The ESWP Annual Golf Outing was held on Monday, September 20 at the beautiful Sewickley Heights Golf Club!

The weather, golf course, and services provided were all spectacular! Thanks to all those who came out to support the outing including all of our sponsors listed below.

Berkeley Research Group, Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania, ESS Next Tier Insurance,  Evoqua Water Technologies, Gannett Fleming, KU Resources, McKim & Creed, Michael Baker International, R.T. Patterson Co. Special thanks to Wayne Johnson for chairing this year’s outing!

The ESWP Program Committee is seeking additional volunteers to help plan continuing education events!

If you would like to help out, please email us at eswp@eswp.com. It’s a great committee that meets monthly via webinar. Further, if you have a topic for consideration, or a presentation to offer, please let us know!

A Webinar – GEOTECHNICAL REPORTS: PROPER USE IN DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTING

On September 2nd at noon, join us for this webinar presented by Douglas M. Clark, P.E., Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA.

Subsurface conditions represent some of the largest uncertainties and risks in civil construction. Fortunately, most owners recognize the need to perform a geotechnical investigation as part of the design development to obtain information pertinent to project design and construction. What is often less understood is how the geotechnical report and information should be used in design, and how it applies to the construction contract. Many assume, often incorrectly, that the geotechnical report serves as a “baseline” for establishing the site conditions. While this may be true in some cases, most standard contract general conditions (AIA, EJCDC, etc.) place the risks associated with subsurface conditions on the bidder, and provide the geotechnical report only as information, not as a contract document. This presentation discusses the issue of reliance on the geotechnical report by the parties involved, presents case-studies, and provides recommendations for owners and contractors to reduce risks.

More information can be found here.

Twenty ESWP members participated in a presentation and tour of the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Southern Beltway construction project on December 4. Presenters included Steve Hrvoich of the PATC, and Dale Rosinski and Matthew Steele from CDR Maguire. The tour was sponsored by Trumbull Corporation. During the presentation overview, participants learned some of the many details involved in this 13-mile long mega-project. Participants then boarded a shuttle bus to visit several points along the still-under-construction roadways and bridges, including a drive along a portion of the new roadway, not yet open to vehicular traffic. Big thanks to the PATC, CCDR Maguire, and Trumbull Corporation for hosting this tour.

The Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania (ESWP) and the American Society of Civil Engineers Pittsburgh Section (ASCE) presented our biennial “PDH Boot Camp” on Thursday, August 22, 2019.

Bringing together over 90 professionals, this all-day conference provided timely and interesting technical sessions suitable for professional development hours (PDHs) for our members and affiliated groups.

We offered programming under three concurrent breakout sessions. The attendees could attend sessions from any track. The tracks presented were transportation, water & wastewater, industrial, technology and legal & ethics. Each session is approved for a PDH credit by ESWP’s Continuing Education Committee. ESWP is recognized as an approved Continuing Education Provider by New York State and the State of Florida Board of Licensure. Attendees had the opportunity to earn up to 8 PDHs for the day. With the PA P.E. License Renewal Date approaching on September 30, 2019. This event offered exactly what every P.E. was looking for – PDH Credits.

Over 20 speakers made this event possible, with one that presented via webinar from California! The event would not be possible without our sponsors:

Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc. – Lanyards

Covestro – Portfolio

HDR – Transportation Track

Koryak – Technology Track

Michael Baker International – Lunch

Total Equipment Company – Industrial Track

Finally, thank you to our planning committee for making the event possible.

PDH Boot Camp Planning Committee

Justin Brooks, Beaver County Community College, Beaver, PA

Douglas M. Clark, P.E., Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA

David Scotti, Esq., Scotti Law Group, Pittsburgh, PA

Sam Shamsi, Ph.D., PE, F.ASCE, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Imperial PA

Dawn Spence, P.E., Michael Baker International, Moon Township, PA

John Tricini, Michael Baker International, Moon Township, PA

Attendees that need a PDH certificate for attending the one-day conference to claim your credit, please complete our PDH Request Form at https://eswp.com/about/bootcamp/.

Paul Hoback, Director of Development for the Allegheny County Airport Authority (ACAA) was guest speaker at ESWP’s luncheon event on June 25.  Mr. Hoback presented an update on the ACAA Terminal Modernization Program to an audience of more than 70 members and guests at ESWP. Mr. Hoback presented a detailed overview of the preliminary plans for the airport modernization, along with a video which simulated many of the facets under consideration.  The ESWP Program Committee thanks Mr. Hoback for his very informative presentation!

On February 12, ESWP was pleased to partner with the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) in presenting a program on the Emergency Rehabilitation of Route 30, presented by Cheryl Moon-Sirianni, P.E., District Executive of PennDOT District 11-0; Brian Heintzl, P.E., of Gannett Fleming, and Eric Klimas, P.E., of Golden Triangle Construction. The three presenters provided a very informative inside look into the analysis, planning, and construction required to bring Route 30 “back to life” in less than three months, following the major collapse of this busy State highway, which carries 25,000 motor vehicles daily.  The Route 30 Rehabilitation was recently recognized by the ESWP as the 2018 Emergency Rehabilitation Project of the Year. To learn more about this project, visit the ESWP Awards Page, found here.

ESWP was honored to host Arletta Scott-Williams, Executive Director of ALCOSAN, at our May 22 Women’s Roundtable Luncheon, attended by 80 guests. ESWP Board Member Tanya McCoy Caretti (ARCADIS) served as Master of Ceremonies for the interview, which was very lively and informative, as well as entertaining! The gathering learned so much about Ms. Scott-Williams education and career path as well as family and life interests beyond ALCOSAN. Big thanks to both Arletta and Tanya for participating! If you have suggestions for future guests at ESWP’s Women’s Roundtable, please contact us!