Susquehanna Chapter
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
September 2002
Dog Days of Summer! The weather has been scorching and with the exception, perhaps, of not having to cut grass it seems that everybody’s workload has been similarly “hot”. With Fall just around the corner, we’re looking forward to kicking things off again with another productive season of dinner gatherings and events.
Next Meeting. Our next meeting will be at the Arches on Monday, September 23. Rob Connor, Ph.D. from the ATLSS Engineering Research Center at Lehigh University will furnish us with a presentation of the forensic investigation, field testing, and results relating to the failure and near collapse of the Hoan Bridge carrying I-794 over the Milwaukee River in Wisconsin. Rob is an excellent speaker and very knowledgeable in many areas including fatigue and fracture, large scale testing, and field monitoring. of structures. Please join me in welcoming Rob with a strong turnout. As always, you need to contact Bill Sinclair at Michael Baker for reservations. Remember, that Michael Baker has relocated their office, so take note of Bill’s revised contact information:
Bill Sinclair
Association for Bridge Construction and Design
c/o Michael Baker Jr., Inc.
4431 North Front St., 2nd Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17110-1709
717-221-2035 (ph)
717-234-7611 (fax)
CHAPTER NOTES:
Membership. Simply put…”Dues are Due”. Mike Britt and Bill Sinclair will soon have notices out to everyone in the mail for 2002/2003 memberships. You can also renew at the September dinner meeting. We run on a very thin margin early in our fiscal year which makes our Treasurer, Gary Graham, a little nervous, so please renew as soon as possible.
Our current count continues to grow which is absolutely fantastic. To date, we have 78 individual memberships and 32 sustaining memberships. If you have any potential members in mind please take the initiative to bring them to a dinner meeting and get them signed up – a larger membership helps our stability and affords us opportunities to accomplish more. Gannett has a new masters graduate from PSU starting next month – we plan to give the young man the option of joining ABCD or spending his first six months on core boring inspection in New Jersey!
Web Site. Work on the web site continues. We’ve “assigned” a new volunteer, Dave Hoglund, from Michael Baker to help move things along. Our goal is to bring the site up to a level where we can use it for routine chapter news and other communications as a minimum. Any suggestions or input are more than welcome and can be forwarded directly to Dave (dhoglund@mbakercorp.com) or myself (jbuchheit@gfnet.com).
The site is located at www.abcd-susquehanna.org.
Events. Based on input from our last meeting, Steve Bussanmas, organized the first annual ABCD Golf outing on July 19th at the Armitage Golf Course. The Erdman Anthony Team posted the winning score and I would like to be able to say that they “took home the trophy”, “won the grand prize”, or something like that. Unfortunately, since this was the inauguration of this event we had no tangible award so they had to settle for bragging rights. Overall, it was an excellent success. We all snuck out of work early, enjoyed good weather, played bad golf, and had a nice time in the Caddy Shack afterwards. Maybe next year Steve can “scrape” up some prizes. I’d venture the winner of the first U.S. Open got little more than a handshake or free meal so maybe we’re not that far off the pace !
Remember that events are not restricted to our summer “off months”. If you have a suggestion or recommendation for any type of event (excuse) for us to get together please contact Steve (sbussanmas@high.net).
One suggestion we need to explore further at our next meeting is the possibility of setting up a half-day technical seminar for our members. ABCD could sponsor the session by making the facility arrangements and bringing in a design, construction, or fabrication industry expert to teach on a selected topic. This has been done successfully by other organizations and it may be worthwhile for us to consider as well.
Educational Outreach Committee (EOC). The Central PA Engineers Week Council is developing an Educational Outreach Committee consisting of members from more than 13 engineering societies in our area. The focus of the committee is to pool resources and coordinate educational outreach programs within the community. Example activities would include giving presentations to local schools during “career days”, judging science fairs, etc. ABCD has made the decision to be part of the EOC with Tom Drda (thomas.drda@fhwa.dot.gov) representing us on the committee. Soon, Tom will be compiling a list of any of our members interested in interacting with the local schools for these activities. The current target is to be online by Spring 2003.
Future Dinner Meetings. September 23rd is a “lock” for our first dinner meeting. For October, we’re hoping to have Scott Christie provide us with his annual PENNDOT bridge update. We will set the date as soon as possible so you can get in on your calendars. There have been some excellent suggestions made regarding future presentations including:
· Larry King (PENNDOT Center for Program Development and Management) · Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project · Prestressed Beam Cracking on I-78 over Vera Cruz Road in District 5-0 · PA Turnpike / Mon-Fayette / Mingo Creek Bridge · Field Instrumentation / Monitoring of SR 6026 flyovers in Centre County
Please feel free to contact anyone on the Board with suggestions or requests for presentations you would like to see in the future or perhaps give yourself.
In Closing. Regrettably, we must end on a very sad note. In early July, Stacey Ragan of Michael Baker, Jr., Inc. passed away at the age of 34. He held both a bachelors and masters degree in civil engineering from Penn State University and worked in Baker’s transportation group for the last eight years. Stacey was one of those bright, young individuals that stood quietly in the background and gave our profession that “touch of class” that we so desperately need sometimes. I personally will remember stumbling around Hershey South with him in the Michael Baker Bridge vs Gannett Fleming Bridge golf outings. Stacey will be deeply missed…
…John A. Buchheit