Industry Insight
Manufacturing Our Future
Page 2
Featured Projects
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A Future of Clean Water
IIJA Invests in Water Infrastructure
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Technology
Precision in the Skies: The Role of Drones in Defining Electric Grid Assets
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Health & Safety
Are You Aligned?
Page 11 FINDING A BETTER WAY CHASOLUTIONS.COM
CHA harnessed its experience to execute the engineering, running in parallel with the core/shell construction.
The world of manufacturing has been rapidly changing. From global competition to supply chain disruptions, manufacturers have been challenged to evaluate what, where, and how they manufacture. In recent years, there has been a trend for manufacturers to return to the U.S., either relocating existing facilities from other parts of the world or expanding their domestic manufacturing capabilities to be closer to markets, maintain higher quality standards, and/or develop more resilient and flexible supply chains.
Pharmaceutical manufacturing, in particular, has been impacted by reshoring/expansion trends and continues to be impacted by many other complex factors, including the recent global pandemic, government regulations, policies and initiatives, increased investment in domestic manufacturing focused on building a more robust domestic healthcare supply chain, and new collaborations to accelerate research and development. Additionally, the industry has been impacted by recent discoveries in therapeutic technologies, resulting in an upward trend in the development of new medicines. The rate of emergence of new therapeutics is outpacing the industry’s capacity to manufacture these drugs, resulting in a shortage and increased demand for new contract and development manufacturing organization (CMO/CDMO) facilities. These are flexible facilities that typically assist small and large pharma/ biotech companies in manufacturing their drug products.
We have been monitoring these trends, and with an awareness of where the pharmaceutical industry is now and, more importantly, headed in the future, we can help manufacturers do more with their current facilities by enhancing and optimizing them or designing new facilities for rapid expansion to meet the increasing demand of drug manufacturing in the U.S. For example, we have supported INCOG BioPharma Services, a startup CDMO, to design, construct, and validate a 90,000 SF greenfield, state-of-theart drug product facility. This project was characterized by its rapid pace and careful management of financial resources to meet the client’s timing needs and fixed budget.
CHA harnessed its experience to execute the engineering, running in parallel with the core/shell construction. Our multifaceted scope encompassed all engineering disciplines, including architectural, civil/structural, process, process mechanical, facilities mechanical/HVAC, electrical, instrumentation and controls, and automation deliverables. Additionally, CHA supported lab design, created equipment and automation User Requirement Specifications (URS), and developed client-specific design standards and documentation and CQV documentation. This facility will create 150 new jobs and support INCOG BioPharma’s future expansion to help the industry supply critical medicines to those in need.
For more information, contact Tim Javan, PMP, CCM at tjavan@chasolutions.com.
In September, CHA announced a strategic brand refresh and the launch of a new website at chasolutions.com. Building on our impressive portfolio of innovative work, the refreshed brand articulates the evolution of CHA’s voice and purpose and is marked with a new logo featuring a continuous flowing line element connecting the name and signaling continuity, guidance and directionality when working with the CHA team on a project.
Our new website highlights our capabilities in a clean, easy-tonavigate format illustrating our end-to-end solutions.
As project designer, CHA recently joined the Albany County Airport Authority, the Governor of New York, and many other state and local dignitaries to break ground on a transformative airport terminal expansion project. This project expands the TSA security check-in, queuing and repose space, upgrades the ticketing and baggage claim, renovates and upgrades the Business Center, and adds an airside children’s play area and sensory room.
Read more here.
The Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) project will propel New York City into a sustainable future with clean, renewable hydropower. Spanning 339 miles, CHPE will supply 1,250 MW of hydropower from Canada to Queens through a buried high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line.
The CHA engineering and environmental team prepared the Environmental Management & Construction Plan (EM&CP) documents for project approval by state and local agencies for 84.5 miles of upland route design packages and construction segments. The EM&CP is the comprehensive documentation for design and construction planning. CHA is providing engineering design, environmental support, permitting, and inspection services including approximately 90 horizontal directional drilling (HDD) crossings for HVDC electrical transmission cables and a telecommunications line in the Hudson River Valley, optimizing route choices to avoid environmental disruptions. The buried transmission line reduces its environmental footprint and enhances resilience against severe weather conditions while bolstering overall safety measures.
In addition to the HDD crossings, CHA is at the forefront of comprehensive wetland and waterbodies delineation, a task spanning the upland route for 146.5 miles. These delineations are conducted meticulously to validate and update previous wetland delineations, a crucial part of Article VII and Section 10/404 permitting processes, ensuring compliance and environmental sensitivity.
The CHPE project is expected to be operational in the spring of 2026 with the capacity to deliver 1,250 MW of low-cost renewable power to New York City.
Read more about this unparalleled energy project here.
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM) will soon be home to an innovative and sustainable modern air cargo facility for international shipper Kuehne + Nagel. This Swiss logistics company sought to take over an entire cargo facility being planned at BHM, which was originally planned to accommodate UPS and FedEx. Why the need for such a bold move? The shipper wanted the new cargo facility at BHM to more reliably import and supply auto plants in the Southeast with weekly parts shipments from Germany. These shipments faced delays and lengthy ground transport routes from other airports the shipper was using in the U.S. BHM was the perfect solution due to its proximity to transportation routes in the Southeast and a cargo facility design in progress that could be altered to meet its needs on an aggressive schedule for project completion, move-in, and fit-up to conduct operations. In less than a year, this facility will become an economic engine for Birmingham
and its surrounding area in central Alabama and a model for other regional airports to expand their cargo capabilities to serve shippers looking for alternatives to better manage their supply chain shipping options.
This cargo facility boasts 53,000 SF with 48,500 SF of warehouse space, including 17 bays of loading docks, airside and landside. Features of the building include an attractive and aesthetically pleasing façade and employee amenities and offices. Sustainable elements have been incorporated in the design to improve water quality from stormwater runoff and promote energy efficiency, including natural daylighting, daylighting controls, and enhanced air circulation with active industrial ceiling fans and passive cross ventilation strategies designed to create a more comfortable working environment. The expected completion of the facility is spring 2024.
CHA released its 2022 Sustainability Report highlighting noteworthy progress made toward the firm’s ambitious green goals. The firm’s sustainability efforts remain centered around four strategic pillars: Sustainable Services and Clients, Sustainable Workforce, Sustainable Communities, and Sustainable Operations.
Read more here.
CHA’s advanced manufacturing team possesses a wealth of expertise in delivering comprehensive asset management and reliability engineering consulting services. Our overarching objective is to meticulously pinpoint and effectively manage potential risks to asset reliability that have the potential to impact clients’ operational capabilities negatively. Simultaneously, we are dedicated to verifying that our clients adhere to strict and complex regulatory requirements in a manner that optimizes cost efficiency. When a large vaccine manufacturer was experiencing equipment failures impacting operational availability and their ability to optimize various manufacturing operations across the globe to meet demand for essential vaccines, our team developed creative solutions to manage their
critical assets better. We developed protocols to monitor their difficult-to-access equipment according to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards and significantly improved their ability to predict equipment degradation and failure mechanisms.
As part of our services, the team identified and vetted various wireless vibration sensor options, oversaw pilot testing of two top vendors, created Proof of Value (PoV) and business case presentations, developed specification and deployment guidance documents, supported site deployments in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and provided post-installation support. These efforts were all intended to help optimize manufacturing capabilities and avoid unnecessary and/or unplanned downtime.
CHA achieved its 2025 carbon reduction goal in April 2023, two years ahead of schedule. The firm set a goal to decrease its carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent per employee by 20% from its 2019 baseline.
Read more here.
Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida was devastated by Category 5 Hurricane Michael in 2018. The United States Air Force is reshaping Tyndall to be the “Base of the Future” with massive reconstruction being executed by United States Army Corp of Engineers (USACE). CHA has partnered with Dewberry in a joint venture to lead the phased design and permitting support to Lane Construction for the designbuild of new and upgraded wet and dry utilities, roadways, and stormwater infrastructure. Ongoing reconstruction is being completed in 12 Zones on the base while maintaining active F-22 fighter operations. CHA is supporting “Zone 4.1 Infrastructure,” providing complex phasing and essential coordination with local water, power, and natural gas utility providers, FDOT, FDEP, USAF, and USACE.
This $500 million infrastructure project delivers over 8 miles of new and rehabilitated roads and 5 new roundabouts to improve traffic flow. Utilities include 7 miles of potable and fire water mains with a booster pump station and water storage tank; 2.1 miles of sanitary sewer conveyance and force mains; 31 miles of new electrical distribution and switchyard; 17.3 miles of communications distribution; 4 miles of natural gas distribution; and 6.6 miles of stormwater drainage with 4 new master drainage stormwater ponds. Zone 4.1 is designed with military service personnel and families in mind, including lighted multi-modal corridors and trails for a pedestrian-friendly installation.
CHA’s Project Management Office (PMO) has developed a robust certification program for project managers that continues to raise the bar on operational excellence. To date, more than 45 CHA project managers have earned certification.
Read more here.
Since the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was enacted nearly two years ago – providing more than $1 trillion in funding to improve essential infrastructure in the transportation, power and grid, aviation, environmental remediation, and water sectors –CHA has been working with clients as they secure funding to bring much needed investment to their communities to improve aging infrastructure. Through the IIJA, more than $50 billion will be allocated over five years for water infrastructure alone, focusing on drinking water, clean water, and water resiliency.
CHA’s 2023 interns had a summer packed with activities, meetings, fieldwork, and networking opportunities. Their contributions and fresh perspectives left a significant impact on our teams and the projects on which they worked. Just before our 2023 program ended, our interns participated in final project presentations centered around industry challenges. Each team presented solutions grounded in their summer research. Those final presentations took place during three “symposium” events in New York and Georgia.
This year, a “President’s Award” was introduced to recognize one group from each symposium whose
Our IIJA Water White Paper, the third in our IIJA series, discusses IIJA funding for aging water infrastructure. With this historic investment, we can change our communities for the better. Our team is prepared and eager to deliver the innovative solutions needed to address critical issues around clean drinking water, emerging contaminants, and lead service line replacement.
project solution stood out from the others, offering realistic recommendations that CHA could and looks to implement in the future.
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CHA Interns in 2023
23
CHA Offices that Hosted Interns
26
Number of Schools Represented
16
Group Projects Guided by a Technical Advisor
Drone imagery provides an improved vantage point for inspecting pole-top equipment, in particular, hard-to-validate attributes such as conductor properties or phasing.
Accurate power flow models are a key enabler of a modern, reliable electric distribution grid with wellintegrated distributed energy resources. These models are at the heart of advanced new tools such as ADMS with Closed Loop-FLISR or DERMS and leverage a utility’s existing GIS records as their foundation.
Historically, utility GIS records have been fit-forpurpose; however, with these new uses comes a new and heightened need to validate and maintain the accuracy of utility GIS systems. The scale of this effort can be daunting, with a distribution system spanning hundreds of thousands of line-miles and a digital representation of billions of attributes spread across dozens of tables. Many of the attributes at the heart of these models, such as conductor characteristics (size, material, covering, etc.), phasing, and device ratings, have not been the focus of previous field inspections.
Identifying these evolving needs early allows utilities to build out a roadmap to managing this data as the asset that it is and may provide opportunities to do some of the work within existing capital programs.
Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS), more commonly known as drones, are emerging as a key tool to enable these validation efforts. UAS aircrews can scale more rapidly than the inspectors used by traditional groundline inspections as they do not require domain expertise and
The Indiana Department of Transportation partnered with CHA and two other consultants to bring the first NEXT Beam bridges to Indiana. The beam is a cost-effective precast solution that eliminates deck forming, saves time and increases safety for short span bridges. The NEXT Beam was developed by CHA and the PCI Northeast Bridge Technical Committee, comprised of owners, consultants, and precast manufacturers to provide a durable, fabricatorfriendly solution for short to medium span bridges.
Check out this drone video of SR 341 Over Dry Run in Fountain County, Indiana, a superstructure replacement of a single-span non-composite adjacent box beam bridge with NEXT D Beams.
The Role of Drones in Defining Electric Grid Assets often come from outside the utility industry. The data is then analyzed by a smaller number of experts in the office, with drone inspections enabling a single analyst to evaluate as many as 100 poles per hour, an order of magnitude more than they could in the field.
Drone imagery provides an improved vantage point for inspecting pole-top equipment, in particular, hard-tovalidate attributes such as conductor properties or phasing. The imagery collected by these inspections also represents a valuable asset that future projects can reuse from the safety of the office and without the cost of a field inspection. Integrating AI tools into these workflows can further accelerate the analysis by automating the analysis of simple scenarios, highlighting complex scenarios for additional review, or providing an additional layer of quality assurance.
These technologies represent a significant shift in how utilities manage their GIS records; however, they represent a tremendous opportunity to ensure the ongoing energy transformation is built on a solid foundation of accurate, well-validated asset records.
For more information, contact Christopher Morecroft at CMorecroft@chasolutions.com.
CHA acquired Javan Engineering in April 2023, and the Pennsylvania process and MEP engineering firm has now been fully integrated and rebranded as CHA.
Read more here.
CHA has acquired Predictive Maintenance Solutions (PdMS), a firm with expertise in predictive maintenance and vibration analysis serving power generation, utilities, manufacturing, data centers, and pharmaceuticals.
Read more here.
As many of us spend long hours at our workstations, we should pause occasionally to make sure our workstation continues to meet our needs.
Ideally, your workstation should be arranged such that you are in a “neutral” work position. This is a comfortable working posture in which your joints are naturally aligned. Working with the body in a neutral position reduces stress and strain on the muscles, tendons, and skeletal system and reduces your risk of developing a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD).
Even if you are following these tips, frequent breaks are also essential, and a great rule to follow while working is the 2020-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, look away from the computer monitor and close your eyes or look at a distance about 20 feet away for about 20 seconds.
For more information, contact Anthony Tremblay, Director of Corporate Health and Safety at atremblay@ chasolutions.com.
Proper ergonomic worktools and seating can help workers perform more efficiently and avoid muscle and eye strain.
Neck is sltraight or slightly forward.
Shoulders are relaxed so arms hang naturally. Back has full contact with the backrest (sit all the way back in your chair).
Lower back fits into curved lumbar support
Tension is adjusted so backrest tilts easily, yet provides smooth, even support.
Elbows and forearms can rest comfortably on the arms of your chair or on your work surfaces that are used for writing, paperwork and other tasks.
Screen is at eye level slightly lower and directly in front of worker so head is not turned.
Wrists should be straight when keying or mousing, not bent up or down.
When keying or mousing , forearms are parallel to the floor.
Keyboard is at elbow height.
Thighs are parallel to the floor
Feet are flat on the floor or on a foot rest .
Keep in mind these workstation tips for a neutral workstation position.
CHA’s Jay Wolverton Elected 2023-2024
ACEC Board Chair
CHA’s Chief Growth Officer Jay Wolverton, PE, was elected 2023-2024 Board Chair of the American Council of Engineering Companies. This leading industry organization represents nearly 6,000 firms employing more than 600,000 engineers, architects, land surveyors, and other highly trained technical specialists.
Read more here.
