Austin Branch Newsletter

November 2008

Volume 13, Number 2

In This Issue…

Meeting/Speaker Info

President's Message

Golf Tournament 2008

Meeting Sponsor

New Orleans Trip Update

Engineer’s Day

Civil Engineer of the Year Award

Geo-San Antonio 2009

Continuing Education Webinars

Topic: TBA

In August 2008, Howard Lazarus assumed his duties as the Director of Public Works for the City of Austin, overseeing a department of 517 employees with a budget of $68 million. His department provides engineering, construction management and inspection services for city projects; it builds and maintains Austin roadways and bridges, traffic signals, street signs and markings, sidewalks, and bike facilities.

Mr. Lazarus has a diverse background with a broad range of experience. Most recently, he was the Director of Operations/Vice-President of Shaw Housing Privatization Ventures (2005-2008) in Trenton, NJ. From 1996-2000, he was the Director of Engineering and Public Works for the City of Newark where he supervised their $100M capital construction program, the $80M water supply and sewer rehabilitation program, the $25M annual O&M program, and $50M in transportation and environmental grants. Previous employment includes Program Manager of the Huntsville Division, USACE Environmental/UXO Services Contract for the Foster Wheeler Environmental Corporation; Director of Operations for the Directorate of Engineering and Housing (DEH) in Fort Carson, CO; and Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at the US Military Academy at Westpoint.

His past experience includes the development and implementation of facilities preventative maintenance programs for NASA and the Air Force, which increased on-time performance from 34% to over 99%; the preparation of land use and financial proposals for housing privatization programs valued at over $8 billion over 50 years; operation of a 85 MGD water treatment plant including leadership of design/construction efforts for expanding and upgrading of headworks/pre-treatment facilities; and delivery of testimony before US Congressional subcommittees to obtain federal funding, including expert testimony on court proceedings.

Mr. Lazarus earned his M.S. in Environmental Engineering and Chemistry from Johns Hopkins in 1987 and his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the US Military Academy at Westpoint in 1978. In 1991, he was recognized as Federal Engineer of the Year by the Missouri River Division of the USACE, and in 1998 he was awarded the honor of Government Engineer of the Year by the New Jersey Section of ASCE.

President’s Message

by Julia M. Harrod, P.E.

The Austin Branch is working for you!

Your Branch is working hard to give civil engineers the opportunity to give back to the community in a variety of ways. One recent initiative is the creation of a committee to review ASCE’s role in impacting the development of governmental criteria and policies related to civil engineering with an initial focus on City of Austin regulations. This committee was initially formed in October based on member requests to have ASCE involved in addressing changes to the Environmental Criteria Manual that are currently being proposed for implementation in early 2009. As civil engineers working in the Austin area, ASCE members are well-positioned to provide comment and insight concerning how changes to current criteria will impact the practice of civil engineering. We expect the committee to prepare comments on the proposed updates and to work with City staff to refine the changes to take into account the practicalities of implementation in daily practice. Robert Scholz and myself are developing a permanent committee structure to address similar issues related to future City of Austin rules postings and those of other agencies that impact civil engineering and civil engineering services within the Austin Branch’s geographic area. I strongly encourage anyone interested in providing input on the proposed changes to the ECM and/or the general issue of a regulatory stakeholder committee to contact myself at 453-0767 or Robert Scholz, President Elect, at 327-6840. This committee provides a great opportunity for ASCE members to use our technical knowledge to help the development community.

In addition to these technical issues, the Board is considering additional charitable activities that align with our mission. Anyone with an interest in ASCE’s community activities should contact Shelly Moczygemba, Community Service Chair, at 454-8711. As a reminder, Linda Barlow will be heading up our fund drive for monetary donations to the Capital Area Food Bank during the November and December luncheons.

I hope that each member can find a way over the coming year to become, or continue to be, an active participant with the Austin Branch, in whatever aspect of ASCE you personally feel passionate about. Please contact me or the other board and committee chairs regarding any ideas that you have for the Austin Branch, or for issues that are important to you.

Golf Tournament 2008

The Austin ASCE YMF participated in its Annual Golf Tournament on November 6th at the Avery Ranch Golf Course under the great leadership of Alex Reyna, Chairperson and event organizer. It was a very successful, great weather tournament, with 46 people participating and 13 companies sponsoring. Thanks to everyone who participated and volunteered to make this event a success.

Special thanks goes out to our sponsors: PBS&J, Terracon, Hanson Pipe, Raba Kistner, Klotz Associates, Hilti, AR Traffic Counting, Freese and Nichols, Inc., Roadway Specialties, Inc, Bury+Partners, Pape Dawson Engineers, Baer Engineering and Environmental Consulting, Inc. and Avery Ranch Golf Course.

PBS& J Golf Team

November Meeting Sponsor:

Hilti, Inc. is a world leader in developing, manufacturing and marketing added-value, top-quality products for professional customers in the construction industry. Our product offering covers direct fastening systems, anchoring systems, construction chemicals, and construction tools. We are committed to excellence in innovation, total quality, and direct customer relationships to ensure project success.

With Hilti, you receive the benefits of our labor. Hilti designs, manufactures, tests, sells and supports the products we offer. Technical information and application support are readily available from our online Tech Center (www.us.hilti.com) and in our published Product Technical Guide.

The Hilti portfolio of post-installed anchoring systems, provide a variety of solutions for your structural design needs, including attachments to concrete structures, railings, equipment anchorage, etc. From our heavy duty mechanical anchors such as the Hilti HDA Undercut Anchor and HSL-3 Expansion Anchor to our high performance adhesive anchors such as HIT HY150 MAX and HIT RE 500 adhesives, Hilti offers numerous code compliant anchoring systems to achieve your design requirements.

Hilti employs over 2,800 people in North America and more than 18,000 people worldwide in more than 120 countries. Our Field Engineering team provides technical support related to Hilti products for architects, engineers, and contractors through services such as:

Technical Assistance/Advice during Project Design
Continuing Education Seminars for Anchoring and Decking Systems
Anchor and Decking Design Software
On-Site Jobsite Training for Contractors

For more information or technical assistance, please contact:

John E. McShain, P.E.

Fastening and Protection Engineer

Central / South Texas Region

Email: john.mcshain@hilti.com

Phone: (512) 921-1497

New Orleans, Here We Come!

by Rose Marie Klee, P.E. – 2008-2009 VP Programs

749531520@12112008-1753

The Austin Branch and UT Student Chapter of ASCE would like to invite you to join us on our January trip to New Orleans!

We will be departing Austin on Friday, January 16, 2009 (departure time TBD), and will spend Friday and Saturday night in downtown New Orleans (the Broadmoor neighborhood). During the day on Saturday and Sunday we will help local residents with work on their homes, and on Saturday afternoon we will also have the opportunity to learn about the events and repercussions of Hurricane Katrina. Our group will leave New Orleans on Sunday afternoon and arrive back in Austin in the wee hours on Monday morning. Hopefully many of you can take some time off on MLK day (January 19^th) to relax.

Past participants can attest that this trip is a fun and valuable opportunity to connect with our community and learn some amazing lessons as civil engineers! Visit http://www.austinasce.org/neworleans07.htm for info.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Rose Marie Klee at rmklee@crespoinc.com

We’ll be keeping anyone who is interested updated and additional information will be provided in the coming weeks. Our roster will be finalized as the date draws closer, and places are given on a ‘first-come’ basis. (We had 112 volunteers plus a waiting list for our Labor Day trip which was cancelled due to Hurricane Gustav!)

Engineer’s Day at the Austin Children’s Museum

by Linda Barlow, P.E. – Public Relations Chair

Sunday February 15, 2009

749531520@12112008-175A It’s that time of year again…E-Week is on the way and so is our annual Engineer’s Day at the Austin Children’s Museum. Help kids build a hoop glider and see how far it goes… Watch how high they can build a newspaper tower that supports a golf ball… Lend a hand to help them build all kinds of structures with spaghetti and marshmallows – you’ll be surprised at their creativity!

As a volunteer for ACSE’s 8^th Annual Engineer’s Day at the Austin Children’s Museum, you will help the kids build structures, fly helicopters, and complete other simple engineering activities…and you’ll have fun, too!

There will be an on-line sign up at our website shortly with the available shifts. Until then, please email any member of the PR Committee. Please pass the word around to anyone else who may be interested! Volunteers can choose one of two 2 ½ to 3-hour shifts in the afternoon. Training will be minimal and take place just before your shift. You will also receive a certificate for PDH credit.

We also need sponsors for the annual event. For individuals or firms, the two levels of sponsorship are $100 and $250. We also need an admission sponsor at $1000. We have recruited ACEA as a $1500 event co-sponsor for our second year in a row, so thank an ACEA member (and ask them to volunteer for the event). If your firm is interested in sponsoring the event, or if you have any questions, please email or call a PR Committee Member: you can email any of the PR Committee members: Linda Barlow at lbarlow@hvj.com; Sharon Hamilton at Sharon.Hamilton@CASEngineers.com; John Conquest at JDCONQUEST@mactec.com; Cesar Calderon at calderon@guerra.com; or Jim Huffcut at JHuffcut@Pape-Dawson.com.

Thanks so much to the sponsors who have already pledged to support this year’s event:

Austin Branch ASCE

Greater Austin Contractors and Engineers’ Association.

ASCE Civil Engineer of the Year Award

The ASCE Austin Branch is accepting nominations for the annual Civil Engineer of the Year Award. Nominations with accompanying information must be submitted to the Austin Branch by the close of business Monday, December 1, 2008. Evaluation criteria include the nominee’s professional and personal awards, community service, degrees held, military service, civic appointments, participation in ASCE activities, and letters of recommendation. Nomination applications can be found on the following link: nomination form.

For more information please contact Garabed A. Harutunian at (512) 371-7333 or kec@austin.rr.com.

GEO-San Antonio 2009

The San Antonio Chapter of the Geo-Institute of ASCE (an affiliation of the San Antonio ASCE Branch) is co-sponsoring its 3rd annual continuing education seminar with UTSA on January 9, 2009 at the Buena Vista Conference Center at UTSA’s Downtown Campus.

This third annual geotechnical seminar provides a forum for the presentation of a broad spectrum of “State-of-the-Practice” Drilled Shaft topics. This year we are honored to have presenters Fred Kulhawy, Clyde Baker, Dan Brown, Silas Nichols, Jack Hayes, Mark McClelland and Gus Beck. Please join us for what promises to be an interesting and informative program. A certificate documenting 7.0 Professional Development Hours will be provided to participants upon request.

For more information please contact Joseph A. Waxse, P.E., SAGI Chair at 210-641-2112 or jawaxse@terracon.com.

YMF Update

by Brandon Hammann, EIT

“We have been very busy over the last month. Jackee Grote spent weekends administering the PE Review Course…best of luck to those who took the exam and are awaiting results at the end of the year! Members got together at the Little Woodrows’ downtown location on October 22 for a happy hour. Our next happy hour will be held in December…details to be released later this month. Alex Reyna, with the assistance of myself, Zach Ryan, Yvonne Garcia, and Kim Patak, oversaw the preparation of the ASCE Golf Tournament. The actual tournament was held on Thursday, November 6 at Avery Ranch Golf Course. We had about 50 players come out and participate in this year’s event. YMF received several compliments from attendees who enjoyed the nice weather and an afternoon of 18 holes. YMF would like to thank Avery Ranch Golf Course for their hospitality, sponsors of the tournament, and attendees for their participation. Please contact Alex Reyna if you or someone you know is interested in holding the Golf Chair position for next year’s tournament. Kim Patak is currently organizing a technical seminar to be held in January. YMF will release more details in next month’s newsletter. Until the next update…YMF would like to wish all a happy and safe holiday season!”

UT Student Chapter Update

by Michelle Wilkinson – Corporate Relations Officer

This past month, UT ASCE held two great meetings, the first with Bury + Partners who spoke about the new land development of the old Mueller airport, and the second with CH2M Hill who presented about the new water supply for Brushy Creek. Both projects were very informative for our members and taught students that even as engineers, not all aspects of the projects we will work on involve engineering. Engineers need to also have the ability to communicate effectively with clients and the public since our projects affect the general population.

October was a busy time for outreach for UT ASCE. We participated in the Halloween Canned Food Drive and had 222 pounds of food donated to our organization! We won the “Most Spirited” award for our organization, which we were really excited about! We also volunteered at the Longhorn Halloween event. The booth we ran had a dummy person with holes in it where the kids could reach inside and feel parts of the body like the brain and eyeballs. These holes were filled with things like grapes and noodles so that the kids would think they were really touching that part of the body. According to our volunteers, it was a huge hit with all the kids and perfect for a good Halloween scare.

Intramural sports for the Fall semester are officially over and our members are really looking forward to the Spring sports. As of right now, we are definitely participating in basketball and softball. We are also thinking of potentially joining the intramural volleyball league. We hope that we can win some games in the sports next semester since we have only won a few games in these sports in the past years.

Steel Bridge and Concrete Canoe have made a lot of progress this last month. Steel Bridge is designing our optimum bridge right now by testing various potential loads on the structure. As of now, we are contacting steel suppliers to get the steel we need to start fabrication. We also just got our aggregate in for Concrete Canoe and are going to begin testing different batches to decide what will be the best mix. We are all really excited about these competitions since things are progressing so well. We can’t wait to see all our hard work come to fruition!

Contact Michelle Wilkinson at mwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu if you would like to get involved with UT ASCE. Please let us know if you would like to sponsor a meeting, a Friday in the Park, or any of our technical competitions (Steel Bridge and Concrete Canoe). Visit our website, www.ut-asce.org, for more information regarding the student branch.

Abraham Streiff

by Melinda Luna, P.E. – History and Heritage Chair

Abraham Streiff was a consultant engineer who worked with LCRA engineers to design and construct the Highland Lakes. He was a well known engineer in Michigan before he started working with LCRA in 1935.

Streiff was born in Switzerland in August 21, 1880 where Streiff’s family can trace the roots back to the 13 century. He married Fragisha Josefa Dorig in October 12, 1904. He came to the United States via Ellis Island on August 20, 1907. They had two children Jon Fridolin (John F.) Streiff in 1913 and Josef Anton (Anton J.) Streiff in 1915. John F. would go on to follow in his fathers footsteps and design dams and work in water resources in Idaho. Anton went on to work in the petroleum industry. Abraham Strieff also was listed on the visiting professionals list at the University of Michigan Engineering College in 1913 and 1914 teaching some of the research that he had done in Europe on irrigation.

Before Streiff came to work in Texas he published a number of articles, the majority in the Monthly Weather Review. In 1926, he published several articles, the first on the abnormal lake levels of the Great Lakes an article titles On the Investigation of cycles and their relation of the Bruckner and Solar cycle and the second unpublished study a study on the Nile’s Cycles of flooding. These articles were followed by several more:

The 1929 article was so controversial that a public discussion of the article in the Monthly Weather Review was included in 1930 edition. In 1931, Streiff published “The flow of Dnieper River” famous for its hydroelectric power and dams. The Dneiper River is the 3^rd longest river in Europe. He looked at its long history of flow cycles. Also that year he published a talk he had given the year before the Report titled “Report of stream flow Prediction Subcommittee” as part of the National Electric Light Association of the Great Lakes division, where he recommended for engineers to look ahead 10 to 50 years and settle on a reliable method to determine the impacts of these levels. All these studies would prepare him to work on the Chain of Highland Lakes dams as well as others on the Brazos River. Strieff also corresponded with noted astronomer Andrew E Douglas who studied tree rings as well for over 10 years to continue his work on sunspots, and climatic cycles.

Working as consultant with Fargo Engineering and Stone & Webster, Abraham Streiff worked to design the multiple arch section of Buchanan Dam. After the Flood of 1938 he studied the flood and published a report titled:” Technical Memorandum on Colorado River Flood of July, 1938" In 1951 he presented the LCRA board with recommendations on the repair of one the Buchanan arches. Requested by Max Starcke, he looked the gates designs for the dam that would later be known as Max Stacke Dam. He had a close relationship with LCRA engineer C.L. Dowell, that Dowell sent Steiff a telegram to his Jackson Michigan home to tell him he was right on the performance of the Starcke gates on September 11, 1952. The September 1952 flood was where Lake Travis lake levels rose 55 feet in 16 hours and an estimated 900,000 cfs peak inflow into the Lake which caused the rapid rise. Much of this flow was through the Pedernales River, Streiff went on to produce reports on lake levels and hydrogenteration. He lived in Austin, Texas for a while having an office on South Congress and was listed as one of the founding members of the American Society of Civil Engineers Austin Branch in 1951. He designed other dams on the Brazos and Guadalupe Rivers and other parts of the United States.

In the LCRA news letter of 1960, C. L. Dowell wrote a short announcement to let others know that Abe Streff died of a stroke on January 4, 1960. In that announcement of his death, it told the story of how Abraham Streiff had made a number of friends at LCRA and the people who worked with him were “richer for the experience”. It also told of how after working at an asbestos mine, in Canada he took a sled, a car, a train and a plane to get back to his Michigan home, showing his dedication to his family.

Abraham Streiff shared his knowledge with his profession by writing a number of technical articles, being active in technical societies, and made life long friends. The most significant impact by Abe Streiff to Central Texas was his work on the Dams and power houses of the Highland Lakes which gave an area a much needed source of hydroelectric power. This source of electric power was extremely important in the early forties when the war effort required much needed source of power.

References:

Descendants of Lux Streiff, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~streifflegacy/D1.htm

Engineering Design and Climate: Change and variability, Duke University, school of Engineering, Ana P. Bass, March 2005

LCRA News, LCRA archives, 1960

LCRA Board Minutes, 1951, LCRA Archives

LCRA Archives, Personal file of C.L. Dowell, Thanks to LCRA corporate Archives personnel

www.Ellisisland.org Passenger search

University of Michigan, 1913-1914 catalog

Papers of Andrew Ellicott Douglass. University of Arizona Library Special Collections.

City of Austin Road Names – Jollyville Road

Jollyville Road was named after John Grey Jolly, a robust Civil War veteran who farmed, ran a store, and raised a family in the area in the latter part of the 19th century.

ASCE Continuing Education Webinars

Dec. 2	Design of Masonry Shear Walls

Dec. 3 & Dec. 10	Writing: Producing Action-Oriented Documents ~ Part I & II - Complete Series

Dec. 4	Introduction to Green Design New Webinar

Dec. 5	Preventing Bridge Damage during Earthquakes New Webinar

Dec. 9	Strengthening Concrete Buildings

Dec. 11	Foundations for Metal Building Systems

Dec. 12	An Introduction to Roadside Delineation and Safety Systems

Dec. 16	Design of Wood Connections

Dec. 17	Floodplain Basics for Municipal, Transportation and Airport Projects New Webinar

Dec. 18	Proposed Amendments to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) New Webinar

Dec. 19	Preparing and Implementing Construction Site Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans

Thank You to All of Our 2008 Sponsors!

Want to be an Austin Branch Sponsor? Gives your company advertising and free postings on our online job board. Click here for more information.

The Austin Branch Newsletter gives you the latest information on ASCE events and activities. To inquire about this newsletter or to publish articles contact the Communications Director. Contact information for our Board of Directors can be found at www.austinasce.org.

National ASCE – www.asce.org Texas Section – www.texasce.org