JANUARY 2015ISSUE 56 WINTER

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BART to Oakland International Airport Line Grand Opening

On 21 November 2014, BergerABAM engineers were among the project team who attended the grand opening of San Francisco’s automated guideway transit system—a system that not only is a better way to move passengers from one airport to another, but also incorporates new methodology to tailor a steel tubular superstructure to Caltrans’ seismic requirements.

Connecting two airports—the Oakland and San Francisco International Airports—via the elevated tram to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Coliseum station, the 3-mile system replaces a shuttle bus system, transporting passengers in about 8 minutes above the street-level traffic that has in the past delayed transport from one airport to another. Instead of making transfers at the street level, passengers can take a short walk on the elevated platform level from the connector system to the BART system that leads to the San Francisco International Airport.

BergerABAM, a major subcontractor to the Austrian company, Dopplemayr Cable Car (DCC), performed the independent structural design check of the steel truss superstructure. This involved more than simple German language translation during the course of the project. The initial design was performed in Austria per the Eurocode, which the Austrian engineers were familiar, but is not standard in the United States. BergerABAM team members checked the design according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

(AASHTO) Load and Resistance Factor Design Bridge Design Specifications and in compliance with the Caltrans bridge design and seismic design guidelines. In addition, the BergerABAM team translated the specifications and materials that DCC required into the BART- and Caltrans-required specifications and applied them to materials available in the United States. BergerABAM also assisted DCC in acquiring approvals from BART and Caltrans for the steel truss superstructure design and supported DCC through fabrication and building of the structure.

Because of the differences in the U.S. code and Eurocode for leading-edge steel tubular structures that are incorporated in the Connector system, BergerABAM needed to prepare a customized welding specification that combined the pertinent provisions of the American Welding Society’s (AWS) D1.1 for tubular structures with AWS D1.5 for bridge

The new BART addition creates a 3-mile connection between the Oakland Airport and the Oakland Coliseum station.

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INSIDE/OUT NEWSLETTER

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structures. In addition, because of the unique experience of designing a steel tubular superstructure for Caltrans’ seismic provisions, BergerABAM developed a new methodology based on protecting the superstructure on concrete columns from being overloaded during an earthquake.

This fully automated, driverless, cable-pulled transit system will help passengers go from one airport to another quickly and safely whether it’s during heavy traffic or during an earthquake.

Thousands of people attended the opening ceremony that comprised speeches from key players, complimentary rides on the connector, and prizes.

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Six members of the BergerABAM design team attended the grand opening.

Todd M. Stefonowicz, PE, former assistant chief structures engineer for the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) joined BergerABAM at the Carson City, Nevada, office in late 2013. With more than 27 years of civil and structural engineering experience gained primarily through a progressive career with NDOT, he has considerable experience developing maintenance, preservation, and rehabilitation strategies for highway structures. He has provided quality assurance and administrative oversight to numerous highway bridge projects throughout northern and southern Nevada and administered the development of NDOT’s 2008 Structures Manual.

He has served on technical committees within the AASHTO Subcommittee on Bridges, and as a voting member of the subcommittee, he participated in drafting, reviewing, and voting on ballot items for revisions to various subcommittee publications. Todd also served on the technical committee (T-12) Structural Supports for Signs, Luminaries, and Traffic Signals and served as a substitute for the NDOT’s primary member on the (T-5) Loads and Loads Distribution Technical Committee.

Todd has actively participated in the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Every Day Counts (EDC) program, an initiative “designed to identify and deploy innovation aimed at reducing the time it takes to deliver highway projects, enhance safety, and protect the environment.” To that end, he helped develop NDOT’s policies and procedures for the consideration and application of accelerated bridge construction technologies, including slide-in bridge construction and prefabricated bridge elements on NDOT projects. Toward the end of his tenure at NDOT, he was coordinating the development of department policies for the consideration and use of the Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil-Integrated Bridge System (GRS-IBS) technology.

Todd’s seasoned technical capabilities and valuable NDOT experience dovetails with BergerABAM’s culture of innovation, as well as the firm’s own research and development of accelerated construction methods, and are being applied in the firm’s projects.

Todd StefonowiczBrings Additional Expertise and Experience to Firm

Todd Stefonowicz

How will Washington State provide innovative solutions to emerging infrastructure challenges? How will safer, attractive, and context-sensitive solutions be delivered with less financing? How will cost-sensitive solutions to an entire system, instead of high-cost solutions to isolated problems, be ensured? How will practical design transform the way projects are delivered in Washington State?

These are some of the questions that state agencies continue to face. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) designed an initiative to help answer some of these questions. BergerABAM hosted the special presentation on WSDOT’s Practical Design initiative with WSDOT Secretary Lynn Peterson and Director Nancy Boyd.

The seminar was held at BergerABAM’s headquarters in Federal Way, Washington, in October. Representatives from WSDOT and the cities of Renton, Sumner, and Puyallup joined BergerABAM for this highly informative seminar on WSDOT’s vision for an innovative and collaborative approach to delivering transportation improvements throughout the state of Washington.

Inside/Out Newsletter

Practical design is an approach to making project decisions that focus on the need for the project and the cost-effective solutions. It encourages flexibility, innovation, and multimodal solutions by increasing the emphasis on project purpose and need throughout all phases of project development (planning, program management, environmental analysis, design, construction, and operation). This approach engages local stakeholders at the earliest stages of defining scope to ensure their input is included at the right stage of project design.

With the evolvement of technology and society comes the change in need and demands on the transportation systems. Practical design promotes efficient, effective, and sustainable transportation decisions.

For more information about WSDOT’s practical design, visit http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/PracticalDesign.

Practical Design InitiativeBuilding Efficient Solutions

Nancy Boyd, director of WSDOT, gives the audience examples of cost-savings techniques.

Editors / Writers

Jana Roy

Dee Young

Karen Harbaugh

Nora Bretaña

Diann Scherer

Design and Production

Jana Roy

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For his decades of work in the industry and the Precast Concrete Institute (PCI), Mike LaNier, executive vice president of BergerABAM, was honored with the 2014 PCI Titans of the Industry award at the 60th Anniversary PCI Convention and National Bridge Conference in September. With this achievement, Mike will join previous BergerABAM PCI Titans Arthur (Art) Anderson and Robert (Bob) Mast.Over the course of his more than 49 years as a professional engineer, Mike LaNier has travelled the world, worked on five continents, participated on projects that have opened doors to new advances in engineering, and helped to define an entirely new field of engineering in the United States.

Nominated by Pat Hynes of Knife River, Inc., who is a PCI Fellow of the Institute, Mike LaNier was chosen for his extensive involvement in the PCI organization, starting in 1972. Having governed on the original board of the PCI Foundation, Mike has served as PCI chairman and board member on the Tolerance Committee and the Technical Activities Committee. He has also participated on the PCI Bond Test Task Force and the task force responsible for developing the “Interim Guidelines for the Use of Self-Consolidating Concrete.” He has performed as a member of the PCI Professional Members Committee, Plant Certification Committee, and the setup of the PCI’s Summer Intern Program. He has also represented PCI on the Charles Pankow Foundation Task Force, sponsoring building information modeling development for precast products, and is a recipient of the PCI Robert J. Lyman Award.

Mike LaNier Honoredwith 2014 Titan Award

Mike LaNier

As a company that actively uses its knowledge of sustainability in building design, it’s only fitting that BergerABAM pursue the “green” in its every-day work life. To that end, BergerABAM’s Portland office signed up for the City of Portland, Oregon’s Sustainability at Work program, and then was awarded the Gold rating for its efforts.

Formed in 2007, Portland’s Sustainabilty at Work program was created to help businesses to get access to resources to improve their environmental practices, whether small businesses or large and from nonprofits to large companies and corporations. To qualify for one of the “Sustainability at Work” awards, a company must sign up for the program and adhere to seven different eligibility requirements. Depending on the number of points scored in each of the seven categories, a business may be awarded a Certified, Silver, or Gold designation.

A business with 45 or more points is given the Gold certification. The Portland office qualified for the Gold certification after fulfilling criteria in seven different categories. These categories are information and education; materials and waste; energy conservation; transportation; water use; and additional volunteer actions, such as their involvement in the Tryon Creek Ivy Pull, river cleanups, and composting food waste.

Having five Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified employees, who incorporate sustainable elements in building and landscape design, also helped achieve the Portland office’s goal of Gold in going green.

Portland Office Goes Green and Gold

The areas around Las Vegas have grown rapidly in the last decades, in some places (the Enterprise area, for example) from approximately 5,500 residents in 1990 to over 150,000 by 2008. Such rapid growth outpaced the rate of public facilities and infrastructure development. As a result, NDOT and the Clark County Department of Public Works (CCPW) sought to increase access for residents to and from many of the businesses in an infrastructure project that was expected to last almost two years from design to the end of construction.

On 29 August 2014, a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the $52 million Cactus Avenue to Interstate 15 (I-15) interchange that opened to commuters two months ahead of schedule, and saved taxpayers $1.5 million. Cactus Avenue now has six paved lanes and extends between Dean Martin Drive and Las Vegas Boulevard. Eastward, Cactus Avenue connects the rapidly growing Enterprise area with Henderson, Nevada. Among those attending the ceremony were Governor Brian Sandoval.

Louis Berger, including corporate affiliate BergerABAM, was responsible for the final design of the Cactus Avenue Interchange through a design contract with NDOT. The team was responsible for preparing final design plans for the construction of a compressed diamond configuration interchange on I-15 at Cactus Avenue. This design consists of an overcrossing of I-15 at Cactus Avenue, finger ramps in all four directions, signalized intersections for the service interchange, full off-site improvements for Cactus Avenue as a six-lane arterial street from Las Vegas Boulevard to Dean Martin Drive, upgrades to intersections at these connecting streets, and auxiliary lanes on I-15 between the proposed

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Inside/Out Newsletter

Cactus Avenue Interchange Celebrates Opening in Las Vegas

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Cactus Avenue Interchange and the existing Silverado Ranch Boulevard Interchange.

The proposed improvements include a composite steel-plate girder bridge over I-15, a cast-in-place post-tensioned box girder bridge over the future Ensworth Street (and interim drainage facility), 3,200 feet of structural earth retaining walls, bridge and wall aesthetics, landscape architectural enhancements, asphaltic concrete pavements, roadway drainage and flood control facilities, utility modifications, water line relocations, and pavement marking. In addition, traffic control devices included overhead and at-grade signage, traffic signal system facilities, intelligent highway transportation facilities, curbs and gutters, sidewalk, barrier rail, highway lighting, detours, and electrical services. Las Vegas Paving successfully constructed the interchange.

BergerABAM’s Nevada office staff provided detailed structural analysis and design for the bridges, retaining walls, drainage structures, and landscape architectural elements; coordinated with team members, NDOT, FHWA, and CCPW; and provided postdesign services to NDOT resident engineer during construction.

The project allows easier and faster access from the east to the west side of Cactus Avenue in the area of Las Vegas’ Southern Highlands and neighborhoods east of Las Vegas Boulevard South. In addition, it reduces congestion at local interchanges, helps and stimulates the planned commercial development in the area, and—according to CCPW—“provides a new crossing of the freeway, providing an improved transportation network for commerce, employment, and community cohesion.”

Mike LaNier Honored

Cactus Avenue over Interstate 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Aesthetic enhancement to match local motif.