is our respon-sibility to study the ramifications of design decisions from the perspective of environmental impact, as well as

cost, maintenance, and practicality. By adopting some of these methods as standard design practice, we can reduce the impact of all site development, not just the projects that are “going green.”

Stormwater system designThe stormwater arena — manage-

ment, harvesting, and quality — is probably the most obvious civil engi-neering contribution to green design. Stormwater models are the metric for quantifying the benefits of integrating layout, materials, and management to minimize the development footprint. Land development displaces nature, so beginning design with a stormwater concept plan is the key to mitigating the effects of that displacement.

For example, hydrologic patterns and areas of infiltratable soils should be protected in much the same way as wetlands and floodplains. These elements become especially important as more localities move toward adop-

tion of runoff-reduction methods, low-impact development ordinances, and the pursuit of U.S. Green Build-ing Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

Additionally, in recognition of the fact that integrated management practices will never completely replace stormwater management ponds, designs that include forebays, aquatic benches, and adequate hydrology must be standard for all wet pond designs to help alleviate sediment re-suspension, temperature increases, and oxygenation issues.

Current efforts to treat water “where it falls,” and thereby recreate the natural water cycle, stem from the realization that the post-development flows, volumes, and velocities of small, frequent storm events are in fact the

Civil engineering design for green buildingImproved stormwater management and water quality By Charlene Harper, P.E.

PROGRESSIVE ENGINEERING

A rainwater cistern feeds this water feature, which fills bioretention planters at 1050 K Street in Washington, D.C.


most detrimental to downstream sys-tems. There are simple, cost-effective ways to reduce impacts from all proj-ect types by incorporating such tech-niques as disconnecting impervious surfaces and using grassed filter strips and swales to encourage recharge and lower infrastructure costs.

Another tactic is that designers are helping green residential developments strive to minimize disturbance using site fingerprinting and clustering tech-niques as a means to maximize undis-turbed natural areas without sacrificing lot yield. These methods also can be effective to decrease construction and grading costs while maintaining natural habitat, reducing stormwater require-ments, and enticing residents to experi-ence nature in their own backyards.

During commercial or indus-trial project planning, consideration should be given to balancing green space and pedestrian flow with the minimum parking capacity needed to meet code requirements. Thoughtful designs break up parking lots with islands, which reduce runoff tem-perature and enhance the appearance of a development. It is best to design multi-functional landscaping islands by depressing the grades, rather than mounding, and directing water through the islands to drop inlets. Bioretention and flow-through planters have signifi-cantly fewer maintenance issues and are more cost-effective than sand filters for the same filtration effects. Plus these alternatives have the added benefit of creating habitat and shade.

Because the main treatment process of these systems is filtration through the media and uptake, areas with poorly-draining soils can be designed to include underdrains to ensure that the media does not remain saturated for too long. Even if the depressed islands are not designed as formal bioreten-tion basins, the plants in the landscape areas will use the water and filter out sediment before discharging to the drainage system. Irrigation demands and storm drain system costs will be

reduced by incorporating these design features, providing a low-maintenance option that is highly beneficial to water quality downstream.

Timmons Group used this approach on a large parking lot job in Spotsyl-vania County, Va., and saved roughly $65,000 in infrastructure costs. The civil engineers worked closely with landscape architects to achieve a suc-cessful project. Together they were able to replicate the initial abstraction volume in vegetated swales located between every other parking bay, even though soils in this area of Virginia are not conducive to high rates of infiltra-tion. The team specified domed inlets to avoid clogging and explained to the owner that part of the water-quality function of the islands is pre-treatment, meaning that trash may accumulate in them as well. These low-impact devel-opment features eliminated the need for a downstream stormwater manage-

ment pond as well.Permeable vs. impermeable

Studies show that water quality within a watershed degrades sig-nificantly as the percentage of imper-vious surfaces within that watershed increases. As civil engineers, we must balance the need to meet code and the owners program, and minimize the impervious surfaces. Civil engineers should constantly ask, “Does this area really need to be paved and, if so, how does it need to be paved?”

Sustainable solutions are plentiful. On redevelopment projects, the civil engineer can opt to pulverize old pave-ments in place to use as subgrade for the new pavement section, thereby reducing project costs and environmental impact while also contributing toward LEED materials and resources credits. In other cases, alternative paving materi-als, such as pervious concrete or asphalt and open grid grass or gravel systems,

Develop a stormwater concept plan to quantify the impact of layout, materials, and management design choices.


can decrease runoff rates, volumes, temperature, and velocities. If the soils below the permeable pavement are well drained, they can provide an additional infiltration function, benefitting water quality. It should be noted, however, that these options do tend to cost more than asphalt lots and also require regular maintenance; we typically see a minimum increase of 15 percent for installation costs, while the increase in cost of materials usually depends on the type of section designed.

Alternative pavement sections are appropriate for low-traffic areas, such as parking stalls or fire lanes, and it is best not to drain adjacent slopes or islands across them to minimize clogging. It is important to weigh the difference between the cost of the alternative sections and the decrease in storm system and stormwater manage-ment costs.

One of Timmons Group’s redevel-opment projects in Richmond, Va., serves as a local demonstration area for alternative materials selection. The architect-owner chose to retrofit one of the existing buildings as a parking garage for their employees and further

requested a small surface lot using various styles of pervious pavements for visitors. We added a large green area to the site, a small green roof section, and designed pervious concrete and perme-able pavers in the parking stalls and plaza. The increased green spaces alone reduce runoff volumes by more than 20 percent, and the combination of bioretention and permeable pavements contains the entire one-year storm. In addition, the choice of materials sig-nificantly reduces stormwater runoff to a combined sewer system; the project is anticipating LEED Gold certification.

Stormwater reuseOnce the runoff is minimized by

site layout and materials techniques, we can evaluate the benefits of har-vesting rainwater for reuse. Surface storage is the most cost-effective containment; however, aesthetic and biological issues often arise because of the constantly fluctuating water levels. Underground storage, which costs $3 to $8 per cubic foot, allows for rain-water harvesting without infringing upon a site’s developable area; however, adequate pre-treatment is critical to

minimize the potential for odors and frequent maintenance concerns. The cost-benefit analysis for rainwater harvesting has a payback period based on the cost of water in the project region, as well as the use for which it is collected, e.g. irrigation, flushing, or potable purposes.

Another Timmons Group project, an 11-story LEED Gold certified office building in Washington D.C., is the perfect example of the impact of integrated design decisions. On the roof, an entertainment terrace of permeable pavers features two levels of green roof with media volumes suf-ficient to contain up to the two-year storm. A 5,000-gallon cistern in the basement of the parking garage col-lects both the condensate water and runoff from the plaza adjacent to the building to feed the drip irrigation system. The cistern also supplies a water feature that flows intermittently through raised bioretention planters in the plaza throughout the day. The underdrains and overflow drains of the bioretention planters lead back to the cistern and contain an overflow bypass that connects to the public storm drain

PROGRESSIVE ENGINEERING

(Left) Green roofs, such as this one at 1050 K Street, can help mitigate the impact of development by detaining small storms and reducing heat island effects. (Right) Pervious pavements can reduce runoff rates, volumes, temperatures, and velocities. Balance installation costs and maintenance with reduced runoff curve numbers and infrastructure costs.


system for storm events greater than the 10-year flows. The cost of these integrated design elements was only 3 percent greater than what would have been required to meet code; however, the benefits to the downstream systems are invaluable.

Erosion controlErosion control is probably the least

glamorous discipline with the greatest impact to water quality. Although it is not permanent, it is critical to the health of all downstream systems. If streams are impaired during the construction process, then post-construction water quality measures are impotent. One of the best services a civil engineer can provide is a thorough, practical, well-designed erosion control plan.

ConclusionAlthough civil engineers are rarely

the ones choosing which sites to develop, we must help our clients, owners, and developers make informed decisions regarding the environmental impacts of development. Each site is inherently different; there is no magic bullet for green design. It is important to evaluate which of our tools will work best for a given site: consider soils, hydrology, grades, cost, and lay-out, but also environmental benefits, aesthetics, and function. For civil engi-

neers to integrate seamlessly into the green building movement, we must all abandon the idea that each discipline is distinct and independent; we must rethink our design process to build a more comprehensive and collaborative vision.

Charlene Harper, P.E., is a project manager with Timmons Group in Richmond, Va. She can be reached at [email protected].

Multi-functional landscaping areas collect and manage water, reduce heat island effects, and improve parking lot aesthetics.

Come see us at Greenbuild, booth #134


WASTEWATER

W astewater collection and treatment argu-ably ranks among the most significant

advances in public health in the United States. Yet today, the public is largely unaware of the civil infrastructure that has virtually eliminated diseases that spawned deadly epidemics in this country during the last century. Nevertheless, many aging municipal wastewater systems now need rehabili-tation, replacement, or expansion, and new technologies and design tools are

poised to take the wastewater industry to new heights in sustainability, energy efficiency, and cost effectiveness.

SustainabilityThe wastewater industry is address-

ing environmental issues not only in terms of effluent water quality, but also with regard for water scarcity and reuse potential. “The shortage of water appears to be pushing utilities toward membrane bioreactors (MBRs) and reverse osmosis treatment systems,” said Alec Mackie, marketing manager for JWC Environmental. And that impacts pretreatment systems. “These systems are sensitive to solids and sim-ply must be protected by high-tech and reliable fine screens,” he said. “From hair to rags to plastics, the screens must get the material out or the MBR becomes a maintenance headache.”

According to Mackie, treatment plants are moving to finer inlet screens. “Many of the plant upgrades switch from bar screens with 1-inch openings to perforated plate fine screens with 1/4-inch or 1/10-inch openings,” he said. “We’re even working on smaller openings. We’re also seeing more plants in the 100 to 200 million-gallon-per-day (mgd) range install perf plate fine screens. They want to put a stop to all the rags and trash ending up in sludge.”

JWC’s high-flow fine screens allow treatment plants to capture and remove very small plastics, rags, and trash at the headworks, Mackie said. And the com-pany is also shipping more internally fed Drumscreens — rotating screens that can remove hair and other small debris that can upset MBRs or other high-tech filtering systems.

AIRVAC Vice President Rich Naret noted that a lack of water in other coun-

tries and drastic water-saving measures have led to blockages in some aging gravity networks. “This is now starting to occur with aging gravity systems in the United States as well,” he said. “And, it very well could be an issue with new gravity systems as low-flush toilets and other water-saving devices become more common, requiring designers to consider the reduction in transport liquid and its effect on the hydraulics of the system.”

According to Naret, vacuum sewers are not affected by this reduction in transport liquid because they do not rely on gravity and the 2-foot-per-second (fps) scour velocity required to keep solids suspended. Instantaneous veloci-ties within a vacuum sewer are in the 15-fps to 18-fps range, he said, making blockages virtually non-existent.

To help stem water shortages or to compensate for poor quality source water, recycling and reusing treated wastewater is gaining interest in many areas. “This driver is causing some wastewater systems to look at improv-ing their processes to help handle this demand,” said Doug Johnson, director, marketing & business development, Emerson Process Management Power & Water Solutions. But water reuse faces an uphill battle. “While this is generally accepted for use in non-potable applications such as irrigation, there remains a stigma attached to ‘toilet-to-tap’ water reuse among the general population,” Johnson said.

Johnson noted two challenges to water reuse: changing treatment pro-cesses to produce water that is safe to drink in a reliable, secure manner; and educating the public on the safety, security, reliability, reduced cost, and improved availability that this new

Advances in wastewater collection and treatmentNew technologies promote sustainability, energy efficiency, and cost effectiveness. By Bob Drake

New technologies and design tools are poised to take the wastewater industry to new heights in sustain-ability, energy efficiency, and cost effectiveness.

water supply strategy will bring.Nevertheless, the number of water

reclamation projects is increasing, according to Jack S. Cook, vice presi-dent, Water and Wastewater Solutions, Bentley Systems, Inc. “We are seeing more integrated water resource plan-ning in the industry that looks to alter-native water supply.”

In response, the integrated approach to planning and design is pushing design-build project delivery, Cook said. “Design-build project delivery is on the rapid increase, and supporting technology has to accommodate col-laboration, managed content sharing, interoperation, and visualization of het-erogeneous engineering information.”

Bentley delivers and supports col-laboration servers that act as the engi-neering content hub serving design, contractor, and owner team workflows. According to Cook, its enterprise con-figurations are highly interoperable and customizable and can accommodate technology diversity that characterizes many project teams.

“Our technologies have been used successfully to host 4D project innova-tion laboratories that foster creativity and broaden contributor input into key treatment plant design decisions,” Cook said. “The performance gains that derive from the delta file transfer capa-bilities of ProjectWise V8i, combined with those in ProjectWise Navigator V8i and upcoming Dynamic Review for Models (currently with early adopt-ers), will further enhance the offering.”

AIRVAC’s Naret echoes the trend toward an integrated approach. “We are beginning to see designers looking at the bigger picture of having an entire project — the collection system as well as the treatment plant — being greener than what they otherwise would have been, he said.

Energy efficiencyA large part of the big picture for

wastewater collection and treatment systems is energy. “Rationalizing sus-tainable design and operations around carbon footprint is more important than ever,” said Bentley’s Cook. “The

design teams must consider more design iterations around alternatives that impact energy utilization.

Pumping is an important factor in evaluating the energy use of a wastewater system. “For pump-dominant collection systems, Bentley has strong functional-ity for costing energy that can help plan operations that lower the carbon foot-

print,” said Cook. “The use of variable-frequency drive pumping for managing energy is increasingly important.”

Bentley recently made available in SewerGEMS V8i exclusive technol-ogy for modeling the operation and performance of variable-speed pump-ing. This now consolidates analysis for wastewater collection master planning

AIRVAC is developing a valve monitoring system that will notify the operator in real time of any problem at any given valve pit. The monitoring system will also provide key system-wide data 24/7, allowing the operator to fine tune the system to optimize performance.

Waste-to-energy in actionA gasification system, first approved by the city of Sanford, Fla., in 2008, began

operating on May 21, 2009, at Sanford’s South Water Resource Center. The Max-West system will gasify Sanford’s treated wastewater sludge to provide renew-able green thermal energy to replace energy from natural gas for the city’s sludge dryer. The gasification facility is scalable and has sufficient capacity to meet San-ford’s expected growth during coming decades and also to serve as a disposal site for other nearby cities and private waste haulers.

It is expected to save the city millions of dollars in natural gas fuel costs. San-ford’s 20-year contract with MaxWest also provides long-term energy price sta-bility. And, as the system grows, the opportunity to produce renewable green electricity is available.



and design into Bentley’s premier application for hydrodynamic analysis of collection systems.

Of course, one way to reduce energy costs is to eliminate pumps. According to Naret, a vacuum sewer system can reduce energy use by replacing mul-tiple lift stations with a single vacuum station.

But, consumption is not the only variable in the energy equation for wastewater treatment plants. “The cost of energy is having a fascinating effect on treatment plants,” said JWC’s Mackie. “We are seeing more and more facilities generate their own electric-ity by burning methane from sludge digesters. And why not? This byproduct is valuable and there are several ways to convert the biogas into electricity.”

JWC assists plants generate bio-gas by keeping the sludge digestion process flowing smoothly. Its screen systems remove plastics and trash with wedge wire or perforated plate panels and its grinders turn large solids into small pieces so sludge pumps and heat exchangers don’t clog.

“Here in California, we’re watching hundreds of plants turn on waste-to-energy systems,” Mackie said. “The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts was recently ranked by the U.S. Envi-ronmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the largest municipal on-site green power producer in the nation. Who knew treatment plants could generate so much clean power? It’s an exciting trend — treatment plants can provide clean water and now clean power too!”

(See the EPA’s list of the top 20 organizations in its Green Power Part-nership that consume the most green power on-site: www.epa.gov/green-power/toplists/top20onsite.htm)

Cost effectiveness

But, energy cost is only part of a wastewater utility’s concern. “In the past, municipalities were willing to accept the trade-off between lower capital costs and higher operation and maintenance (O&M) costs pro-

vided the project was cost-effective from a life-cycle standpoint,” said AIRVAC’s Naret. “Now that vacuum sewer technology has been around for several decades and lower capital costs are a given in the proper application, municipalities no longer settle for just saving money upfront. They also want systems with the lowest possible O&M costs by having components that are dependable, reliable, operator friendly, and easily and inexpensively replaced.”

For example, vacuum stations have controls that allow the operator to monitor vacuum mains and equipment within the vacuum station. However, there has not been a practical and affordable method of monitoring each individual vacuum valve, Naret said. AIRVAC is developing a valve moni-toring system that will notify the opera-tor in real time of any problem at any given valve pit. The monitoring system will also provide key system-wide data 24/7, allowing the operator to fine tune the system to optimize performance. The net result will be smaller power bills and lower O&M costs.

Systems to optimize performance will be increasingly important as skilled plant operators, engineers, and man-agers retire, according to Emerson’s

Johnson. He also cited a need to better integrate wastewater collection systems and treatment plant operations.

Emerson Process Management developed PlantWeb automation architecture with the Ovation control system to assist in this effort. Accord-ing to Johnson, the systems provide wastewater operations managers with capabilities to better manage energy and chemical use through advanced automation strategies and protect capital equipment through predictive intelligence. By unifying treatment plant control systems with wastewater collection/SCADA systems in a single system, operators and engineers can achieve district-wide visibility and con-trol from a single system that is flexible enough to adapt to new regulatory and reporting requirements.

However, success in meeting those stricter regulatory requirements will rely in part on the ability of wastewater utilities to afford these new technolo-gies. “We’re very encouraged by recent surveys showing water and sewer rates are gradually rising,” said Mackie. “If local utilities can charge customers the true cost of water, then hopefully the industry can move away from the boom and bust of federal financing.”

Emerson P rocess Management’s PlantWeb automation architecture with the Ovation control system helps unify plant treatment operations with wastewater collection/SCADA systems to give operators and engineers district-wide visibility from a central control room.

WASTEWATER


WEFTEC

B illed as the largest confer-ence of its kind in North America, WEFTEC.09 — the Water Environment

Federation’s 82nd Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference — extends beyond the continent’s borders, offering water quality education and training to professionals from around the world. The event will be held Oct. 10-14, 2009, at the Orange County Conven-tion Center in Orlando, Fla.

In 2008, WEFTEC attracted a record 22,000 attendees and more than 1,100 exhibitors. While 2009 attendance figures are difficult to predict given the state of the economy, 122 technical sessions, 31 workshops, nine facility tours, and more than 1,000 products and services providers will be available to civil engineers and others who want to keep current on what’s happening in managing and treating wastewater, potable water, and stormwater.

WEFTEC.09 features the follow-ing technical education and workshop focus areas from which attendees can mix and match to design their own learning experiences: • Collection systems — Manage-

ment, operations, and maintenance; infrastructure; overflow reduction; wet weather planning; watershed approaches; and regulations;

• Membrane technologies — Applica-tion in wastewater and water reuse; innovations; enhanced performance; and regulatory compliance;

• Plant operations and treatment — Innovations, technologies, processes, and proven solutions in water and wastewater treatment, including nutrient removal and odor control;

• Regulations — CMOM/SSO rules; TMDL/watershed rules; nutrient

trading; and NPDES Phase II; • Research — Leading-edge process

applications in water and wastewater treatment and recent developments;

• Residuals and biosolids — Incin-eration, disposal, reuse through land application, research, regulations, politics, and public perception;

• Utility management — Asset man-agement and financial planning for infrastructure, technology, regulatory compliance, and security, including environmental management systems;

• Water reuse/recycling — Research, regulations, emerging technologies, and proven processes; and

• Water quality and watershed manage-ment — Stormwater, wet weather, and watershed issues.

Additionally, nine Orlando-area

facilities are offering tours during WEFTEC. Separate registration and fee is required for participation in the tours. The following tours are scheduled:• Collection Systems and Water Reuse

Tour: Wastewater Not Wasted• The City of St. Cloud’s Southside

Wastewater Treatment Facility• Orange County Utilities’ Northwest

Water Reclamation Facility• Altamonte Springs Water Reclama-

tion Facility: Project APRICOT• Orange County Utilities’ South Water

Reclamation Facility• The City of Sanford’s South Water

Resource Center and North Water Reclamation Facility

• SeaWorld Orlando Water Quality and Life Support Tour

Everything waterWEFTEC.09 offers training and technology for wastewater, potable water, and stormwater management.

Events for students and young professionalsThe Water Environment Federation’s Student and Young Professionals Com-

mittee (SYPC) is hosting a community service project prior to WEFTEC on Satur-day, Oct. 10, to replant, restore, and revitalize the wetlands at the Orange County Utilities Northwest Water Reclamation Facility. An anticipated group of 100 will spend the day harvesting plants from an established part of the wetlands and replanting them in other areas. The wetlands system consists of six cells and includes approximately 75 acres of land. The cells were populated with native pants. The students and young professionals will learn about the wetlands treat-ment system and how wetlands are used to further remove nutrients from the reclaimed water prior to recharging the sensitive aquifer system by participating in this hands-on environmental project.

The facility is located about 30 minutes from the convention center. Complimen-tary bus transportation will be provided, but participants must register in advance.

Additionally, Student Chapter Design Teams will participate in an annual WEFTEC Design Competition. New for 2009, two competitions will be held at WEFTEC.09: a Wastewater Design competition that includes a traditional waste-water design project (hydraulic, capacity design, upgrades to existing systems, biosolids handling, etc.); and an Environmental Design competition that includes current engineering topics (sustainability, water reuse, wetland construction, etc.). Through sponsorship of this event, award money will be presented to the first- and second-place teams in each competition.


WEFTEC

• The Orlando Easterly Wetlands• Iron Bridge Regional Water Reclama-

tion FacilityThe Water Environment Federation

(WEF) offers continuing education units (CEUs) for full participation in workshops and professional develop-ment hours (PDHs) for participation in technical sessions. At WEFTEC.09, attendees can earn as many as 1.2 CEUs and 19.5 PDHs, plus a number of contact hours for participation in facility tours and for time spent in the exhibit hall.

Keynote addressAt the Opening General Session,

Monday, Oct. 12, Dr. Mike Magee, M.D., a veteran health care leader and author of “Healthy Waters: What

Every Health Professional Should Know About Water”, will deliver the keynote address. Magee is a senior fel-low for health policy at the Center for Aging Services Technologies of the American Association of Homes & Services for the Aging, and editor of Health Commentary.org and Healthy-Waters.org. He is well-known for his unique perspective on health care and for championing patient rights and principled leadership including envi-ronmental health, scientific innovation, and health system transformation in the United States.

First published in 2005, Healthy Waters highlights the facts and figures about water and its enormous impact to our quality of life. Viewing water management as a test of humanity’s

ability to handle complex issues in a cooperative and compassionate man-ner, Magee suggests that water is both an environmental and public health issue. To help spread this message, he launched the Healthy Waters Initiative (www.healthy-waters.org). The goal of the initiative is to raise awareness about the vital importance of clean water to public health and to generate action on water-related issues. Magee’s keynote address will focus on the direct correla-tion between access to potable water and public health.

Attendees are encouraged to attend a special question and answer session with Magee immediately following the opening session program.

In addition to the keynote address, the opening general session will feature WEF President Rebecca West and recognition of WEF award winners and the 2009 Stockholm Junior Water Prize winners.

Detailed information about all WEFTEC.09 technical sessions, workshops, facility tours, exhibits, and many other activities is available online at www.weftec.org.

Center of Excellence resourcesThe Water Environment Federation’s (WEF) Center of Ex-

cellence at WEFTEC will highlight the organization’s efforts to deliver new core business products and services, provide new training and materials to address emerging issues, and provide for more accessible electronic knowledge. The Center offers the following resources:

WEFTEC Bookstore — Hundreds of titles will be on display in what WEF claims is the largest collection of water and wastewater resources in one location, including WEF’s peer-reviewed Manu-als of Practice, WEF Press, WEF’s training/certification materials, and WEF Public Education and Public Communication materials.

WEF Press — This alliance between WEF and McGraw-Hill Professional has enabled WEF to expand the breadth of titles of-fered to its membership, to offer new editions of important in-

dustry resources, and to reach a global audience. WEF Membership — WEF representatives can explain the

benefits of a WEF membership.WEFTEC Conference Proceedings — The Conference Pro-

ceedings on CD-ROM will contain the complete WEFTEC.09 technical program; fully searchable and ready to read on screen or to print-out. Attendees can pick up or purchase a copy at the booth.

Water Environment Research Online — One of the most respected research journals referenced by water quality professionals.

WEF Job Bank — The WEF Job Bank online receives more than 10,000 visitors a month and can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

WEFTEC historySince its formation in 1928, The Water Environment Foundation (WEF) has

been holding annual meetings to provide a forum for knowledge and technology exchange within the water and wastewater fields. Since then, WEFTEC has not only grown in the size of exhibits and technical sessions, but has become one of the world’s leading water quality conferences.

In 1941, the then-known Annual Conference featured five sessions, 13 technical papers, and an attendance of 556. By the 1970s, attendance had grown to 8,716 and featured 37 sessions with 146 technical papers. Growing steadily through the 1980s and 1990s, the conference continues to set new technical program and ex-hibition records each year. Renamed WEFTEC in 1994 to increase both domestic and international recognition, WEF’s annual exhibition has been ranked in the top 1 percent of all trade shows in North America for the past five years.

Information for this article was provided by the Water Environment Foundation.


D uring the late 19th Cen-tury, Texas cattlemen started pushing their longhorns along the

Chisholm Trail to reach the Kansas rail heads. Little did these trailblazers realize that their efforts to drive cattle northward to market would ultimately influence transportation infrastructure in the state. Now, more than a century later, HDR and its collaborative team are helping the North Texas Tollway Authority, Texas Department of Trans-portation, and the city of Fort Worth to design an interchange to drive people along the routes of this founding cattle trail. The objective of the $925 million, 8.2-mile, six-lane Southwest Parkway is to improve regional mobility by reliev-ing growing traffic congestion in the greater Fort Worth area. The South-west Parkway is tentatively scheduled to open in late 2010.

A growing population is the primary factor for building the Southwest Park-

way. According to the April 2003 North Central Texas Council of Government (NCTCOG) 2030 Demographic Forecast, the total population for the north central Texas region is projected to grow 56 percent to 9.1 million resi-dents by 2030. Of the four NCTCOG core counties — Collin, Dallas, Den-ton, and Tarrant — each of which is growing rapidly, Tarrant County led all counties in the region by adding 39,950 residents from January 2003 to January 2004, pushing Tarrant County’s total population to 1.6 million residents.

Tarrant County’s population is projected to grow 21 percent through 2030. At this unprecedented growth rate, there is a need for more efficient transportation systems to accommo-date current and future traffic demands between Forth Worth and newly developed and still developing areas in southwest Tarrant County. Although major reconstruction of the freeway system is currently under way, many of

the local and rural streets are forced to serve as thoroughfares, leading to con-gested and unsafe conditions. This traf-fic congestion costs the local economy an estimated $4.2 billion annually.

It was obvious that without major improvements, including the disruptive reconstruction of the current roadway network, the existing system would become more congested. According to HDR, Inc.’s Professional Associate John Quintero, by providing a direct and continuous southwest-to-central major traffic artery in the form of the Southwest Parkway and the inter-

Chisholm Trail gets five-level interchangeDesign team relies on collaboration software to connect engineers in more than a dozen locations for a complex project.

By Angus Stocking, L.S.

Project Southwest Parkway, Fort Worth, Texas

Civil EngineersHDR, Inc.

Product applicationProjectWise software provides an

efficient way to share work, manage documents, increase productivity, and improve the quality of project deliverables.

HDR and its collaboration partners are design-ing a five-level interchange at SH-183 and I-20, which includes two miles of new roadway, six-lane mainlines on Southwest Parkway with localized frontage roads, more than a mile of SH-183 reconstruction with new frontage roads, and direct connectors to I-20. Software programs used to render the images in this article include MicroStation, GEOPAK, Descartes, 3D Studio Max, Vray, and Adobe Premiere Pro.

PROJECT CASE STUDY


change, Tarrant County residents will benefit from improved regional mobil-ity, air quality, road safety, improved response time for emergency vehicles, and less traffic congestion.

Project plansPlans call for extending the tollway

from Fort Worth’s Central Business District at Interstate 30 (I-30) to southwest Fort Worth, connecting it to the 13-mile Chisholm Trail project in Johnson County. Part of this proj-ect will be a five-level interchange at State Highway 183 (SH-183) on I-20. Included in the design for this inter-change will be two miles of new road-way, six-lane mainlines on Southwest Parkway with localized frontage roads, more than a mile of SH-183 recon-struction with new frontage roads, and direct connectors to I-20.

The interchange will also consist of nine direct connectors, 15 slip ramps, and reconstruction of one cross-street underpass. This segment represents the largest of Southwest Parkway’s five design segments, with cost estimates of $305 million, of which more than half is related to bridge work.

Quintero said the design team’s chal-lenge was to incorporate the corridor master plan into the final design and include support for a transportation facility with a visually narrow cross sec-tion, additional landscaping, and bridge and wall treatments sensitive to the natural and constructed environment.

Distributed design teamsAchieving these objectives required

meeting an aggressive, 18-month dead-line established by the North Texas Tollway Authority. Consequently, HDR pooled multiple resources for extensive quality reviews of bridge and roadway designs. This necessitated mobilizing and integrating 134 HDR engineers, CAD designers, and other staff from 12 offices with more than 40 team members from four subconsultants across multiple locations. To establish a seamless interchange across the design

team, HDR trained its subconsultants on ProjectWise. The software helped team members improve quality, reduce rework, and meet project deadlines, and it enabled real-time collaboration across distributed teams in an office or online as a hosted managed solution.

This training included HDR visit-ing each subcontractor’s office to install ProjectWise on workstations and ensure that each user was connected to its database. Hands-on training was also provided to every team member. In addition, HDR provided training to all team members on MicroStation V8, along with its design suites such as GEOPAK and Descartes.

HDR also installed the necessary framework for efficient work sharing and workload balancing. Improvements to HDR’s infrastructure consisted of increasing its network capacity and wide-area-network acceleration equip-ment at key design offices to provide

faster file access for the entire team. To enhance technical support to the team, dedicated collaboration software engineers and CAD application spe-cialists were put into place. With these resources, it was easy to demonstrate to team partners how the project-col-laboration software added value to the design team by providing a consistent, efficient way to share work, manage documents, increase productivity, and,

ultimately, improve the quality of proj-ect deliverables.

“The subconsultants were pleased to see the most current project infor-mation accessible with nothing more than an Internet connection and browser,” Quintero said. “Furthermore, the check-in/check-out, audit trail, and security features of ProjectWise allowed project team members to manage their documents effectively while preventing users from duplicat-ing or overwriting their work.”

By using ProjectWise, HDR created a virtual office that eliminated the costs associated with relocating design team members to one central office location. HDR saved more than $1.48 million in travel costs and reduced its carbon emis-sions by 581 metric tons. This managed collaboration environment then made it possible for the design team to meet the tight schedule established by the North Texas Tollway Authority.

Angus Stocking, L.S., has more than 20 years of experience writing for a technical audience, including surveyors, engineers, GIS designers, and other infrastructure professionals. Based in Mountain View, Calif., he can be contacted at [email protected].

Award-winning projectFor the Southwest Parkway Inter-

change project in Fort Worth, Texas, HDR received two 2008 Be Awards of Excellence; the first in the “Innovation in Road and Bridge” category, and the second in the “Connecting Project Teams” category. The Be Awards of Excellence (now called the Be Inspired Awards) honor the work of Bentley Systems users improving the world’s infrastructure. The Southwest Parkway and other award-winning projects are featured in “The Year in Infrastructure 2008,” available online at www.bent-ley.com/yearininfrastructure2008.

The complex project required mobilizing and integrat-ing 134 HDR engineers, CAD designers, and other staff from 12 offices with more than 40 team members from four subconsultants across multiple locations.


E rnest Hemingway, the most famous former resident of the Florida Keys, knew he was living in paradise when

he wrote, “It’s the best place I’ve ever been anytime, anywhere — flowers, tamarind trees, guava trees, coconut palms ...” Today, more than 3 million visitors come to the Keys each year to enjoy that beauty and the lifestyle that Hemingway found so appealing. Tourism is the No. 1 industry on the archipelago, and many who come to visit end up living there year round.

But, the influx of people and bur-geoning economy has come at a price for the Keys. In the 1980s, pollution, largely from wastewater, reached dangerous levels. The magnificent coral reefs and marine life, which are the foundation of the region’s tourism

industry, were in jeopardy. Tropical and game fish were endangered, and some bodies of water became unsafe for swimming. Residents, as well as local and state officials, began to real-ize that a great natural resource was dying unless they addressed the need for proper wastewater management. In 2000, the Florida legislature mandated that by mid-2010, the Keys have in place a suitable sewer system and treat-ment facilities, including nitrogen and phosphorous removal.

“The reefs here are incredible,” said Chuck Fishburn, general manager of the Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District. “Virtually everyone who is here came here because of the water — the fishing, diving, and boating. We understood that if we didn’t get central sewers, we would eventually kill off the

reason we’re here.”The Florida Keys encompass

approximately 137 square miles cover-ing 17,000 islands, of which 35 are considered “major” islands. More than 80,000 people live year-round in the Keys and an estimated 4 million tour-ists visit the islands each year. Providing sewer service to such a large area and involving several entities presented a sizable challenge for project planners.

Civic and public works officials began the task by getting organized in their own areas. They prioritized the work, reviewed various proposals, and sought funding. After conducting a significant

Cleaning up the KeysVacuum sewers reduce wastewater problems that threaten the islands’ aquatic environment and economy.

By Steve Gibbs

Project Florida Keys wastewater collection

Participants• Key Largo Wastewater

Treatment District, Marathon, Fla.• Eckler Engineering, Coral Springs, Fla.• Weiler Engineering, Marathon, Fla.• GlobeTec Construction, Deerfield, Fla.• City of Marathon, Fla.

Product applicationAIRVAC vacuum sewer systems over-

come Florida Keys wastewater collection challenges with shallower trenches, fewer electrical connections, closed systems, and easier installation.

Densely populated areas surrounding numerous canals in the Florida Keys present significant obsta-cles for sewer construction. Additional problems are the underlying coral rock and high groundwater.

PROJECT CASE STUDY


amount of research, initial projects were constructed at the Ocean Reef Club in the Upper Keys, the Little Venice area of Marathon in the Middle Keys, and Stock Island in the Lower Keys. In each case, they installed vacuum sewer collection systems.

“The circumstances we face here in the Keys led us to select vacuum sewer technology,” said Fishburn. “We went through the installation process and then saw how the system worked and we were very pleased with the outcome. Based on those initial projects, we decided to utilize vacuum sewers wher-ever we could.”

Having made the decision to install vacuum sewers, both the Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District (KLWTD) and the city of Marathon began advertising for engineers who had experience with the tech-nology. Eckler Engineering of Coral Springs, Fla., and Weiler Engineering of Marathon had both designed vacuum systems throughout South Florida and were an obvious fit. They were two of several engineering firms that were involved with this enormous effort. GlobeTec Construction of Deerfield, Fla., was one of several regional construction companies selected to do the installation.

“We were part of the team that installed the first vacuum system in the Florida Keys in 2001 and 2002,” said Jorge Fonte, vice presi-dent of GlobeTec. “We probably have installed more than 1,300 valve pits and 200,000 linear feet of vacuum lines.”

AIRVAC, headquartered in Roch-ester, Ind., was selected to provide the components and design support for the project. “AIRVAC developed most of the specifications used in vacuum sys-tem design so it’s always good to have their expertise for a job as big as this one,” said Don Eckler, P.E., president of Eckler Engineering. “They have worked well with us to create a fail-safe

functioning system that will experience minimal problems in the future.”

Master planThere is an enormous amount of

sewer construction work going on throughout the Keys right now, and it all started more than 10 years ago with a master plan. In 1999, Monroe County, which comprises 95 percent of the Keys, developed its Year 2010 Comprehensive Plan. The study cited the scope of the problem: 246 small wastewater treatment plants operating on the islands along with approximately 7,200 cesspool and cesspit systems,

many of them illegal. Combined, they contributed more than 7 million gal-lons per day (mgd) of wastewater, most of it containing pollutants that are detrimental to ocean life.

At the heart of the problem were the thousands of cesspools across the islands. Cesspools in the Keys provided poor wastewater treatment because most of the islands sit on a layer of coral rock, which is hard yet porous. The rocky soil did little to remove the pol-lutants in the wastewater, allowing it to seep into the groundwater and eventu-ally into the canals and ocean surround-

ing the islands. Studies showed traces of fecal coliform bacteria on the reefs in amounts that would damage the reef and the surrounding marine life.

“Twenty years ago, the canals were clean enough to swim in. They had tropical fish in them,” said Fishburn. “Today, the water is so murky you can’t see through it anymore.”

The Keys present several significant geographic challenges that could have made a sewer construction project extremely difficult and prohibitively expensive. “In the Keys, you have flat terrain, high groundwater, developed neighborhoods, and difficult soil

conditions; all of these create problems when designing and installing sewers,” said Eckler. “Then there is the added dif-ficulty of maintaining traffic on U.S. Highway 1 while installing a sewer system. Highway 1 is the only road in and out of the Keys, so it is always busy and must remain open. Plus, the side streets are narrow, which presents the challenge of keep-ing them open for emergency vehicles during the construc-tion process.”

Gravity sewers, low-pressure systems, and vacuum technol-ogy all were considered, but a life-cycle cost analysis revealed that vacuum sewers would be the best option. The prospect of digging through coral rock

with high groundwater was considered an enormous obstacle. A gravity system would have required trenches as deep as 10 to 15 feet to achieve the grade nec-essary to move sewage from homes to the treatment plant. Cutting through rock and constant dewatering, while trying to maintain traffic flow, would make the project incredibly expensive, time consuming, and disruptive for Keys residents.

Engineers also considered the number of lift stations that would have been required to transport wastewa-ter in such flat topography. Key Largo

Shallow trenches and lightweight PVC pipe made installation of a vacuum sewer system fast and less disruptive to residents and tourists.


alone would have needed 50 or more lift stations. In a place such as the Keys where land is so valuable, the property costs would have made the project extremely expensive.

Low-pressure sewers offered many of the same advantages as vacuum sew-ers in terms of pipe size, trench depth, and limited traffic disruption, but the life-cycle costs were higher than those of vacuum sewers. This was mainly because of the number of grinder pumps that would be required for the Keys project and the associated main-tenance costs. Each dwelling would require a grinder pump and electrical connection to the dwelling. For many of the small homes in the Keys, this would have required an upgrade to their electrical systems. Furthermore, power outages, which are common in this region, would have shut down the system unless each grinder pump had its own generator, which is not practical.

“The analysis done by the engineers in 2000 clearly showed the advantages of installing vacuum sewers,” said Fishburn. “Simply stated, vacuum lines require only half the slope of gravity mains and can transport wastewater uphill by means of a saw-tooth profile. That means shallower trenches and less digging. There also was the fact that one vacuum station could do the job of several pumping stations, and there were fewer electrical requirements. In this situation, the decision to install vacuum sewers was an easy one.”

Vacuum powerVacuum sewer technology solved

many of the problems that are inherent in the Keys. The shallower trenches needed for vacuum lines helped avoid many of the cost and labor issues that deep trenching would have required. The trenches for the vacuum lines were typically 4 to 6 feet deep. Little dewatering was needed, there was less disruption to the established neighborhoods, and because the vacuum mains were made of smaller-diameter PVC pipe,

the installers could use less and smaller equipment.

“The footprint required for construction is significantly smaller,” said GlobeTec’s Fonte. “Fuel consumption also is much less (than a comparable gravity sewer installation). I would estimate we used about 30 percent less fuel than we would have on a gravity sewer job. The tech-nology is also faster to install than gravity or low-pressure systems. Crews installed 300 to 800 linear feet of collection lines per day.”

The design engineers and installation crews also received the benefit of AIR-VAC’s years of vacuum sewer experience. Fonte noted that underground infrastructure projects can be unpredictable, so experience and flexibility are critical during installation. “There are always a lot of unknowns in an underground construction project,” he said. “It was extremely helpful to have AIRVAC there to make suggestions and pro-vide advice when we encountered unexpected problems.”

Bonus benefitsEase of installation was a significant

factor in choosing vacuum technology for the Keys’ sewer system, but there were other benefits that made vacuum sewers a perfect fit for this situation. Hurricanes, an annual threat along the Southeast and Gulf Coasts, can damage or destroy pumping stations, dump tons of sand into the treatment system, and disrupt electrical power, knocking out a city’s sanitary sewer collection system.

Vacuum sewers are less vulnerable to electrical power loss for several reasons. In an AIRVAC system, sewage from houses and businesses flows by gravity to a valve pit, which is usually buried near the street. When the wastewater in the pit reaches a predetermined level, the valve opens pneumatically to

release the sewage into the collection line. No electricity is needed to operate the valve pit.

Each of the six vacuum stations on Key Largo is equipped with a backup generator, so there will be no loss of sanitary sewer service even if the power is out. A gravity system would have required five or six times as many pumping stations to serve the 14,000 residents and tens of thousands of tourists, and each station would need electricity and daily attention to remain functional during a disaster.

Also, because vacuum sewers are a closed system, there is no infiltration or exfiltration, and any breech of the col-lection line is detected almost immedi-ately. Salt water and groundwater are kept out of the treatment plant, and that reduces treatment costs and equip-ment degradation.

In designing the system, engineers came up with some extremely innova-tive ideas that paid some immediate benefits and will help utility workers for years to come. Because vacuum collection lines are water tight, they can be laid in the same trench with stormwater collection lines and reuse water lines, saving installation time

PROJECT CASE STUDY

For future reference, crews mapped the vacuum collection lines and valve pits precisely with GPS technology.

and valuable space. Additionally, dur-ing daily inspection of line installation, inspectors mark coordinates with a GPS device. This will help public works personnel create a detailed map of the buried infrastructure.

“It’s great to know exactly where your utilities are buried, especially [during] a natural disaster like a hurricane. If a street is wiped out or buried in sand, we will know precisely where the collec-tion lines and valve pits are buried,” said Dan Saus, wastewater project manager for Weiler Engineering in Marathon, Fla. “They also snapped photographs when they took the coordinates. So, when you go into their system and click on a data point, you’ll see a photo of what is buried there. It’s like having x-ray vision.”

Award winner

In 2009, the city of Marathon received the Pisces Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for projects that represent a commitment to the state’s aim to achieve sustainable water quality. Marathon was the only city in Florida to receive the award.

Marathon’s design won the award in part because of the one-trench design for installation — which includes both sewer and stormwater piping and was made possible because they installed a closed vacuum system — along with the GPS mapping work. They also were lauded for designing a system that produces reuse water, which will provide 1 mgd of water that can be used on golf courses, football fields, and public parks.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team of public works professionals who were as progressive as this team was,”

commented Susie Thomas, director of community services for the city of Marathon. “It’s really a tremendous honor and we’re very proud.”

Of course, the most important objective of the massive Keys project is a cleaner aquatic environment in and around the islands. When all of the communities throughout the Keys complete their sewer collection and treatment systems, then we will begin to see cleaner water through-out the area. The tourism industry will remain vibrant and the residents of the Florida Keys can again enjoy one of the most beautiful natural environ-ments in the world.

Steve Gibbs is a freelance writer based in Memphis, Tenn., with 20 years of experience covering public works and construction proj-ects for regional and national publications.


NEW & NOTEWORTHY

Modular stormwater detention systemHydro International introduced to the U.S. market Storm-

bloc, a below-ground, stormwater detention, infiltration and harvesting system. According to the company, Stormbloc is the only crate-type system on the market with a patented inspection/maintenance tunnel through each block. The modular blocks make Stormbloc quick and easy to install in almost any application, including industrial and commercial projects as well as residential developments, low impact development schemes, and conveyance applications. Strong enough to withstand traffic loads, Stormbloc can be installed under roads, parking areas, driveways and landscaped areas without additional protection, Hydro International said.

Hydro International — www.hydro-international.biz

New Jersey certifies stormwater filterAdvanced Drainage Systems, Inc.’s BayFilter System was

granted interim certification by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). The system, manufac-tured by BaySaver Technologies, Inc., meets the requirements for stand-alone stormwater quality treatment (removal of 80 percent of the total suspended solids), and was examined and verified by the New Jersey Corporation for Advanced Tech-nology (NJCAT) in order to qualify for the certification. The New Jersey stormwater rule, 35 N.J.R. 154, states that manu-factured stormwater treatment devices may be used to meet the regulatory requirement, provided the pollutant removal rates are verified by NJCAT and certified by NJDEP.

Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. — www.ads-pipe.com

Traffic sign planning softwareTransoft Solutions launched SIGMA, a traffic sign plan-

ning software solution. SIGMA was developed for traffic and maintenance engineers to design, maintain, and report on CAD-generated traffic signing, as well as temporary traf-fic control signing plans through supported sign libraries. SIGMA gives users the ability to search federal/state stan-dard sign libraries, GuidSIGN signs, or user-defined simple CAD-drafted cell/block drawings to create placeable sign assemblies. According to the company, users can search the SIGMA sign libraries without the sign’s reference number and create sign assemblies quickly and easily. Through the Create Sign Assembly tool, users can create a sign assembly that supports typical mounting types and options, multiple sign facings, as well as assembly status by using included typi-cal sign arrangements or by dynamic arrangement.

Transoft Solutions, Inc. — www. transoftsolutions.com

GPS receiver firmwareTopcon Positioning Systems released Version 3.4 G3

receiver firmware that the company says significantly upgrades the performance and usability of all Topcon GNSS receiver platforms, including the GR-3 and new GRS-1 systems. The 3.4 G3 firmware automatically can detect the make of the network receiver creating corrections for the rover and apply the proper bias to the GLONASS system measurements con-tained in the GNSS network solution. Topcon’s 3.4 firmware gives the flexibility of using different makes and models of base stations with Topcon rover systems.

Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc. — www.topconpositioning.com

Seamless pipe fittingsPrinsco, Inc., added the Integrity Line of Fittings to its

HDPE pipe product line. According to the company, large diameter fittings (12 to 60 inches) traditionally are fabricated using existing corrugated HDPE pipe stock, and are welded together either by hand or through automated processes. Because of the size and nature of the fabrication process, these fittings typically come with performance limitations such as watertight performance or cover height limitations that are more restrictive than the pipe itself. The Integrity Line is based on a patent-pending seamless design that offers greater structural capacity and watertight integrity. Cover height restrictions for the fittings will be nearly equal to those of the pipe itself, Prinsco said, and the Integrity Line’s seamless design helps alleviate deflection concerns, resulting in a watertight fitting that meets or exceeds current industry ASTM or AASHTO standards.

Prinsco, Inc. — www.prinsco.com

Underground septic chambersCULTEC says its Recharger

and Contactor underground septic chambers offer an effective wastewater management alter-native to concrete galleries and conventional pipe and stone systems, especially for sites with space constraints. The Recharger 150, 180, 280, and 330XL models are high-profile, high-capacity septic chambers. The Contactor EZ-24, 100, 125, and Field Drain C-4 models are lower-profile, lower-capacity chambers, typically used for septic installations with depth restrictions or where larger units may not be approved by the local authority.

CULTEC, Inc. — www.cultec.com

Stormwater systems, software, pipe fittings, and septic chambers


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I n my nearly 20 years working with architecture and engineering (A/E) firms, I have had the opportunity to observe many organizations and study how they work. I have learned that, when it comes to leadership, one size

does not fit all. The uniqueness of management teams and ownership structures creates variations in an organization’s design. However, a few concepts apply to all organizations, and one of these is governance.

Governance is about how power and control are shared within an organization. Professional service companies, such as A/E firms, face a challenge because owners wear multiple hats — shareholder, board member, and manager. As firms grow and the ownership evolves, the governance roles that leaders play also need to evolve. During each step in this evo-lution, powerful forces create a strong tendency for leaders to slip back into old roles. Confidence to move forward comes from knowing that others are performing the required tasks associated with the role.

Consider a start-up firm established by a small group of engineers. Everyone is a doer, working on projects and meet-ing with clients. Once the firm reaches a certain size, however, someone needs to step back from the company’s day-to-day activities and dedicate a great deal of time to managing the firm. Nevertheless, a sense of gravity seems to pull the man-ager back to the project role, back to his or her comfort zone. Confidence to move into a management position comes from the knowledge that others can handle projects successfully.

At some point, owners realize that they need to spend more time discussing strategic issues. In a small group, all of the owners will be included in such discussions. Although such a group probably exists already — from a legal perspective — as the board of directors, company growth means expanding the board members’ roles to include oversight and strategy. Despite that broad goal, gravity will pull the owners back to discussing management-related topics. To move on to more strategic dis-cussions, owners need the confidence that management issues are being addressed separately, when they — or others in the firm — are wearing their management hats.

As the governance model evolves, more owners are added. At some point, the number of owners will exceed the number of seats in the board room. This is a big step since ownership is no longer synonymous with “sitting at the table.” Moving forward requires that this transition occur successfully. Shareholders must overcome the feeling that being an owner means that they should also be on the board. Confidence comes from knowing that the board is discussing the right topics and reaching the best decisions.

Building a board that gives shareholders this confidence is one of the greatest challenges in the evolution of A/E firm governance, and there are two primary components of build-ing this team.

The first is talking about the right things. The topics for dis-cussion in the board room are not all that different than those discussed by the management team. The topics include finances, risk, leadership development, ownership transition, and strategy. However, these discussions take place at a higher level.

Consider, for example, financial concerns. Often boards receive thick packets of financial data. Members either wade through the material looking to digest every detail, or their eyes glaze over and the discussion moves quickly to the next topic. The board does not need to get into the details; rather, board members should hold onto a handful of key indicators that they understand fully, realizing the impact they have on the firm’s success. Analyzing the details is appropriate when these individuals are wearing their management hat, not their board member hat.

The second component of a successful board is perfect-ing the way issues are discussed. Having open discussions is just as important as getting the right topics on the agenda. The toughest challenge is overcoming the hierarchy that exists outside the board room. Around the board table, everyone is equal — one vote per seat — and dissent is not a bad thing. Too often, however, members defer to firm management seniority. This leads to conflict avoidance, but means that issues are not fully vetted. Discussing important problems this way diminishes the board’s quality, as well as shareholders’ confidence in the board’s decisions. Although decisions do not need to be unanimous, all board members must support a decision once it is made.

From my vantage point, struggles with firm governance are usually related to evolution of ownership and manage-ment. When firms fail to recognize the need to transition to the next level, they have a difficult time making decisions in a timely manner and building a strong ownership culture. However, when they are successful in making the transition, they find that the organization is more likely to reach its full potential.

Doug Thompson is a management consultant for Thompson Strategy Consulting, which specializes in g overnance for A/E firms. He can be contacted at [email protected].

BEYOND WORDS By Doug Thompson

The evolution of firm governance

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