Georgia Engineer April-May 2014

G e o R G i a

ENGINEER

速

TRANSPORTATION Volume 21, Issue 2

APRIL | MAY 2014

the panama canaL at 100 yeaRS Road diet ShapeS up ponce de Leon avenue tiGeR ii

the atLanta StReetcaR pRoject

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ENGINEER Publisher: A4 Inc. 1154 Lower Birmingham Road Canton, Georgia 30115 Tel.: 770-521-8877 | Fax: 770-521-0406 E-mail: p.frey@a4inc.com

ASCE/G Representatives Daniel Agramonte, PE Steven C. Seachrist, PE ASHE Representative Jenny Jenkins, PE

Editor-in-Chief: Roland Petersen-Frey Managing Editor: Daniel Simmons Art Direction/Design: Pam Petersen-Frey

GSPE Representatives Tim Glover, PE

Georgia Engineering Alliance 233 Peachtree Street | Harris Tower, #700 Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Tel.: 404-521-2324 | Fax: 404-521-0283

ITE Representatives Daniel Dobry, PE, PTOE John Edwards, PE ITS/G Representatives Bill Wells, PE Shaun Green, PE Kay Wolfe, PE

Georgia Engineer Editorial Board Thomas C. Leslie, Chair Michael L. (Sully) Sullivan, ACEC Georgia, President Gwen D. Brandon, CAE, ACEC Georgia, Chief Operating Officer

SEAOG Representative Rob Wellacher, PE

ACEC/Georgia Representatives B.J. Martin, PE Lee Philips

WTS Representative Angela Snyder

the Georgia engineer is published bi-monthly by A4 Inc. for the Georgia Engineering Alliance and sent to members of ACEC, ASCE, ASHE, GEF, GSPE, ITE, SEAOG, WTS; local, state, and Federal government officials and agencies; businesses and institutions. Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of the Alliance or publisher nor do they accept responsibility for errors of content or omission and, as a matter of policy, neither do they endorse products or advertisements appearing herein. Parts of this periodical may be reproduced with the written consent from the Alliance and publisher. Correspondence regarding address changes should be sent to the Alliance at the address above. Correspondence regarding advertising and editorial material should be sent to A4 Inc. at the address listed above.

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adveRtiSementS A4 Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 AECOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 American Engineering Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 AMEC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Ayres Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Burns & McDonnell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Cardno TBE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Columbia Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 CROM Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 EcoWise Civil Design & Consulting Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Edwards-Pitman Environmental Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Engineered Restorations Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Facility Design Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Hayward Baker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Back Cover Hazen & Sawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 HDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Heath & Lineback Engineers Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 ITE Summer Seminar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 JAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Keck & Wood Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Kennedy Engineering & Associates Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 MH Miles Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Pond Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Photo Science Geospatial Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Prime Engineering Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Reinforced Earth Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 RHD Utility Locating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 ROSSER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 RS&H. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 S&ME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Schnabel Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Stevenson & Palmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 STV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Terrell Hundley Carroll Right of Way Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 T•H•C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 TTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 T. Wayne Owens & Associates, PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 United Consulting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover Willmer Engineering Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Wolverton & Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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CONTENTS

GEORGIA ENGINEER April | May 2014

The Panama Canal at 100 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Road Diet Shapes up Ponce de Leon Avenue to be More Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Transit Friendly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Tiger II - The Atlanta Streetcar Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Cobb County - On the Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Atlanta Aerotropolis: Capitalizing on the Atlanta Regions’s Greatest Economic Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 AFS Expands Alternative Fuel Use with Largest Public CNG Station in Georgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Building Trails in the City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Georgia Engineering News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 ACEC Georgia News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 ASHE Georgia News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 GEF News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 ITE Georgia News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 ITS Georgia News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 SAME Georgia News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 WTS Georgia News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Concrete Precast Panels Revitalize Pavements in Winder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

the panama canaL at 100 yeaRS 9 apRiL | may 2014

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FEATURE

BY THOMAS C. LESLIE

THE PANAMA CANAL AT 100 YEARS the fiRSt commeRciaL SteamShip officiaLLy SaiLed thRouGh the panama canaL on auGuSt 15, 1914, aLthouGh it took aLmoSt 50 yeaRS of StRuGGLe to Get to thiS ceLebRation. there were decades of surveys and expeditions to one of the most remote and unhealthy locations on earth to find a route across the narrow strip of land between north and South america. Following their wildly successful completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, the French began construction in 1881 on a sealevel passage across Panama.

They dug for six years before changing the design concept to include locks to raise and lower ships over the mid-isthmus mountain ridge. But by 1887 it was too late. The French company constructing the canal finally ran out of money in 1889, was declared bankrupt, and became the center of a national scandal, which seemed to consume French pride and dignity.

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Ferdinand de Lesseps was the hero of the Suez Canal construction. He was a man of charisma, single-minded focus, and no small self-esteem. His notion was to build a sea level canal in Panama as he had done in Suez, and he convinced 800,000 French citizens, including both elites and commoners, to invest in his canal company. As construction costs rose, additional stock subscriptions were offered and purchased.

The bubble burst in 1889 and began three years of l’affaire de Panama—a financial scandal of the first order.

Even the great engineer, Gustave Eiffel, was swept up in the controversy. To help provide public cover for the belated change from a sea level to a lock-canal, de Lesseps recruited Eiffel to design the locks.

Although Eiffel was charged with misuse of funds and acquitted, his career as an engineer and builder was destroyed.

By 1894, a new Panama Canal company was chartered in France, which held the residual assets located in Panama but which had no path forward. Meanwhile in the U.S., the case for a canal to shorten trade routes was as compelling as ever.

There seemed to be a growing consensus for an ‘American’ canal through Nicaragua in lieu of the failed ‘French’ canal through Panama. The debate at all levels seemed to be independent of which was the most cost-effective route.

Theodore Roosevelt was elected president in 1901 as a strong advocate for a canal. Among the arguments against the Nicaragua route was the threat of volcano eruptions in that country as evidenced by a Nicaragua postage stamp that featured a volcano. In the end, Roo8

sevelt seemed to have selected the Panama route largely based on a technical analysis and a much-reduced sales price offered by the new canal company.

A congressional committee had made an independent assessment and concluded that the French assets should be valued at $109 million, which must have made the asking price of $40 million feel like a sweet deal.

The American assumption of canal construction seemed to exactly match the times. American confidence was growing, it would finish what Europe could not, Theodore Roosevelt was a very popular and energetic ‘can do’ President, and the audacity of the project matched the country’s aspirations. The canal was a hard project, but the President held the notion that strong men were intended to overcome hard things. And so it turned out.

The details were not nailed down until 1904. A significant impediment was that Panama was a province of Columbia, which balked at the terms agreed upon between Panama and the U.S. The U.S. fomented a revolution, which resulted in an independent Panama that quickly agreed to the U. S. resumption of canal construction, a lump sum payment of $10 million, and a 100-year lease that called for a payment of $250,000/year. The U.S. was given control over a six-mile wide Canal Zone.

Remarkably, the fundamental question of whether the canal should have locks or be at sea level remained open.

Roosevelt appointed an advisory panel of international experts in 1905 to consider this question. It recommended a sea level canal with an eight-to-five vote. Only after

intense lobbying by the practical, on-theground chief engineer in Panama, John Stevens, did Roosevelt instruct his Isthmian Canal Commission to override the recommendation in 1906 in favor of a lock-canal.

Finally, the path forward was clear and Roosevelt asserted that he was going to ‘make dirt fly.’ The American project concept is not crisply described as a ditch across Panama. About two-thirds of the route is through Lake Gatun, the world’s largest manmade lake created by building a massive earthen dam on the Chagres River a few miles inland from the Caribbean end of the canal. Three pairs of locks were built to lower ships through the dam to sea level. Locks were also built at two locations on the other end of the canal. In all, there were 12 chambers for raising and lowering vessels. Each chamber was 110’ wide by 1,000’ long by 81’ deep. The size was set to accommodate the largest sea-going vessel at the time— the Titanic. Sufficient hydroelectric energy was generated at the Gatun Dam to operate the entire canal, although the raising and lowering of water in the chambers was achieved by simply closing and opening valves.

The biggest challenge of canal construction was the excavation of the Culebra Cut, the high point on the route across the Isthmus, 275’ above sea level. The French had dug for six years and excavated about 19 million cubic yards. The U. S. dug for about seven years and removed an additional 96 million cubic yards. The real problem was the almost continuous landslides into the canal cut as the U.S. sought to find a stable angle of repose on the side slopes. Eventually, the top of the cut grew

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from a planned width of 670’ to 1,800’ with side slopes at 5:1.

Over the years of U.S. construction, the management structure evolved and became very flat with the chief engineer in Panama reporting to the Secretary of War (William Howard Taft in the early years) who reported to the President (Theodore Roosevelt). It had become very clear that a Canal Commission in Washington that provided final approval to every dot and tittle in Panama, 2,000 miles away, simply did not work.

The chief engineer, in essence, became the CEO for canal construction as well as the Canal Zone, itself. John Stevens was the Chief Engineer from 1905 – 1907, and George Washington Goethals was chief engineer from 1907 to 1914.

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While they were involved in major design decisions, both knew that their most important job was to provide for a well-fed, well-equipped, well-housed, and well-organized work force. And this they did.

The scale of the Panama Canal is so large it is hard to imagine. During the final years of construction, the work force was 45,000 – 50,000. The American cost for the canal was $352 million (in 1914 dollars and included the $10 million payment to Panama and the $40 million to the new Canal Company in France). Since 1904 (the American years), 5,600 deaths occurred from disease and accidents; 20 – 22,000 deaths occurred during the French years of construction. There was a total of 262 million cubic yards of excavation. In 1907, the Americans estimated the total

cost and a completion date—the work was done $23 million under budget and six months ahead of schedule.

It is clear that by almost any metric, the Panama Canal has been wildly successful. It was not until 1936 when the Queen Mary was launched that a ship was too large to pass through the canal. But this was just the beginning. In 1976, author David McCullough* reported that 700 ships were too large for the canal. It is currently undergoing a major expansion to handle the even larger number of super sized ships. It is expected to be completed in 2015, and the stage will be set for the canal’s next 100 years. * The Path Between the Seas, The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870 – 1914,

by David McCullough served as the basis of this article. v

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Road Diet Shapes up Ponce de Leon Avenue to be More Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Transit Friendly

hat may be the biggest road diet ever done in the state of Georgia was a long time coming. Ponce de Leon Avenue, designated as US Highway 78 and 278, is one of Atlanta’s signature corridors.

It connects Atlanta’s Midtown business district to downtown Decatur, unincorporated central

marked as five to six travel lanes, with left-turn lanes that began and ended randomly, and turning vehicles blocking the innermost through lane at many in-

DeKalb County, and Stone Mountain.

tersections. Hard to imagine, but the

The street, which is named after the

travel lanes in some places were as nar-

Ponce Springs located at the bottom of

row as 8.5’, and, at several intersec-

the valley just east of Glen Iris Drive,

tions, through vehicles were in a

once carried streetcars from downtown

head-on situation with left-turning vehi-

and Peachtree Street to the Atlanta

cles. The outermost through lanes were

Crackers’ ballpark. East of Briarcliff

up against the sidewalk, which in many

Road/Moreland Avenue (US 23), Ponce

places lacked any curbing. This resulted

de Leon Avenue becomes part of the

in an extremely poor pedestrian envi-

historic Olmsted Linear Park, which re-

ronment, as high-speed vehicles passed

sembles the winding parkways of New

within feet of those walking along the

York and Washington, DC. The corridor

street with no vertical separation. Also,

has some serious character.

during heavy rain events, pedestrians

in the early 2000s, ponce was a neglected roadway in a soon-to-be-redeveloping neighborhood.

would be splashed by passing cars while walking to the MARTA rail station at the west end of the corridor or waiting for the number two bus. My wife and I

It had been ranked as one of the most

walked up and down this street for

dangerous corridors in the state for bi-

about a year when we first moved to At-

cyclists and pedestrians, and was not

lanta, and dreaded every moment of it.

much safer for motorists. West of the Atlanta BeltLine corridor, the street was

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the outermost through lanes were up against the sidewalk, which in many places lacked any curbing.

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To the east of the Atlanta BeltLine bridge, the roadway was striped with three eastbound lanes, one of which dropped at North Highland Avenue as a left-turn lane, and two westbound lanes, which were blocked frequently by leftand right-turning vehicles. One left-turning motorist could reduce the roadway to one westbound through lane in the morning peak hour. Between North Highland Avenue and Briarcliff Road/Moreland Avenue, the street was striped with four travel lanes and a two-way left-turn lane.

A corridor-wide average of 38,000 motor vehicles per day traveled the roadway in 2006 with the higher volumes on the five-lane section east of the Atlanta BeltLine. By 2010, average daily traffic counts dropped to 24,590-34,710 vehicles per day; however the western section with more lanes still carried less traffic. crash data According to the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), Ponce de Leon Avenue between Midtown and Briarcliff Road/Moreland Avenue, was ranked second highest in the state’s crash reporting system for pedestrian crashes. From 2000 to 2009, there were 5,408 collisions along this segment. A total of 112 of these crashes involved pedestrians, resulting in 113 injuries and three fatalities.

Almost 2,000 of the crashes were rearend and about 1,000 were side-swipes.

Per the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), adding a two-way left-turn lane 12

can reduce construction began in rear-end late summer 2013, and crashes by 36 was substantially compercent plete by december. safety and sidecountermeaswipe sures, which includes road crashes by diets. A study done by the 37 percent.

Pedestrian and Bicycle InformaThere were also tion Center in 2013 showed that road 15 bicycle crashes from diets had a pedestrians crash reduction 2003 to 2007, with many related to the factor of 41 percent on roadway seglack of dedicated bicycle facilities. Data ments. shows that the addition of bicycle lanes has a crash reduction factor of 36 peratlanta beltLine eastside trail cent for all types of bike crashes.

In 2010, construction of the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail began. This section of pedestrian Safety project trail runs from Piedmont Park at the In 2008, recognizing that the safety of north to Irwin Street at the south. It those on foot was a serious issue along stretches for about 2.5 miles and crosses the corridor, GDOT programmed a over Ponce de Leon Avenue via a historic pedestrian safety project between the steel railroad bridge between Glen Iris Piedmont Avenue and Briarcliff Drive and Ponce de Leon Place. Even beRoad/Moreland Avenue intersections. fore construction started, this important This project was primarily focused on inproject was positively influencing the stallation of street lighting, new pedesneighborhoods along the former freight trian hybrid beacons (HAWKs) at rail right-of-way. At the center of this mid-block crossing locations, and assegment of 14’-wide trail is the Ponce sorted ADA improvements and sidewalk corridor. repair. The project was also scoped to include several curb extensions and the re- ponce city market moval of a short right-turn lane; however In 2011, the city entered into an agreea lane reduction was not part of the iniment with German private equity fund tial scope. At the time, FHWA had not fiJamestown, L.P. to sell the giant City Hall nalized its list of proven pedestrian East complex for $27 million, further fuGeoRGia enGineeR

eling the urban renaissance underway along Ponce de Leon Avenue in the Old Fourth Ward. Jamestown hoped to turn the two-million-square-foot former Sears distribution center into a mixed use attraction similar to Chelsea Market in New York. Part of the company’s goals was to create a bicycle and pedestrian friendly development that directly links to the Atlanta BeltLine and surrounding neighborhoods. Almost immediately, the Jamestown project management team expressed interest in supporting and even helping to fund complete street improvements along the corridor. As a result of this cooperative relationship between the private sector, city staff and the folks at Atlanta BeltLine Inc. (ABI), the City was able to secure a Transportation, Community, and Systems Preservation (TCSP) grant from USDOT in order to construct a bridge and plaza connecting the Atlanta BeltLine trail to the Ponce City market development. This project is located directly to the south of Ponce. apRiL | may 2014

Around the same time, Midtown Alliance was also finalizing plans for a streetscape project along the City-owned section of Ponce de Leon Avenue between Spring Street and Juniper Street.

Later that year, city staff submitted an application to the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) program for implementation funds. The application proposed bicycle and pedestrian improvements along Ponce between Boulevard/Monroe Drive and Freedom Parkway and vertical connections between the trail and Ponce.

The local match was generously committed by ABI and Jamestown. The Ponce City Market developer was able to pledge the funding budgeted for required improvements along the property frontage to the greater Ponce corridor.

Leveraging private funding turned out to

be a winning formula, as we were awarded the largest LCI grant of the 2011 round. ponce de Leon task force After our success with the TCSP grant, my office pushed for the formation of a Ponce de Leon Task Force that would bring together all of the managers for the different projects along the corridor and advocate for additional aesthetic, operational, and safety improvements. Many of us had witnessed the lack of concurrent public investment in the West Midtown area of Atlanta, where the private sector had brought boatloads of equity to bear and the city and state failed to 13

respond in time. We hoped that this time would be different. Our goal was to support the private investment and perhaps even accelerate it through targeted and coordinated public support.

We convened the task force at city of Atlanta Office of Planning. ABI, ARC, GDOT, Jamestown, and Midtown Alliance all sent representatives. We were careful to limit attendance to those who were already involved with projects along the corridor. This group was intended to be an action council, not a place to wax hypothetical and/or talk about why we couldn’t do things. This first meeting was mostly an opportunity to review the programmed projects, however we at the City expressed early on that we were interested in a road diet west of the Atlanta BeltLine bridge. The existing lanes were too narrow, there was capacity to spare, and the Ponce de Leon Avenue/ North Avenue corridor was identified in the Connect Atlanta Plan as an important bicycle connection. Furthermore, the city’s plans for streetcar transit on North Avenue coupled with the street’s extreme grades made it an unlikely candidate for a bikeway. It was agreed by the group that additional analysis was needed to pursue the lane reduction.

Both Jamestown and City staff asked GDOT to investigate the programming of resurfacing funds to implement the lane conversion as soon as possible. Ponce City Market was slated to open in 2014; however the pedestrian safety and LCI projects were not scheduled for construction until 2015-2016.

Roadway Safety audits After the first task force meeting, we began coordinating with Atlanta’s pedestrian and bike safety advocacy groups, PEDS, and Atlanta Bicycle Coalition to advance the road diet concept for Ponce.

Both organizations conducted Roadway Safety Audits (RSAs) and organized walkabouts, which included representatives from the task force agencies.

The bicycle RSA revealed 11 safety issues, including inconsistency in roadway cross-sections, causing confusion 14

and unsafe roadway user behavior. Additionally, high speeds, limited sight distances, and unpredictable road user movements result in conflicts at access points and intersections. All reported bicycle crashes on Ponce between 2003 and 2007 were angle crashes at intersections, which can be exacerbated by the number of lanes being crossed.

The pedestrian RSA identified a number of safety concerns, including: aggressive driver behavior, poor coordination of traffic signals, high driving speeds, and long waits to cross at traffic signals, which require pedestrian activation. Furthermore, due to repeated repaving, the curb lacks vertical separation from the travel lanes. In the two-mile segment, there are 13 traffic lights and 11 unsignalized intersections. On average, intersections are 436’ apart and traffic signals are located every 836’, a four to five minute walk, compelling many pedestrians to cross mid-block. The addition of a two-way left-turn lane would make the installation of mid-block crossings easier.

Both RSAs recommended a road diet to improve safety, as well as the addition of bikeways, vertically buffered sidewalks, and safer pedestrian crossings.

These reports provided city staff with evidence and recommendations supporting the lane reduction. complete Street Retrofit In early 2012, we received good news.

GDOT maintenance staff was able to accelerate the funding for the resurfacing of Ponce, with a goal of letting the project in 2013. The roadway was already high on the list of priorities, however it was recognized that improvements were needed in advance of the opening of major new traffic generators along the street.

Our efforts received crucial topdown endorsement in May 2012 with a letter from the Mayor Kasim Reed to GDOT Commissioner Keith Golden. The letter urged GDOT to reconfigure the roadway for improved safety, noting that the city’s plans supported the lane con-

version. Commissioner Golden responded with a letter shortly thereafter affirming his department’s support for the road diet and supporting the efforts of the task force to implement the complete street retrofit with the resurfacing in 2013.

In late 2012, GDOT was able to complete an updated traffic analysis using a continuous four-lane cross-section with a two-way left-turn lane for the entire stretch between Piedmont Avenue and Briarcliff Road/Moreland Avenue. This analysis showed a slight improvement in level of service in the AM peak between North Highland Avenue and the Atlanta BeltLine. This was due to the conversion of the third westbound travel lane to a two-way left-turn lane, which removed turning vehicles from the innermost westbound lane. Generally, the west end of the corridor during the AM peak and all intersections during the PM peak would see degradations in level of service of one grade or less. Only two intersections would operate below the city-minimum of D in the horizon year 2035: Charles Allen Drive and Briarcliff Road/Moreland Avenue. The latter will operate at LOS E regardless of whether the road diet is implemented.

After reviewing the results of the traffic analysis, the task force agreed that the safety improvements resulting from the lane conversion outweighed the negative impacts to motor vehicle traffic during the peaks hours. The group agreed to monitor the intersections of Charles Allen Drive and Boulevard/Monroe Drive after the implementation and make modifications if necessary. It was a very reasonable course of action.

In early 2013, city transportation planning staff began developing the new pavement marking plan with the assistance of GDOT and its consultant. Between Piedmont Avenue and the Atlanta BeltLine, where Ponce had seven to eight narrow lanes, the roadway was reduced to four 10’ travel lanes with a two-way left-turn lane and two 5’ bike lanes with 2-3’ buffers. East of Ponce de Leon Place, where Ponce de Leon Avenue had three GeoRGia enGineeR

eastbound and two westbound travel lanes, the project created a two-way left-turn lane with two travel lanes in each direction. This segment of Ponce lacks space for bikeways, but the parallel St. Charles Avenue serves as the east-west bike connection here. The city plans to install a two-stage left-turn queue box at the east end of the Ponce bike lane, guiding cyclists onto St. Charles Avenue. We worked closely with MARTA to relocate many bus stops to the far side of intersections and future mid-block crossing locations, and the plans include dashed bike lane markings and no bike lane symbols in bus stop areas. This will notify cyclists that they are entering a bus stop area and also prevent the thermoplastic markings from being damaged by buses. We also asked Midtown Alliance to develop a pavement marking plan for the section between Piedmont Avenue and Juniper Street, which was outside of the limits of the GDOT plan. The two pavement marking plans became part of the bid package for the resurfacing project. The resurfacing project scope was carefully crafted so as to avoid areas the upcoming pedestrian safety and LCI projects would disturb. The task force developed a comprehensive map and matrix listing the components of each project so as to avoid duplication. It was truly an unprecedented level of inter-agency coordination.

Before finalizing the design, the task force held a series of public meetings, including one for businesses, to collect public input. Businesses were overwhelmingly in favor of the new two-way left-turn lane, and generally viewed the street redesign as attractive.

Construction began in late summer 2013, and was substantially complete by apRiL | may 2014

businesses were overwhelmingly in favor of the new two-way leftturn lane, and generally viewed the street redesign as attractive.

December. The new twoway left-turn lane rationalizes the movement of motor vehicles and allows for the future installation of medianettes /refuge islands, while the buffered bicycle lanes also serve two purposes: connecting bicyclists to the popular Atlanta BeltLine trail and the Midtown business district, and providing a 5-8’ horizontal buffer between pedestrians on the sidewalk and the nearest travel lane.

This reduces noise, splashing, and wind, making walking along the corridor more comfortable. Anecdotal evidence is positive so far with peak hour speeds averaging between 15 and 20 mph, inclusive of dwell time at traffic signals. On urban arterials, an acceptable average peak hour speed seems to be somewhere near 18 mph. Cyclist traffic is sure to increase once Ponce City Market opens later this year and the vertical connections up to the Atlanta BeltLine are constructed as part of the LCI project.

Josh Mello, AICP served as the Assistant Director of Planning - Transportation for the city of Atlanta from 2010 to early

2014.

In this role, he supervised the city’s transportation planning staff and managed planning, political outreach, public involvement, scoping, design supervision, permitting, and data collection services for bicycle, freight, transit, pedestrian, and roadway projects throughout the city.

He is currently a Senior Associate with Alta Planning + Design in Sacramento, where he works primarily on bicycle, pedestrian, and complete street projects throughout California and the southeastern US. v 15

Tiger II

the atlanta Streetcar project

By Philip Meador | Silverman Construction

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irst and last mile transit connectivity referenced by the Atlanta Beltline begins with the Atlanta Streetcar. Part of the larger ‘Connect Atlanta’ plan which is intended to increase transportation options, promote sustainable development and create a better urban environment, the Atlanta Streetcar is the first stage in what is expected to become a major overhaul of the city’s transit system. Initially envisioned as an East-West connection between the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic site and Centennial Olympic Park

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with a north-south alignment along Peachtree Street, the Atlanta Streetcar lost out on the opportunity for TIGER I Stimulus. However, in October 2010 the city of Atlanta received notice that it had been awarded approximately $47.6 million in funds through the TIGER II Federal Grant program, which would partially fund the originally proposed east-west connection. In addition, the city of Atlanta recently pursued and was granted Federal Transit Administration Grantee status.

Recognizing transit-related financing challenges, the city of Atlanta has also recently publicly acknowledged it would

entertain public-private partnerships.

The TIGER II Atlanta Streetcar Project (‘Streetcar’), a collaborative effort among Atlanta’s business, political, and transit communities, includes three local sponsors: the city of Atlanta, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID), and MARTA. The city of Atlanta is the recipient of the TIGER II grant and owner of the project. MARTA, as the tenured transit organization, is serving as the technical advisor, and ADID is a funding partner.

Because of the TIGER II Grant federal funding, the Federal Transit Administration provides oversight while Georgia Depart-

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table utility adjustments were completed in July of 2013. Since the project site is located within some of the oldest areas of downtown Atlanta, several unknown facilities and infrastructure had to be dealt with on a case by case basis. The entire Utility Task Force has and will remain committed to actively responding until the last cantilever pole is placed and the last portion of guide way is poured in early 2014.

In addition to the sponsors and utilities, property owners, business proprietors, and the general public have been integral players in the project’s implementation.

Within Atlanta’s built- out urban environment, minimizing and negotiating impacts and conflicts is a huge challenge. Contending with existing utilities, minimizing interruptions of the myriad of utility service ment of Transportation oversees safety certification. The team selected the design-build project delivery system for implementation and awarded the contract to URS Corporation in February 2012. Immediately following the selection, URS joined the Weekly Utility Task Force comprised of the entire utility community and

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the sponsors, originally established in mid 2011. In April of 2012, URS began design efforts. With the URS team on board and the full attention of all parties, focus on design refinement became top priority.

Design concluded in December of 2012, and streetcar system construction commenced in February of 2013. The last no-

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been missing for over a half century.

The Streetcar project is 2.7 miles long operating in a loop from the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site to Woodruff Park to Centennial Olympic Park and back.

The twelve stops include: King Historic District, Peachtree Center, Centennial Olympic Park, Hurt Park, and the Sweet Auburn Market. The four vehicles are examples of the most advanced modern streetcar design and technology available.

The Overhead Contact System (OCS) will also be making a reappearance downtown with a single trolley wire system suspended from OCS poles, blending in with the city street lights. The project is supported by a new two-bay vehicle mainte-

nance Facility located in the heart of the alignment on Fort Street.

With the conclusion of construction this year, festival activity will return to downtown, traffic detours will be lifted, and the public can enjoy an enriched and revitalized downtown Atlanta. The Streetcar will share travel lanes with the public who will undoubtedly know which way it will turn! This is an historic project for the city of Atlanta and one that exemplifies the intense collaborative effort that is crucial in rebuilding and urbanizing not only existing infrastructure but also new infrastructure here in Georgia and across the United States. v

providers, and considering new infrastructure, along with constant merger and acquisition activity amongst the private telecom utilities, requires continuous day to day collaboration amongst all involved.

Over the course of construction, property owners who border the Streetcar have had to face daily construction traffic, shifting detours and the occasional access request needed to integrate the new system into the existing infrastructure. These businesses, residences, and the general public have exhibited patience and understanding that normal routines will return and will return with a new method of transit that has

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Cobb County – On the Move

By Faye Q. DiMassimo, AICP | Director | Cobb County Department of Transportation

ome to nearly 700,000 persons, 30,000 businesses and numerous Fortune 500 companies, and regional institutions, Cobb County is a developed area with a mature transportation system that includes 5,000 roads, 440 bridges and culverts, and 536 traffic signals. The county’s transportation system has expanded over time to serve the growing economy and population of the county, and is now substantial with major roadways in place to serve future generations. Even so, numerous opportunities still exist to capture market trends with a focus on infill development and redevelopment. Future investments will focus on improving existing corridors and enhancing system operations such as intersection and signalization improvements, technology and traffic management enhancements, and expanded multimodal capacity. Our Regional Traffic Management Center (TMC), completed in 2010, serves as the center for the county’s Advanced Transportation Management Systems. The advanced technology provides for excellent situational awareness in incident management, inclement weather, and event related activities, and for exceptional system operational efficiencies. Through signal systems operation and management activities, the TMC will pay for itself within seven years, reducing travel delays and improving mobility for the traveling public.

Cobb’s rich transportation infrastructure not only includes roadway and operational assets but the Cobb County Airport - McCollum Field and Cobb Community Transit system (CCT). McCollum Field’s economic impact is considerable, supporting over 840 jobs in the region. Additionally, a new air traffic control tower, new customs facility for international arrivals, and parallel taxiway extensions to runway end will be under construction in 2014. The corporate row hangar project

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McCollum Field’s New Control Tower Concept has added 100,000 square feet of new cor- Current CCT service includes fixed route porate flight department first class hangar local and paratransit services as well as exspace. In addition, potential scheduled air press commuter service. Connect Cobb, charter service is being explored along the current Alternatives Analysis and Enwith aviation management academic pro- vironmental Assessment for the northgramming at Kennesaw State University west corridor, including Cobb Parkway/US (KSU). The airport area is also anchored 41 and I-75 from KSU through Cumberland by one of two community improvement and to the MARTA Arts Center Station, is districts in Cobb—the Town Center Area developing a Bus Rapid Transit project Community Improvement District along with complementary enhancement (TCACID). Cobb County’s partnership with of express bus on I-75, to serve the inTCACID and Georgia Department of Trans- creasing mobility demands, livability, and portation (GDOT) has produced trans- connectivity in this key Cobb corridor. In portation investments supporting the addition, CCT is finalizing plans to initiate area’s continued prosperity including the ‘first- in-the-Atlanta-region’ flex zone bus most recent—the Skip Spann Connector. service and improvements to several other This project includes a bridge over I-75 routes in the south Cobb area which is also providing connection between rapidly home to Six Flags.

The county’s Comprehensive Transgrowing KSU and the Town Center activity center that will significantly reduce traffic portation Plan update underway will provide the strategic vision and on Chastain Road.

CCT celebrates its 25th year in opera- implementation guide for Cobb’s contintion in 2014 and is the second largest tran- ued success and includes the cities of sit system in Georgia, behind MARTA, Austell, Powder Springs, Smyrna, Marietta, serving over four million trips annually. Kennesaw, and Acworth, CIDs and uninGeoRGia enGineeR

Cumberland Galleria Area

Alternatives Analysis Alignments apRiL | may 2014

corporated Cobb County. That success has been underscored further with the announcement of the Braves baseball move to Cobb County. Located in the Cumberland area, this area is home to Home Depot, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, the Cobb Galleria Convention Centre, The Weather Channel, the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area, and the new stadium development. Another key community partner, the Cumberland Community Improvement District (CCID) represents over five percent of the state’s total economy.

Because of Cobb’s aggressive approach to planning and implementing infrastructure that supports the county’s economic development plans, significant roadway improvements are already or will soon be under construction in the Cumberland area in time for the first Braves pitch. Many are made possible through the county’s current 2011 SPLOST and partnerships with GDOT. In addition to the existing fourteen (14) points of access to and from the stadium area, these projects include the Windy Hill Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) and corridor improvements along Cobb Parkway/US 41, from Akers Mill Road to Paces Mill Road, and the Cobb Parkway Chattahoochee River Bridge. The I-75 managed lanes, opening to traffic in 2018, will also greatly improve peak period mobility for commuters and enhance express bus transit. Roadway projects are complemented by the existing five routes of CCT service and one MARTA route in the Cumberland area.

Key new projects under development include a ped-transit bridge over I-285 connecting the Galleria and Braves stadium areas as well as a circulator that will serve the area and connect to mainline transit services. Other potential roadway, operational and pedestrian improvements are being considered.

Cobb’s transportation approach serves to maximize system performance, enhance mobility, improve safety, sustain economic competiveness, and seek cost effective investment strategies. Our success story rests on this foundation coupled with community involvement, vision, and leadership. v 23

Atlanta Aerotropolis: Capitalizing on the Atlanta Region’s Greatest Economic Asset

By Douglas R. Hooker, P.E. | Executive Director | Atlanta Regional Commission artsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest airport in the world, serving some 250,000 passengers and moving almost 2,000 metric tons of freight each day. This makes it one of Georgia’s primary economic engines, directly responsible for over 50,000 jobs and indirectly responsible for countless more.

Global commercial passenger air travel is expected to increase from roughly five billion passengers in 2010 to 13.3 billion by 2030. Cargo traffic is expected to triple in the same two decades. If Hartsfield-Jackson remains the busiest in the world, much of this new aviation business will come its way. Knowing this, it makes sense that the region would want to leverage the airport’s power and help it deliver maximum economic benefit today while preparing to drive the state’s economy for decades to come.

As the “front porch” of metro Atlanta, Hartsfield-Jackson and the surrounding area are the first impression that millions of people get when they visit metro Atlanta. It also makes sense that the region

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“The true challenge is planning to get the aerotropolis right. If there is not appropriate planning, airport-area development will be spontaneous, haphazard, economically inefficient and ultimately unsustainable. The aerotropolis model brings together airport planning, urban and regional planning and business-site planning, to create a new urban form that is highly competitive, attractive and sustainable.”

- John D. Kasarda, PhD, director of the Center for Air Commerce at UNC's Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise

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Frankfurt, Germany would want the airport area to make a Fortunately, those two economic good first impression for the metro area, strategies go hand-in-hand. And, after two attracting new businesses and educated years of research, planning and relationship building, airport-area leaders have residents to help grow the economy. taken a large, bold step toward these two goals by forming the Atlanta Aerotropolis Alliance. The Alliance is focused on creating a community around the airport that will attract more corporate headquarters, businesses, retail and housing by increasing economic development, mobility and quality of life for the communities adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson.

The initiative is being led by Chairman Joe Folz, Chief Counsel and Secretary for Porsche Cars North America. His vice chair is Pedro Cherry, Vice President for Community and Economic Development at Georgia Power.

“We chose the airport area for our new headquarters and our Porsche Experience Center because we believe in the future of the Hartsfield-Jackson area and its importance to the Atlanta region, and Schiphol Airport City in Amsterdam GeoRGia enGineeR

Throughout the aerotropolis community, you would find signage that is easy to follow and a transportation network that can efficiently get you where you need to go.

Cities around the U.S. and the world are planning airport cities. Paris, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Indianapolis, Denver and Detroit are all developing communities around their airports that are attracting business in high-tech, manufacturing, lo-

Gateway Center in College Park because it literally brings the world to our airports are evolving from a necessary door every day,” Mr. Folz said. “We have a place of departure to a destination in and tremendous opportunity to build upon our of themselves. asset of having the world’s busiest airport The idea is that the airport is the cento pursue what other global cities are tral business district of the aerotropolis, doing, our own world-class aerotropolis. along with a few hotels and some other What Is an Aerotropolis? business functions. In ripples moving out This idea of an ‘aerotropolis’ is not from the center are airport-related indusnew. The term ‘aerotropolis’ can be found tries like distribution centers and e-fulfillat least as far back as an issue of Popular ment facilities. A little further out you Science magazine from the 1930s. Essen- might find industrial parks, research facilitially, the concept is to make a region’s air- ties and hotel/convention areas. And furport a hub of economic activity and to ther still, as you move out of the Federal celebrate the airport’s role as a powerful Aviation Administration height limits, you economic engine. Because of this concept, might find office and residential properties.

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gistics and tourism industries. The Atlanta Aerotropolis Alliance has a similar opportunity.

An aerotropolis with Hartsfield-Jackson as its centerpiece is further along than some might think. With Porsche Cars North America joining Delta Airlines, Chick-fil-A and other major corporations putting their headquarters near the airport, and with the redevelopment of the old Ford plant and a new hotel going in, things seem to be moving in the right direction. And, the formation of the Atlanta Aerotropolis Alliance will help focus leadership and resources in creating an exciting gateway and business hub for metro Atlanta, in a unified, strategic manner.

What is the atlanta aerotropolis alliance?

In 2010-11, ARC developed the regional plan, called PLAN 2040. During the process, as planners met with hundreds of regional business, political and nonprofit leaders, the airport and its importance to the region kept coming up. Therefore, a key recommendation of PLAN 2040 is to leverage Hartsfield-Jackson for economic development in the region, especially the communities around the airport.

As a first step, ARC staff began a series of discussions with each of the jurisdictions around the airport. These discussions centered mostly on issues and opportunities these jurisdictions were facing and

Hartsfield Jackson’s International Terminal whether or not there was a need for should be involved.

A ‘Global Gateway’ event, co-hosted greater collaboration and coordination among the jurisdictions. All agreed that by ARC, Georgia Power and the Airport coordination was needed and that ARC Area, Clayton County and South Fulton chambers of commerce, introduced the aerotropolis concept and the general idea of airport area development to more than 160 interested stakeholders and members of the general public. After that, the idea truly began gaining momentum.

The Airport Area Task Force was created by combining interested parties from the event with members of the Airport Area Working Group. The task force focused on three main issues: the creation of an umbrella organization (Atlanta Aerotropolis Alliance), improved intergovernmental coordination and the investigation of creating one or more CIDs in the area.

The task force also acted as the forum for sharing and promoting multiple airport Global Cargo Flight

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area efforts. It has also become a vehicle for recruiting new members. next Steps The Atlanta Airport Alliance was officially established as a 501(c)6 early in 2014 and held its first official board meeting shortly thereafter. The Alliance has established several short-term goals. They plan to enhance aesthetics, branding and safety in the airport area and within nearby communities by improving signage, cleaning up the roadways and other similar activities. Funding for these early initiatives is expected to come from two new CIDs in the area.

Longer term, the Alliance will develop economic development plans and a marketing strategy to leverage the global reach of the airport, as well as the ability of travelers to reach 80 percent of the continental US population in two hours or less from Hartsfield-Jackson, and to create more high-wage business, manufacturing, cargo and logistics opportunities in the airport area. It also hopes that these travel conveniences and the promise of better amenities and more livable nearby communities will attract more headquarters like Porsche to the area.

Airport City Concept The Alliance is challenged more than website, the Dallas-Fort Worth airport other aerotropolis builders by the fact that consists of 17,000 acres, 4,000 of which is Hartsfield-Jackson has a very small geo- available for commercial use and open graphic footprint compared to other major space. Hartsfield-Jackson sits on a total of airports. For example, according to its 4,700 acres, most of which is used for airport buildings, runways and operations.

The majority of developable land near the airport is located in College Park, East Point, Hapeville and the other cities and towns adjacent to the airport property.

Multiple parcels with multiple owners make thoughtful planning and collaboration essential.

When business people are asked to name the factors they considered when deciding to locate or stay in metro Atlanta, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is always near the top of the list.

The Atlanta Aerotropolis Alliance wants to ensure that remains the case and that the airport becomes a shining example of how an airport can not only drive a region’s economy, but can also drive the transformation of communities near airports that offer a high quality of life and an example to other suburban areas. v Aerotropolis Area Map

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AFS Expands Alternative Fuels Use with Largest Public CNG Station in Georgia

By Joey Kline & Khurram Saleem he demand for cleaner burning alternative fuels such as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is growing at a staggering rate. More and more municipalities, counties and companies are starting to transition their fleets to run on CNG-powered vehicles primarily because of the low cost of fuel and the stability of price when compared to gasoline and diesel. On average, CNG is 30% cheaper than gasoline and 40% cheaper than diesel. CNG also offers many environmental benefits that make it a clear choice in order to meet new EPA emissions standards. CNG offers a 30% reduction in carbon emissions and a 90% reduction in fine particulate matter when compared to gasoline and diesel.

These advantages, along with the fact that natural gas is a domestically sourced fuel, are increasing the need for more and more reliable fueling locations.

American Fueling Systems (AFS) is a leader in the effort to increase alternative fueling infrastructure and has designed its

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American Fueling Systems built the largest public CNG fueling station in Georgia in just seven months, and useage has increased 37% for the year 2013. facilities to help make the transition to of CNG per minute. Unlike traditional peCNG both easy and seamless. AFS, like troleum stations, CNG facilities focus primany of its peers in the marketplace, must marily on producing CNG on an as needed strike a balance between top-tier per- basis with very little in storage. Therefore, formance in the production and dispens- it is imperative that the developer and ening of CNG, and meeting the unique needs gineers work together to better underfrom the variety of users of these facilities. stand the total and peak consumption of In September 2012, AFS opened the that particular facility.

This AFS CNG station features two Jlargest public CNG fueling facility in the state of Georgia. AFS, in partnership with W Power compressors. Each compressor the Department of Energy’s Petroleum Re- is 125 horsepower and has a flow rate of duction Grant, designed and built this fa- 250 SCFM. With a combined flow of 500 cility located at 4420 Buford Highway NE SCFM, this compressor system is capable in Chamblee, Georgia in a mere seven of producing approximately 240 months. Located on a 1-acre lot behind GGE/hour. This compressor package was Peachtree-DeKalb Airport, this CNG sta- chosen for its ability to not only satisfy the tion was the first to be located on a major customer demand upon opening of this fathoroughfare in the state of Georgia, and cility, but also to handle projected demand the first with a marquee advertising the as it grows over the coming years. The price; currently, that price is $2.39/GGE, compressor skids are sized to accommoand it has not changed since January 2013. date the next biggest compressor unit, This facility produces CNG at a rate of which means that if the compressors need 500 Standard Cubic Feet per Minute to be upgraded in the future, the larger (SCFM). The industry is based on a single compressors can simply be bolted in place rate of conversion that is the primary basis and made operational seamlessly. This for pricing and production. One Gasoline flexibility of design is evident in all other Gallon Equivalent (GGE) equates to 125 areas of AFS stations, as well.

Prior to entering the compressors, cubic feet of natural gas. Using this conversion, AFS is able to produce four GGEs natural gas flows through a gas dryer manGeoRGia enGineeR

ufactured by PSB Industries, whose purpose is to eliminate any moisture and/or particulate matter in the gas. Despite the fact that Georgia has gas with very low moisture content, the gas dryer ensures that the CNG going into customers’ fuel tanks is of the highest quality. The gas exiting the dryer is fed directly into the J-W Power compressors.

Within the compressors, the natural gas is compressed in four stages, at everincreasing pressure. From the compressor, the gas, which is now pressurized at 4,500 psi, flows either to one of two three-bank storage cascades manufactured by CP Industries, or to one of eight hoses on the four Tulsa Gas Technologies CNG dispensers. Whether the gas flows to the storage tanks or to the dispensers is decided by the Priority Panel, which is manufactured by J-W Power. The Priority Panel also decides to which of the four dispensers the gas flows, and is controlled by sophisticated computer software that allows the panel to intelligently route the CNG to where it is needed at any particular moment.

The storage cascades are capable of storing approximately 200 GGE of CNG and serve as complements to the output of the compressors. With the added storage, customers are able to fuel their vehicles at 1012 GGE/minute. All piping connecting the compressors, storage tanks, priority panel and dispensers is seamless stainless steel.

To avoid possible choke points, the piping was installed with a goal of minimizing the use of mechanical joints and sharp bends wherever possible. Within the equipment enclosure, all piping is above ground. This feature ensures that as the station grows in the future, connections between new pieces of equipment will be seamless and not require a shutdown of the station to dig up underground piping. The only underground piping is from the priority panel to the currently operational dispensers as well as those planned for future expansion.

Each dispenser is coupled with a stand-alone payment processing system manufactured by Fuel Master. The payment system is equipped to accept all major credit and fleet cards. In addition, apRiL | may 2014

customers that have the capability to be invoiced (as opposed to paying by credit card at the point of purchase) can simply enter their unique identifying number and begin fueling. All transaction data is captured by the payment system and downloaded to AFS’s servers at our headquarters. This capability allows the AFS analytics team to study customer data, and ultimately draw business conclusions that help guide internal decisionmaking as well as client’s future vehicle acquisitions.

The station features two canopies that are each 17.6 feet high. There are four dual-hose dispensers that allow eight vehicles to fuel simultaneously. Also, AFS installed an empty concrete pad under the second canopy to allow for the addition of another alternative fuel in the future. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) both have the potential to serve more customers in the area surrounding this station, and are viable options for expansion at a later date.

During its first full year of operations,

this CNG station dispensed a total of 136,430 GGEs of CNG and ended 2013 with consumption up 37% for the year.

For the first three months of 2014, the consumption has been even higher and with more and more fleets looking to CNG as their fuel of choice, this station is well on its way to achieving the short-term goal of 20,000 GGEs per month.

The United States is the largest natural gas producer in the world according to Energy Information Administration. The abundance of natural gas, coupled with stable prices and reduced carbon emissions, is making CNG the fuel of choice for many of the nation’s fleets. All of these factors have contributed to the recent surge in demand for CNG, especially in and around the logsistical hub of Atlanta.

There are significant resources being poured into CNG infrastructure development in and around the state of Georgia and AFS, with its experience and impeccable market reputation for expert design and engineering services, is poised to be at the forefront of this energy revolution. v

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Building Trails in the City Innovative Techniques to Minimize Environmental Impact

By Ed McBrayer | Executive Director and co-founder of the PATH Foundation he biggest challenge to building greenways and trails through urban areas is assembling vacant land to form corridors that link desirable destinations. Most vacant land near a city’s center has been passed over by developers for good reason: it is either too steep, too wet, or is surrounded by land uses inconsistent with new development. Our effort to assemble passed-over land to build the PATH trail system in metropolitan Atlanta has resulted in innovative design techniques for bridging creeks, handling storm water, and protecting trees from damage during construction. Engineers and landscape architects are helping us transform these passed over strips of land into beautiful greenways and critical transportation links.

Twenty three years ago, I enjoyed cycling with a group who became tired of challenging cars for a sliver of pavement and riding in the gutter, dodging trash and potholes. The group formed the PATH Foundation, a nonprofit organization with the mission to build a network of trails throughout metro Atlanta where people could walk and bike in the quietness away

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Cable railings and I-beam construction of this bridge modeled such that it could be lowered into the floodway without creating a rise in the creek during a 100 year flood. from the street. I now realize the good for- cated, metal bridges when they are faced tune of having this particular group of peo- with a crossing. (See photo 8) These ple band together to face the challenges bridges typically require access for large of building trails in a city that was built for cranes and tractor-trailer trucks which is cars. To date, we have raised over $100 not feasible in many locations. We use jobmillion from public and private sources to build 200 miles of trail in Georgia.

Our engineering consultants have helped us develop an array of choices for bridging ravines and waterways. Many trail builders rely exclusively on prefabri-

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Tree root protection doubles as infiltration basin. built, I-beam bridges when access is poor and spans are less than sixty feet (See photo 1). We build structural slab bridges when spans are less than forty feet. Both options reduce the need for tree removal and other damage to the environment at the ends of the crossing. Structural slabs also serve as “bottomless culverts”, much preferred over traditional concrete pipes for wildlife migration and propagation of desirable plant species. (See 2A and 2B) In some cases, structural slab bridges and

Structural slabs are often substituted for pipes when migration of animals and plant species is an issue I-beam bridges can be placed at a lower elevation since they project a lesser profile during hydrological modeling. Often, lowering the elevation of a bridge will result in a reduction in length of the bridge and the amount of earthwork required at each approach.

Occasionally, soil conditions or environmental constraints prevent us from building concrete abutments for bridges.

We have built miles of pressure-treated boardwalks to complete trail connections

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where bridge construction was not feasible. The serpentine boardwalk through Alexander Lake at Panola Mountain State Park was built from a barge to avoid impact to the lake environment during construction (see photo 3).

Innovative design by PATH engineers

This boardwalk was built from a barge to minimize damage to shoreline during construction 31

This trail section facilitates imperious concrete trails adjacent to streams without adversely affecting infiltration of storm water. next 200 miles. Our goal is to transform Atlanta into the most walkable, bikable city in the U.S. We have a great start!

For further information, contact the author at pathfoundation.org v has played a big role in allowing trails to be constructed near waterways and drainage areas. When building impervious trails adjacent to waterways, we slope the trail away from the stream, diverting runoff from the trail surface to an infiltration trench on the high side of the trail. We place gravel beneath the trail so runoff from the trail flows into the infiltration trench and through the soil and gravel beneath the trail before reaching the stream.

(See figure 4 and photo 5). This technique all but eliminates any affect the trail has on infiltration in the area.

Many of the corridors we assemble are narrow and heavily forested. With the help of a professional arborist, we devised a root-bridging system that has been very effective saving trees next to trails. When construction begins we cover the drip line area affected by trail construction with filter fabric and six to twelve inches of 57 stone. Light weight equipment can then freely travel over the roots without damaging the tree. When it is time to install the trail near the tree, careful grading, pouring, and backfill will insure the tree is saved (See photo 6 and figure 7).

The PATH team has relied on innovative design and creative engineering to build trails in some of the most difficult environments imaginable. It is essential that we have landscape architects and professional engineers on our team that find ways to transform concepts into reality.

This is not trail building 101 anymore. Our team is setting the bar for retrofitting trails with innovation and imagination. I look forward to the challenges and innovative solutions that will surely come with the 32

GeoRGia enGineeR

GeoRGia

ENGINEERING NEWS

altium’s east coast Location - À tout à l'heure ! Gwen brandon retires from acec altium announces opening of east coast of united Sates Location Altium opens office in Newton, Massachusetts to support the rapid market growth in the U.S. Altium Limited, a global leader in Smart System Design Automation, 3D PCB design (Altium Designer) and embedded software development (TASKING) announces the opening of a new office in Newton, Massachusetts. is is a direct reflection of Altium’s commitment to providing high quality services to its customers and growth of its US user-base.

As Altium continues to expand the presence in the US Printed Circuit Board design market, the addition of the new office is part of the investments in the US market allowing Altium to be closer to its strategic partners and customers in the New England area, one of the largest technology hubs in the Americas market. Additionally, the new office will allow Altium to further strengthen what is the largest resell network in the EDA industry and to ensure that the ever growing list of Altium Designer users continue to get access to superior and responsive service. "e opening of Altium's Massachusetts office is an important step towards realizing our goals of becoming more available to all users as well as the continual support to our strategic level accounts" said Chris Donato, VP Sales, Americas. "e new office represents one of the many important milestones for the company in 2014. e ECAD/MCAD software industry is constantly changing. At Altium, we want to be ahead of the curve in electronic designs as well as customer interactions."

By establishing a strong presence in New England, Altium is enhancing the user experience for its customers. is is achieved through daily interaction with all of its East Coast resellers to ensure that they receive marketing support, training for their sales and technical personnel, as well as business and management guidance. Altium is also well positioned to support and further develop its strategic level accounts. apRiL | may 2014

Altium Limited (ASX:ALU) is an Australian multinational software corporation that focuses on 3D PCB design, electronics design and embedded system development software.

Altium Designer, a unified electronics

design environment links all aspects of smart systems design in a single application that is priced as affordable as possible. Altium's embedded software compilers are used around the globe by carmakers and the world's largest automotive Tier-1 suppliers. With

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À tout à l'heure !

Gwen brandon retires from acec

Thank you for allowing me to make this special presentation. My purpose here ismto help honor, Gwen Brandon, who is retiring this summer. She has served this unique range of technologies Altium enables electronics designers to innovate, harness the latest devices and technologies, manage their projects across broad design ‘ecosystems’, and create connected, intelligent products.

Founded in 1985, Altium has offices worldwide, with US locations in San Diego and Boston, European locations in Karlsruhe, Amersfoort and Kiev and Asia-Pacific locations in Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney.

For more information, visit www.altium.com. You can also follow and engage with Altium via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. v dewberry welcomes pamela townsend, pe, Senior vice president Townsend to direct strategic planning and growth opportunities for the firm’s Southeast operations. Dewberry, a privately held professional services firm, welcomes Pamela Townsend, PE, to the firm as senior vice president and director of Southeast strategic planning and growth.

Townsend comes to Dewberry from 34

ACEC of Georgia for many years. She has held every position in our organization. I love her like my own sister. In a word, she is precious.

I would like to tell you something about her that would be memorable. It sort of fits with St. Valentine Day. This summer, my wife Francie and I went to a wedding. A very young couple was getting married. During the service, they read a commonly used verse for such occasions.The beginning of the verse goes: “Love is patient and kind.” Maybe some of you have heard of it before. For most people, the verse provides a road map on how we should act towards each other. Well, at the wedding reception, the maid of honor got up and spoke about the verse. She said if you replace the word Love with the bride’s name, it

shows the bride’s true beauty.

I was thinking about this the other day and I tried doing the same thing with Gwen’s name. To me, it shows how beautiful Gwen is to so many people.

Gwen is patient and kind.

Gwen is not jealous or boastful.

Gwen is not arrogant or rude.

She does not insist on her own way.

She is not irritable or resentful.

She does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right.

Now you know why I think she is so precious. Please join me is thanking her for her long and loyal service to the ACEC of Georgia.

Sincerely, Chris Quigley “I am excited to join Dewberry,” says Townsend. “We’re going to be focusing immediately on expanding our services and growing our capabilities in the Southeast region. It’s a good time to be here.” v

pamela townsend AECOM, where as Senior Vice President, she has held responsibilities for the Southern States District operations, including the profitability and overall direction of the $120 million, 500-person division. She has also been responsible for the Southern States and Florida transportation operations “We have gotten to know and respect Pam over the years through her reputation for client and project management and her community outreach,” says Darren Conner, president of Dewberry’s southeast division.

“Her passion and dedication to our profession will make her a great fit at Dewberry.”

jeffrey Schechtman names deputy Regional business manager Jeffrey Schechtman has been named Deputy Regional Business Manager for the Southeast region of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global infrastructure strategic consulting, engineering, and program/construction management organization.

In his new position, Mr. Schechtman will work with managers in the nine states that comprise Parsons Brinckerhoff ’s Southeast region to enhance relationships with key clients, expand business development opportunities, and invigorate marketing and pursuit efforts. He will work in the firm’s Atlanta office.

A Parsons Brinckerhoff Vice President, Mr. Schechtman previously served as Director of the firm’s US Ports and Marine Division. He currently is the Executive Program GeoRGia enGineeR

tion Builders Association, and American Association of Port Authorities. v

jeffrey Schechtman Manager for the South Carolina State Ports Authority Program, responsible for managing the firm’s activities associated with the delivery of a $1.5 billion ten‐year capital program to modernize and expand various port facilities owned and operated by the Port Authority.

Mr. Schechtman received an M.S. in civil engineering from the University of California at Davis and a B.S. in civil engineering from Columbia University. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Road and Transporta-

apRiL | may 2014

matthew Weston joins t. Wayne owens & associates T. Wayne Owens & Associates, PC, is pleased to announce the addition of Matthew Weston, CPA, to the team as a Senior GAAP Auditor.

During his time with the sixth largest CPA firm in the U.S., Matt honed his GAAP expertise at the national level. He brings TWO clients strong financial audit skills as well as a substantial range of financial statement knowledge.

Matt sees his role with each client as partner, advocate and teacher. His approach with clients is to collaborate on solutions that work for both the audit requirements and for the client’s business. He always has an eye out for ways to tweak and improve an A/E firm’s current process, create efficiencies and strengthen the overall business.

Matt received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Appalachian State University. He went on to earn a Master of Science in Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame. A high-achiever, he

achieved both his undergraduate and graduate degrees with cum laude honors, and made the dean’s and chancellor’s lists. He is a Certified Public Accountant and is involved with several organizations, including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants.

T. Wayne Owens & Associates, PC, is a CPA firm with a singular focus on the design industry, providing accounting services, overhead audits, financial statement audits, tax returns and more to A/E/C firms. Learn more: www.twocpa.com.v

matthew Weston

35

acec Georgia Jay Wolverton, PE Chair ACEC Georgia

Georgia has always been a leader in transportation infrastructure. From the foresight that Mayors William B. Hartsfield and May-

News nard Jackson showed in building, expanding and growing the Atlanta Airport into the aviation center that it is, to the continued growth and investment that the Georgia Ports Authority is showing in expansion of the Port of Savannah today, we have benefited from visionary leaders who have invested in our transportation infrastructure.

These leaders can be found in the private sector too. Georgia is home to 15 Fortune 500 companies, all of which depend on our existing and future infrastructure to continue to build business. There are some that are obvious—Delta comes to mind—but others also rely heavily on transportation to accomplish day-to-day operations. Think UPS. Think Home Depot. Think Southern

Company. All of these companies have had visionary leaders who have chosen to stay in Georgia and to bring more and more employees here, growing our economy and also our need for an excellent transportation and transit network.

Our Georgia engineering companies, including the members of ACEC Georgia, rely on these companies as well—along with the Federal, State and local government leaders—to continue to invest in our state, our region and our country. And finally, the almost ten million residents of the state of Georgia rely on our leadership, our employers and our government to continue the important investment in transportation that keeps us all moving forward.

Political Advocacy

The Value of ACEC Georgia Serving your firm’s business interests through:

• Advocating at all levels of government to advance policies that impact the business of engineering in Georgia.

• Monitoring the regulatory issues and government agency actions that affect engineers.

• Working for a more pro-business climate and defending against unfair business practices.

• Fighting to protect the professional engineering practice.

Business Development • Providing networking opportunities, meetings, and programs that put you in contact with potential clients, industry peers, and the leaders of the engineering profession.

• Hosting the Georgia Engineers Summer Conference, Transportation Summit, P3 Summit, and other programs that expand your professional knowledge and network.

• Offering informative and relevant seminars, programs, and webinars with presentations from leaders who affect our industry and community.

Firm Operations • Providing a forum for the exchange of business and professional experiences.

• Offering programs and resources on best business practices for member firms.

• Sponsoring the Future Leaders Program to build the next generation of leaders within member firms and the engineering profession.

• We provide executive development training for emerging leaders and firm management.

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GeoRGia enGineeR

Transportation literally (forgive the pun) drives us forward. The trucking industry moves through our great state with goods and produce to supply and feed the country.

The aviation industry flies through the world’s busiest airport every day. And our residents rely on our transportation and transit network daily to get to school, work and play.

We MUST continue the building of our infrastructure and investment in our future.

We must continue to elect visionary leaders who can see the future of transportation and keep us moving forward. Improving transportation infrastructure requires a threelegged stool of federal, state and local investments to keep us all driving into the future, and we, in partnership with ACEC National, must continue to advocate for these improvements.

Our future as a region requires that we plan, and have back-up plans in place, to find funding, to build our next generation of engineers and leaders and to do what needs

to be done to make sure mobility is never a question in Georgia.

ACEC is on the transportation industry’s side! We are advocating with the Georgia state legislature and with Congress in Washington, DC. We are working to improve the political atmosphere for our industry while also creating a better working environment for engineering companies in Georgia and nationwide.

So what can you do? First, you can let your leadership—elected and appointed— know that our transportation and transit needs are important and must be addressed.

Second, you can continue to support ACEC Georgia through your membership and your attendance at important industry events, including the Annual Convention and Legislative Summit, April 27-30 in Washington, DC, where we will meet with our representatives from Congress to discuss transportation. And finally, you can participate in our state and national Political Action Committee (PAC) where we use funds to support

candidates who drive important decisions such as transportation. v

“Gort! Klaatu Borada nikto.”

(770) 521-8877 uSe a company you can tRuSt With youR tRanSLation pRoject, because a little mistake in another language can have unpleasant results.

ACEC GEORGIA MEMBER FIRMS

Board of Directors Jerry (Jay) Wolverton, Chairman Darrell Rochester, Chairman-Elect Roseana Richards, Treasurer / Charles Ezelle, Secretary Don Harris, Vice Chair / John Heath, Vice Chair / Doug Robinson, Vice Chair David Wright, National Director / Edgar (Eddie) Williams, Past Chairman Anita Atkinson / Jim Case / David Estes / Scott Gero / Rob Lewis / David McFarlin / Kevin McOmber / Taylor Wright

Committees Darrell Rochester, Government Affairs/PAC David Wright, ACEC PAC Champion Rob Lewis, Business Development Jim Case & Don Harris, Firm Operations John Heath, Coalitions Doug Robinson, Communications Brannen Butts & David McFarlin, Leadership Development Charles Ezelle, Membership Eddie Williams, Nominating Eddie Williams, Past Presidents/Chairmen David Estes & Rob Jacquette, Programs Scott Gero, Transportation Forum

apRiL | may 2014

Staff Michael “Sully” Sullivan, President & CEO Gwen Brandon, Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Head, Member Services Manager Mia Wilson, Finance Manager

Forums Bill Griffin, Building Systems Corky Welch, Environmental Chris Marsengill, Transportation Brannen Butts, Leadership

37

aShe Georgia Michael Bywaletz President American Society of Highway Engineers / Georgia Section

Snowmageddon, as it was called, Atlanta buried in snow and ice the second week of February. We were more prepared for Winter Storm Pax this time as compared to two weeks earlier when Atlanta came to a standstill, literally, for two to three days. Living in north Georgia myself, Dawson County, I am very familiar with when to leave the office, in Alpharetta, to make it home before chaos arrives. I got home in about 35 minutes that day, and then heard the nightmarish stories of co-workers stuck at the office or in traffic for endless hours. All I cued in on, with the pictures and video provided from local news channels, were not only cars, but more significantly tractor trailers lining the highways.

Wow, what a mess! I hope everyone is now back on track and hoping this kind of mess

News does not happen again for a while, though I did enjoy the luge/sledding run I made in my front yard. I think I got my run down to 14.5 seconds; Olympics, here I come.

Great new projects have been advertised by GDOT recently, Engineering Design Services – Batch #1, Design Services for TIA Band 2 Projects, I-24 Accelerated Bridge Construction DB and the Grade Separation DB of Walther Blvd at SR 316. We have also had Counties and Municipalities put some projects on the streets; hopefully this indicates growth in the right direction.

Our ASHE Student Chapter at Georgia Tech is looking for presenters. We are looking for companies to sponsor and present at their monthly meeting. We want to expose our up and coming engineers to all the different facets in highway engineering in which their career can take them. Please contact Jennifer Stephan (Jennifer.Stephan@tylin.com) if you or your company would like to sponsor and participate in a future meeting.

president ~ Michael Bywaletz, Gresham Smith and Partners first vice president ~ Brian O’Connor,

T.Y. Lin International Second vice president ~ Rob Dell-Ross,

City of Roswell Secretary ~ Mindy Sanders, Lowe

Engineers treasurer ~ Richard Meehan, Lowe

Engineers co-treasurer Rick Strickland, Michael

Baker Corporation past president ~ Ron Osterloh, Pond &

Company national director ~ Nikki Reutlinger,

Atkins director ~ Shawn Fleet, Heath and

Lineback director ~ Karyn Matthews, GDOT

Recent events We’ve had some great social events the past few months, including Happy Hour at Gibney’s Pub following the Transportation Summit. The activity was well attended and will be slated for next year’s events. In December, we had our annual Holiday Social to thank all of our sponsors and members. We

chairs nominating committee chair ~ Tim

Matthews, GDOT program chair ~ John Karnowski, Foresite

Group membership chair ~ Scott Jordan, Cobb

County Scholarship chair ~ Sarah Worachek,

Gresham Smith and Partners aShe Student chapter Liason ~ Jennifer Stephan, T.Y. Lin International technical chairs ~ Dan Bodycomb, AECOM; Chris Rudd, GDOT communications chair ~ Jenny Jenkins,

McGee Partners Social chair ~ Holly Bauman, ARCADIS

At January’s meeting, GDOT Commissioner Keith Golden spoke to a full house on the “State of the Department.” Finally, our Annual Poker Tournament was another big success. Congratulations to Tim Brown, winner of this year’s tournament, and to Tim Matthews, 2nd place.

38

Golf tournament chair ~ Ashley Chan,

HNTB Web site chair ~ Pervez Iqbal, Parsons

GeoRGia enGineeR

had a successful toy drive at this event for Toys for Tots and even hosted our National President, Thomas Morisi, and 1st Vice President, Samir Moody. up coming events • We look forward to seeing our members and possible future members at upcoming events, including the annual ASHE/WTS tennis tournament in April, as well as the popular golf tournament in May. If you would like to join in the networking, comradely and fun of ASHE, please contact our membership chair, Scott Jordan (scott@concrete-pipe.org James R. Wallace v

Gef

News James R. Wallace President Georgia Engineering Foundation

The Georgia Engineering Foundation (GEF) was chartered in 1971 to benefit young people desiring engineering or engineering technology careers.

GEF President’s Message: Now is the time to expand the visibility and programs of the Georgia Engineering Foundation! As President of GEF for 2013-2014, I am dedicated to the continued reinvigoration of our organization. GEF provides great benefits to all of our participating Engineering Organizations. Our goals for the next two years are designed to dramatically increase our programs and support to all the Engineering Societies that participate.

Our membership committee plans to increase our Engineering Organization apRiL | may 2014

membership by 25% this year. You can expect GEF to meet with your Engineering Organizations this year in order to encourage additional organizational members and to welcome your members to our committees. We can always use additional committee members to participate in our Planning, Public Relations, Program, Ways and Means, Finance, Banquet, and Scholarship Committees. If you are a President of an Engineering Organization, we will be contacting you soon.

Another major GEF effort this year is to increase our ability to provide scholarships to the future engineers now attending college.

We are very proud that in 2013 we provided $66,600 to Georgia students attending colleges in Georgia and nation-wide, but we are sure that the great State of Georgia can do substantially more. As you probably know, GEF annually conducts a Scholarship Awards Banquet where we recognize the scholarship recipients, their families, and scholarship sponsorsIn addition, GEF awards scholarships from endowments provided by many of our great benefactors, most of whom are generous local engineers. The Scholarship Banquet is an enormous effort and returns great appreciation from the students and their parents each year. The Banquet provides tremendous visibility to all of

the individuals and organizations donating the scholarships, so we hope you will join us at the Banquet this year. We plan to grow our endowed Scholarship funds by 25%this year to push our endowment towards the $1,000,000 mark, and would appreciate your help in reaching this important goal.

While we will be stretching ourselves to meet the above goals, we will continue to support the many mentoring engineering functions that we participate in and sponsor each year, including Local High School STEM programs, Future Cities Competition, Georgia Science and Engineering Fair, MATHCOUNTS, and the Exploring Engineering Academy. We can always use more help in supporting these activities and we THANK all the engineers and Engineering Organizations that participate with GEF on these efforts. These activities are great opportunities for your membership to mentor future engineers.

I am planning a very busy year for the Georgia Engineering Foundation and look forward to the help and support from all Georgia Engineering Organizations in continuing the success of GEF. THANKS Jimmy Crowder, President, work (770) 781-8008 v 39

ite Georgia Jonathan Reid, PE Georgia Section, Institute of Transportation Engineers

Greetings Georgia Engineering Magazine readers! This is the inaugural 2014 Presidents Letter from the Georgia Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). I would like to begin the 2014 year, our organization’s 52nd in existence, by thanking the previous leaders, boards and members for making ITE one of the finest organizations to be a part of. Year after year, ITE provides not only vital educational and professional development opportunities, but provides mentorship, leadership and service opportunities that sustain and grow our membership. It is truly humbling to serve in a role held by many of the esteemed individuals in the transportation industry, and I’m committed to do my best to continue in this great legacy.

For starters, I would like to thank our previous president, Dwayne Tedder, for his great leadership and goal prioritization skills imparted. I admired how Dwayne set achievable goals and continually pressed to ensure that those goals were met throughout the year. Don’t go anywhere Dwayne—we have more work for you to do this year! Dwayne also had the privilege to preside over our 50th year gala event in March 2013, which included presidents from each of the past 5 decades—including our very first president, John Edwards, who is still an active member in ITE, for which we are blessed.

This year’s board is also terrific. With the enthusiasm and energy Secretary-Treasurer Sean Coleman brings, and the steady 40

News and thoughtful leadership that Vice-President Andrew Antweiler brings, how hard could this year really be? Actually, we have endured several significant challenges already. Our first all-committee board meeting was the day of snow-mageddon (our board survived their long journeys home, probably cursing at me most of the way), and our first monthly meeting had to be bumped a day due to the second snow storm (which caused Sean and Andrew to work overtime to make happen). Because of these accomplishments, I decided to cancel the board team-building weekend ‘cause we’ve already bonded through trial by fire (or in this case, snow).

Now, for the upcoming year: In following the tradition of one of our past presidents, Carla Homes, who was GREAT in 2008, I am feeling really KEEN about 2014. This is a way to remember the four goals I have set forth for this year: Keep growing, provide meaningful Educational and Engagement opportunities, and be Notable as an organization. Here is a summary of those goals: 1. Keep Growing. As any organization should strive towards, our ITE mem-

bership continues to grow each year, and last year was no exception. We have more members than any year past, and set records for attendance at our Summer Seminar and several monthly meetings, which averaged over 80 in attendance each month. I am convinced we attract members and will continue to attract new members by providing value to our members in all things we undertake, and use the latest in tools and technology to communicate events and opportunities to our members.

2.

Provide Educational Opportunities. Educational opportunities are probably what we do best at ITE so it becomes hard to improve upon. As an organization, we strive to provide more than enough PDH’s to fulfill engineering continuing education hours. Our premiere event is the annual Summer Seminar held at the beautiful King and Prince hotel on St. Simons Island. If you can make only one event all year, save the date of July 20th through July 23rd

more fun at Summer Seminar GeoRGia enGineeR

to come and join us! We always have the best speakers in the industry and the activities, socializing and accommodations can’t be beat. Plus we’ll be celebrating the 5th year of Survivor St. Simons! We have already partnered with ASHE to conduct a two-day Winter Workshop conference in early March, and we will be partnering with another state ITE chapter for a one day technical exchange later in the year. Together with our monthly meeting opportunities, we provide some of the greatest opportunities to stay informed on the latest trends and technology in the transportation industry. This year is also special for Georgia Section ITE as we were the host state for the annual Southern District ITE meeting, held near Greensboro, Georgia, on Lake Oconee, March 30th through April 2nd.

3.

4.

Provide Engagement Opportunities. To balance out our nerdy engineering side, we also like to get out for some fun social engagements and service activities.

Our activities committee has a ton of outings planned for members of all ages, and it is through these activities that bonds are often made. Whether its trivia night, helping out at the Atlanta Food Bank or just sharing a lovely cold beverage, it’s always fun to be with friends and colleagues. This year we will also be re-instituting the mentorship program, paring our younger members with seasoned professionals to provide guidance on career paths and involvement in ITE. Be Notable as an Organization. Lastly, this year we will strive to make ITE even more notable in the community we serve. Whether is helping GDOT or other local transportation entities through a technical research committee, sharing our collective experiences and knowledge at technical conferences and workshops, we want to do even better at making ITE a notable part in discussions about the future of transportation in Georgia and become an identifiable brand in our communities.

apRiL | may 2014

If you are a transportation professional of any stripe and have never heard of ITE (perhaps it’s just another acronym to you), we hope you check us out sometime this year. You may have a co-worker that attends our monthly meetings that you could ask to join.

Or come to one of our many technical sessions to earn PDH’s (why wait to cram at the end of the year?) Our Web site, www.gaite.org, is up-do-date and is full of events and opportunities. Become an ITE Local Affiliate (LAF) member and you will be included on our e-blast list and receive information on event opportunities and registration links for our section. It is very inexpensive to become a LAF member and you will receive more in event discounts than the cost to join.

I hope you can see how much ITE has in store in 2014 year (and why I am so keen

about it). Thanks for your interest in reading about ITE, and I personally hope you can join us for activities throughout the year!

The Institute of Transportation Engineers is an international educational and scientific association of transportation professionals who are responsible for meeting mobility and safety needs. ITE facilitates the application of technology and scientific principles to research, planning, functional design, implementation, operation, policy development and management for any mode of ground transportation. Through its products and services, ITE promotes professional development of its members, supports and encourages education, stimulates research, develops public awareness programs and serves as a conduit for the exchange of professional information. v

Board Position President Vice President Secretary/Treasurer Past President District Representative District Representative District Representative Affiliate Director

Member Dwayne Tedder Jonathan Reid Andrew Antweiler John Karnowski David Low Carla Holmes Jim Tolson Patrick McAtee

E-mail dwayne.tedder@urs.com reid@pbworld.com aantweiler@roswellgov.com jkarnowski@foresitegroupinc.com dlow@roswellgov.com carla_holmes@gspnet.com jim.tolson@arcadis-us.com pmcatee@thompsonengineering.com

Phone (404) 406-8791 (404) 364-5225 (678) 639-7540 (770) 368-1399 (770) 594-6422 (678) 518-3654 (770) 431-8666 (404) 574-1985

Committee Activities Activities Annual Report Audio/Visual Awards/Nominations Career Guidance Clerk Comptroller Engineers Week Finance Georgia Engineer Magazine Georgia Tech Liaison Historian Host Legislative Affairs Life Membership Marketing Membership Monthly Meetings Newsletter Past Presidents Public Officials Education Scholarship Southern Poly Liaison Summer Seminar Technical Web site Winter Workshop

Chair(s) Meredith Emory Jim Tolson Mark Boivin John Karnowski Amy Diaz Elizabeth Scales Jim Pohlman Steven Sheffield Charles Bopp Dan Dobry Chris Rome Charles Bopp Vamshi Mudumba Bill Ruhsam Don Gaines Shannon Fain Sunita Nadella Jonathan Reid Vern Wilburn Todd Long Scott Mohler Mike Holt Bryan Sartin Sean Coleman Abdul Amer France Campbell Larry Overn

E-mail meredith.emory@kimley-horn.com jim.tolson@arcadis-us.com markboivin@alltrafficdata.net jkarnowski@foresitegroupinc.com amy.diaz@jacobs.com escales@thompsonengineering.com pohlmanj@bellsouth.net steven.sheffield@co.clayton.ga.us charles_bopp@hotmail.com ddobry@croyengineering.com crome@foresitegroupinc.com charles_bopp@hotmail.com vamshim@laiengineering.com bill@jbwr.net dgaines@gcaeng.com s.fain@delcan.com sunita.nadella@parsons.com reid@pbworld.com vwilburn@wilburnengineering.com tlong@dot.ga.gov scott.mohler@urs.com holtmr@pbworld.com bryan_sartin@gspnet.com sean.coleman@kimley-horn.com aamer@areng.com france_campbell@gspnet.com larry.overn@stantec.com

Phone (404) 201-6133 (770) 384-6570 (404) 374-1283 (770) 368-1399 (678) 333-0283 (404) 574-1985 (770) 972-9709 (678) 479-5391 (678) 380-9053 (770) 971-5407 (770) 368-1399 (678) 380-9053 (770) 423-0807 (404) 931-6478 (404) 355-4010 (404) 771-7479 (404) 969-2304 (404) 364-5225 (404) 423-0050 (404) 631-1021 (678) 808-8811 (404) 364-2662 (678) 518-3884 (404) 419-8781 (770) 690-9255 (678) 518-3952 (770) 813-0882

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itS Georgia

News

Tom Sever, P.E. ITS President

I want to thank the membership of ITS Georgia for selecting me to serve as chapter president for the next two years. I look forward to communicating with you through this column and letting you know about the great work of the chapter and its members.

A key tenant of our mission statement is to: “through a coordinated, comprehensive program “get out the word” on ITS to constituencies that might not otherwise consider the relevance of ITS to their transportation system.”

A key constituency targeted by ITS Georgia to understand the relevance and value of ITS, is elected officials. For the third year in a row we have been involved in an effort to reach out to elected officials at the highest levels of state and local government to “get out the word” on ITS. During this year’s legislative session, we partnered with Georgia Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers & American Society of Civil Engineers Georgia Section and hosted the GDOT board, several state senators and representatives and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in the city hall

itS Georgia mission We believe that ITS is a valuable tool for improved management of any transportation system, regardless of the inherent complexity of the system. ITS can help operate, manage, and maintain the system once it has been constructed.

We believe that ITS should be systematically incorporated into the earliest stages of project development, especially into the planning and design of transportation projects.

We believe the best way to achieve this systematic incorporation into the process is through a coordinated, comprehensive program to ‘get out the word’ on ITS to constituencies that might not otherwise consider the relevance of ITS to their transportation system. atrium. Thanks to Mayor Reed for hosting us and providing welcoming remarks.

One of the hot topics was the two recent snow storms to hit north Georgia this winter and the fallout, both good and bad, from them. Both Mayor Reed and GDOT Chairman Jay Shaw admitted that there was not much anyone can do when a million commuters hit the roads as once rain, snow or shine.

Following the storms, members of the ITS community came forward and discussed what was done and could be done in the future to mitigate weather-related congestion using ITS solutions.

Just as GDOT’s Traffic Management Center (TMC) became the state’s transportation emergency operations center, County and City Traffic Control Centers (TCC) serve the purpose locally. This means that the right people are in one place with

OUR 2013/2014 SPONSORS Control Technologies Utilicom Temple Arcadis Atkins World Fiber Technologies Kimley-Horn & Associates 42

Southern Lighting & Traffic Systems Delcan Gresham Smith & Partners Grice Consulting Jacobs Parsons Brinkerhoff

Quality Traffic Systems URS Transcore

access to the latest information in real time.

At the state level, that means 560 cameras scanning the roads for incidents and almost 300 cameras at the local level identifying icy spots, power outages and accidents. The cameras kept proving themselves over and over as we could see and share the information they provided with public safety staff, other agencies, the media and directly with the public. Cameras also allowed for quicker dispatch of assets from snow plows to HERO units to signal technicians and the power company. Newly installed tracking technology tells managers where the vehicles and crew are and what they’ve been working on.

ITS GEORGIA CHAPTER LEADERSHIP president Tom Sever, Gwinnett DOT vice president Grand Waldrop, GDOT Secretary Jennifer Johnson, Kimley-Horn treasurer Ashlyn Morgan, Atkins immediate past president

Scott Mohler, URS directors Mark Demidovich, GDOT Eric Graves, City of Alpharetta Winter Horbal, Temple, Inc. Keary Lord, Serco David Smith, DeKalb County Transportation Prasoon Sinha, ARCADIS Mike Holt, Parsons Brinkerhoff, Yancy Bachmann, World Fiber, Kenn Fink, Kimley-Horn, Kristin Turner, Wolverton Associates State chapters Representative

Shahram Malek, Arcadis ex officio Greg Morris, Federal Highway Administration Andres Ramirez, FTA

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GDOT Board Chairman Jay Shaw addresses the 2014 Transportation Reception.

With more and more connectivity with traffic signals, we were able to adjust the timing to accommodate the disrupted traffic patterns, and perhaps more importantly, quickly get them back to normal operation when the ice and snow melted.

Communications with the motoring public is always important. This was our first twitter weather event and all means of communications were used for both storms to inform the public. In addition to twitter, facebook, 511 and all 115 message signs were giving the latest information. The news maybe wasn’t always what you wanted to hear, but at least you knew what was ahead.v

Mayor Reed welcoming guests at the 2014 Transportation Reception.

our chapter meetings are the fourth thursday of each month january—august. join us for networking and informative topics.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Timothy McGuckin of GeoToll

Tolling Technologies

confirmed

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Allan Davis

Signal Software Scanning Tour

confirmed

Thursday, May 22, 2014 Thursday, June 26, 2014 Thursday, July 24, 2014 Thursday, August 28, 2014

Bill Andrews Kari Watkins/John Bartholdi To be announced To be announced

Highway 9 ITS OneBusAway/Georiga Tech

confirmed confirmed

Advanced Protection Technologies/Pete Ganci Billy Stalcup-360 Network Solutions, LLC Wavetronix/Mike Kline

Wayne Shackelford engineering Scholarship program The ITS Georgia Chapter supports student involvement in the engineering profession, and hopes to encourage future Georgia ITS Engineers through the Wayne Shackelford Engineering Scholarship Program.

Our 2013 winner of the fifth annual ITS Georgia Wayne Shackelford Engineering Scholarship is Chieh ‘Ross’ Wang, whose current research at Georgia Tech focuses on developing a risk-based decision making process for prioritizing pavement preservation projects in a more systematic and holistic fashion.

The question answered by this year’s applicants was: What is the best strategy to promote public acceptance of ITS initiatives?

Below is the winning abstract.

To promote public acceptance of ITS initiatives, it is necessary to understand reasons that hinder the acceptance of these technologies. Some commonly known barriers apRiL | may 2014

to ITS initiatives are public perception, system reliability, costs of implementation, and privacy. Most of these barriers are the results of insufficient information and lack of understanding and knowledge, on both ends of transportation agency and the general public.

For transportation agencies that expertise in the planning, development, implementation, and maintenance of transportation systems, an understanding of market dynamics is often neglected. For the general public, the fear of change and insufficient information often prevent them from objectively examining the benefits of these technologies. To address these issues and promote public acceptance of ITS initiatives, we propose three simple but effective strategies shown below:

cessful and replicable cases that people can easily see and relate. Either a huge success in another city or small successes in local

prior successes strategy One of the best strategies—and probably the most straight-forward one—is to have suc-

ITS Georgia Board member Kristin Turner presents the 2013 Shackelford award to Chieh ‘Ross’ Wang.

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demonstration projects can promote the use of the technology. For example, the Google Self-Driving Car has been permitted to be operated or tested in several states including Nevada, Florida, and California. Success of the Google Car demonstrates the readiness of government agencies to consider investment in autonomous vehicle technologies.

This success can very likely increase the public’s overall confidence in such technologies, which therefore, makes a vast difference in its public acceptance. one step at a time strategy At times, implementing ITS initiatives requires a huge amount of capital expenditure or a big change in the way that people travel, which inevitably hinder the excitement and/or benefits these technologies bring. In fact, the magnitude of opposition is usually positively correlated to the magnitude of change. It takes time for the general public, policy makers, and potential investors to adjust and accept a role in promoting these initiatives. Therefore, the one step at a time strategy is proposed to minimize the impact of implementing large scale ITS initiatives and to allow the public to accept small changes over time. For example, it is very unlikely to implement a fully automated au-

tonomous highway system (AHS) even if the technology is ready because the huge change that must be done to the infrastructure and to the travel behavior of the general public.

In this case, specific and dividable components of an AHS, such as onboard driver assistance systems, vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication, and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) technology, can be implemented first by utilizing the one step at a time strategy to move closer to the ultimate goal.

Rightness of cause strategy ITS initiatives must be compared amongst other alternatives and should be implemented because they present the best alternative in meeting specified objectives, such as traffic safety, efficiency, system reliability, as well as other urgent and important needs.

In such case, a rightness of cause strategy can be applied. This strategy is most effective if the urgency and importance of implementing the solution is not only well conveyed, but also when there is a demonstrated need to implement such a solution. For example, transportation agencies designed their emergency response operations around, primarily, climate-related events, such as hurricanes, storms, and floods. However, after the events of September 11, 2001, there was an urgent

Same Georgia Pamela Little, P.E. President, SAME Atlanta

The SAME Atlanta Post has gotten off to an exciting start in 2014. Lou Karably, our

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need to reshape the entire emergency response system to be able to respond to manmade disasters. ITS initiatives, such as the Next Generation 9-1-1, a system that is capable of providing an integrated, wireless platform for emergency response communications via voice, data, video, and other means, was much needed. In this case, the rightness of cause strategy can be utilized to not only ensure public support, but also agency engagement. Note that this strategy may be the most passive one compared amongst all three proposed strategies; and it should be used in the most critical cases, such as emergency response and traffic safety.

As described in the examples, each of the proposed strategies can be utilized to effectively promote public acceptance under different circumstances; in other words, there is no single universal solution. In fact, the best strategy may very likely be subject to various factors such as the time, the jurisdiction, and the field of application. Therefore, to determine the best strategy or combination of strategies, considering these factors at different levels of decision making process is important.v

News Past President, stepped down in January.

As his Vice President, I was sworn in as President at the January luncheon. I will continue to be your President through May 2015. I look forward to making my term a success by continuing the great programs started by those before me and fostering some positive changes in our luncheons and networking events. I am excited about our continued dedication to awarding scholarships, our involvement with the SHARE Military Initiative at the Shepherd Center, and our new golf tournament format.

I would like to thank Lou Karably, PE, PG for his service to the Atlanta Post and wish him well on his future endeavors! I

would also like to thank Beth Harris for stepping up to serve as our Interim Vice President until we nominate new officers in June 2014.

The SAME Atlanta Post has moved our monthly meetings to a new venue this year—the Dunwoody Country Club. Our luncheons are typically the second Tuesday of each month and you can register to join us at sameatlantapost.org.

On Friday, March 7 we held a joint meeting with ASCE Georgia Chapter in Norcross. At this event we presented our 2013 award winners. This year’s winners were: • Member of the Year – Beth Harris, CPSM GeoRGia enGineeR

• • •

Young Member of the Year – B. Phil McHugh, CP, CMS, GISP Large Business Sustaining Member of the Year – Pond & Company Small Business Sustaining Member of the Year – EcoWise Civil Design and Consulting, Inc.

Scotti Bozeman, F.SAME presenting Pamela Little of EcoWise Civil Design and Consulting, Inc. with the 2013 Small Sustaining Business of the Year Award.

Pamela Little, President SAME Atlanta Post presenting John Cassidy of Pond & Company with the 2013 Large Sustaining Business of the Year Award apRiL | may 2014

We also presented members of the Exploring Engineering Academy with a $5,000 donation to the 2014 program that teaches 50-70 high school students about opportunities in STEM careers during a one-week summer camp. We are excited to be able to promote this unique endeavor and encourage all engineers to get involved with the camp as you are able.

We are also looking for volunteers! If you are a currently an SAME member or if you are thinking of becoming a member please reach out to a Board Member or Committee Chair. We have opportunities on our financial committee, veteran’s and community outreach committee, communications committee, programs committee, golf committee and scholarship committee. We will also be pulling together a slate of nominees for the 201415 officers including new Board members and a new Treasurer. upcoming events: The SAME Savannah Post South Atlantic/South Central/Carolinas Joint Engineer Training Symposium will be held on June 24-26 in Savannah, GA. This event will be headquartered at the Savannah Riverfront Marriott.

Please see http://www.2014jetssasc.org/ for more information on this event.

The SAME Atlanta Post Golf Tourna-

ment will be held on August 25, 2014 at the St Marlo Country Club in Johns Creek.

All proceeds from this event will be donated to the SHARE Initiative at the Shepherd Center a comprehensive rehabilitation program for service men and women.

If you are interested in being more involved with the Post or if your company is interested in sponsoring an event please let us know! We can use your assistance in making our Post rewarding for our members and for our community. v

Beth Harris, CPSM 2013 Member of the Year Award Winner.

SAME Atlanta Post presented the Exploring Engineering Academy with a $5,000 donation at the March Luncheon (l-r) Angie McDaniel, Pamela Little, Lew Sisson, Richard Morales 45

WtS Atlanta Angela Snyder, P.E. President, WTS Atlanta

2014 has started out a little slow with the snow days, but we are quickly getting caught up. Since the last WTS Corner article in the Fall of 2013, we have hosted a very successful scholarship luncheon, gathered all new members together for a welcome reception, conducted a holiday party, held a transportation YOU quarterly meeting with our Little Sisters in the Grady High School Robotics program, met for a lunch and learn at Cobb DOT and conducted two MentorProtégé lunch programs.

In February, the membership of WTS Atlanta was invited to hear Faye DiMassimo, Director of Cobb DOT, speak at our quarterly lunch and learn. She talked about the current program in Cobb County and the upcoming projects that are in the works due to the Atlanta Braves move up to Cobb. Ms. DiMassimo explained to the group that the Cumberland area has seen ongoing upgrades and improvements for many years in anticipation of a major development being constructed there in the future; well, now that planning and preparation is here and it is in the form of the Atlanta Braves! Besides the Braves stadium projects, there are many other exciting projects on the horizon for Cobb County. Ms. DiMassimo’s desire for Cobb is to make it a very desirable place to live and work.

The Mentor-Protege program just held another luncheon in February where speaker Jahnee Prince, of the Collaborative Firm, spoke about Overcoming Obstacles in our 46

News profession. This program is very important to both young professionals in the transportation industry, as well as those more seasoned members. Speaking with many of the mentor-protégé pairings involved in this program, it would seem that both the mentors and protégés find value in learning from each other as they meet on a monthly basis, if not more often, and grow together in the profession.

Another program that is in full swing in 2014 is the Transportation YOU program.

This very active committee already has several events planned with the Grady High School Robotics Team for the remainder of the school year and is always looking for additional volunteers to help as it continues to grow and evolve. Grady High School has been an excellent partner in making this program a success and we would like to thank all those involved for their commitment and drive. Every year, each WTS chapter that has a Transportation YOU program around the country, sends at least one Big Sister/Little Sister pairing to the DC Summit. The Summit, organized by WTS International, is an action-packed trip to Washington, DC for several days in June, where the girls meet

many top leaders in the transportation industry, learn about how they can impact the industry and grow into leaders. WTS Atlanta is proud to announce that we will be sending two Big sister/Little Sister pairings to the DC Summit this year.

Looking ahead, we are excited about our upcoming membership meeting to be held in March to help our members learn how to get more involved in WTS on a local and international level. This meeting was initially supposed to be held in January, but had to be postponed due to the snow and ice.

AECOM has been very accommodating with rescheduling this luncheon and we look forward to seeing record numbers at this annual meeting.

In April, we are anticipating scheduling a joint meeting with the Georgia Tech student chapter to discuss an exciting topic before the spring semester ends. The program and date are still to be determined, but details will be sent out within the next couple of weeks, so be on the lookout for announcements in our periodic newsletter blasts.

We always have a great turnout at the GDOT Board luncheon that we host every

WTS ATLANTA 2013 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Angela Snyder President Wolverton & Associates Inc. Marissa Martin Vice President, Membership Gresham, Smith and Partners Tonya Saxon Vice President, Programs MARTA Kirsten Berry Secretary HNTB Corporation Jennifer Stephan Treasurer T.Y. Lin International Group Beth Ann Schwartz Director-at-Large Michael Baker Corporation Helen McSwain Director-at-Large Atkins Regan Hammond Director-at-Large Atlanta Regional Commission Shelley Lamar Director-at-Large Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Jennifer King, P.E. Immediate Past President HNTB Corporation

angela.snyder@wolverton-assoc.com marissa_martin@gspnet.com tsaxon@itsmarta.com kberry@hntb.com jennifer.stephan@tylin.com baschwartz@baker.com hmcswain@matcjv.com rhammond@arc.com Shelley.Lamar@atlanta-airport.com jjking@hntb.com

GeoRGia enGineeR

year. For 2014, we are tentatively scheduling the luncheon for June, during a time with the GDOT Board will be meeting in Atlanta, and will most likely be held at Hotel Melia, which is adjacent to the Georgia Department of Transportation. Details about this widely attended event will be coming out soon, so please reserve your spot early as it tends to reach capacity very quickly.

For those interested in being involved beyond our local chapter, the WTS international conference is being held in Portland, Oregon on May 14-16 this year. The key note speaker this year will be award-winning Cokie Roberts, political commentator for ABC News, providing analysis for all network news programming, as well as for NPR.

There will also be many professional and technical seminars available throughout the three-day conference to foster development of any professional involved in the transportation industry. For more information about the conference, please visit https://www.wtsinternational.org/networking/annual-conference/.

We are also in the midst of our Corporate Partnership campaign for 2014. If anyone is interested in becoming a corporate partner or inquiring about the benefits, please email me at angela.snyder@wolvertonassoc.com or call (678) 405.3118 and I will be able to send you more information.

Finally, WTS International has seen much success over the past year with the Ap-

pointments Committee. This is a committee made up of representatives from each WTS chapter to encourage and promote females to high ranking positions within the local and national level of the transportation industry. WTS International celebrated the invitation for General Motors CEO, Mary Barra, and trucking company founder, Andra Rush, to sit with First Lady, Michelle Obama, at this year’s State of the Union Address. If promoting female participating into higher levels of office is something that you feel passionate about, and would like to learn more information about the Appointments Committee, please reach out to me as soon as possible. v

Concrete Precast Panels Revitalize Pavements in Winder

By Steve Davis, Executive Director | Georgia Concrete Paving Association inder, Georgia, is the home to a new and dynamic project by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Concrete precast panel pavements, the first of its kind in Georgia, is set to revitalize downtown Winder. The project completely rehabilitates nearly a mile of pavement that surrounds the county courthouse.

A USDOT Highway for Life grant, as well as some state and local beautification funds, are funding the nearly $5 million project, which includes the installation of concrete precast panels to replace the existing roadway as well as enhancements to the sidewalks, curb and gutter, benches, lighting and landscaping. The Georgia DOT chose concrete precast panels for a multifold of reasons.

First was the need for a rigid pavement to handle the substantial truck traffic from the multiple state roads converging on downtown Winder. This traffic over time has caused severe asphalt rutting (more than two inches) throughout the downtown center making the smooth-

W

apRiL | may 2014

ness of the road unbearable for local car traffic.. In addition, many historical buildings are in very close proximity to the road. The use of the precast panels eliminated the need for heavy vibrating equipment that could have possibly damaged the buildings.

The project also had to contend with underground utilities and concrete precast panels allowed for limited subgrade disruption that would have been required in a full-depth repair. Furthermore, conventional rehabilitation would have caused traffic disruption interfering with local businesses during the holiday season. The precast panels were fabricated offsite and installed during nighttime lane closures to minimize impact to traffic during rush hour. Allowing the traffic to resume and flow as normal throughout the day was a key driving factor for many locally elected officials and residents.

“The Georgia Department of Transportation continues to look for innovative ways to deliver quality transportation infrastructure. The precast concrete panel and downtown

streetscape project is a perfect example of such innovation. The outcome of this project will be a long lasting pavement nestled in beautiful downtown setting where the citizens and businesses will not have to worry about future maintenance for a long time,” said Russell McMurry, PE, chief engineer at Georgia DOT. “I’m very proud of our GDOT Roadway Design team, Keck and Wood for the integration of Street Scape design, Foley Concrete Products in concert with Fort Miller Company, and G.P.’s Enterprise for all of their efforts to make this the project a success. Most importantly, we thank the City of Winder and the downtown businesses for their support while this innovative work was being performed.”

Because the project received a federal grant to complete the project, the Georgia Concrete Paving Association had numerous opportunities to host project visits for transportation and elected officials as well as participate as a host sponsor for the Highways for Life Workshop.

This brought national attention to the project and GDOT. v 47