PCI Newsletter - Q3-2023

Newsletter

July, August, September Issue - 2023

WE MADE IT!!

IN THE HEADLINES: Downtown Bike Lane Barriers Removed After Public Backlash

By Alex Marquez Technical Writer

The City of San Antonio removed four concrete barriers and reduced the size of two others in front of First Presbyterian Church after church leaders were told communication between stakeholders were unclear. The bike lanes were part of a 2017 Bond and were included in a virtual public meeting in 2020. However, the Church maintains they were not given adequate time to respond to the design

of the raised barriers that have since hindered funeral and wedding processions, taken away parking for senior or disabled visitors, and posed dangers for bicyclists and pedestrians. The dedicated bike lanes do not appear to be frequently used due to limited availability, lack of connectivity, and temporary wood ramps for rerouted bus stops.

Inside this Issue

Firm Wins!

Check out our consultant wins! Page 4.

Check out projects from Survey and Env.! Pages 6 and 7.

Photo contest winners, TxDOT conference, and more! Page 10.

Project Spotlight

PCI Happenings

LETTER FROM THE COO

Hello PCI Team,

It is with great pride that we can announce our office relocation has been a SUCCESS! We want to give a special shout out to the Operations Department, IT Team, and our independent contractors for ensuring that this transition went off with as few glitches as possible. While the move itself impacted everyone, much work happened behind the scenes months prior to the relocation.

Marilu, Tere, and Jake worked diligently to decommission and coordinate furniture sales, cleaning out work areas and lounges, and packing (and unpacking) of files, paper, office supplies, and food into an entire conference room’s worth of crates!

Mike and Melany worked daily (including weekends) to ensure our servers and network could be moved and quickly re-established so there’d be limited break in service capabilities. This also included installing a new secured access system, installing all IT equipment, acquiring new equipment, re-connecting devices to the network, and troubleshooting.

Rebecca, Alex, Tere, and Jake coordinated the communication campaign of the new office, including compiling lists of our vendors and clients, communicating updates to internal staff through our firm newsletter, developing the marketing materials to send out externally (postcards, email announcements, social media posts, etc.), updating company documents and business cards, and the issuance of keys and ID badges.

All of this work took months of planning and coordinating on top of their usual work responsibilities, but it was great to see everyone work together as a team. There are still some final touches to take place over the coming weeks, so we ask that everyone continue to be patient and understanding while we are still in this transition. Thank you again, PCI team, for all the hard work you do!

Beto Camarillo, Jr. - COO

July

Jeff Hall — Jul. 1

Tere Reyna — Jul. 4

Melany Moreno — Jul. 7

Lianna Ybarra — Jul. 17

Colin McGahey — Jul. 22

August

Beto Jr. — Aug. 10

Rainey Martin — Aug. 10

Mike Morales — Aug. 27

Jake Fite — Aug. 29

September

Aldo Reyna — Sept. 8

Carolina Garcia — Sept. 15

Rebecca Chavez — Sept. 22

Mario Puente — Sept. 24

William Long — Sept. 28

Marilu Lobato — Sept. 30

Years of service

*Years of Service are calculated as a cumulative total.

July

Tere Reyna — 32 years

Rick Arias — 13 years

William Long — 2 years

Josie Berger — 1 year

August

Alex Marquez — 2 years

September

Colin McGahey — 12 years

Camilo Camarillo — 9 years

firm wins

AWARD

Role: Sub to Pape-Dawson

City of San Antonio - On-Call Civil Engineering and Program Management

Civil Engineering Environmental Public Involvement

03

05 04

06

AWARD Role: Sub to Kittleson

AWARD

Role: Sub to HNTB

AWARD

Role: Sub to Transystems

AWARD

Role: Sub to AECOM

AWARD

Role: Sub to Kimley-Horn

AWARD

Role: Sub to Pape-Dawson

City of San Antonio - On-Call Civil Engineering and Program Management

TxDOT (TPP) - Statewide System Planning/Plan Assessments

TxDOT (Rail Division) - Prof. Services for Rail Infrastructure Projects

Public Involvement

Civil Engineering Public Involvement

TxDOT (TPP) - UTP Planning Public Involvement

City of Seguin - Safe Streets and Roads for All Comprehensive Safety Action Plan

City of San Antonio - On-Call Traffic Engineering

Public Involvement

Civil Engineering Surveying Public Involvement

Civil Engineering Environmental Public Involvement 02 01 07

New to PCI

COLETON CORNISH

ENGINEER-IN-TRAINING

Coleton joined PCI’s Engineering Department their newest Engineer-in-Training in early July. Coleton is a Victoria, TX native and graduated from Texas Tech University with his degree in Civil Engineering. Coleton chose PCI to continue his career after hearing about the projects PCI has worked on and finding they best align with his skills. When Coleton isn’t working hard with his fellow EITs, he spends his downtime with friends and family and exercising. Welcome to PCI, Coleton!

ccornish@pozcam.com

FREDRICK LOPEZ

Fredrick joined PCI’s Surveying Department as a Survey Technician. Fredrick was born in San Antonio, but raised in Pleasanton, TX. He graduated from Jourdanton High School and started his surveying career in New Mexico in 2018. Fredrick’s Texas roots go back to the Battle of the Alamo through his 5th greatgrandfather (Gregorio Ezparza) who served as a defender on Texas’ side. Surveying also runs in the family, as another relative of his (Pedro Huizar) was the surveyor responsible for carving the Rose Window for the San Jose Mission in the late 1700s. Like a true Texan, Fredrick spends his downtime cattle roping, competitive skeet shooting, leatherworking, and conducting astro-photography. We’re happy to have you, Fredrick!

flopez@pozcam.com

SURVEY TECHNICIAN

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

By Jeff Hall, RPLS Survey Manager

The survey team is providing services for multiple CoSA Bond projects. In order to provide highly accurate, efficient, and cost effective services, we have begun to utilize many pieces of technology, such as sUAS (drone) LiDAR, sUAS (drone) ortho mosaic photogrammetry, and terrestrial LiDAR. These pieces of technology area just another tool for us to utilize to provide high accurate , detailed, efficiently and cost-effective surveying services.

PCI Survey team utilized both terrestrial LiDAR and Conventional survey practices to obtain the data for this project. We utilized our Trimble SX12 Hybrid

Terrestrial Sanner/Robotic Total Station to not only scan from ROW to ROW of Pembleton St but also to scan up the underground storm structure, giving us a true 3d model of the project. From that information we processed and classified a point to the point cloud, extracted 3D linework and created a surface utilizing Trimble Business Center (TBC). Trimble Business Center recently upgraded their Point cloud module to include Deep Learning AI, to

automate a lot of the linework extraction. This is revolutionizing linework extraction which has always been a tedious and laborintensive process. Look for more information on how we are expanding the surveying/geospatial services PCI can provide in the near future.

Pictured left: A photo taken of a storm sewer. Pictured right: A scan of the same storm sewer, showing the capability of the LiDAR scanner to penetrate darkness and illumminate the tunnel.

ENVIRONMENTAL

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

By Warren Brown, PG Geologist

TxDOT is replacing a bridge over a severely contaminated railroad with creosote and dioxins, known as Houston Wood Preserving Works. Some facts about the Former Houston Wood Preserving Works superfund site:

• Began operation as a railroad tie production facility prior to 1938 and was decommissioned in 1984

• The site was purchased by Union Pacific in a merger with Southern Pacific Railroad in 1997

• EPA has overseen cleanup of the site beginning in the late 1990’s.

• More than 11,000 tons or 22 million pounds of creosote-impacted soil was consolidated onsite and an

engineered cap was built to prevent exposure

• Capping additional areas of creosote-impacted soils with an engineered barrier consisting of concrete, asphalt, and other materials to prevent exposure to the creosoteimpacted soil

• Conducted significant and widespread sampling of over 120 groundwater monitoring wells within the site and outside the property beneath the Greater Fifth Ward area

• Implemented a groundwater treatment program to pump creosote from monitoring wells where it is encountered

PCI’s responsibility for this project was to assess for potential hazardous materials impacts to the bridge replacement. PCI recommended further investigation be conducted at this site and three others in order to develop a soil management plan which would address handling of all excavated soil for this project and identify potential health and safety concerns for construction workers. TxDOT accepted PCI’s technical reports and recommendations without comment.

Employee Spotlight

CLAUDIA GONZALEZ-LIENDO, PE

SR. PROJECT ENGINEER

Claudia thoroughly researched, completed, and submitted a hefty TxDOT Precertification application and won the following pre-certs! Congrat, Claudia!

• 1.3.1 Subarea Corridor Planning

• 1.4.1 Land Planning / Eng

• 1.5.1 Feasibility Studies

• 4.2.1 Roadway Design

• 4.4.1 Freeway Interchanges

• 4.5.1 Constructability Review

• 5.5.1 Bridge Class Culvert

• 8.1.1 SPM & Channelization

• 9.3.1 Pedestrian Facility Design

• 9.3.2 Accessibility Design

• 11.7.1 Construction Schedule Support

• 18.2.1 SUE Investigation

• 18.3.1 Utility Adjustment Coordination

• 18.4.1 Utility Engineering

• 18.5.1 Utility Construction Mgt & Verification

• 18.7.1 Utility Relocation Design

CONGRATS, PI TEAM!

Congratulations to the PI team for their work on the Cloverleaf Livable Center Study for the Houston-Galveston Area Council! The study was nominated for an American Planning Association Houston Section Award and earned a Silver Award. the project has been forwarded to the state level competition. Best of luck, team!

Project contributors included: William Long, Lena Camarillo, Elizabeth Story, Josie Berger, Robert Elizondo, Carolina Garcia, Rebecca Chavez, Warren Brown, Kailey Butler, and Hugo Tzintzun-Flores. Great job, everyone!

Employee Spotlight

CONGRATS, SURVEY TEAM!

PCI has now officially added drone capability to its menagerie of surveying technologies, with both Jeff Hall, RPLS and Fredrick Lopez as the firms two sUAS Remote Pilots. Jeff and Fredrick attained this certification in August! Congratulations, Jeff and Fredrick!

Mario Puente, Camilo “Alex” Camarillo, and Mariano “Mario” Arredondo are also completing their Confined Space Training. We look forward to see how this team helps to expand PCI’s geospatial services at PCI! Congrats, guys!

Career opportunities

PCI is currently looking for hard working individuals to fill several positions. If you know of any qualified candidates, please have them apply on our website and notify Beto to anticipate their resume. Below are the current open positions:

• Environmental Scientist

• Civil Engineer — Drainage

• Civil Engineer — Roadway/Highway Design

• CAD Technician

• Project Surveyor

• Chief of Parties / Surveyor-in-Training (SIT)

To view detailed job descriptions on the PCI website, go to pozcam.com/jobs

Find out how you can earn up to $3000 by referring a qualified candidate! See more on pg. 21

For the 2nd quarter of 2023, PCI held its second Photo Contest within the Surveying Department, where field photos could be submitted for a chance to win a prize. Our survey crewman took some amazing photos while out in the field throughout Texas! Check out our first place winner for Q2 below! *Photos have not been altered by the editor.

PCI Happenings 1st

PCI Happenings (con’td)

For the 3rd quarter of 2023, PCI opened up the Photo Contest to the entire firm, where field photos could be submitted for a chance to win a 1st and 2nd place prize. We saw some amazing photos that best represented the work we do at PCI. Check out our first and second place winners for Q3 below! *Photos have not been altered by the editor.

Mario Arredondo 1st

PCI Happenings (con’td)

PCI Happenings (con’td)

Kailey Butler

Mario Arredondo

Rainey Martin

PCI Happenings (con’td)

Colin McGahey

William Long

Colin McGahey

PCI Happenings (con’td)

Beto at the SAMCo State of Transit with VIA. PCI was among several orther San Antonio organizations to sponsor this event.

William Long was a panelist at the TexITE 2023 Fall Meeting discussing Transportation Equity and the Bilingual Public Engagement Process for the Cloverleaf Livable Center Study. He spoke alongside the Project Manager and a representative of the Houston-Galveston Area Council, who sponsored the project.

PCI Happenings (con’td)

Pictured left are Warren’s kiddos, Evelyn and Thomas, on their first day of school starting 3rd and 6th grade (respectively)! Have a great school year! Pictured right is Warren (and Thomas) with his father who was celebrating his 70th birthday on September 4th. Happy belated birthday, Mr. Brown!

PCI’s engineering team enjoying one last lunch together with summer intern, Ben White! Wishing you the best, Ben, and thank you for all your contributions this summer!

PCI Happenings (con’td)

John & Karyna

Congrats to John and Karyna for their recent engagement on August 7th! John popped the question to Karyna at The Pearl. Their wedding has been set for December 8th, 2024. Many blessings to you both!

PCI Happenings (con’td)

Kari Sutton in Crested Butte, CO for some well-earned R&R and mountain biking! Hope you had a great time, Kari!

This August, William Long was appointed by San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg to the City of San Antonio’s Linear Creekway Parks Advisory Board to serve a 2-year term!

PCI Happenings (con’td)

Pictured with Patricia Stout, a family friend and former Chairman of the Board for the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Pictured with Julie Camarillo.

Pictured with Ramiro Cavazos (President and CEO of the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce) and Hentry Cisneros (former Mayor of San Antonio and US HUD Secretary).

Both Beto, Sr. and Beto, Jr. attended the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Gala over the weekend (Sept. 30). They are pictured below with several important San Antonio figures.

Pictured with JR Trevino, the Interim CEO and President of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Mayor of Castle Hills.

Tech Corner

Don’t wait for the quarterly PCI Newsletter to be updated on current events. Be sure to join our 300+ followers on LinkedIn and Facebook for the most recent updates!

We’ll be posting several job openings on our social media! Help us spread the word by sharing our postings to your network!

Employee referral

As mentioned in our prior Letters from the COO and Career Opportunities section, we are taking measures to help fill current vacancies. We encourage employees to take advantage of PCI’s Employee Referral Program, an extended benefit to current PCI employees.

Through this program, an employee can receive a referral bonus from $1000 for a junior level position up to $3000 for a senior level position, if they refer a qualified candidate who is subsequently hired and successfully completes one year of employment. To be eligible for the bonus, please provide Beto Camarillo the name of the candidate you are referring for the position.

In addition to the monetary incentive to our employees, our Employee Referral Program also ensures:

• Improvements to our quality of hires.

• Increase in new employee retention.

• Improvement to employee moral.

• Improving the company cultural fit of new hires, thereby reducing turnover. Any questions on this program, or other recruitment efforts, can be directed to Beto.