Delays in Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge due to Safety Concerns
The Texas Department of Transportation announced in July 2022 that it suspended construction on a key part of Corpus Christi’s new Harbor Bridge due to safety concerns. This decision could lead to further delays and uncertainty for Corpus residents on whether the project will meet its
projected completion deadline of mid-to-late 2024. Exacerbating local frustrations over its construction, TxDOT engineers raised concerns about “certain elements” of the bridge structure that, if construction continued, could become safety issues. Construction on the $930M bridge began in August 2016. Flatiron / Dragados, LLC is the firm responsible for its construction and design was from Arup and CFC.
Inside this issue
Working from Home Finding ways to maintain productivity and mental health while working in virtual spaces
Gone Phishing
Like many other firms, PCI is also vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Find out how you can stay vigilant
PCI Happenings
See what’s happening around the firm, from fishing trips to weddings!
Inside News
We hope that everyone had a safe and relaxing summer. Now that the kids are back in class, so too will we continue the hard work we do here at PCI. TxDOT has released an announcement of their transition to the updated precertification categories to occur in December 2022. As a result, it is imperative that we respond quickly to Rebecca’s emails regarding those applications. Given TxDOT’s announcement, it is likely that turnaround time for approvals/ denials will be delayed. Additionally, we ask that you enjoy your three-day, well-earned Labor Day weekend. Please stay safe in your travels or on the road. PCI would not have reached its 40year milestone without your hard work and dedication!
-Fernando Camarillo, PE, CEO
Years of service
June
Carlos Camarillo — 13 years
Rainey Martin — 5 years
Victor Talammantez — 31 years
July
Tere Reyna — 31 years
Rick Arias — 12 years
Will Long — 1 year
August
Alex Marquez — 1 year
September
John Tiemann — 1 year
Bill Miller — 2 years
Camilo Camarillo — 8 years
Colin McGahey — 11 years
October
Jacob Berger — 5 years
Robert Cardenas — 4 years
Isaiah de Leon — 3 years
November
Jason Treviño — 12 years
December
Adalberto Camarillo, Sr. — 41 years
Adalberto Camarillo, Jr. — 5 years
Mario Puente — 18 years
PCI Birthdays
June
Rene Lopez — Jun. 5
Carlos Camarillo — Jun. 21
Jackie Lopez — Jun. 22
Adalberto Camarillo, Sr. — Jun. 28
Camilo Camarillo — Jun. 30
July
Tere Reyna — Jul 4
Lianna Ybarra — Jul. 17
Colin McGahey — Jul. 22
Jesus de Luna — Jul. 30
August
Jose Diaz — Aug. 2
Adalberto Camarillo, Jr. — Aug. 10
Rainey Martin — Aug. 10
Jake Berger — Aug. 22
Mike Morales — Aug. 27
September
Aldo Reyna — Sept. 8
Jody Duncon — Sept. 14
Rebecca Chavez — Sept. 22
Mario Puente — Sept. 24
Will Long — Sept. 28
Marilu Lobato — Sept. 30
October
Kailey Butler — Oct. 5
Claudia Gonzalez-Liendo — Oct. 7
Dwaine Vann — Oct. 9
Warren Brown — Oct. 11
November
Josie Berger — Nov. 8
John Mendoza — Nov. 12
Victor Talamantez — Nov. 21
Bill Miller — Nov. 21
Olivia Kale — Nov. 24
Jeffrey Olivarri — Nov. 28
December
Jason Treviño — Dec. 3
John Tiemann — Dec. 17
Isaiah de Leon — Dec. 26
Richard Rivas — Dec. 28
New to PCI
CLAUDIA GONZALEZ-LIENDO, PE
SENIOR PROJECT ENGINEER
Claudia has joined PCI’s Engineering Department as a Senior Project Engineer. She has over 28 years of experience, 25 years with TxDOT and 3 years in the private sector. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio and her Masters in Civil Engineering (with a concentration in Structural Engineering) from Texas A&M University. She is also a published writer of 2012 thesis, Capturing Human Judgment in Bridge Steel Plate Girder Design and a co-author for the 2009 publication, FRP Reinforced Concrete Exposed to Increasing Temperatures: The Role of Viscosity on Bond Strength.
cgonzalezliendo@pozcam.com
CAMILO A. CAMARILLO, JR.
SURVEY RODMAN
Camilo has returned to PCI’s Surveying Department as a Rodman, after a four-year hiatus. Like many of our PCI Family, Camilo is a San Antonian, born and raised, and a graduate of Somerset High School. In his free time, he enjoys reading about history, comics, and catching a fight or boxing match on TV.
cacamarillo@pozcam.com
New to PCI
JOSIE
BERGER
PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT SPECIALIST
Josie has joined PCI’s Environmental and Public Involvement Departments as its newest Public Involvement Specialist. Josie has transitioned to the AEC industry from the educational field, having worked as a Professional Educator for Bandera ISD. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies from Texas A&M University in San Antonio. She is married to one of our professional engineers, Jacob Berger (their first date was at the 2017 PCI Christmas party!). In her free time, Josie enjoys traveling/crusing, reading, cooking, and spending time with Jake, their daughter, Steelie, and their two dogs, Sadie and Paisley.
jmberger@pozcam.com
JODY
DUNCAN
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Jody has joined PCI’s Operations Department as the newest Project Coordinator. Prior to her work as a stay-at-home Mom, Jody worked for various oil / gas and engineering firms, including Enterprise Products, Energy Transfer, Coler & Colantonio, and Universal Ensco. Additionally, she comes with experience in land surveying, AutoCAD, records management, and project administration. In her free time, Jody enjoys reading in a quiet place, spending time with her dog, Hunter, and watching her daughter’s collegiate tennis matches.
jduncan@pozcam.com
firm wins
AWARD
Role: Prime
AWARD
Role: Sub to Pape-Dawson
AWARD
City of New Braunfels - Cost Estimating for FY23 Bond
Role: Sub to Cox | McLain (part of the Stantec Family)
AWARD
Role: Sub to HNTB
City of Floresville - Hike & Bike Trail Project
Civil Engineering Environmental Public Involvement
Surveying Environmental Public Involvement
TxDOT - Statewide Karst Services Environmental
TxDOT - Statewide Freight Planning Environmental Public Involvement
Career opportunities
PCI is currently looking for hard working individuals to fill several positions. If you know anyone who would be a great candidate, please notify Beto Camarillo, Jr. Below are the current open positions:
• Engineer in Training (EIT)
• Civil Engineer — Transportation
To view the job descriptions on the PCI website, click here.
working from home
Finding ways to maintain productivity and mental health while working in virtual spaces
March of 2020 brought about unprecedented changes to how the U.S. has addressed global trade and domestic infrastructure, including education, workplace practices, and inflation. With it came new ways workers adapted their work environment to this new reality. When the office entered the home, workers found the line between work and personal life blurred, resulting in some burnout effects. In 2021,when remote work was at an all-time high, the American Psychological Association’s Work and Well-
being survey still found that 79% of 1,500 employees interviewed experienced work-related stress.
Although 90% of full-time remote workers surveyed reported a productive or more productive work experience compared to the office setting, there are still potential risks for employee burnout, or stagnant productivity, whether working remotely or in a hybrid setting.
As a result, it’s important to keep in mind that there are ways to maintaining mental and physical health while
working in virtual settings.
Move, Move, Move
The American Heart Association reports that sitting for long periods of time is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes, and cancer. Poor posture with prolonged sitting can lead to muscular atrophy to core muscles in the abdomen and spinal column, leading to back problems, risk for abdominal hernias, and headaches.
What you can do: For every hour of sitting, take a 5-10 minute break to either stand
or walk around your work area at home. You can also engage in brief stretches or exercises to encourage healthy blood flow.
Take Your Lunch Break
Too often, employees can face harsh deadlines and feel the pressure to crunch time for tasks. Often, this means skipping lunch, which can counterproductively lead to a decrease in mental focus and acumen. Just as breakfast is the most important meal of the day, lunch can also provide the mind and body with the fuel it needs to cross that 5 p.m. finish line. In addition to the nutritional benefits, taking the 30 minutes or hour away from work allows you to take a mental break from the stress of the day. Experiencing prolonged stress, with the habitual skipping of a lunch break, can lead to irritability, anxiety, lack of motivation or focus, and physical symptoms like high-blood pressure, muscle tension, headaches, and chest pain.
What you can do: Take your lunch break! Physically remove yourself from your work space and disconnect from online stressors like social media or the news. Eat a nutritious meal and avoid caffeine or energy drinks. Instead, be sure to hydrate with water.
All Is Said and Sun
We’ve all see how dramatic house plants can get when they don’t get enough sunlight or water. Little do we know that humans are no different. As mentioned, it’s important to get your daily intake of water. However, most adults rarely drink their 8 glasses a day. Additionally, adults are often least likely to get crucial vitamins through their diet. This includes Vitamin D. With work and home-life unfolding indoors, daily exposure to sunlight, our most natural way to get Vitamin D, becomes limited. Surprisingly, Vitamin D deficiency is fairly common in adults and can result in fatigue, bone pain, muscle cramps/weakness, and mood changes.
What you can do: A
reasonable goal to shoot for is to try to switch your regular, habitual beverages for a glass of water instead. During your lunch break, hydrate while spending some time outdoors to get some sun. To avoid overexposure, limit your time outside to about 10-15 minutes, or wear sunscreen for longer periods.
Office Space
A most powerful strategy to ensure a healthy state of mind during remote work, especially when working from home, is to enforce boundaries between worklife and home-life. As healthy as it is to take a lunch break in the middle of your day, it is equally important to encourage time away from work at the end of the day, proverbially and physically. What you can do: Treat your work time as you would if you were coming into the office daily. Sign in for work at the start of the day, and log off at the end of the day. Designate a space in your home as an office, and treat it as such. Having a separate room altogether is ideal, but designating a corner/nook in smaller spaces works too. Ensure that monitors are turned off and pointing away from casual areas in the house. Doing so helps fight the temptation to check your email in the evenings or on weekends. Whether working fully remote, or on a hybrid schedule, implementing these simple strategies can prevent negative impacts to personal health and productivity.
Gone Phishing
What is Phishing? How does it affect you and your coworkers? How can you prevent it?
Recent weeks at PCI have seen an increase in phishing attempts for personal data. But what is phishing? It sounds similar to the act of “fishing” itself - essentially a fraudulent attempt to lure an individual or company into revealing personal information, such as passwords or account numbers. The results of a successful phishing scam can result in the loss of financial security (money, banking information) or personal identification (social security number, driver’s license information). Recovering from a phishing scam can be time-consuming, expensive, and can result in legal issues. So how do “phishers” hunt for victims? They primarily use e-mail correspondence to either inquire about personal information or send you files that
contain viruses that will collect private information from your computer. They will often disguise themselves as a banking representative notifying you via email (or phone/text) that your account has been compromised. From there, they’ll ask you to “verify” your identification and/or banking information. Similarly, they will disguise themselves as someone familiar to you and send you a file for you to open. Doing so releases a computer virus that can steal personal information for their use or to hold ransom, to later demand payment to get your data back. Additionally, if your email or computer is part of a network, a virus will not only hurt you, but the network itself and anyone connected to it. Shared files can be corrupted, employee
personal information and direct deposits can be stolen/ damaged.
So how can you prevent a phishing attack? There is no end-all way to prevent phishing attempts altogether. But there are ways you can prevent those attempts from being successful.
Don’t:
Do not use your work email accounts for personal correspondence or online accounts. This includes utility bills, banks, subscriptions, sweepstakes, etc. Websites, magazines, and other subscriptions are notorious for selling their email listings to other organizations. Do not use your work computer to access personal email or other online accounts. Your work computer should be for work purposes only. “Surfing” the internet on unsafe websites can result in phishing attempts or viruses on your computer. When connected to the PCI network, this makes the entire network and other users vulnerable to attack.
Do not open any files/links received via email or text without verifying who you received it from. Phishers will often disguise themselves as someone you know. Be alert as to how the email looks and sounds. Note: scammers can “clone” email addresses, so verifying legitimacy by the sender address alone is no longer effective.
Do:
Verify in-person or via phone call that the sender legitimately sent you an email or text that initially seemed suspicious.
Immediately report any suspicious email to the Phish Alert link before opening any files or clicking on any links in the email.
Notify PCI’s IT department if you feel that a phishing attempt may have been successful with you. Doing so
gives Mike Morales (IT) the opportunity to immediately address the issue before the entire network is compromised. Regularly block and delete any callers or text messages that you have determined to be spam/fraudulent.
To pro-actively address these latest phishing attempts, PCI’s IT team will begin a process to introduce employees, by department, to a new authentication tool for Microsoft Office. See Mike Morales for more information on that authentication roll-out. The best kind of defense against various scammers is to be cautious with online activity, alert to suspicious content, and inquire when in doubt.
When these practices are implemented firm-wide, our most sensitive content can remain protected.
Employee Spotlight
On February 22, PCI CEO, Fernando Camarillo, PE was sworn in to the Sheriff’s Civil Service Commission - Precinct 3 for a two-year term. Fernando’s fellow commissioners include County Judge, Celso Hidalgo, Clarence Williams III for Precinct 1, Ashlee Peña for Precinct 2, and William Johnson for Precinct 4. Fernando will contribute in developing and enforcing rules regarding the selection and employment of employees of the Sheriff’s Office for Bexar County.
Congrats, Fernando!
| Poznecki-Camarillo
Pictured with Fernando (left) is Bexar County Judge, Nelson Wolff.
PCI Happenings
The PCI Surveying Department conducted their Annual Hook, Line, & Surveyor Fishing Tournament near Rockport, Texas. Victor Mendez’s son, Isaias, earned himself a Junior Angler award and the survey crewman took home quite a catch!
PCI Happenings (con’td)
PCI Interns ended their summer with a professional presentation of what they learned during their internship. Pictured, left to right - Fernando Camarillo, Lena Camarillo,
PCI’s Public Involvement Vice President, Elizabeth Story tied the knot with wife, Anna Launchbury, on July 14th. Anna and Elizabeth (pictured here on the West Coast in 2021) have been together for seven years! Congratulations!
Carolina Garcia, John Mendoza, and Jose Diaz.
William Long and the H-GAC Cloverleaf Livable Center Study team hosted a Walk N’ Bike Meeting in Houston on July 29th where they led community members on a group walk/ ride.
William Long led the bicycle group and then facilitated a meeting with participants to discuss the issue/opportunities they saw along their respective routes.
PCI Happenings (con’td)
William Long and his teammates rode bikes to a project interview in Downtown San Antonio! As a local cycling advocate, William is proud to have worn a full suit and boots.
