The Georgia Engineer (Oct | Nov 2015)

Volume 22, Issue 5 October | November 2015

INTERVIEW WITH

MR. GEORGE LITTLE, P.E. OF HDR INC.

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G e o r G i a

ENGINEER Publisher: a4 inc.

1154 Lower Birmingham Road Canton, Georgia 30115 770-521-8877 E-mail: rfrey@a4inc.com editor-in-chief: Roland Petersen-Frey managing editor: Daniel Simmons art Direction/Design: Pam Petersen-Frey

contributing authors Ann-Marie Clark Patrick Dunne Thomas C. Leslie Jo Ann J. Macrina Montserrat Miller Arnold Olender Frank Rausche Daniel J. Simmons

the Georgia engineer is published bi-monthly by A4 Inc. and pro-

vides a source of general engineering information to advance the business of engineering companies governmental agencies, municipalities, counties, department of transportation, businesses, and institutions including the university system. Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of the Georgia Engineer or its 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 publication may be reproduced with the written consent of the publisher. Correspondence regarding address changes should be sent to the publisher via e-mail to rfrey@a4inc.com or by dropping us a note at the address mentioned above. Subscriptions are available by going online at www.thegeorgiaengineer.com

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contentS

INTERVIEW & DISCUSSION WITH MR. GEORGE LITTLE, P. E., OF HDR INC. These kinds of discussions are a part of our continuing effort to provide ideas on management and add value to the way you might think of your own company. p8 THOUGHTS ON SELLING ENGINEERING SERVICES This article by Tom Leslie is an excellent review and provides food-for-thought on doing what is essential to any business—selling. p14 BECOMING A GREAT COMPANY TO WORK FOR This is one of the goals we should have but might not think of in our daily operations. p19 PAYING FOR INFRASTRUCTURE WITHOUT GOING DOWN THE DRAIN Sometimes blunt talk is good, especially considering that we might not be aware of the damage we do innocently to our sewer systems. p22 COMPLIANCE CORNER: HIRING & MAINTAINING A LEGAL WORKFORCE E-verify and employment documentation all has now become a part of our daily operations, constantly adding to the cost of doing business. p31 ON THE COVER: MR. GEORGE LITTLE, P.E., OF HDR INC.

p28 GIANT MECCANO BRIDGE SECURES WORLD RECORD What a way to interest students in STEM subjects! p28 LARGE DIAMETER OPEN-END PIPE PILES CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES This is an excellent discussion on deep foundations—which are getting bigger. These points are particularly important for open-end pipe piles. p38 REGULATORY UPDATE It is easy to overlook the fact that rules are changing all the time, and that not keeping up with changes might just cause us to miss something important that can cost us money in the long run. p40

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GEORGIA ENGINEER October | November 2015

CONTENTS

Interview & Discussion with Mr. George Little, P.E. of HDR Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Thoughts on Selling Engineering Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Becoming a Great Company to Work For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Paying for Infrastructure Without Going Down the Drain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Books of Interest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Giant Meccano Bridge Secures World Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Compliance Corner: Hiring and Maintaining a Legal Workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 A Long-term Federal Highway Bill Benefits All Georgians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 The U.K. Is Testing Electric Highways that Would Charge Your EV as You Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Large Diameter Open-end Pipe Piles Challenges & Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Regulatory Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Georgia Engineering News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

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aDve r t i S e m e n t S Amason Law Firm .............................................................................3 Amec Foster Wheeler ....................................................................16 CARDO..............................................................................................24 City of Atlanta..................................................................................37 Columbia Engineering ...................................................................20 CROM Corp. .......................................................................................6 Edwards Pitman...............................................................................32 Georgia 811........................................................................................18 Georgia Power .................................................................................33 Georgia Tech.....................................................................................13 Go Build Georgia..............................................................................21 Hayward Baker................................................................Back Cover Insurance Office of America...........................................................7 MasterMind .....................................................................................27 Nova Engineering.............................................................................17 Reinforced Earth ................................................................................3 RHD Utility Locating ......................................................................34 STV .....................................................................................................25 Terrell Hundley Carroll ..................................................................24 THC ....................................................................................................32 TTL .....................................................................................................20 United Consulting ............................................Inside Front Cover Vaughn & Melton ..............................................................................6

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Mr. GeorGe LittLe, P.e.

HDr inc.

s part of the Georgia engineer’s (TGE) continuing effort to provide views on the management and business of engineering, this interview with George Little took place in September of this year.

HDR was founded in 1917 in Omaha, Nebraska, and is still headquartered there today. Since our beginnings as a civil engineering firm, we’ve expanded to include architecture, construction, environmental work, and much more. We provide one of the broadest service ranges in the industry, with the common thread of making communities better places to live, work, and play. At the turn of the last century, we were helping communities develop the infrastructure that lifted them from frontier status.

In this one, we’re often helping them manage that infrastructure investment, do more with less, and determine costs and risks. The common thread has been doing the right thing for our clients and communities.

Our employee-ownership model differentiates us from other companies. We’ve been employee-owned since we bought

ourselves back from a large foreign construction company in 1996. The way we use a lot of offices on big projects is also a differentiator for us. Some firms encourage competition, but we do not allow our people to compete against each other and have changed the way we are organized to encourage collaboration. tGe: Mr. Little, you have been Chief Executive since 2011 and since that time HDR has continued to grow fairly aggressively; not only internally but also via acquisitions—the latest being ICA. Interestingly HDR acquired 32 engineering firms during the ten-year span from 1997 to 2007.

What is HDR’s strategic purpose of acquiring companies at a regular rate?

We look for companies that will complement and diversify our current services either by geography, services offered, or both. As you mentioned, in January of this year, we acquired ICA and ICA Engineering. They increased our bench strength in the southeastern United States as well as being a well respected provider of infrastructure asset management services. We also acquired Savannah-based MEI, which specializes in liquid natural gas consulting.

(Above) The 48-acre Hickory Ridge Landfill in Atlanta uses more than 7,000 solar panels on its landfill closure system to produce more than a megawatt of solar energy. It was the first such use of this technology (not sure if it is still the largest solar energy producing facility in Georgia but it was at the time we submitted it for the ACEC engineering excellence award in 2011. It was a 2012 Honor Award winner.)

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chairman and chief executive officer

tGe: By adding firms to your portfolio, you also acquire certain cultures, which need to be integrated and/or changed to fit into the tradition of HDR and your founder Mr. Henningson.

How do you make them feel like family?

The importance of culture can’t be overstated. We look for companies that share our values of doing the right thing for our clients, our communities, and each other and we do a lot of due diligence on that. We also obviously want companies that are very good at what they do, but we want them to know they’re becoming part of a company that has similar values.

While the way you do things may change and your company may change names, you shouldn’t feel like you have to abandon what you liked about the company you were with before. And you shouldn’t have to worry about your job. We add companies to grow our staff, not shrink it.

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The Historic Fourth Ward Park helps reduce combined sewer overflows by disguising a stormwater retention pond as a key visual feature in a beautiful urban park. It also won an ACEC Honor Award, in 2011. tGe: Many firms seek ways to create a sense of ownership in their employees and end up creating an ESOP (Employee Stock Option Plan). HDR became an employee-owned company back in 1976, with a short stint (13 years) as a foreignowned company, and then reverting to employee ownership in 1996.

Why choose employee ownership versus simply going public?

There are many advantages to being employee-owned. It’s been shown that employee-owned companies perform better and their employees are more productive.

Being able to control your destiny by owning stock in the company you work for really does make a difference. As a company, you don’t have to engage in quarter-to-quarter thinking to satisfy shareholders. Our shareholders take a longer view because they work here and directly benefit from the company’s success and their own hard work. I take my 10

responsibility to our employee shareholders very seriously because many of them are counting on our stock to help provide a secure retirement. tGe: At some point employees might look at their ownership and suggest that their return on investment might be better gauged by the open stock market valuation rather than by the internal valuation process.

Is HDR considering the move toward public ownership? If not, why not?

We are not. We tried being part of a public company once when we were under foreign ownership and at that time a core group of our employees decided the company would do better if we bought ourselves back. Our employees value the chance to own stock in HDR, and that’s true whether they’ve been here a long time or have just joined us. Employees joining us through acquisitions are also

excited by the opportunity to own stock.

We should note that our employee-ownership model is U.S.-based. We are working on incentives for our global employees, which vary based on the country they work in. tGe: On a completely different subject, we would like to touch on HDR’s relationship with its employees. Clearly, an engineering firm is very dependent on the skills of its engineers and staff. As you acquire other companies, you could acquire employees that might not really fit into the existing HDR culture.

How do you handle the assimilation process?

We have dedicated integration teams from multiple departments—HR, IT, accounting, operations, marketing, Learning and Development, who have developed a proven integration process we use to help everyone at the new company become GeorGia enGineer

part of HDR’s company and culture. We have communication plans in place and set up lines of communication to various teams using a variety of methods, including onsite meetings.

We try to make everyone comfortable with their new processes and surroundings as quickly as possible and continue regular meetings with teams as needed after the acquisition is completed. We also try to get the new employees working on existing HDR projects, and get HDR staff working on their projects, so they feel like they’re part of the larger team.

It’s no secret—if you treat people fairly, listen to them, respect them, compensate them, and give them a chance to work on meaningful projects, they’ll stay. Once people come to HDR, they tend to stay here for their careers. We do have a fair number of people who left HDR and came back when they found other companies don’t have the same culture we have. People want to feel valued, and they want to feel like they’re part of something

larger than themselves. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard one of our staff say they like engineering because they get to help make the world a better place.

Another thing I think is important is that we as leaders in the company spend as much time with our staff as we can. I conduct live video CEO updates for all of our staff three times a year, from a differ-

tGe: What are you looking for when hiring an engineer? What are your key criteria—personality? education? past experience? Or if coming fresh from school with a successful PE examination, what does a young man or woman bring to the table that you favor and that makes you want to hire him/her?

Whether they’re recent college graduates or industry veterans, we look for people who are passionate about solving problems on behalf of their clients and communities and open to learning new things, because you can have a very long career in engineering if you stay curious.

For people who are more established in their careers, we seek out people who have a proven ability to build strong relationships with their clients. We also look for strong team players, because you’ll be working on teams throughout your career. The ability to collaborate with your peers and clients no matter where they are is critical. We have 225 offices around the world and our teams come from all parts of the world. tGe: What is the secret of employee retention? Do you mind commenting on that?

Closing the gap a project of great skills and beauty Photo credit: Keith Philpott october | november 2015

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ent office each time. I take questions live, over the phone and e-mailed in advance.

And whenever our leaders go to offices on business, we visit people in those offices. We’re not figureheads sitting in an office. Our staff know us. tGe: How important is it to be involved in the communities where you work?

It’s very important. We really want to be strong partners with our clients in the communities where we work. As one example, I’m the incoming board chair for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. And it’s not just me doing something like that. We expect all of our leadership to get involved in their communities. tGe: Finding new projects is not always easy and can create a certain stress on the firm. What percentage of HDR’s work today is on a continuing contractual arrangement (like maintaining water treatment plants or intelligent transportation systems) that provide a steady and reliable income stream versus getting new projects to keep on growing.

You don’t have to be the biggest firm to take on work outside of the U.S., but you do have to know what you’re getting into.

You need to be familiar with that country’s regulations, culture, and business practices. You should also be very well versed in global anti-corruption laws and understand the risks involved. We’ve done work in many countries, but we’re most active in Canada, Australia, China, Germany, and the Middle East. We open offices in the countries we work in and would recommend other firms do that as well. tGe: No doubt you have a clear vision of the future for HDR. Where do you see HDR going from here? More acquisitions? Internal growth? New technologies, or diversification outside of engineering?

We expect to keep growing both organically and through acquisitions of companies that are a good fit and share our values. Our clients are dealing with issues none of us dreamed of 20 years ago, such as the need to create resilient infrastructure given more intense weather patterns.

Another common thread is our clients being asked to do more with less, so we’re helping them understand and secure newer sources of funding such as public-private partnerships or TIGER grants. We’re helping them deliver alternative delivery mechanisms such as design-build. We’re also helping them change the way they view and manage their infrastructure assets. We have committed to helping our clients minimize costs and maximize operational efficiency, aiming to cut 10 percent of owners’ costs over the lifecycle of HDR-designed and constructed facilities.

We believe this can be accomplished by adopting a true asset management approach to infrastructure development.

Those are just a handful of examples of the way things are changing, but there are many more. HDR will continue to help our clients and communities and will evolve our business as their needs evolve.

And while what we do will change, the values that have served us well for nearly 100 years will not. tGe: Thank you very much for your candid responses. v

We have to earn our revenues every year, and megaprojects like I-4 Ultimate in Florida help, but what we’re most proud of is our ability to start out on small projects with a client, grow their trust, and build clients for life. Many of our client relationships are measured in decades. No matter what they’re facing, our clients know we’ll help them tackle it. tGe: You have become an international engineering firm. Would you recommend that smaller firms consider taking on international work? And if so, is there a need to have an office in the country where the project is located? And if not what is the preferred method of getting paid?

The Hoover Dam by-pass 2009. photo credit: Keith Philpott 12

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Thoughts on Selling Engineering Services

By Thomas C. Leslie I worked for an Atlanta-based consulting engineering firm for about 20 years (ending my consulting career 20 years ago). Most would describe this firm as doing municipal water and sewer work. This was largely true, although, like many firms, it ventured into different markets with mixed success. Like many firms, it has been absorbed by a huge (in my view), multi-national, engineering enterprise. During my tour of duty, the firm expanded from a single office in Atlanta with about 60 folks to three offices in two states with about 200 folks.

During this period of time, the ‘big guys’ came to town. Work was abundant, especially due to federal grants to local governments for study, design, and construction of facilities to implement the federal Clean Water Act. At about the same time, MARTA was being created.

Hartsfield-Jackson Airport was building a new passenger terminal and runway and was on its way to becoming the world’s busiest. While local firms knew about wastewater treatment and october | november 2015

airports, there was no local expertise for heavy rail transit. In 1972, Mayor Maynard Jackson was elected the first AfricanAmerican Mayor, and he soon instituted programs to include MBEs (Minority Business Enterprises) in virtually all contract procurements. Local and big national firms created joint ventures with MBEs to compete for the City’s work. A few firms refused to adopt this strategy and have not fared well, as a result. Initially the MBE goals only applied to

work for Atlanta, but over the years other jurisdictions with African-American political leadership adopted similar goals.

Eventually WBE programs to encourage women-owned business were added to some municipal procurements. By the time I left consulting engineering, MBE/WBE goals became common for the larger cities, as well as the state and federal procurements. Smaller communities rarely adopted MBE/WBE setaside programs.

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All of this is to provide context for observations on selling engineering services.

My experience is largely limited to citycounty-state environmental engineering services. Design-build, design-build-ownoperate, and public-private-partnerships essentially did not exist. Even larger firms with international practices have now absorbed many of the big national firms that moved to Atlanta in the 1970s. Regardless of the limitations in my experience, there seem to be a few principles that stand up to present circumstances.

If you get a Request for Proposals in the mail (oops; e-mail I should say) and did not know it was coming, you are unlikely to be selected because your competitors have been working on the proposal (and members of the selection panel) for weeks.

You need to be close to clients and potential clients so you are aware of upcoming work. If you help write the RFP, it’s even better. The best situation, of course, is where the client simply gives you an assignment under previously agreed terms and billing rates. This was common in my early days in the business; say 50-60 percent of the work, but it is now rare.

Qualify the client. Never work for a client where a committee provides instructions/direction/decisions. Guidance by a client committee will surely be garbled, untimely, and subject to change. Who in the world would appoint a committee for this important task? A condo association or a church might do so. These groups may be run by good people, but they may also be in over their heads, inexperienced, and unschooled in the ways of design and construction. The folks that provide professional liability insurance to engineering firms have advised to avoid work with a condo association. In California, the advice was, never do work for condo associations.

I took summer work with a surveyor in DeKalb County when I was 17 and 18.

The owner had a rule to never do work for a Church. He said they would skin you every time. Decades later I discovered how 16

thomas c. Leslie right he was. We took a job where a church building committee and its minister assured us that there were no graves in the prospective site for a church parking lot.

We developed the grading plan, and when the bulldozer began turning up bodies, the families of the deceased filed suit. The church said, in essence, “Sue me if you like, but we have no money,” and the engineer was left holding the bag. In retrospect, there were a variety of risk management strategies we failed to deploy, but saying “no” to the work should have been tops on the list.

much surprised because I thought the engineer was a curmudgeon (at the time he was also a competitor). Only later did I discover that he was generous (in the right way) and upright (in the old-fashioned way). This engineer was “close business friends” with many officials in smaller communities all over Georgia. He built relationships with clients that lasted decades.

This may sound out-of-date, but it can be an aspirational notion even for today. Who would not want a client-engineer relationship like this?

Clients want engineers that can solve their problems. To solve a problem, you must know what it is. “The red light on the control console is blinking” or “What’s the best way to provide proper wastewater treatment capacity for the next 25 years?”

In the first instance, the blinking red light is surely not the actual problem. Providing 25-year treatment capacity provokes a host of other issues: population projects, water conservation strategies, treatment standards, point of discharge, reuse of treated wastewater, etc.

Gaining an understanding of the actual problem can helpfully involve an intelligent interaction with the prospective client. More likely, however, it will become

clients do not work with firms/people they do not like. More positively, people generally work with other people they like.

In this instance, “like” means pleasant personal interaction, trust, respect, and competence (perhaps in that order). These attributes are not immediately obvious when you first meet someone. In response to an inquiry years ago, a family friend at the Georgia Environmental Protection Division described a principal in a firm as one of his “closest business friends.” I was GeorGia enGineer

clear with time spent with the prospective client in more meandering conversations.

The ‘problem’ may not be exactly what your client contact says. It could be that the problem is one defined by his supervisor or the Mayor or the Chair of the Public Works Committee.

It is absolutely true that involvement in professional associations offer, among many things, a rich opportunity for interaction with clients and potential clients.

You may also gain insight into your competition, potential project partners, important equipment vendors, government regulators, and contractors. These experiences drive a deeper understanding of the industry and the players in it.

The more active you are in an association, the deeper will be your relationships with leaders and other members of the association. It is an easy relationship with a potential client when working together on a public policy issue or organizing a professional development seminar, annual meeting, or social event. Not all associations have the same membership dynamics. ACEC, for example, only has engineer members, but ACEC offers a rich array of prime engineering firms as clients for geotechnical firms. ACEC has developed committees and partnerships with outside groups, however, that offer a convenient exposure to clients (e.g., Georgia DOT).

The Georgia Association of Water Professional has a rich membership of clients, engineers, vendors, and regulators. The Institute for Transportation Engineers includes members from local governments and the Georgia DOT. There are numerous other examples of associations in specific industry segments that include public and/or private client types.

“We’ve done hundreds of similar projects” when you have done two, five years ago.

Bluster very rarely works. Exceptions may be Mohammed Ali (“I am the greatest!”) and Donald Trump (“I’ll be an unbelievable president!”), where their boasts may be truthful, but similar boasts could turn-off reserved members of an engineer selection panel.

Price competition changes everything.

Rarely will an RFP say that price is the sole selection criteria. If an RFP requires any thing that remotely smells like a “price for services,” then the responding firm should assume that price is the sole selection factor. If a client’s RFP requires you to ‘start

a fire,’ you do not need Albert Einstein on the team to explain the theory of heat in the space-time continuum. The primary project team member should be a backwoods survivalist who can strike flint on steel. He will supply the spark, but make sure your proposal requires the client to provide the kindling and firewood for the evening.

New project delivery systems are emerging that combine various combinations of design, construction, financing, operation, and/or ownership. I would surely be in over my head were I to offer opinions on selling engineering services in these type procurements. At lease I know when to stop; so I will. Bon chance. v

no puffery. While a proposal should include an upbeat description of your best projects and tout the skill and experience of your firm’s staff, never exaggerate and never fudge the numbers. It is ok, however, to describe a great project that the client loved without saying that it also came in one percent over-budget. You cannot say, october | november 2015

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Becoming a Great Company to Work For

By Arnold Olender | Burns & McDonnell

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here’s a unique sense of energy you get when you experience a culture that’s unlike anything you’ve experienced. It can draw you in. It inspires creativity and motivates you to try new things. It simply makes you feel better to be a part of it.

As leader of the Atlanta office of Burns & McDonnell, I can tell you that cultivating a culture in the workplace is your own secret blend of success. It can be the most important product or service a company can create. Each organization needs to uncover its own one-of-a-kind culture. Here are a few key elements that have worked for Burns & McDonnell in becoming a great company to work for.

atlanta office overview Many consulting engineering firms start out the same way. Like Burns & McDonnell, they were founded by one or two visionaries who shared both risk and reward and worked tirelessly to make their dreams a reality.

In our case, our founding visionaries, Clinton Burns and Robert McDonnell, opened their doors in 1898. Their firm maintained a mostly Midwestern focus for the next several decades though it grew steadily and enjoyed modest success.

Fast forward nearly 100 years to the late 1990s. Burns & McDonnell had landed some environmental projects in the Southeast and opened a small office in Atlanta. In 1999, we became one of a handful of new regional offices for Burns & McDonnell when we expanded beyond our environmental focus and began providing engineering services for a growing list of aviation, aerospace and local, state and federal government clients in the fast-growing Southeast.

For the next 16 years, we grew quickly, october | november 2015

expanding from an office staff of myself and a handful of other engineers and support staff to approximately 80 today. We continue to grow rapidly and current projections indicate we could be at 150 by 2017. being client centric – results in Professionally challenging Projects Though we are fortunate to be serving one of the most rapidly growing regions of the country, we don’t kid ourselves. Our growth would not have been possible without a relentless focus on making our clients more successful. As our clients saw our commitment to their success, they demanded we do more challenging projects for them and the result was more growth and more opportunity for our employee-owners. It’s a formula that works—excellent client service, innovative and responsive engineering solutions, and clients looking for us to take on their most difficult projects.

Repeat business is one of the cornerstones of building long-term stability in the firm and allows our team to focus on problem solving for our clients. Engineers love challenging projects and this model constantly reinforces that quality and attention to technical and business details assures that we will be tasked with great project opportunities in the future. teamwork equals Shared Success As a 100-percent employee-owned firm, everyone on the team is a shareholder. This is true on the first day a new employee joins our firm. To some, employee-ownership may be viewed as another benefit—a retirement plan or better dental. But to Burns & McDonnell, employee-ownership is ‘lightning in the bottle’. It’s the spirit of how we do work—it is part of our DNA. We talk about it every single day as if our business depends on it—because it does.

Arnold Olender Everyone is expected to exemplify the ownership culture. In fact, internally, we coined a name for it—“MacCulture.”

There is a unique sense of pride that comes from collaborating with clients who trust us with their most critical projects.

Whether we’re working on an aerospace manufacturing facility upgrade, a new U.S. Army National Guard training center or a new electrical substation, our focus and attention-to-detail must be unrelenting.

It makes a difference when we are able to attract top-flight engineering and technical talent who enjoy working with each other. Our employee-ownership structure is key to accomplishing that goal. investing in Professional & Personal Growth Part of our MacCulture approach is to recognize that everyone who works here has an interest in developing their own career.

We encourage lifelong learning through a variety of programs. Our Burns & McDonnell University program has been one highly successful example that includes more than 900 unique courses taught on location or via Webcast by more than 400 instructors who are willing to share their technical or professional knowledge. Many of our new-grad engineers in Atlanta have taken advantage of this program as they 19

earn professional development credits that prepare them for their PE examinations.

Others have received tuition assistance as they pursue graduate degrees. Reimbursement also is provided for professional registrations, certifications, memberships and off-site training.

We also actively encourage our employee owners to contribute to the body of knowledge in the engineering and technical professions. All of us are actively encouraged to write papers and articles on specific areas of expertise and submit them for publication in peer-reviewed technical and trade journals. We also encourage our experts to submit abstracts for speaking opportunities at technical conferences and forums. Several dozen Burns & McDonnell people can be found on the speaker rosters of various conferences around the country each year.

Giving back We believe there is a unique obligation to give back and support the communities where we live and work. Collaborating with community leaders to make our neighborhoods, schools and overall city a best place to live is extremely gratifying.

The employee-owners in Atlanta have a strong commitment to helping the community thrive through various organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, United Way, Wounded Warriors, Rivers Alive, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Relay for Life, and Children’s Restoration Network. In addition, we have a strong interest in encouraging educational achievement in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). We visit classrooms and conduct presentations designed to spark interest in STEM education and give students a hands-on demonstration of the fun and challenging directions you can go with STEM. Though it’s obvious we have a vested interest in encouraging kids to consider careers in engineering, we believe it goes far beyond that. The numerous national studies showing we aren’t filling all the available engineering and technical jobs with home-grown talent make it clear that 20

promoting STEM education must be a national priority. In 2015 we were recognized

by ACEC as Georgia Engineering Firm of the Year for our contributions to engineering, our employees’ career development, and especially for our community involvement.

Having Fun is important too Each year, right around 92 percent of our employee-owners say they enjoy their colleagues and find their workplace to be fun and cooperative. Building a sense of camaraderie and respect among employee-owners strengthens teams and lays the groundwork for success.

With a goal to help employee-owners deliver on that ever challenging work-life balance, Burns & McDonnell offers a variety of different services at its offices around the globe to make life easier: wellness programs, flexible work hours, discounts to fitness centers, and direct access to the Alpharetta Greenway. We have an in-house travel agency, a credit union and even an online classified service to get deals on everything from cars and homes to appliances and game tickets. Throw in food feasts like Diversity Day, Chili Bowl Cookoff, and “Pre” Thanksgiving, activities like Trivia-Crack Bracket Challenge, CornHole Smackdown, WhirlyBall Championship, Summer Family Outing, and Braves Family Game we offer something for everyone to have fun during the day, weekend, or evening.

Engineers are number-centric by nature and like to measure everything. So, that’s why we participate in annual rankings of Best Places to Work and Top Engineering firms. Fortune magazine ranked Burns & McDonnell number 15 on their 2015 Best Places to Work For List. We have also been gratified to make it on the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Top Workplaces rankings (#9 in 2015) for two consecutive years and equally pleased to be moving up the rankings of the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 25 Top Engineering Firms in Atlanta.

The workplace rankings can serve as a

barometer of success internally and externally – not to mention create strong interest from prospective employees. With a turnover rate of 4 percent, far below the national average, we continue to attract the best and brightest from around the world.

One of the most common questions I get from colleagues is, “What’s the secret to making your company a top company to work for?” There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ formula, but we’ve found that there are some key categories that have been critical in creating a growing company: focus on what is important, the success of your clients and employees and good times will follow.

These are just a few of the key ingredients that contribute to a recipe for a Best Company to Work For at Burns & McDonnell.

Each company has the power to uncover its own recipe for success. If you would like to learn more about Burns & McDonnell including our culture, our services, our people, our locations and our career opportunities, please stop by our website at burnsmcd.com.v

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Paying for Infrastructure Without Going Down the Drain

By Jo Ann J. Macrina | Commissioner | City of Atlanta | Department of Watershed Management

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ore than $1.2 billion in capital improvements— that’s what the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management is gearing up today. Five short years ago, we weren’t ready to take it on. But with Mayor Reed’s leadership, new senior staff and a team that has the right stuff, DWM is firing ahead with new vigor and an unstoppable plan, all the while advancing its triple bottom line—social, environmental, and economic sustainability.

During the ten-year period between the entry of its Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) Consent Decree in 1999 and the completion of the requirements of its Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Consent Decree (entered in 1998), the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management implemented one of the nation’s largest wastewater collection system capital improvement programs. By 2009, the City had realized a 75 percent reduction in the incidences of spill events due in large part to the capital improvement program and programs mandated by the Consent Decree. During this time frame, capital program expenditures averaged more than $225 million annually. This level of expenditure placed a debt burden in excess of $3.5 billion on the City’s ratepayers. Financing the wastewater capital improvement program and other programs mandated by the Consent Decree precipitated rate increases that placed the City’s service rates among the highest service rates imposed by major North American metropolitan water and wastewater utilities.

In 2012, Mayor Kasim Reed led negotiations between the City, the U.S. EPA and the U.S. DOJ, resulting in a 13-year extension of the City’s 1999 SSO Consent Decree. The successful record on consent decree compliance as well as overall strength in the Mayor’s leadership and fiscal prudence by the Department of Watershed Management, two bond rating upgrades (2013 and 2015) were

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granted by the major credit agencies and allowed the City to more equitably distribute its capital expenditures between water and wastewater systems infrastructure improvements while at the same time advancing its regulatory compliance.

With that, the Department is moving forward with Capital Improvement Projects to: • Establish a minimum of 30 days of raw water storage to ensure access to safe, clean drinking water, •

Upgrade water reclamation centers,

•

Make improvements to combined sewer overflow facilities, and

•

Use green infrastructure to combat stormwater, including the largest permeable paver project in North America.

Drinking Water The crown jewel of Atlanta’s water systems infrastructure projects is the design and construction of the City’s Water Supply Program, which is underway just five miles from the Gold Dome of the Georgia Capitol. Scheduled for completion in two phases over four years, the City has begun converting an existing rock quarry into a 2.4 billion gallon water storage facility that will be fed by water from the Chattahoochee River through a five-mile, ten-foot diameter tunnel. The tunnel will connect the Chattahoochee River to two of the City’s water treatment plants, replacing four aging transmission pipes—

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the oldest of which goes back to the late 1800s—as the main raw water conveyance. The final leg of the tunnel will run from the Hemphill Water Treatment Plant to the new water storage facility.

The Water Supply Program moves the City’s water system from a three-day raw water reserve to one with at least 30 days of reserves. Upon completion, the more than 1.2 million people who use the City’s water can rest assured that should the Chattahoochee River be stricken by drought or contamination, or if major components of the raw water intake were compromised by a major natural disaster or terrorism, they would have a minimum of 30 days of raw water while contingency measures are implemented to ensure a continuous supply of safe drinking water.

For an economy that includes the world’s busiest passenger airport, such an assurance protects hundreds of millions of business dollars each and every day.

Where water goes, the economy grows, and this project is expected to spur unprecedented economic growth to the City’s economy. By joining the quarry with an adjacent park connecting to the Atlanta BeltLine, the $280 million water

supply program is anticipated to generate more than $450 million in local spending and create more than 650 new jobs during the next five years.

Wastewater The First Amended Consent Decree (SSO Consent Decree) extension has also allowed the City to focus attention on upgrading its water reclamation centers (WRCs) and other facilities that have not received significant attention over the last 15 years. Among these is the planned upgrades to the R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Center (WRC), which is the City’s largest WRC, with an approximately 122 million per day average permitted treated wastewater discharge to the Chattahoochee River; the decommissioning of the Intrenchment Creek WRC and accompanying upgrades to the South River WRC and the Utoy Creek WRC. The planned upgrades to the WRC’s will cost an estimated $500 million. These upgrades will not only save several million dollars in WRC operating and maintenance (O&M) costs but also will result in improved wastewater treatment efficiency, promote the City’s compliance

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with its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits, and improve water quality in the Chattahoochee River. combined Sewer System improvements In addition to the water and wastewater systems planned improvements, the City has also initiated a program to improve its combined sewer conveyance, control, and treatment systems (combined sewers and combined sewer overflow facilities). Designed to convey, control, and treat a combination of raw sewage and stormwater during periods of wet weather, these systems are prevalent in U.S. major cities.

Although the CSO Consent Decree was successfully completed, work continues in order to ensure the protection of water quality from pollutants and to advance compliance with the City’s NPDES permits. Among the planned combined sewer system improvements are the $40 million upgrades to the East and West Water Control Facilities and the combined sewer overflow control facilities at Tanyard Creek, North Avenue, Clear Creek, and Custer Avenue.

Watershed Protection and Green infrastructure The City continues to implement watershed management and protection programs based on a holistic watershedbased approach: water, wastewater, and stormwater. Whether in a drinking water pipe, a sewer, a river, lake, or a drainage ditch, water is a natural resource to be held in trust for future generations. Con-

JoAnn Macrina sistent with the requirements of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and the City’s holistic approach, watershed protection plans are being developed for each watershed within the City boundaries within the next five years. These plans will guide the City’s watershed management and protection efforts as it strives to mitigate the effects of stormwater runoff and to improve water quality.

The City has also embarked on Green Infrastructure projects as part of its environmental restoration initiatives to not only reduce non-point source pollution and erosion and sedimentation, but to also alleviate flooding problems in flood prone areas of the City. Some of the Green Infrastructure projects include a $3.5 million planned Cheshire Bridge

Road water quality improvement project and the $66 million Southeast Atlanta Green Infrastructure Initiative that will provide much-needed relief to areas affected by flooding. The Southeast Atlanta Green Infrastructure Initiative includes rain gardens, underground storage vaults, detention ponds and bioretention facilities, and replacing asphalt roads with permeable pavers in historically flooded residential communities. In fact, the permeable paver project is the largest in North America.

Another major Green Infrastructure project is the Boone Boulevard-Green Street. This project implements stormwater best management practices along a 1.2-mile stretch on Boone Boulevard from the intersection of Boone Boulevard and Northside Drive to the Atlanta BeltLine. The City received a $387,000 EPA/EPD 319(h) Grant for water quality improvement and a $1 million grant from Invest Atlanta toward the total construction cost of $2.8 million. This will be the model for future roadway improvements. v

a Utility of the Future

there is no doubt city has already seen change for the better. many accomplishments through the consent Decrees have been achieved, water quality data is trending positive, communities are more involved, and the city is delivering results and reaching out to our environmental stewardship partners every day to do more for the generations to come. through this process, the city of atlanta has proven to be a model in how to address aging infrastructure, and do so in a prudent manner without raising rates. it is no secret that water precedes growth. as we move forward, the city will continue to lead regional growth in ways that are environmentally, fiscally, and socially responsible. october | november 2015

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BOOKS OF INTEREST MODERNIZING FREIGHT RAIL REGULATION modernizing Freight rail regulation examines the future role of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) in overseeing and regulating the service levels and rate offerings of railroads, particularly as they become revenue adequate.

The approaches recommended in this congressionally-requested report are intended to resynchronize a regulatory program that has become outdated.

The study committee finds that while the U.S. freight railroad industry has become modernized and financially stable since the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, some of the industry's remaining economic regulations have not kept pace and should be replaced with practices better-suited for today's modern freight rail system.

overcoming barriers for Deployment of Plug-in electric vehicles In the past few years, interest in plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) has grown. Advances in battery and other technologies, new federal standards for carbon-dioxide emissions and fuel economy, state zeroemission-vehicle requirements, and the current administration's goal of putting millions of alternative-fuel vehicles on the road have all highlighted PEVs as a transportation alternative.

Consumers are also beginning to recognize the advantages of PEVs over conventional vehicles, such as lower operating costs, smoother operation, and better acceleration; the ability to fuel up at home; and zero tailpipe emissions when the vehicle operates solely on its battery. There are, however, barriers to PEV deployment, including the vehicle cost, the short all-electric driving range, the long battery charging time, uncertainties about battery life, the few choices of vehicle models, and the need for a charging infrastructure to support PEVs. What should industry do to improve the performance of PEVs and make them more attractive to consumers?

evaluating vehicle emission inspections and maintenance Programs Emissions inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs subject vehicles to periodic inspections of their emission control systems. Despite widespread use of these programs in air-quality management, policy makers and the public have found a number of problems associated with them.

Prominent among these issues is the perception that emissions benefits and other impacts of I/M programs have not been evaluated adequately. Evaluating Vehicle Emissions Inspection and Maintenance Programs assesses the effectiveness of these programs for reducing mobile source emissions. In this report, the committee evaluates the differences in the characteristics of motor vehicle emissions in areas with and without I/M programs, identifies criteria and methodologies for their evaluation, and recommends improvements to the programs.

Most useful of all, this book will help summarize the observed benefits of these programs and how they can be redirected in the future to increase their effectiveness.

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Funding and managing the U.S. inland Waterways System

By Committee on Reinvesting in Inland Waterways: What Policy Makers Need to Know; Transportation Research Board What Policymakers Need to Know explores the role and importance of the federally funded inland waterways system, priorities for future investment, its beneficiaries, and sources of funding. In recent years, the inland waterways system has transported six to seven percent of all domestic tonmiles of cargo. The study committee finds that, in order to ensure efficient use of limited navigation resources, the most critical need for the inland waterways system is a sustainable and well-executed plan for maintaining system reliability and performance. Reliability and performance will depend on placing higher priority on investments in operations and maintenance (O&M). Without a funding strategy that prioritizes system preservation, maintenance may continue to be deferred, which would result in further deterioration and in a less cost effective and less reliable system.

The committee suggests that an asset management program focused on economic efficiency, fully implemented and linked to the budgeting process, would help prioritize maintenance spending and ascertain the funding levels required for reliable freight service.

corps of engineers Water resources infrastructure: Deterioration, investment or Divestment?

By Committee on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Water Resources Science, Engineering, and Planning; Water Science and Technology Board; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National Research Council This book explores the status of operations, maintenance, and rehabilitation of Corps water resources infrastructure, and identifies options for the Corps and the nation in setting maintenance and rehabilitation priorities.

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Giant Meccano Bridge Secures World Record

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his is a story that came across our desk from Northern Ireland, and it got our attention because it covers a subject we are familiar with right here in the United States: “How do we raise the interest in STEM subjects for students?”

So building a very special bridge for fun and raising the interest of students in engineering and in STEM (science, technology engineering and mathematics) is a matter of interest to us as well.

Here is our salute to our future engineers. This is an event that took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the Queens University of Belfast on September 19th. and below is the report as send to us by Anne-Marie Clark of the Queen’s University.

Officials from Guinness World Records have confirmed that Queen’s Big Bridge Build—a bridge spanning almost 100 feet across Belfast’s Clarendon dock—is the world’s largest Meccano structure.

The Big Bridge Build, a year-long project, is the brainchild of the University’s School of Planning, Architecture the Guinness World record ‘big bridge build’ in numbers!

Length of bridge - 28.5 (96ft) Longest Span of bridge - 14m Height of bridge - 6m (26ft) Weight - 600kg Pieces of meccano – 11,000 nuts, bolts, washers – 60,000 total length of meccano pieces (laid end to end) – 3,835m This is equivalent of the height of 10 Empire State Buildings!

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and Civil Engineering. Academics and students created the bridge, with the help of local school children, as part of the university’s outreach programme to encourage more children to think about careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Hundreds of people visited Belfast’s Clarendon Dock over the weekend to marvel at the stunning construction as they waited to hear the official announcement of the World Record bid.

The project was made possible with the help of Spin Master Corp, the proud owner and producer of Meccano, as well as McLaughlin & Harvey and Aecom who gave valuable advice to the students as well as assisting with the construction and installation of the bridge across the

Clarendon Dock.

The students celebrated their achievement by walking across the bridge for the first time, which was officially declared open by Meccano’s Meccanoid Robot, much to the delight of attending youngsters.

Speaking about the achievement Danny McPolin, Senior Structures Lecturer at Queen’s School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering, said: “This event has been a fantastic way to celebrate the student and staff ’s incredible work over the past year, but also a chance to show local children more about the exciting courses we offer here at the Queen’s University.

“With a growing skill shortage in Civil engineering, we hope that our work GeorGia enGineer

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will encourage more children to consider the study of civil engineering and other STEM subjects at University level.”

Members of the public who attend the event had the opportunity to speak to students and academics, as well as the event sponsors, who were on hand to discuss the bridge build and civil engineering in general. Youngsters were also able to create their own Meccano structures in a dedicated Gazebo sponsored by Smyths Toys Superstores.

Ben Varadi, Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Spin Master Corp., said: “We are truly in awe of this remarkable achievement. Spin Master is incredibly proud that this timeless and iconic toy, invented over a 100 years ago, continues to inspire the world’s future architects and engineers.”

Paul McCormick, Managing Director, Highways & Bridges, EMEA &

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India at AECOM, commented: “We are proud to have been involved with the Big Bridge Build project and it’s wonderful to see young people getting excited by the fantastic opportunities civil engineering can offer. We hope this event inspires more young people to take up STEM subjects at university level and pursue careers in engineering.”

John McCarey, Chief Engineer at Civil Engineering contractor McLaughlin & Harvey Ltd added: “We have been involved from the start of their world record attempt, providing them with a contractor’s insight and bringing our technical expertise to the very particular challenges of this brilliant third year design project. To gain the World Record is the Icing on the Cake!” v

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Compliance Corner: Hiring and Maintaining a Legal Workforce

By Montserrat Miller | Arnold Golden Gregory LLP

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e’re all busy, and regardless of your industry, those responsible for hiring our workforce are pulled in many different ways and have to keep abreast of countless local, state and federal workplace related laws and regulations. The goal of this article is to take one aspect of the hiring process and break it down into five steps which will hopefully lead to greater immigration-related compliance.

Here goes. How to hire and maintain a legal workforce in five (overly) broad steps: 1. Form I-9: All new hires (but not independent contractors) must complete an Employment Eligibility Verification Form (Form I-9) within three business days of hire. The Form I-9 is a two-page document issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that verifies identity and work authorization. Employers must have available for inspection by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) their Forms I-9 for any employee hired post November 6, 1986.

(See, Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1896 (Public Law 99-603), Section 274A(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and 8 C.F.R. section 274a.2). If an employer does not have Forms I-9 for their existing workforce hired after this date, ICE will allege noncompliance and the employer will be subject to civil penalties ranging from $110 to $1,100/violation for, for example, failing to produce a Form I-9. If you are reading this and suddenly realize you do not have Forms I-9 for your employoctober | november 2015

mat, electronically or by using an electronic I-9 vendor.

Montserrat Miller ees, call me or your immigration counsel to address remediation. This really is a situation where you do not want to do this yourself as you could, even if well-intentioned, make your situation worse. How? By backdating all of the Forms I-9. As a general rule, you never want to backdate a form.

2. In addition to completing a Form I-9 for any new hire, an employer must maintain a Form I-9 for all current employees. Employers may destroy such forms, but only once an employee has been terminated and the requisite time period has passed.

What’s the time period? Three years after date of hire or one year after termination, whichever is later. In addition to maintaining Forms I-9 for current employees, an employer must re-verify the work authorization of any employee who has temporary work authorization, such as a work permit. Section 3 of the Form I-9 is used for this purpose. Employers may maintain the Form I-9 in paper for-

3. E-Verify: This is the federal government’s electronic employment eligibility verification program administered by USCIS, the same agency within the Department of Homeland Security that administers the Form I-9. E-Verify is a separate requirement from the Form I-9. The Form I-9 is required for all employees, but use of the E-Verify system is voluntary unless (and that’s a big “unless”) an employer is in a state that mandates use of the E-Verify system or are a federal contractor with the Federal Acquisition Regulation mandated clause requiring its use. Georgia is an example of a state that requires private employers within the state to use E-Verify and ties a company’s use to applications for, or renewals of, business licenses. Note that in some states, including Georgia, not only is there a state mandate to use E-Verify for private employers, but there is also a mandate to use E-Verify for public works contracts. Typically the state entity will write such language into the terms of the agreement or as a condition of a proposal.

4. Enrolling in E-Verify is easy, painless and free. According to USCIS, it is used nationwide by more than 600,000 employers at more than 1.9 million hiring sites. To create a case in E-Verify, an employer enters information from the completed Form I-9 into the system and E-Verify will display an initial case result within a few seconds. Note that like the Form I-9, 31

employers must create a case in EVerify within three business days of hire. Again, according to USCIS, 98.78 percent of cases created in EVerify are automatically confirmed as work authorized. At which point, an employer should close the case in the system. In cases where an employee is not automatically confirmed as work authorized, an employer may receive a Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC).

A TNC requires certain steps be taken by the employer, including advising the employee of the notice and not taking any adverse action during the pendency of the employee’s attempt to address the TNC. One major caveat about the E-Verify system. It does work and therefore, certain employers/industries may potentially experience workforce shortages due to E-Verify use. All employers using the system must post participation posters to inform current and prospective employees of their participation. These posters must be posted in English and Spanish and include the E-Verify Participation Poster and the Right to Work Poster.

of the documents by the employee and sending them to Human Resources for completion of section 2. Read the employer attestation in section two carefully to understand what you are attesting to. Second, worksite enforcement. ICE does audit employers’ compliance with our immigration laws, including proper completion of the Form I-9 as well as whether an employer knowingly hires or continues to employ an individual knowing they are not authorized to work in the United States. Note that ICE has entered into memorandums of understanding with other government

agencies, including the Department of Labor, which means that what starts as a Form I-9 investigation could lead to other workplace investigations.

Above is not an attempt to provide legal counsel, but intended to be educational and provide a broad overview of general requirements. If you are currently addressing policies and procedures around your company’s use of the Form I-9 and E-Verify, or are the subject of a government investigation by ICE, I am happy to discuss these with you and provide legal counsel. v

5. Remote Hires and Government Audits: First, remote employees. Not all employees work in an office or near an office where they can easily complete the Form I-9 within three business days of hire. These are considered “remote hires” and because ICE is operating in the 20th century when Skype and other useful technology did not exist, employers must complete the Form I-9 for these individuals using a trusted agent or representative. This can be anyone, including a notary or the dog walker. The employee must still complete section 1 of the Form I9 and the employer’s agent or representative must complete section two in its entirety, including a tactile inspection of the document(s) presented by the employee for section two purposes. This means, no photocopying 32

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A Long-term Federal Highway Bill Benefits All Georgians

By Patrick Dunne, | NSSGA | Communications Director

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nyone who has driven on a state road or federal highway that is full of potholes or hazards knows the frustrations that come with rough and crumbling pavement.

“We all see deteriorating roads and bridges here in the state, but there are negative consequences from having inefficient infrastructure that may be unnoticed,” said Jeff Wansley, executive director of the Georgia Construction Aggregate Association (GCAA). “Think of the time we could be spending with our families instead of sitting in traffic on aging roads.”

Georgia’s roads need support. Overall, Americans spend on average 38 hours and $121 billion each year in wasted fuel sitting in congestion and the wear on our vehicles and increased operating costs add up to $94 billion a year.

Drivers in the state lose $3.8 billion each year in the form of lost time and wasted fuel as a result of traffic congestion, according to TRIP, a national transportation research group. An average of 1,224 people in the state lost their lives each year in traffic crashes from 2009 to 2013, a total of 6,122 fatalities over the five year period, and the fatality rate on rural roads is nearly three-and-a-half times greater than on all other roads in the state.

Georgia relies on a combination of funds from the state and Highway Trust Fund for new construction projects, and to support existing roads and bridges.

Wansley said that since the average road project lasts nine to 19 years, another short-term extension from Congress cannot help the state rebuild failing and unsafe roads, bridges and highways.

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The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reports that there are 61,365 structurally deficient bridges in America, and every congressional district in Georgia has several structurally deficient bridges. In this state alone, 16 percent of bridges are in critical need of repair. recent History of the Highway bill “We have fallen to 28th in the world in investment as a percentage of GDP and 16th in the quality of our roads and bridges. Congress must act to prevent our transportation network, once the envy of the world, from deteriorating further,” said Michael W. Johnson, president and CEO of the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA). “Shortterm extensions are not only bad fiscal policy, they are insufficient to rebuild our country’s roads, bridges and highways, which are essential to economic growth and prosperity.”

A long-term solution passed the U.S. Senate, but not the U.S. House of Repre-

sentatives in the summer, paving the way for what Johnson hoped will be the foundation for a long-term highway bill.

The Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act (DRIVE Act) passed the Senate on July 30 by a bipartisan vote of 65-34. Meanwhile, the House, insisting it needed more time, sent the Senate a five-month extension with a promise of corporate tax reform and repatriation, which would require companies to bring back earnings to the United States through taxes, to fund a six-year highway bill in December.

Ultimately, both chambers agreed on a three-month extension of funds through October 29 when it became clear that the Senate planned to send its bill to the House and the chamber’s leadership did not plan to vote on it.

At the time of this publication, Congress returned for the fall legislative session and the highway bill is expected to be a priority piece of legislation—though one that competes with a papal visit to Washington, D.C., Iran nuclear deal ap-

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jections released in September suggested that funding will extend into next year, but the projections were based on states slowing new and existing construction projects in the coming winter months— these were not saved or new funds. In fact, the trust fund will continue to fluctuate near that critical $4 billion limit over the winter and into the first half of next year.

In the summer, Congress opted to extend the existing Highway Trust Fund and surface transportation authorization for a 34th consecutive time, rather than passing a new “highway bill” that would provide funding for six years.

Unless action is taken soon, confusion and delays will be felt by small businesses and Departments of Transportation in many states and will only continue to do so if a long-term solution is not found.

proval, debt ceiling debates, and a potential government shutdown unless a federal budget is approved.

Highway dollars dwindle Despite reports from the Department of Transportation to the contrary, the Highway Trust Fund is not likely to stay solvent through June 2016.

The trust fund collects revenue from october | november 2015

a fuel tax, currently at 18 cents per dollar, and distributes funds for state, local and national federal highway and transit programs across the nation.

The Highway Trust Fund is required under federal law to maintain a positive balance of $4 billion to ensure that commitments to existing projects can be met, but it is expected to plunge below $4 billion as early as Nov. 20. Trust fund pro-

being Part of the Solution There are many in the highway materials and construction industries who are making it know to their elected officials that a long-term highway bill can solve so many problems.

As part of ongoing advocacy efforts to educate congress on the need for a long-term highway bill, GCAA met with several members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to educate them on the value of passing a long-term bill. NSSGA has sent multiple letters to every member of Congress and even hosted aggregates operators for in-person advocacy meetings on Capitol Hill in September.

Johnson said that anyone concerned about America’s roads should likewise ask for the support of their elected officials.

“Let your representatives and senators know that you need them to do what those before them could not and pass a long-term highway bill with sufficient funding to maintain and improve the nation’s surface transportation network,” Johnson said. “No more delays. No more patches.” v 35

The U.K. Is Testing Electric Highways that Would Charge Your EV as You Drive this could solve the charging problem that has been slowing electric car adoption for years (if it works).

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rits are getting into electric cars more and more.

Sales jumped up 366 percent in the first quarter of 2015. Still, when the U.K. government surveyed consumers and businesses, they found the chickenand-egg problem that haunts EVs elsewhere. Some consumers don’t want to buy an electric car without a full infrastructure for charging in place. But the business case for building that infrastructure is weak without more EV drivers on roads.

The U.K. plans to add plug-in chargers every 20 miles along highways, so drivers don’t have to worry about getting stranded on a road trip.

And the country does al-

ready have thousands of chargers in place. But now they’re testing out something new to make driving an EV even easier: electric highways that can wirelessly charge cars as they drive.

If the tests go well, the new highways would add to the existing network of plug-in chargers and make it even simpler to fuel up a Tesla than a standard gas-guzzling car. “This has the benefit of saving time and improving the distance that electric vehicles can travel,” says Nic Brunetti, a spokesman for Highways England. “The combination of both types of charging technologies could help to create a comprehensive ecosystem for electric vehicles.”

illustration: James Provost an electric car can draw power by establishing resonant coupling between the electromagnetic field of the buried transmitting coils and that of the pickup coils under the car. efficient resonance happens when the transmitter’s frequency is tuned to the pickup circuit.

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In a feasibility study, the government found that people would be more likely to drive electric cars if the wired roads were in place, especially if the charging networks spread off highways onto regular roads. And it’s also a way of responding to a shift that's already happening.

“An important part of managing the road network over the next thirty years will be preparing the infrastructure for a shift to new types of vehicles and technology," Brunetti says. "We need to plan intelligently for the future. Innovative technologies offer opportunities to make the best use of road capacity and to improve the road user experience.”

The system would use electric cables installed under roads to generate electromagnetic fields and send power to a gadget under a car. While it could potentially run on renewable energy (and maybe even be combined with something like a solar roadway), the government is still working out the details.

“We’re at a very early stage of re-

october | november 2015

searching and developing a system that could potentially transfer power to vehicles,” says Brunetti. “We won’t know until such time as we have completed off-road trials to ascertain what technology could be used for this and whether or not it is effective.”

The first trials, set for later this year,

will use a section of fake highway to test out the technology. After 18 months of testing, they'll decide whether to scale it up. If they do, they actually won’t be the first: South Korea already has a 15-mile stretch of electric highway in the city of Gumi. v

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Large Diameter Open-end Pipe Piles Challenges & Opportunities

By Frank Rausche, PhD, PE | Scott Webster, PE | Ben White, PE

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any things in deep foundations get bigger and bigger and that is particularly true for open-ended pipe piles.

For decades, they have been driven to deep penetrations and GRL has monitored their installation, tested them dynamically, and analyzed them for driveability on offshore, nearshore, and on-land projects. The Na-

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tional Cooperative Highway Research Program Synthesis (NCHRP Synthesis) (i) defines Large Diameter Open-End Driven Pipe Piles (LDOEP) as either concrete or steel pipes with diameters of 36 inches (910 mm) or more. For offshore oil platforms, 48 to 96 inch (1220 to 2440 mm) diameters are common, and have been successfully used following American Petroleum Institute (API) specifications.

Lately, windfarm

monopiles of more than 200 inch (5000 mm) diameters have been considered.

LDOEPs are also used in port construction, and occasionally on bridge foundations, when heavy equipment and material can be economically transported.

In favorable soils, installation may be by vibratory hammer, however in most cases an impact hammer is needed to reach design penetration and to evaluate capacity by dynamic testing. Bearing ca-

GeorGia enGineer

pacity evaluated during pile installation, however, may not fully represent the pile response in the static service condition.

The high inertia of the soil prevents plugging during driving. The pile ‘cookie cuts’ its way into the ground, making installation to design penetration relatively easy but reducing end bearing during driving.

In fact, even the internal friction will not exhibit its full static potential during driving because of the up-and-down motion of the pile during installation. Not surprisingly, dynamic methods generally predict lower capacities than anticipated from static considerations. During static loading, however, internal friction may be enough to resist the end bearing acting over the whole pile bottom area. So while the contractor is happy about the installation progress, the pile designer is often concerned about the low apparent soil resistance.

To make things worse, designers occasionally install ‘constrictor plates’ (with a center hole to allow water and soft soil to escape) inside piles at a location where they would generate ‘end bearing’ effects without causing too much of an installation problem. The uncertain condition of the soil plug under the constrictor plates and its effect under dynamic conditions, unfortunately, complicate the driveability assessment and evaluation by dynamic load testing.

The NCHRP Synthesis makes clear that designers and construction professionals need dynamic analysis and testing methods both for LDOEP job preparation and for construction control. Static load testing, while the indisputable method for static soil capacity determination, is usually not a feasible alternative due to cost and time constraints. Moreover, driving stresses and pile integrity assessments, not possible by static testing, Brown, D.A., and Thompson, W.R., Design and Load Testing of Large Diameter Open-Ended Driven Piles; A Synthesis of Highway Practice; NCHRP Synthesis 478, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C, 2015 october | november 2015

are often very important due to the limited number of LDOEP’s used in a foundation. Dynamic tests during installation are the best means of assuring that installation meets specifications. Fortunately, dynamic methods perform well, particularly when local conditions and experiences are taken into account.

GRL was recently involved in a number of challenging LDOEP projects, most notably the Kentucky Lakes Bridge where the load test program included static, dynamic, and rapid force pulse tests on 48 and 72 inch (1220 and 1830 mm) diameter pipe piles. The challenges of evaluating static bearing capacity of LDOEP by dynamic methods were addressed in part by employing advanced modeling in the CAPWAP® software, in particular using radiation damping in lieu of the standard Smith model. Other considerations for successful dynamic testing of LDOEPs include: (i) Dynamic tests during restrike have high benefit/cost ratio and are highly recommended, since low dynamic testing capacity results during driving are more frequently due to disturbed soil than a moving plug. ( ii ) Excessive energies loosen the soils, resulting in low dynamic resistance. Try to limit energies and, during data analysis, use superposition of early with late restrike resistance distributions. Reduce high energies by cushioning to improve chances of measuring the full end bearing. (iii) The unit resistance at the plugged LDOEP pile toe will be less than that for the small area against the steel only (when performing driveability analysis with GRLWEAP, use only 50 percent of the anticipated unit end bearing). (iv) When investigating potential toe damage, realize that all dynamic methods assume uniform stresses over the pile cross section. However, a large diameter pile encountering obstructions or sloping rock can have very high local stresses at the toe. Thus, for non-uniform resistance conditions, consider lower allowable average driving stresses at the toe.

Research is ongoing in many parts of

the world, and we all need to stay informed about progress in this important deep foundation specialty. Fortunately, dynamic testing provides a cost effective option that can be successfully implemented into many LDOEP projects.v

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Regulatory Update Department of Labor’s Wage and House Division Issues Interpretation on the Identification of Employees Who Are Misclassified as Independent Contractors NLBMDA analysis of the WHD Interpretation

O

n July 15, 2015, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued an interpretation of how to determine if a worker is an employee or an independent contractor in relationship to the employer.

WHD assumes most workers are employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Because of ambiguities and vagueness in the statutory definition of this employment relationship, federal courts have fashioned a test for determining the status of a worker under the FLSA. The WHD Interpretation provides an analysis of the courts’ economic realities test and the application of factors that the WHD will be used to determine if a worker is an employee or an independent contractor.

It is important to note that these factors must be considered together and no one factor should be over-emphasized.

No one factor is determinative of whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor.

In general, a worker is an employee if he or she is economically dependent on the employer. A worker is an independent contractor if he or she is in business for him or herself. The six factors below are intended to help determine the worker status. Just because one factor suggests an employment relationship or an independent contractor relationship does not mean the relationship should be characterized as such. WHD will look at the totality of the circumstances to determine the worker-employer relationship.

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Six Factors of the economic realities test The Interpretation looks at the 6 most common factors applied by federal courts.

The bulleted items below are taken from the Interpretation. To be considered an independent contractor: 1. The worker’s work should not be an integral part of the employer’s business.

• Workers are more likely to be employees rather than independent contractors if they perform the primary job of the employer.

•

Work can be considered integral to a business even if the work is just one component of the business.

2. The worker should be in business for him or herself with evidence of using managerial skills relative to exposure to profit or loss and development of future work.

• This factor focuses on whether the worker exercises managerial skills and whether those skills affect the worker’s opportunity for both profit and loss.

•

The worker’s ability to work more hours or the amount of work available from the employer has nothing to do with the worker’s managerial skills.

3. The worker’s relative investment in his or her business should be comparable to that of the employer, demon-

strating that the worker is exposed to a risk of loss.

• Investing in tools and equipment is not necessarily a business investment or a capital expenditure that indicates that the worker is an independent contractor.

•

The comparison of the investments of the worker and employer should not be limited to a particular job; instead, the relative investments of the worker in his or her business should be compared to that of the employer in its business.

4. The worker’s business skills, judgment, and initiative, not his or her technical skills, will be used to determine if the worker is economically independent—it will be assumed that an independent contractor will use his or her skills in some independent way, such as demonstrating business initiative.

• Specialized skills do not indicate that workers are in business for themselves, especially if those skills are technical and used to perform the work.

•

For skills to be indicative of independent contractor status, they should be used in some independent way, such as demonstrating business initiative.

5. Permanence or indefiniteness in the worker-employer relationship sugGeorGia enGineer

gests that the worker is an employee —it will be assumed an independent contractor will seek independence from a single employer.

• Even if the working relationship lasts weeks or months instead of years, there can be a permanence or indefiniteness to it as compared to an independent contractor, who typically works one project for an employer and does not necessarily work continuously or repeatedly for an employer.

•

A lack of permanence or indefiniteness does automatically suggest an independent contractor relationship: neither working for other employers nor not relying on the employer as his or her primary source of income transform the worker into the employer’s independent contractor.

•

A worker’s lack of a permanent or indefinite relationship with an employer is indicative of independent contractor status if it results from the worker’s own independent business initiative.

6. The nature and degree of oversight of the employer will be considered—it will be assumed that an independent contractor will control meaningful aspects of the work performed.

• The worker’s control over meaningful aspects of the work must be more than theoretical—the worker must actually exercise it.

•

Some employers assert that the control that they exercise over workers is due to the nature of their business, regulatory requirements, or the desire to ensure that their customers are satisfied; however, control exercised over a worker, even for any or all of these reasons, still indicates that the worker is an employee. v

october | november 2015

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oKo bUcKLe nameD a PrinciPaL at bUrnS & mcDonneLL Oko Buckle came to the firm nine years ago and manages projects throughout Georgia, Florida, and the Southeast.

Georgia

Engineering

News

Georgia Highway Named for Frank Danchetz, Late ARCADIS Engineer

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State Route 306 in Forsyth County, Georgia, a busy thoroughfare linking Alpharetta to Gainesville, was named Frank Danchetz Memorial Highway at a dedication ceremony on Saturday, August 22, in Gainesville.

Frank Danchetz, 66, was born in Hungary but spent the majority of his life in Georgia and near Forsyth County. He was a graduate of Georgia Tech, retired

from the Georgia Department of Transportation after 34 years and then worked for ARCADIS as vice president and state market sector leader.

“Frank dedicated much of his personal and professional life to improving the lives of those around him,” said Wassim Selman, president at ARCADIS North America. “It’s fitting that Frank be honored with a highway named for him in an area of the state that was dear to him and to his family. Our greatest honor is that Frank chose ARCADIS as his professional home after retiring from GDOT. His legacy lives on in the innovative work he led and in the Intelligent Transportation Systems used to make roads and highways safer in the U.S. and around the world.” v

GeorGia enGineer

Oko Buckle Named a Principal at Burns & McDonnell Oko Buckle, regional practice manager for the Burns & McDonnell Transmission & Distribution division in Atlanta, has been named a principal. Oko came to the firm nine years ago and manages projects throughout Georgia, Florida, and the Southeast.

Oko recently opened an office for Burns & McDonnell in Orlando. The new office is expected to provide services for the firm’s utility partners and already is engaged in projects for Duke Energy Florida and has been shortlisted for a project with the Orlando Utilities Commission.

“Our Transmission and Distribution Global Practice has been a huge contributor to Burns & McDonnell’s success and Oko has been a big part of that,” said Greg Graves, chairman and CEO of Burns & McDonnell. “With Oko now a principal, we can count on great leadership continuing in the years to come.”

Oko has served as project manager, assistant project manager and lead project engineer on projects that involve planning, scheduling, conducting and coordinating detailed phases of substation engineering work for new 230kV substations, and the expansion and retrofitting of existing 12kV through 500 kV substations.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Science & Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, and his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University. He is currently enrolled in the MBA program at Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. v october | november 2015

terry cole

Terry Cole Takes on Specialized Role with Burns & McDonnell’s Water Division Terry Cole has joined the Burns & McDonnell Water division in the Atlanta regional office to serve as manager of strategic communications.

For nearly three decades, Cole has guided utility leadership in the art of effectively telling their story to the communities they serve. Her focus is exclusively on water, wastewater and other infrastructure issues.

“Terry began her career as a journalist and later managed communications for a water and wastewater agency. Her experience offers a unique ability to translate complex technical issues into messages that resonate with impacted communities,” says Hill Baughman, who leads the Water division for Burns & McDonnell in Atlanta. “She understands the challenges utility leaders face and can bring immediate value, based on nearly 30 years of working side by side with professionals in the water and

wastewater industry.”

Cole has a genuine passion for the water profession that informs all aspects of her strategic communications efforts. She recognizes that individuals serving in all capacities of a public utility are on the front lines of public health and quality of life, as critical to their community as firefighters and police. Her goal with any project is not only to address the immediate issues, but also to identify opportunities to elevate the image of water professionals.

Since she entered consulting, Cole has spearheaded strategic communications for water and wastewater agencies across North America, including Canada and Alaska. Her experience includes billiondollar consent decree wet weather programs, pipeline construction, staff and elected officials media training, stormwater fee program development, rate increases, watershed assessments and more.

Cole is a certified professional facilitator with a Master of Arts in Mass Communication from Georgia State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Georgia.

She is a past national board member of the American Water Works Association, a member of the Water Environment Federation, and past president of the Georgia Association of Water Professionals. v

Finley Named One of the Top Structural Firms to Work for by Zweig Group Bridge Design and Construction Engineering firm, Finley Engineering Group (FINLEY) was named as one of the ‘Best Structural Engineering Firms To Work For.’ This is the second year in a row and the 4th time in seven years that

43

FINLEY has received this honor.

The “Best Firms To Work For” award recognizes the top architecture, structural engineering, civil engineering, environmental, and multidiscipline firms in the US and Canada based on their workplace practices, employee benefits, employee retention rates, and much more.

Since the Best Firms to Work For list began in 2001, hundreds of outstanding architecture, engineering, and environmental consulting firms have been recognized for this achievement. This year's winners will be honored at the Hot Firm and A/E Industry Awards Conference on September 3-4, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts.

craig Finley Here are a few comments from the staff survey on why FINLEY is the Best Firm to Work For: • “I enjoy working around the best people in the industry. We have high standards, we’re focused on quality, performance and respect for each other.”

•

“It’s just a good place to be. Focused and innovative. Always striving to do more.”

•

“Challenging projects create an enjoyable working experience, open communication with management creates a positive working environment, compensation is fair

44

and reflects the level of experience and work.”

•

“An excellent firm where one can grow personally and professionally and have the opportunity to work under the industry leaders on challenging/interesting projects.”

“I am proud that we’ve ranked as a best firm for the second year in a row. We benchmark our compensation and benefits annually and we hire only the best and brightest talent. After reviewing our staff’s comments, I’m pleased to know we are on the right track and our staff understands what we can accomplish together.” said Craig Finley, P.E., President, FinLey. v

Patel Joins Terracon in Atlanta Chet Patel, P.E., has joined Terracon as the materials department manager for the Atlanta area offices. In this capacity, he will manage a team of more than 35 engineers, geologists, technicians, and administrative personnel.

Patel has more than 20 years of experience in performing geotechnical engineering evaluations and managing construction materials testing services on projects in the energy, retail, commercial, local government, and industrial sectors.

He has extensive experience on large

chet Patel earthwork projects, mid- to high-rise structures, and industrial business parks.

Patel holds a bachelor of civil engineering degree from the University of Central Florida and an MBA with a Finance concentration from Georgia State University. He is licensed as a professional engineer in Georgia.v

Thomas & Hutton Announces New Hires Thomas & Hutton is pleased to announce the following new hires in its Savannah office: Ling Yao, EIT, joined the Transportation Department in Savannah as a transportation designer. Ling received her Bachelor of Science in traffic engineering from Tongji University. Ling graduated from Penn State in 2015 with a Master of Science in civil engineering with an emphasis on geotechnical and materials engineering.

Aidan Suiter, EIT, has joined the Savannah Water Resources team as a designer I. Aidan graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with a degree in biological systems engineering and a concentration in GeorGia enGineer

Ling yao

emily cernic offices in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as well as Savannah and Brunswick, Georgia.

For more information, visit www.thomasandhutton .com v

aiden Suiter watershed management.

Emily Cernic, EIT, has joined the Savannah Structural team as a designer II. She is a graduate from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and holds a degree in civil engineering. Her past professional experience includes system design with Babcock & Wilcox for the mPower small modular reactors and structural design/analysis with CB&I for the AP1000 plant design at Plant Vogtle. about thomas & Hutton Thomas & Hutton is a privately held, professional services company providing engineering, surveying, planning, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and consulting services to public and private clients since 1946. The company employs more than 215 people at regional october | november 2015

Earthquake Drains (sometimes referred to as ‘EQ Drains’). HBI owns the patent for mitigating liquefaction using prefabricated vertical drains throughout North America.

Unlike prefabricated vertical wick drains, EQ Drains have a much larger cross-sectional area and flow capacity, intended to limit pore pressure increases in cohesionless soils and subsequent liquefaction during earthquake events.

Among EC’s noteworthy projects are U.S. Highway 17 ACE Basin Parkway Widening and Bridge Replacements (Segments One and Two), performed for the South Carolina Department of Transportation. Earthquake Drains were used to mitigate liquefaction at all bridge

Hayward Baker Acquires Ellington Cross acquisition of charleston, Sc-based regional geotechnical contractor expands the company’s earthquake Drain capabilities.

Hayward Baker Inc. (HBI) announces the acquisition of Ellington Cross, LLC, (EC) a regional geotechnical contractor that provides Earthquake Drain™ design and installation. Headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, EC operates primarily in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

EC and HBI will combine operations into the existing Charleston Area Office and operate under the name “Ellington Cross, a division of Hayward Baker.” HBI will take on EC’s existing management team and employees, as well as assume existing contracts.

EC is a regional geotechnical contractor focused on liquefaction mitigation ground improvement using

This Earthquake Drain installation was performed by Ellington Cross for Harborview Elementary School in Charleston, South Carolina. Ellington Cross has just been acquired by Hayward Baker, America’s leader in geotechnical construction.

Earthquake Drains for a bridge approach embankment were installed by Ellington Cross for the South Carolina Department of Transportation. Hayward Baker has just announced the acquisition of Ellington Cross.

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An Ellington Cross field team installing Earthquake Drains for liquefaction mitigation for a Walmart Supercenter in Darlington, South Carolina. Hayward Baker has just announced the acquisition of Ellington Cross. approaches over a 21-mile corridor from State Route 64 to U.S. Highway 21.

For bulk fuel storage replacement initiatives at the Charleston Air Force Base, EC installed Earthquake Drains on more

than ten separate projects at the Naval Weapons Station and Joint Base Charleston.

Wal-Mart Stores has used Earthquake Drains to mitigate liquefaction on nearly 20 projects in coastal South Carolina. These projects have ranged from store expansions using retrofit technologies, to new construction ranging in size from the retailer’s Neighborhood Markets to its large Supercenters.

Commenting on the acquisition, Eric Drooff, President of Hayward Baker stated, “Liquefaction mitigation is an important geotechnical service provided by HBI. The acquisition of Ellington Cross strengthens our capabilities in this market. We plan to enhance our ability to offer liquefaction mitigation ground improvement services in earthquake-prone areas throughout the United States by

leveraging EC’s sales and engineering skills, combined with our own operational capabilities.”

Drooff continued, “Earthquake Drains will be provided as a standalone product, or in conjunction with HBI’s other ground improvement services for sites with more complex geotechnical challenges.”

The Charleston headquarters office of Ellington Cross, a division of Hayward Baker, is located at 4 Carriage Lane, Suite 203, Charleston, South Carolina 29407.

For more information about Hayward Baker’s acquisition of Ellington Cross and the full range of services offered by HBI, contact Mike Terry at (770) 442-1801 or MWTerry@HaywardBaker.com v

New War Memorial at Notre Dame de Lorette The new war memorial at Notre Dame de Lorette, an elliptical ring engraved with the names of the 580,000 men who died in northern France during the First World War in Ablain-Saint-Nazaire, was opened on November 5, 2014.

The morning sun peeks out and burnishes hundreds of thousands of names engraved on an ellipse of tall and regimented gold metal sheets. It rises to salute the Asbachs and Behrens, Bartons and Beastons, the Adolfs and Alfreds, Roberts and Johns, the Georges and the Jean-Baptistes slaughtered in the NordPas-de-Calais during the Great War. They are all remembered in the compelling new International Memorial of Notre Dame de Lorette, a ‘Ring of Remembrance’ at Ablan Saint Nazaire north-west of Arras, due to be inaugurated on November 11 by President Hollande accompanied by Chancellor Merkel and David Cameron.

Among so many German, French, 46

GeorGia enGineer

Photos by Pascal rossingnol/ reuters

and British names, my fingers trace that of Gabar Sing [sic] Negi VC, 21, of the 2/39th Garwhal Rifles. Born and brought up in sight of the Himalayas, he died here four thousand miles from home in what soldiers on all sides knew as the ‘cemetery’ of Flanders and the Artois, and to news reporters as “Hell in the North.” And, here is “Katherine Maud McDonald,” a 25-year-old nursing sister from Brandford, Ontario—some four thousand miles from Arras—killed in an air attack on the First Canadian General Hospital in May 1918.

This new eight-million-euro memorial takes the form of a 328-metre ring of dark, lightweight concrete barely touching and, as if by magic, projecting over a plateau set below the neo-Byzantine chapel and soaring lantern tower of the National Necropolis, the biggest of all French military cemeteries. Inside the ring, 500 sheets of bronzed stainless steel list 579,606 names. Beyond the memorial’s precisely defined boundary are far stretching views of seemingly uneventful countryside.

Hard to believe now, this was once the heart of France’s coal-mining industry, a strategic target for attacking German armies. It’s hard to believe, too, that these green farmlands—poppy-strewn in summer—were once churned into an october | november 2015

ooze of mud and blood by an estimated 1.5 billion artillery shells.

“To give shape to brotherhood, to unite yesterday’s enemies,” says Philippe Prost, the memorial’s architect, “I chose the ring as a figure to bring together the names of the soldiers, thinking of the circle formed by people holding hands. The ring is synonymous with unity and eternity. Unity, because the names form a sort of human chain, and eternity because the letters are joined without an end, in alphabetical order without any distinction of nationality, rank or religion.”

Invention and engineering skill as well as a lightness of artistic touch has made this apparently simple war memorial both special in its own right and comparable, even though so very different, to both the most revered First World War memorials in France and Belgium and to those witnessing the loss of life in later wars. What these share is the power to move people across time, nationality, class and religious background.

Sir Edwin Lutyens’s Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval is the biggest and greatest of British war memorials, a monumental gateway commanding remote countryside in a gloriously complex sequence of interlocking arches. It records the names of

72,195 British and South African soldiers with no known grave. Coming across it, especially in low light and mist, is a haunting and unforgettable experience.

All those missing soldiers stand with you.

Maya Lin’s simple and beautiful Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. might appear to be utterly at odds with Lutyens’s at Thiepval, and yet Lin’s twin walls of reflective stone record the names of 58,272 US soldiers lost in Vietnam. People come here to feel these with their fingertips. Ultimately, it is the same when you get close to the Thiepval memorial: what you see is not so much sublime architecture but all those names carved in heartbreaking profusion.

And, yet, perhaps the most beautiful of all war cemeteries are the simplest of all, notably the German cemeteries at Vladslo and Langemark near Ypres designed by the architect Robert Tischler, a former Great War soldier. In these, names are recorded on simple granite stones set like patterns in a carpet of grass stretching every which way under oak trees: man and nature, mourning and universal life married beautifully and forever. v 47