Sreenivas Alampalli, Ph.D., P.E., F.SEI, Dist.M.ASCE, senior principal for transportation at Stantec, in Albany, New York, has been honored with inclusion by ASCE in its 2023 class of distinguished members for eminence and professional contributions to research, practice, and technology transfer in bridge inspection, evaluation, testing, and monitoring of bridge infrastructure.
Alampalli’s research portfolio and leadership record are the products of a visionary government engineer and researcher who has spent much of his career unselfishly promoting the development of numerous programs on bridge safety and management, not only for the New York State Department of Transportation, but for all other state DOTs and federal agencies nationwide. Further, there was his highly visible role in the international NDE/NDT community, where from 2003 to 2006 he was director-at-large on the American Society for Nondestructive Testing Board of Directors.
He was asked to lead the ASCE-AASHTO-FHWA Task Force after the Minnesota Bridge collapse in 2007 to develop a white paper on critical research needs in the areas of bridge inspection and evaluation. Another unique example of his leadership was, more recently, while at NYS DOT, the massive undertaking of migrating the $100 million annual inspection/evaluation program he managed from a state-specific system to an AASHTO element-based national system because of its better management of assets.
His unique engineering contributions include advancing NDT methods for quantitative evaluation of bridges to assure safety, developing a robust bridge inspection program, and pioneering applications of fiber-reinforced polymers for bridge applications.
In all, Alampalli has assembled 30 years’ worth of asset management and policy development, building successful strategic public-private-academic partnerships, implementing data-driven decision-making processes and web-based software tools, advising senior management, effectively managing a diversified and decentralized workforce, and much more. He has authored more than 250 technical publications in civil infrastructure and made more than 150 presentations on infrastructure research. He has been very active with professional societies throughout his career including serving on several ASCE committees and journal editorial boards. He also chaired the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee AFF40 on Testing and Evaluation of Transportation Structures. He is the founding President of the International Association for Bridge Maintenance and Safety (IABMAS) USA National Group
Alampalli started out in the Department of Irrigation in A.P. State, India, as an assistant executive engineer, was an adjunct at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and made his way to NYS DOT, Prospect Solutions, then Stantec, where he has been since 2021. His doctoral degree is from Rensselaer, in Troy, New York.
Selected honors include the Aftab Mufti Lifetime Achievement Award, 2021, from International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure, the Hall of Fame Award for 2016 from Make the Right Move Chess Foundation, the 2014 Bridge NDT Lifetime Service Award (ASNT), and ASCE’s own 2021 Outstanding Projects and Leaders award, or OPAL, and 2013 Henry L. Michel Award.
