Greetings!
This is officially my last month as President of the East Central Branch, and what a year it has been! I am incredibly proud of our members, institutes, and committees for achieving all they did this year. We were about to provide the Central Florida Area with fantastic learning opportunities, service events, and networking connections. Friday, September 9th was the Officer Installation Lunch, and I am pleased to introduce the new ECB Board Officers to you.
2022-2023 East Central Branch Board Officers:
-
President- Tonya Mellen
-
President-Elect- Corey Bloxam
-
Vice President- Juan Gonzalez
-
Treasurer- Thomas Anzelone
-
Secretary- Isadore Carrie
-
Past President- Melissa Burns
|
From the left: Tonya Mellen, Melissa Burns, Juan Gonzalez, Isadore Carrie, and Thomas Anzelone |
At the installation lunch, the branch also awarded $6,000 in student scholarships including the second annual ECB Legacy Scholarship!
More exciting events this month include the Orlando City Soccer Social on September 14th and the Annual Scholarship Golf Tournament on September 30th.
The ASCE 2022 Convention is scheduled for October 23-26, 2022 in Anaheim California, and is slated to be a unique opportunity to gather with fellow ASCE members across the nation. You can find program highlights and registration information at www.asceconvention.org.
Thank you again for a wonderful year and I look forward to the Branch continuing to grow and expand our offerings through the coming years and amazing leaders we have stepping up!
Cheers,
|
Melissa Burns, PE
ASCE East Central Branch President
|
|
This issue
- Government Relations
- History & Heritage Committee
- Environmental & Water Resources Institute
- Sustainability Committee
- Structural Engineering Institute
- Education Committee
- Younger Member Forum
- Student Chapter Activities
- Employment Opportunities
|
|
2022 SCHOLARSHIP GOLF TOURNAMENT |
|
ASCE Orlando City Soccer Game
When
Wednesday, September 14, 2022, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Where
Exploria Stadium (Tailgate located outside Gate B)
655 W Church St
Orlando, FL 32805
ASCE East Central Branch invites you to our September social and sporting event! This is a great opportunity to meet other engineering professionals while attending an Orlando City Soccer game versus Atlanta United FC. Registration includes a ticket to the game and an all-inclusive pre-game tailgate, including a variety of food and beverages. Gametime is 6 PM, with pre-game tailgate access opening at 3 PM.
|
|
Guest Analysis: Orange County’s “Transportation Initiative” Sales Tax Vote
By Thomas Caffery and Fraser Howe
On November 8th, Orange County voters will be asked to vote on a 1-cent sales surtax, which would provide a broad package of improvements to the transportation system, to include transit/rail enhancements, roadway system/safety projects, pedestrian/bikeway projects, and roadway maintenance. The distribution of the funds will be 45% to transit/rail, 45% to roadway/bike/ped/safety, and 10% to cities/towns in the county, for similar projects. The duration of this program will be 20 years. This one penny increase in sales tax is projected to create a revenue of $600 million a year over the 20 year perior for a total of $12 billion.
For LYNX, this will be a “once-in-a-generation” game-changing investment, to solve its recurring budget uncertainty, as it historically has depended on annual allocations from member governments. This increased, steady budget stream will be used to double the bus fleet, transition to electric buses, reorient the route structure to better serve high-demand destinations for service workers, improve the frequency of service, and provide more on-demand rides. This will replace the existing “hub & spoke” route structure, which provides bare-bones service to many trips, resulting in excessive trip times with multiple transfers. More bus shelters and major upgrades to on-street facilities and SuperStops are included. Funding for SunRail will serve high-volume stations at both major hospitals and support extensions to Apopka (Orange Blossom Express), and OIA (connecting to Brightline).
Orange County has an outsized workforce for service-sector, entertainment/attractions, and medical/nursing workers. The relatively low wages stretch the family budgets, considering the high housing costs / rental rates, the high cost of automobile commuting, utilities, and other non-discretionary expenses. The percentage share of the average household budget for transportation here is higher than in similar US metropolitan areas.
Local commuters daily deal with heavy congestion on our roadways, resulting in wasted time sitting in traffic. Revenue from the additional 1 cent sales tax would make a significant investment to improve traffic flow on the county’s arterial highways. Safety improvements for bikes and pedestrians will include miles of new shared-use paths and sidewalks and more street lighting. County & city roadways will also get new traffic signals and roundabouts, and smart technology will be built into a coordinated approach for all roadway users. All of these investments will be leveraged with the County’s major initiatives for affordable housing.
|
|
JJ Bridges House
By Rocio Rodriguez
History & Heritage Committee Chair
J.J Bridges home is the first Colonial Revival Style home in Orlando, designed by Wilson C. Ely for retired clergyman Rev. John J Bridges. It is located at 704 South Kuhl Avenue. In 1982[1], the house was added to the Orlando Historic Landmarks and on January 26, 1984, it was added to the U.S National Register of Historic Places[2]
The house inspired the second generation of residences which were simple and elegant as opposed to the more massive, opulent great houses of the late 1920s and 1930s. This design was soon to be considered nationalistic in the United States. Colonial Revival Style homes peaked in the early 1950s. This house (built in 1916) is considered one of the first Colonial Revival Style homes not only in Orlando but in the United States.
The house is a two-story wood frame residence with large wood clapboard exterior cladding, a rectangular plan, and a gable roof on a brick foundation (see Figure 1). With the exception of the glass enclosure of its rear porches, it retains most of its original architecture (Figure 2).
All windows are typical of the American Federal Style. They are floor length on the north, east, and south (at ground level) and can be used as doors.
|
|
Figure 1: The JJ Bridges house is a two-story residence, with floor-length windows on the first floor.
The north and south gable cornice is a low-pitched pyramidal composition centered by a half circular window blinded by fixed louvers. The blind, half circular detail is repeated over the entrance door. Within a delicate arched inner frame is an eight-panel front door with a half-circular, blind transom above. Pilasters with simple fluted capitals define each corner of the house. The columns, four each, of the north and south porticoes are simple wooden shafts with fluted collars or capitals. Richness is provided by the composition of the fretted balusters of the balconies of each portico on the second floor. The balustrades are interlaced lozenges that arc at their points in a manner of the late eighteenth-century Chinese fret.
|
|
Figure 2: Picture of the house in 1924
The west elevation is not street visible, other than the large two-story fireplace chimney at the building's northwest corner. All windows on the second floor in front of a portico are functional French doors.
The materials, gable pitch, and trim of the garage are identical to that of the house (Figure 3). The garage has four windows east and west and single windows on the first and second floors on the north and south elevations. The original garage door has been covered with clapboarding[3].
|
|
Figure 3: Gable pitch and trim of the garage are identical to that of the house. |
|
[1] http://www.cityoforlando.net/city-planning/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2017/09/JJ-Bridges-House.pdf
[3] https://catalog.archives.gov/id/77843397
|
|
ENVIRONMENTAL & WATER RESOURCES INSTITUTE
Earlier this month, EWRI members hosted a family meal prep and snack kit event at Ronal McDonald House in Orlando, which supports families when they travel far from home to access medical care for their children.
EWRI members showed off their culinary skills whipping up a meal of orange chicken and beef and broccoli, veggie/shrimp egg rolls, and chocolate mousse cake to feed the 10 families staying at the House. They also put together snack kits for the families, complete with fruit snacks, potato chips, and energy bars.
Thank you our volunteers for making a difference in our communities!
|
|
SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE
The Sustainability Committee’s core mission and function are to organize and facilitate outreach opportunities allowing the members of the East Central Branch to stay informed and promote sustainable engineering practices. Below are some upcoming events and interesting reads recommended by the committee.
|
|
O-Town Compost provided services at the recent East Central Branch Annual Installation Luncheon (September 9th). Their service redirects organic waste from the landfill. The ECB Sustainability Committee was happy to sponsor O-Town for the event! If you’d like to reduce at home or for your business, visit O-Town Compost.
|
|
Upcoming Events
-
September 20, 2022: Rethinking Water - Ensuring America’s Water Security: Designing, Financing & Managing Infrastructure for Climate Adaptation. Register for free online.
-
September 21, 2022, 10:30 a.m.: East Central Florida Regional Planning Council (ECFRPC) committee in-person meeting. ECFRPC comprises 32 members from our region’s eight counties and municipalities. The council is tasked with approving the annual budget and county dues and setting regional priorities to be dealt with by council staff. Council meetings are a forum for council members to collaborate on regional issues such as land use, environmental protection, emergency preparedness, economic development, and transportation. East Central Branch ASCE is a partner with ECFRCP and members from the Sustainability Committee will be attending this meeting to help advise on civil infrastructure.
-
September 27, Noon to 1:00 p.m.: East Central Branch Sustainability Committee Meeting. Email Steve Sommerfeldt, Committee Chair, for Teams invitation.
-
October 17 thru November 18, 2022: Online Training Course on Integrated Spatial Planning. The course is aimed at government representatives interested in creating their own ‘Maps of Hope’ to chart a course for action on nature, climate, and sustainable development, but is open to everyone. Register online.
|
|
Other News / Resources
-
Curious about what the City of Orlando’s Sustainable Development Goals is? Click here!
-
Trick or Trash by RUBICON© - Don’t let your Halloween candy wrappers go to waste! Join the mission to help reduce waste by hosting a candy wrapper collection box. Click for more info.
|
|
If you would like to join the ECB Sustainability Committee, please reach out to our Committee Chair Steve Sommerfeldt. The committee typically meets (virtually) on the last Tuesday of the month during lunch to plan out future activities and ideas related to sustainability. We welcome any new and/or seasoned individuals interested.
Want to hear more? Join the Sustainability Committee mailing list today!
|
|
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING INSTITUTE |
To all student members:
Thank you for participating in local SEI Chapter activities - we appreciate your active involvement!
ASCE members receive one free Institute and can add others for a nominal annual fee.
Ensure you have selected SEI with your ASCE membership and are receiving SEI member benefits including STRUCTURE magazine, SEI Update e-news, and the opportunity to advance to SEI Fellow. Student membership is free.
Visit www.asce.org and log in at the upper right to manage your account to add SEI; adjust your profile, interests, and contact preferences, download your member certificate, select auto-renew, etc. Or you may contact ASCE Customer Service at memrec@asce.org to assist.
|
CALL FOR PROJECTS
The Structural Engineering Institute is seeking submissions from fellow structural engineers about their past or present projects. The submission is to quickly discuss the project's highlights, uniqueness, and/or challenges the structural engineer encountered during the project. This will provide ASCE-ECB members and aspiring student engineers with insight into the current structural engineering practices, and provide an opportunity for local or regional structural engineers to showcase their work. The submittals must include the following:
- At least one photograph of the project location.
- A summary of the project setting and background, such as location, new construction/restoration, private/government, etc.
- A summary of the challenges and/or unique aspects of the project, such as new design technology or use of new construction material not typically used in similar designs.
The submittals shall be sent to Rocio Rodriguez at rocio_rodriguez2@hotmail.com which we will review and prepare for the presentation in a future ECB newsletter.
|
CALL FOR OFFICER
SEI is looking for members who would like to serve as an Institute Officer beginning in September 2022. Interested members should send a message to Rocio Rodriguez at rocio_rodriguez2@hotmail.com.
|
EDUCATION COMMITTEE
(K-12 OUTREACH)
|
SECME
Train the Trainer on September 17, 2022, contact Juan Gonzalez at jgonzalez@drmp.com. This event is for training the teachers and instructors who oversee the SECME teams competing in the local SECME competition at UCF in February.
Engineers in the Classroom
Engineers in the Classroom events typically consists of 20-minute sessions with the students rotating to new classrooms after each session. We usually need at least 5 volunteers for each event.
Castle Creek Elementary School either 10/14 or 10/28, 9am-11am awaiting on confirmation
Camelot Elementary School 11/18, 9am -11 am
Timber Lakes Elementary School 12/9, 9am – 11 am
|
If you have any questions, or comments about K-12 Outreach or would like to join the committee, please contact Michael Olka molka@lakecountyfl.gov
|
YMF Tennis Event
Start warming up those aces for our 2022 YMF Tennis Event! This event will be held at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Thursday September 15th, from 6 - 8 PM. All skill levels are welcome!
$10 = Fun Drills & Games, Water, Snacks & Balls. Let us know if you need a racquet and we'll bring one for you to borrow. Register to reserve your spot!
|
Technical Seminar - An Overview of Common Flow Technologies
This Lunch & Learn will feature a discussion on Common Flow Technologies. It has been approved for 1 PDH credit!
|
YMF September Happy Hour
Join us for our September Social! This is a great opportunity to meet other young engineering professionals and get info about becoming more involved with ASCE while enjoying a cold beer. ASCE YMF is gearing up for our Officer Board elections on the 27th. Come chat with our current officers and learn how you can get involved!
|
YMF Interest Survey
YMF wants to know what YOU want to see in the upcoming year! Take our quick survey to help us plan for next year:
|
August Activities
This month the fall semester finally started and we were very excited to welcome back our old members and meet the new ones, we have a very exciting year prepared for everyone and can’t wait to present all the opportunities we have for our members.
A big part of this month was spent preparing for the semester and our first general body meeting, our officers got together to continue making plans and see how we can improve our chapter, and our captains for concrete canoe and steel bridge have also been working on getting everything together for their project and getting new members involved.
Our first general body meeting was a big success, we had over 60 people join us and we were glad to see so many new faces. In our first meeting, the new officers and captains introduced themselves and talked about what they would be working on, we were also joined by YMF and they got to talk about who they are and what they do as well as answer questions.
We are very excited about all the upcoming events we have to get everyone involved.
|
Senior Highway Engineer
KCG Transportation Services (KCGTS) is currently seeking a professional with the skills and passion to excel within their areas of expertise and a desire to experience notable career advancement within our company. If you have a desire to serve clients with excellence, innovation and responsiveness and you aspire to grow into project management and/or chief engineer roles – we are looking for you!
KCGTS has immediate openings for a skilled and motivated Senior Highway Engineer with FDOT roadway design experience. This position involves hands-on design and the ability to work well within a team environment.
The successful candidate will be responsible for the following:
Perform design and plans development tasks for transportation related projects from preliminary to final design. Develop specifications, cost estimates, and prepare final bid packages. Participate in project decisions regarding technical approach, budget, and schedule. Interact with colleagues and clients to ensure successful project delivery. Engage in business development activities. Experience working on FDOT projects is required. We seek an individual who is motivated to learn, grow, and seek out new project responsibilities.
Job Requirements
Minimum 10 years of highway project engineering experience. Experience should include the development of FDOT construction plans for highway projects.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering.
- Registered Professional Engineer in Florida.
- Experience working on FDOT projects is required (and with District 5 a plus).
- Experience with MicroStation and Geopak is required.
- Experience with OpenRoads is also valuable.
- Drainage design and permitting experience is a plus.
- Experience in business development a plus – client engagement, LOR’s, interviews/presentations, negotiations.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
Our success is created by our people. If you have the drive and experience it takes to achieve design excellence and exceptional project performance – contact us. We are seeking an innovative and motivated professional to join our dynamic team.
Interested applicants should send a resume along with a brief cover letter to Frank Caruso, PE, fecaruso@kcgcorp.com
|
Sincerely,
Khanh Olka
Communications Chair
ASCE East Central Branch
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
