HANSON Daniel J. “Dan” Hanson Sr., former president and CEO of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, Washington, D.C., died on Aug. 8 in that city at age 80. The cause of death was not disclosed. Hanson, who joined ARTBA in 1968 and retired in 1991, was one of its key advocates for federal surface transportation funding legislation. He previously served as deputy director of traffic engineering and operations in the city government and was also the first city traffic engineer in Peoria, Ill. Charles Gwathmey, the noted modernist architect and co-founder and principal of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates
Senior Transportation Editor Aileen Cho sat down recently with Stuart S. Chen, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and Arun M. Shirolé, a senior vice president of bridge engineer Arora and Associates, P.C., New York City. They discussed the origins of Bridge Information Modeling, why they believe it’s needed to integrate design and operations management, the role of vendors and where it goes from here. View of a Portion of the Bridge Computer Model CHEN What is Bridge Information Modeling? AS: It came about back in the late '80s. I was
JOSAL RTKL Associates Inc., the Baltimore-based architect-engineer, has named Lance K. Josal president and CEO. Formerly director of the firm’s commercial practice group, he will succeed as of Sept. 1 the retiring David C. Hudson. Josal has been with RTKL since 1979. The firm is a unit of ARCADIS n.v., an engineering firm based in The Netherlands. Patrick L. Phillips has been named CEO of the Urban Land Institute, a Washington, D.C., research group that focuses on responsible land use. In September, he will replace Richard M. Rosan, who becomes president of the ULI Foundation, a philanthropic arm. Phillips joins
KAMINETZKY Dov Kaminetzky, a pioneer in forensic engineering and founding partner and 30-year president of New York City engineer Feld, Kaminetzky and Cohen (FKC), died on July 17 after a long illness. He was 83. Widely known for his expertise in structural failures, he authored “Design and Construction Failures—Lessons From Forensic Investigations,” published in 1992 by The McGraw-Hill Cos., the parent of ENR. Kaminetzky also was structural engineer on such New York City landmarks as the Guggenheim Museum and the North River water pollution-control plant, both in Manhattan, and an adjunct professor at City University of New York’s graduate engineering
BEAN Elaine Lockwood Bean has joined the Chicago office of New York City-based contractor Bovis Lend Lease as vice president and business unit leader, responsible for program management, public sector. Most recently a vice president for Tishman Construction, she also has been associate vice president for facilities services at the University of Chicago. Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, a Waltham, Mass., engineering firm, has named Ronald A. Mayville senior principal and national head of its engineering mechanics and infrastructure group. He previously directed his own structural mechanics consulting practice, R.A. Mayville & Associates. Allan Shapiro has joined engineer-architect Ross & Baruzzini,
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
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Reston, Va., has named 10 civil engineers as distinguished members for 2009, the group’s highest accolade in recognition of achievement in a branch of engineering, it says.
SOTO Roger M. Soto has joined Odell Associates, a Charlotte, N.C., architecture firm, as president and director of design, leading its U.S. and overseas practices. Based in Richmond, Va., he was design director and principal of architect HOK, Houston, since 1990. Stone Hill Contracting, Doylestown, Pa., has named James J. Lipo vice president of construction management. Most recently, he was southeast manager of construction operations for a unit of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. He also had managed water and wastewater construction operations for CDM Constructors Inc. in Phoenix. Clifford Eby, former acting administrator of the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration, has
Engineer and professor emeritus Alan G. Davenport, a pioneer in wind engineering for buildings and bridges, died on July 19 at age 76 after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Models for many of the world’s tallest and longest structures ended up in the hands and wind tunnel of Davenport, one of the first to use wind tunnels in the design of structures. An engineering professor at the University of Western Ontario, he founded its renowned Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory in 1965. He consulted on the designs of New York City’s World Trade Center, Chicago’s Sears Tower, Toronto’s CN
The National Academy of Construction (NAC), Austin, Texas, has elected 10 construction executives to become members in 2009, recognized for past and expected future contributions to the industry.