A= ustin Branch Newsletter

November 2009

Volume 14, Number 2

= In This Issue̷= 0;

Spring 2010 Meeting =

Membership Re= newal

YMF Update

UT-ASCE Update

History In Heritage<= o:p>

Continuing Education Webinars

November Speaker: Carlos A= . Lopez, P.E., District Engineer, TxDOT

Topic: Transportation Issues in Our Area<= /b>

3D"Carlos Carlos A. Lopez, P.E., serves as district engineer for the Austin District of TxDOT. He was previously director of TxDOT’s= Traffic Operations Division until he joined the Austin District on July 1, 2009.

A 27-year TxDOT veteran, Carlos served as the Direc= tor of the Traffic Operations Division beginning in 1999. He joined the divis= ion in 1988 as a special projects engineer and managed statewide traffic light synchronization programs.

In 1993, he became the Traffic Engineering Section manager, where he worked with districts and provided statewide oversight = of signing, signal, pavement marking and safety construction issues. He beca= me division deputy director in 1996 and served as interim director prior to being named division director.

Carlos joined TxDOT's Pharr District as a summer employee in the Laredo Area Office while earning his bachelor's degree in civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. After earning his degree in 1= 982, he began full time as a field engineer in the Design Division and also sp= ent a year of training in the Austin District. In 1988, Carlos transferred to the Maintenance and Operations Division's Traffic E= ngineering Section.

= He received his license as a professional engineer in 1987. In 1989, he earn= ed his master's degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He and his wife, Zulema, live= in Austin and have = two daughters and one grandson.

President’s Message

by Robert W. Scholz, P.E.

Greetings to all Austin Branch ASCE members! I would like to ki= ck off this message by giving a special thanks to Roman Grijalva for presiding at the October meeting in my absence. I’m certain that he did a terrific job and gave you just a little taste of his outstanding leadership skills and an insight into his presidency next year. =

On behalf of the Board of Directors and= the membership of the Austin Branch, we would like to send out our thoughts a= nd prayers to those intimately affected by the recent shootings at Fort Hood, as well as to the membership of the Central Texas Branch of ASCE, which includes Fort Hood. To have a tragedy like this happ= en to our neighbors really weighs hard on our hearts and souls.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve tho= ught a lot about my personal future. My wife and I recently had our first child and it is time for me to take the next steps to ensure financial stability for my family. Did you know that ASCE can help = us with this? As a member of A= SCE, each and every one of you is entitled to a free portfolio review through Grogan Advisory Services. A= SCE also offers group term life insurance, accident and disability insurance, discount dental, short-term medical insurances, and many more benefits. Due to this uncertain economy and unstable job market, knowledge of these benefits is extremely critical. Be sure and take a look at the b= enefits offered by ASCE at www.asce.or= g/benefits so that you can be prepared for life-changing events. Many of us think of ASCE as an organization where we attend monthly luncheons to get our continuing education credits. But know= that this organization is much, much more than this and be sure to take advant= age of the discounts and opportunities that ASCE makes available to each of us.

Please don’t forget about our golf tournament coming up on November 19^th at Avery Ranch. It will be a terrific event with= lots of prizes, food, and fun. It’s an excellent way to network with clients and other engineers while supporting the Austin Branch Younger Member Forum. Shotgun start is at 1:00 p.m.

As a final note, I’d like to remi= nd each of you to please renew your membership with ASCE prior to December 1= ^st. The section with the largest ren= ewal rate gets $1,250!! With the holidays approaching, we will all be guilty of things “slippingR= 21; our minds. Therefore, do it before the holidays and rest easy. I hope each and every one of you= has a terrific Thanksgiving. See you at the meeting on November 17^th!

November Meeting Sponsor:

= Hanson Pipe & Precast, a division of the HeidelbergCement Group, is the larg= est manufacturer of concrete pipe and precast products in North America. The company has participated in some of the nation’s largest public works, airport and highway construction projects. State Departments= of Transportation, major cities and counties, public authorities, the Army C= orps of Engineers, major airports and numerous private entities are among Hanson’s customers. Locally, Hanson is proud of its history of manufacturing concrete = pipe for more than 50 years for the greater Austin area.

Hanson Pipe & Precast is committed = to providing each of our customers with the highest quality products at the greatest convenience level possible. At an increasing rate we are seeing = more projects designed with sustainability at their core. Most often this sustainability initiative is represented through the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED^©<=
/sup> certification program. Because of Hanson’s on-going dedication to o= ur customers combined with our ever present commitment to sustainability, we have created a proprietary tool to quantify how our products can help you reach your sustainability goals. &n= bsp;

When considering your water and drainage requirements for a LEED^&cop=
y; specified project, Hanson Pipe & Precast products can become a part of two LEED^© categories - MRc4 Recycled Content & MRc5 Regional Materials. Upon receiving a signed request, Hanson Pipe & Precast will supply you with all information necessary to easily fill in the required paperwork for post-consumer, post-industrial and regional materials. Be sure to visit our website at = www.hansonpipeandprecast.com.

ASCE Sponsorships

The time is here to renew or become an ASCE Austin Branch sponsor for the 2010 year. We are currently offering an early bird special for submission by December 1^st, 2009.

Branch Sponsorship is $250.00 if submitted by December 1^st, 2009 and $300.00 anytime thereafter. Meeting Sponsors will remain at $300.00 for t= he 2010 year. Below is a detailed description of each type of sponsorship.

1. Austin Branch Sponsor

$250.00 &= #8211; Early Bird: Registration by December 1^st, 2009

$300.00 &= #8211; Registration after December 1^st, 2009

Sponsorship Includes:

Business = card ad in the monthly newsletter for the term of your sponsorship.<= /o:p>

Listing o= n the ASCE Austin Branch Website Sponsor Page with a link to your website = for the term of your sponsorship.

Advertise= job postings for FREE on the Branch Website for the term of your sponsorship.

2. Austin Branch Meeting Sponsor (10 Meetings per year) - $300.00

Sponsorship Includes:

Introduct= ion at the meeting and approximately three (3) minutes to speak about your company, services, and community activities.

Recogniti= on and introduction of your company in the monthly newsletter for that mont= h.

Mention o= n the website home page for that month with a link to your website.

Includes = two (2) free admissions to the sponsored meeting.

Notes:

"Year" refers to Januar= y to December of the current Calendar Year=

There are 10 meetings and10 newsl= etters per year, no meetings/newsletters in July or August

We encourage everyone to get involved. A sponsorship will allow your company to give back to the Austin community= as well as market your Company’s name.

For Branch and Meeting sponsorship applications please refer to http://www.austinasce.org/sponsors.htm<= /span> for more details or you can contact Suzanne Dean at suzanne.dean@jacobs.com.

We appreciate everyone’s involvement with the ASCE Austin Branch and h= ope to see even more in the future.

Thank You!

Austin = Branch Hosts Texas Section Spring 2010 Meeting – Save the Date!

The Austin Bra= nch will be hosting the Texas Section Spring 2010 Meeting. This meeting will be unique in b= oth its revised format and location. This will be a Texas Section meeting that will be talked about for years to come.&= nbsp; There is no better opportunity to get involved in creating the fut= ure Texas Section meeting formats.

Preparations for this meeting have begun with the selection of a fabulous venue – the newly constructed AT&a= mp;T Executive Education and Conference Center, located on the University of Tex= as Campus.&nb= sp; This facility combines advanced technology and sophisticated hospitality – just the setting to make the Texas Section meeting in= Austin the civil engineering event of the year!

The Host Committee invites all Austin Branch members to get involved in making this meeting a success. you may contact individual sub-committee chairman to find out about volunteering = for their committee.

General Co-Chair: Amy Spicer Smith &nbs= p; amy_smith@urscorp.com

General Co-Chair: David Mat= ocha = ; &nbs= p; david.matocha@hanson.com

Budget/Finance: Curtis Steger = ; &nbs= p; curtis@holfordgroup.com=

CPD Seminars: Craig Chesser = ; &nbs= p; cachesser@lan-inc.com

Awards Banquet: Kelly Barney = ; &nbs= p; barneyka@gmail.com

Exhibits: &nbs= p; Ron Reichert &nb= sp; &nbs= p; rreichert@ejiw.com

Hotel Arrangements: Steve Bontempo &nb= sp; &nbs= p; steve@bontempo-eng.com<= /o:p>

Printing/Mailing: Dale Murphy &nbs= p; &nbs= p; dmurphy@kfriese.com

Publicity: = ; Vanessa Rosales-Herrera Vanessa_Rosales-Herrera@URSCorp.com

Registration: = ; Linda Bar= low = ; &nbs= p; lbarlow@hvj.com<= /p>

= ; &n= bsp; Don Willhouse = ; &nbs= p; dotdon32@msn.com<= /span>

Student Activities Rose Marie Klee &= nbsp; &nbs= p; rmklee@crespoinc.com

Order of the Engineer

Ceremony: = ; Cres Guzman = ; &nbs= p; crespin.guzman@klotz.com

Renew your Membership by December 1st

= Help the Texas Section be a 2009 Renewal Cash Prize Winner!

YOUR ASCE Section can Win $1,250 by having the highest percentage of renewed members by December 1, 2009.

One ASCE Section from each category (La= rge, Medium, Small) will each win a cash prize of $1,250. So get in the Section Renewal Race right now - and end 2009 with a strong financial finish for = your Section or Branch.

Spread the word - remind your fe= llow Section members to renew!

Renew at: http://www.asce.org= /

<= /a>YMF= Update

by Yvonne L. Garcia, EIT

ASCE Golf Tournament - = November 19^th<= /p>

The deadline for registration and sponsorship for the ASCE Golf Tournamment at Avery Ranch Golf Club has be= en extended!

For more information on registration and sponsorship please contact Alex Reyna @ 328-0011 or @ areyna@burypartners.com.

Trophy prizes as well as gift certifica= tes will be awared to 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place teams. Raffle prizes to include: golf bag and apparel, ipod shuffle, UT basket ball tickets and more!

Y= MF Happy Hour

<= o:p>

YMF will be hosting their November happy hour, Wednesnesday November 18 @ the Black Sheep Lodge, in south Austin.

Black Sheep Lodge is located near the intersection of South Lamar and Oltorf. Hope to see you there! = ;

I= nterested in joining ASCE YMF?

Interested in learning more about ASCE YMF and how to get involved? ASCE YMF welcomes and encourages young engineers to become acti= vely involved in their local branch chapter.&= nbsp; For more information contact Yvonne Garcia @ yg= arcia@rkci.com.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>

<= o:p>

W= hat’s going on with ASCE YMF?

Interested in receiving YMF newsletters and updates about our social events, community services, etc.?= You can request to be added to the YMF listserve by emailing Jennifer Higb= y, E.I.T., LEED AP at higbyjl@cdm.com.

UT-ASCE = Update

Just as the semester itself, UT-ASCE has also been quite busy. In the beginnin= g of the past month, OutReach successfully conducted their first major activity – Habitat for Humanity. Although it rained some towards the end of the day, our members ha= d just completed the construction of the base material for the roof enabling ind= oor work to carry on full force! After a few hours of blocking inside, our members moved to another house to dry wall – where our drafting cou= rses come in handy, especially for freshmen.

This year our members have showcased amazing athleticism! Our men’s flag football te= am missed playoffs by one point, by far better than many years in the past. = Our highly anticipated co-ed flag football team made it to playoffs and will = play this coming Tuesday night! We are hungry for a championship, something th= at has not been done in a very long time! Taking another needed study break,= our members enjoyed camping during the middle of the month at Emma Long Metropolitan Park where roasting marshmallows fireside was perfect for the end of a test we= ek. As usual, our officers helped by peer advising during advising week.

Most exciting, Steel Bridge has been practicing fabrication by creating a bookshelf four times a week for the = past three weeks. Months of preparation and design are about to become tangible and we are very eager to do well this year! Students have been very invol= ved this year but there’s always room for more as we hope to get studen= ts more excited about our competitions, especially Steel Bridge and Concrete Canoe, so that they become more involved early and stay invo= lved throughout the year. <= /o:p>

We enjoyed Kiewit, CoreSlab Structures, and our very own Dr. Gilbert (Profes= sor at UT) speak at our October meetings and are delighted to have URS Corporation speak at our upcoming meeting. We look forward to excelling in all our technical and athletic competitions. We thrilled at this yearR= 17;s current success and hope to keep the bar high for the rest of the year. H= ook ‘Em!

Contact Kassey Wooldridge at kwooldridge@mail.utexas.edu if you would like to get involved with UT ASCE.

Our website can be found at www.ut-asce.org.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> It contains information for Tech= nical Competitions, Outreach, IM Sports, and Social Events, as well as contact information for all of our officers.

Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) Fund Drive

Nearly one in five Central Texans are food insecure, which is defined as a lack = of access to enough food to fully meet basic needs at all times due to a lac= k of financial resources. In the= se uncertain economic times more and more people find themselves with little= or no food on a regular basis.

During the November and December ASCE meetings there = will be donation boxes on the tables for you to donate to the Capital Area Food Bank. Every little bit help= s and every donation is much appreciated. Last year ASCE members donated $560 to the CAFB to feed the hungry. Let’s try to = meet or exceed our past amount and give everyone a happy holiday.

Topographic Mapping in Texas, 1958-19= 66

By Melinda Lun= a, P.E.

After the first effort of the USGS in making the first USGS maps, Texas found it self with a growing population and out dated maps. The first maps were based on dat= um 1927-29 and the USGS had adopted Mapping standards for accuracy. Some progress had been made in updating these maps by a small group at the USGS called the Survey Investigations Research group with limited funds. Understanding that Texas was gro= wing and these maps were being for flood control, soil and water conservation, highway planning industries and reforestation, the 55^th Texas Legislature made funds available to start updating the maps. To better leverage these fund so= me local organizations such a the: San Jacinto River Authority, Collingsworth County Water Control and Improvement District, North Texas Municipal Water District, Tarrant County Water Control & Improvements District No. 1, Edwards Underground District, West Central Texas Water, Brazos River Authority with the City = of Stephenville, and the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District= No. 1. With Federal, State, and= local funds 4.7(32 in today dollars) million dollar was spent between 1958-1966= .

To help update these maps in systematic way, the Texas Mapping advisory committee was formed. The committee prioritized needs and updated the maps using this prioritizatio= n of maps. Through the life of t= he committee there were 22 members. These members were:

H A Beckwith	Topographic Engineer at the TWDB	Pliny M Gale, Jr	TSPE
G. Emil Blomquist	TWDB	Owen H Ivie	General Manager of Colorado River Municipal Water District
J W Buchanan	North High Plains Water District	Jack Jordan	<= span style=3D'font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Texas High= way Commission<= o:p>
Harry W Clark	Texas Industrial Commission	E D Morse	Texas Surveys Association
Mac L Coker	Texas Railroad Commission	J M Norton	State Soil & Water Conservation Board
Harvey Davis	State Soil & Water Commission Board	William C Russell	General Land Office
John P Dougherty	Topographic Engineer at the TWDB	E V Spence	West Texas Chamber of Commerce
Frank W Ebaugh	East Texas Chamber of Commerce	John J Vandertulip	Chairman TWDB
W L Eeds	TSPE	McDonald D Weinwert	Engineer & General Manager Edwards Underground Water District
Peter T Flawn	UT Bureau of Economic Research	Herman Forbes	General Land Office (GLO)

Great progress was made in updating the maps for the state increasing the accur= acy of the maps and updating the datum. This effort increased the updated maps from 19% to 67.3% or about 3,259 7.5 minute quadrangles. Because this was a large effort, the project was presented to the American Society of Civil Engineers at several insta= nces including the ASCE water resources Conference in <= st1:City w:st=3D"on">Mobile Alabama= in March 1965. <= /o:p>

In a similar effort today, TWDB (TNRIS division) is undertaking the Strategi= c or StratMap effort. The High Priority Imagery and Data set (HPIDS) is a vehicle that local jurisdictio= ns or agencies can be used to get updates to topographic and imagery data. More information on this e= ffort can be found at www.tnris.org