MCNINCH

Edwin K. McNinch, a veteran bridge construction engineer and constructibility expert who worked on some of the most technically challenging U.S. spans over a 58-year career, died July 11 in San Mateo, Calif. He was 80. McNinch was president of San Mateo-based EKM Engineering, which he founded in 1987, after a 36-year career with contractor Guy F. Atkinson Co. Projects on which he consulted include the Third Carquinez Strait Bridge in California, Hawaii�s H-3 Viaduct and the I-205 span across Oregon�s Columbia River. �Ed was instrumental in the early adoption and development of prestressed concrete, concrete segmental bridges and steel orthotropic decks,� says Mark A. Ketchum, co-founder of OPAC Consulting Engineers, San Francisco, and a director of the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California.

On July 24, McNinch was selected to receive the 2009 American Society of Civil Engineers¹ Roebling Award, which recognizes outstanding contribution to construction engineering and is named for the Roebling family, which designed and managed construction of the landmark Brooklyn Bridge. He is the award's first posthumous winner, according to an ASCE spokeswoman. McNinch's son, James E. McNinch, a construction engineer based in Redwood Shores, Calif., who nominated his father for the award, will deliver the lecture that is part of the award.