Five individuals are being honored in ASCE’s Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) program for their lifetime achievements. The OPAL Lifetime Achievement Award is given to civil engineers who “represent a model of achievement to which future generations of engineers aspire to match or exceed.” This year’s winners of the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research and the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation also have been named.
The lifetime achievement honorees are Robert E. Alger, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, for construction; Charles C. Ladd III, Sc.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, for education; Michael K. Loose, P.E., M.ASCE, for management; Merdith W.B. “Bo” Temple, P.E., M.ASCE, for government; and Charles H. Thornton, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, for design.
ROBERT E. ALGER, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, the president and chief executive officer of the Lane Construction Corporation, of Cheshire, Connecticut, is honored for sustained contributions in the area of construction. Alger obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Pennsylvania State University and began his career with Lane in 1979 as an engineer working on a dam project in Dallas. By 1996 he had moved from project manager in the field to the corporate office and become a vice president of the firm. Under his leadership company revenues have grown from $360 million to more than $1.2 billion in 2012, and Lane is included in
Engineering News-Record’s “Top 400 Contractors” list. In addition to revenues, the firm has grown in geographic influence and now has field offices in 15 states and the District of Columbia, and it has gained a reputation for on-time performance, strong client relations, and safe, quality work. The firm’s expertise is such that it is able to undertake such large, complex endeavors as the $1.5-billion project for high-occupancy lanes on Interstate 495 (the “Capital Beltway”); a runway at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Sterling, Virginia; and the demolition and repaving of Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Florida. Alger served as president of ASCE’s Construction Institute in 2004 and has been a president of the Moles, a board member of the Beavers, an officer of the Construction Industry Round Table, a member of Penn State’s Industry and Professional Advisory Council, and a member of the Columbus Citizens Foundation. In 2006 Penn State honored him with its Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award.
CHARLES C. LADD III, Sc.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, a professor emeritus in the civil and environmental engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a consulting geotechnical engineer, is honored for his numerous contributions in education. Ladd has spent his entire professional career at MIT, beginning in 1955 as a research assistant. Over the years he has served as instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, visiting consultant, acting head of the geotechnical division, chair of the civil and environmental engineering department’s committee on graduate studies, visiting senior scientist, director of the Center for Scientific Excellence in Offshore Engineering, and graduate admissions officer. According to his many students and peers, Ladd has been an inspiring, committed teacher in the civil and environmental engineering department and has taken great pride in the comprehensiveness of his lectures in soil mechanics and soil behavior. Indeed, his notes have been used worldwide by other professors to teach these subjects. Ladd has also contributed his time and expertise to a number of ASCE committees, among them the Committee on Curricula and Accreditation, the Geotechnical Engineering Division’s publications committee, the Awards Committee, and a committee dealing with soil properties, and he has also been a member of the Geo-Institute’s Board of Governors. His work had earned him many accolades, and ASCE has recognized his accomplishments with its 1969 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, 1973 J. James R. Croes Medal (for his paper “Initial Settlement of Structures on Clay”), 1976 Norman Medal (for “New Design Procedure for Stability of Soft Clays”), and 1996 Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award (for “Reliability Applied to Slope Stability Analysis”). In 1986 he was selected to deliver the Society’s Karl Terzaghi Lecture. Ladd holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from Bowdoin College and a bachelor’s degree in building engineering and construction, a master’s degree in civil engineering, and a doctorate in soil engineering, all from MIT.
MICHAEL K. LOOSE, P.E., M.ASCE, a senior vice president and the manager of the installations and environment division in the Washington, D.C., office of Parsons Corporation, is honored for sustained contributions in the field of management. Loose manages the installations and environment division’s staff of roughly 1,000 employees in delivering services to the federal government, including the Department of Defense and the General Services Administration. Under his leadership, Parsons is providing planning, design, and construction services—along with program and construction management, energy assessment and management, and operations and maintenance support—to federal customers. Loose served in the U.S. Navy, where he rose to the rank of vice admiral and from 2007 to 2010 served as deputy chief of naval operations for fleet readiness and logistics. Earlier he served as commander of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, guiding a 17,000-person global workforce and managing an annual operating budget of $600 million for maintenance, transportation, and utilities services. Honored by ASCE with its 2009 Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Achievement of Research and 2010 John L. Parcel–Leif J. Sverdrup Civil Engineering Management Award, Loose is vice-chair of ASCE’s Industry Leaders Council, and he was a panelist in the Industry Leaders Forum at the Society’s 2009 annual conference. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree, also in civil engineering, from the University of Washington. The University of Kansas has honored him with its Distinguished Engineering Service Award.
MERDITH W.B. “BO” TEMPLE, P.E., M.ASCE, a major general in the U.S. Army and the acting chief of engineers and acting commanding general of the Corps of Engineers, is honored for sustained contributions in government. Temple, who will be retiring from the U.S. Army this fall, earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Virginia Military Institute and a master’s degree, also in civil engineering, from Texas A&M University. He was commissioned in the engineering branch of the U.S. Army in 1975, and he later graduated from the Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College. In his 37 years of distinguished military service, Temple has led engineering soldiers and civilians in the Corps of Engineers at every level of command in war and in peace, including Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has also provided leadership in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; to various floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes in the United States; and to the earthquake that ravaged Haiti in 2010. In his previous assignment as deputy commanding general of the Corps’s civil and emergency operations, he managed the army’s $10-billion annual civil works program for flood control, navigation, environmental restoration, and water resource projects. In that position he was also responsible for federal flood-fighting efforts, recovery operations, and emergency engineering and public works support in response to natural and man-made disasters. Temple’s military decorations include the Legion of Merit (two oak leaf clusters), the Bronze Star Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Meritorious Service Medal (six oak leaf clusters), the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal (four oak leaf clusters), the Army Superior Unit Award, and the Master Parachutist Badge.
CHARLES H. THORNTON, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, the chairman of Charles H. Thornton & Company LLC, of Easton, Maryland, a founding principal and former cochairman of the international firm Thornton Tomasetti, and the founder of the ACE Mentor Program, is honored for his numerous contributions in design. Thornton, who today also serves as a consultant and adviser to the Thornton Tomasetti board, spent more than 40 years with that firm and was involved in the design and construction of projects in the United States and overseas that included hospitals, arenas, high-rise buildings, airports, and transportation facilities. Regarded as one of the world’s preeminent structural engineers and educators, Thornton has been involved in the design, construction, and analysis of projects around the world. Many of these projects have set industry standards for innovation and creativity and have been recognized with awards. His signature projects include the Northwestern Atrium Center (now the Citigroup Center), in Chicago; 5 Penn Plaza, in New York City; the Chifley Tower, in Sydney, Australia; the Tampa City Center, in Tampa, Florida; and the Petronas Twin Towers, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His ACE Mentor Program, established in 1993, has offered guidance to more than 40,000 inner-city high school students in 106 cities around the country and has acquainted these students with the challenges and rewards offered by careers in architecture, engineering, and construction. Thus far it has awarded more than $6 million in scholarships. Thornton earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Manhattan College in 1961, a master’s degree, also in civil engineering, from New York University in 1963, and a doctorate in structural engineering and engineering mechanics from New York University. His numerous accolades include the Civil Engineer of the Year Award from ASCE’s Metropolitan Section in 1990, the Hoover Medal in 2002, the Leonardo da Vinci Award for Leadership and Management Excellence from the Professional Services Management Association in 2003, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Civil Engineering from the Franklin Institute in 2003, and the Golden Eagle Award from the Society of American Military Engineers in 2003.
SREENIVAS ALAMPALLI, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, the director of the New York State Department of Transportation’s Bridge Evaluation Services Bureau, has been named the recipient of the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research. New York State has approximately 7,500 state-owned bridges and 8,600 locally owned bridges, and to carry out his work Alampalli manages a staff of 25 engineers and oversees structure evaluation groups from 11 regional bodies and roughly $60 million annually in consultant contracts. He also advises senior management on long-term strategies for structural evaluation services, prepares annual reports for the governor and state legislature on bridge inspection and management programs, and works with the Federal Highway Administration—as well as with other state and federal agencies, professional organizations, consultants, and members of academia—to promote research and other projects of interest to the Department of Transportation. Alampalli earned a bachelor’s degree from India’s Sri Venkateswara University in 1983, a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1985, and a doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1990, all in civil engineering. Upon receiving his doctorate he joined the New York State Department of Transportation as an engineering research specialist. In 1996 he became head of structures research in the department, and in 2001 he was named interim head of the Research and Development Bureau. He took over the Bridge Evaluation Services Bureau in 2003 and that same year earned a master’s degree in management and technology from Rensselaer. Within ASCE Alampalli has been an associate editor of the
Journal of Bridge Engineering since 2003, and he has served on various committees of the Structural Engineering Institute and the Geo-Institute. He is currently a member of the Structural Engineering Institute’s Committee on Bridge Management, Inspection, and Rehabilitation and Committee on Structural Identification of Constructed Systems. His accolades include the 2009 Herbert Howard Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award from ASCE’s Metropolitan Section, and he was a member of the New York State Department of Transportation team that received ASCE’s 2000 Charles Pankow Award for Innovation.
HC Bridge Company LLC, of Wilmette, Illinois, has been named the winner of the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation for its Hybrid-Composite Beam (HCB), a new type of structural component developed for use highway and railroad bridges, marine facilities, and other structures. What distinguishes the HCB from beams of conventional materials is that the fiber-reinforced-polymer box beam materials offer vastly superior corrosion resistance and a life span projected at 100 years. As a result of its low weight and lower shipping and erection costs, the HCB offers a distinct advantage over conventional materials. According to the HC Bridge Company, the weight of a typical HCB is only 30 percent that of an equivalent steel beam and roughly 10 ten percent that of an equivalent prestressed-concrete beam. Since the ability to satisfy serviceability requirements (maximum deflection under live load) underlies the design of the HCB, these girders provide strength capacity beyond what is required by design codes. Laboratory testing by the HC Bridge Company has consistently demonstrated ultimate load capacities 10 to 60 percent beyond the design loads. The HCB comprises three main subcomponents: a shell, compression reinforcement, and tension reinforcement. The compression reinforcement is provided by concrete, which is pumped into a profiled conduit (generally an arch) within the beam shell. The tension reinforcement is provided by carbon, glass, or steel fibers anchored at the ends of the compression reinforcement. The HCB combines the strength and stiffness of conventional concrete and steel with the corrosion resistance and low weight of advanced composite materials. The result is a new alternative for rebuilding infrastructure so as to provide state-of-the-art durability. In April 2009 HC Bridge Company, the consulting firm Teng & Associates, Inc., and the Lockport Township Highway Department were honored with the American Council of Engineering Companies’ Engineering Excellence Award for their collaborative effort in using HCBs in the construction of the two-lane High Road Bridge, which crosses Long Run Creek in Lockport, Illinois. Other projects that have used HCBs include the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s four-lane highway bridge over Peckman's Brook in Cedar Grove, New Jersey; the Maine Department of Transportation’s eight-span Knickerbocker Bridge, in Boothbay, Maine; and a marine pier constructed for the University of Maine at Machias’s Downeast Institute. Eight other bridges using HCBs are slated for construction this year: five for highways in Utah, Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia; two railroad bridges for Canadian National Railway; and a military bridge in Kentucky at Fort Knox.