Wednesday, November 8
Richard Fernandez and Christina Kapoi will explore the importance of sustainability and resilience in infrastructure projects and provide an overview of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure's Envision Rating System. Two case studies on the relatively new rating system will also be shared and example credits from the rating system will be discussed from King County's Georgetown Wet-Weather Treatment Station and Seattle Public Utilities' Ship Canal Water Quality Project.
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5:30pm Social Hour
6:00pm Dinner
6:30pm Program
Early bird rates end after
Wednesday, November 1.
Registration closes Sunday, November 5.
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Never miss a Seattle Section event with our new Calendar!
Have you seen our new event calendar?
Click here
to see what exciting events we have planned!
The best way to stay up to date on Seattle Section happenings is to
add our calendar to your Outlook
or other email manager. All you have to do is
click here
to download a .ics file that you can open and add to your own calendar.
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DECEMBER 2017 NEWSLETTER CONTENT DEADLINE:
NOVEMBER 20, 2017
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November President's Column
By Diana Hasegan, PE, ENV SP, Seattle Section President
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As civil engineers, we are the stewards of essential infrastructure for the society we live in. However, that infrastructure is dangerously deteriorating; and the availability of resources and future conditions under which infrastructure will be conceived, designed and operated are highly uncertain.
A massive shift is underway in the world’s urban populations, bringing unprecedented demands in the world’s cities for land, energy, transportation, waste disposal and health care. The United Nations estimates that by the year 2050 the number of urban dwellers is expected to approach 70 percent. As much as 60 percent of the needed infrastructure to accommodate this population shift has not yet been built.
Decades of overuse of natural resources and ecological systems have created resource shortages and a changing climate. This situation is having a marked effect on civil engineering design. Without innovative strategies for dealing with the demand, the world will experience harmful effects of inadequate infrastructure and the loss of our natural resources. Civil engineers now need to provide solutions for problems that have not yet been defined or not defined clearly.
The infrastructure projects we design and build today will shape society for the next 50 years and beyond. Civil engineers are entrusted by society to help create a sustainable world. All infrastructure that we create must be environmentally, economically and socially sustainable to meet the needs of society, to support the fulfillment of human potential in an equitable manner, and to develop healthy, safe and thriving communities. Sustainable infrastructure, designed to consider current and future hazards, plays a crucial role in a community’s resilience and ability to withstand and recover from natural or man-made disasters.
Engineers by definition are problem solvers, but that definition is too narrow. We need to be more! We need to be leaders, agents of positive change. And as we look to the future, we have some global challenges ahead. 2016 ushered in the official launch of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders last September at the United Nations. The new Agenda calls on countries to begin efforts to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals over the next 15 years. This list developed by the United Nations and confirmed by 193 countries will transform our world. As an organization, ASCE contributes to each of these goals.
We need to think about these goals and what roles we can play in helping the world solve these grand challenges. Engineers now need to embrace leadership to become solution providers for problems that have not yet been defined, or not defined clearly.
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The ASCE K-12 Outreach Committee is looking for
VOLUNTEERS!
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On
Saturday, November 11th
ASCE will host a fun and interactive activity booth at the Pacific Science Center and you can join the fun! Our activity booth will be a part of the
Pacific Science Center's "Engineer It!" weekend
, a festival that celebrates all things engineering. The festival will be a great opportunity for us to have meaningful interactions with local families about how cool the civil engineering profession is. As a volunteer, you’ll lead museum guests through the activity (testing gum-drop structures on an earthquake shake table!) and help set-up and take down the booth. There are (3) volunteer shifts, which are from 10:00a-1:00p, 12:30p-3:30p, and 3:00p-6:00p. If you have any questions or if you're interested in volunteering please email Brad Strandquist at
bstrandquist@mka.com
. Please indicate your requested shift.
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University Mentor Night
Help Needed
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Seattle University
Wednesday, November 29th
6:00 to 8:00 pm
If you are interested in being a mentor for a night for college students, the Puget Sound Engineering Council (PSEC) needs your help! The purpose of the mentor night activity has been to bring as many practicing engineers together with as many students as possible. The mentor night allows engineers to relay their experience in the profession and answer questions posed by students.
The event will start with a panel discussion of invited SU alumni who will field questions from the students. Following the panel discussion, the students will rotate among tables with the mentors for discussions. To facilitate the discussions, mentors are asked to bring a sample of work (reports, photos, drawings, etc.) to help the students better understand what they might do in different disciplines of engineering.
Mentors will be sent final details, directions, campus map and parking passes a week prior to the event.
Annually, events are typically held at the following schools:
- Seattle Central College - January
- North Seattle College – March
- Highline College – April
- Bellevue College – May
- Shoreline College - May
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LOCEA Spotlight: Golden Gardens Stairway
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The ASCE Seattle Section newsletter is featuring projects that received a Local Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award in 2017.
SEATTLE PARKS AND RECREATION
The Golden Gardens Drainage and Stairway Renovation project replaced popular yet unsafe and failing stairs with a new ADA-complaint 6 ft. wide concrete stairway in Golden Gardens Park, located along the Puget Sound in Ballard. Developed in the early 20
th
century, the park has since become a Seattle landmark, known for its historic stairway connecting the beach to an off-leash dog park and neighborhoods. The project was honored by ASCE Seattle's LOCEA program this year, receiving the award for Outstanding Small Project.
The previous drainage system under the steep, non-ADA compliant stairway consisted of a stacked-concrete slab channel, which turned into an open concrete channel adjacent to the lower stairs. This drainage system supported storm flows and a steady base flow year around and was leaking due to gaps between the stacked-concrete slabs, allowing groundwater to wash the fine sand out from beneath the existing steps, causing the steps to unevenly settle and crack. This failure of the stairs and drainage infrastructure created serious safety concerns for park visitors who used the stairs.
The improved closed drainage and underdrain system captures and redirects surface and subsurface flows to reduce subgrade settling and re-occurrence of erosion problems which had caused the original failure. The cracks were sealed in the lower open channel, popular with visiting school groups and children.
The stairway renovated by this project is located on a steep slope within a natural forest area. The park has operated for a century in the area and the public generally enjoys the park due to its natural setting. It was vital for this project to balance preservation of the site's natural processes and environment conditions with improvements to public safety. As opposed to completely stabilizing and ultimately disrupting the nature of the existing site conditions, the natural environment was restored through planting native riparian and upland shrubs along the hillside and by installing a drainage system which protects the slope against erosion. Much of the existing vegetation and trees were protected and preserved to limit impacts to the surrounding environment. Construction was completed in 2016.
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October Section Meeting - History of the Locks
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We hope you enjoyed our October section dinner! At the dinner our new Board of Directors was inducted, including the ceremonial passing of the gavel from now past-president Kelli Dean to our current president, Diana Hasegan.
Author David B. Williams took us on a journey through the history of the Lake Washington Ship Canal & Hiram M. Chittenden Locks
(also known as the Ballard Locks).
Did you know that Hiram himself was an ASCE member in the early 1900's? Hiram was in charge of the Lake Washington Canal to connect Puget Sound WA with Lake Union and Lake Washington and one of the main driving forces shaping the topography of Seattle we know today. Learn more about the story of the locks in David B. William's book,
"Waterway: The Story of Seattle's Locks and Ship Canal"
.
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Washington State Report Card
Volunteers Needed!
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We are gaining momentum in updating the report card.
Volunteers are developing a project management plan for the card. Please email questions or comments to Erik Ellingsen at
erik.ellingsen@hartcrowser.com.
Previous work by ASCE members to develop the first report card and two recent example cards (storm water and the electrical grid) have been uploaded to
Collaborate
and Google Drive.
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Eset Alemu | President-Elect
Eset Alemu’s passion for engineering was fueled by her experiences growing up in Ethiopia. After completing a degree in Civil Engineering, Eset moved to Seattle about 10 years ago to enroll at the University of Washington for the Water Resources Management graduate program. As a graduate student she built a decision support system, which was adopted by Snohomish County Public Utility District (SnoPUD) for scheduling hydroelectric energy production at the Jackson Hydropower Project on the Sultan River. This experience of working with utilities to better manage resources helped her identify career as a Water Resources Engineer which she embarked upon after completing her Master’s degree in 2008.
Eight years into her consulting career working on comprehensive planning for utilities; floodplain development and management; and water resources systems hydraulic modeling, Eset transitioned into the public sector in mid-2016. She is now a Project Engineer at Seattle Public Utilities working on the City of Seattle’s largest infrastructure project, the Ship Canal Water Quality Program, a $420 million underground storage tunnel project. Her responsibilities expanded to coordinating various design packages; identifying and scoping capital improvement projects; and streamlining project implementation schedules.
Outside of work, Eset is an active member of the local Chapter of Engineers Without Borders – Puget Sound Professionals (EWB-PSP) where she serves as President of the Chapter leading the implementation of three international projects. She loves long distance running and aspires to improve her performance in a marathon. She combines her love of exploration and civil engineering by travelling off the beaten path, discovering engineering wonders from pyramids, canals to skyscrapers.
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ASCE Membership Renewal Drawing
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Renew your 2018 ASCE membership early and earn chances to win one of 4 prizes, including the grand prize worth $1,000!
The earlier you renew your Society-level membership, the more chances you have to win. You will be entered in all applicable prize drawings that follow your renewal date.
- Renew by November 14, 2017 for a chance to win a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card (U.S. members), or a free year of ASCE membership (international members)
- Renew by December 12, 2017 for a chance in the grand prize drawing for a $1,000 Amazon.com Gift Card (U.S. members), or a free year of ASCE membership (international members)!
When you join ASCE, you become part of the largest professional civil engineering network in the world. As a part of our community, you have access to our industry’s most comprehensive communication, networking, and learning resources.
As an ASCE member, you have access to a wealth of benefits that serve you throughout your career.
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- Design Engineer - LOCHNER
- Senior Geotechnical Engineer - Adapt
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