Another BBQ Battle

Sunshine, heat and humidity. Is there any better weather for a BBQ? The GBA team of Genu-swine Brisket Authority didn't seem to mind as they competed in the 2013 Great Lenexa BBQ Battle. Also braving the heat was Kansas City's Channel 41 News. As they toured the event, Channel 41 stopped by GBA's tent and spoke with Jennifer Gunby.
If you were not able to attend the Great Lenexa BBQ Battle this past weekend, you may have missed some of the best BBQ, or at least the best ribs. Hope to see you next year!

Summer Scorch: Take Time to Beat the Heat

We are a few days shy of the summer solstice on June 21; but true to form, the summer heat has already spiked in the Midwest. If you are seeking ways to hurdle the heat waves of summer, the tips featured below are designed to cut expense by reducing energy and water consumption. While a number of resources promote different ways to conserve in the summer months, we thought we would revisit some of our favorites.

Appliances

• Forget the Stove:  Cook outdoors on the grill or use a microwave. Running your oven can raise the temperature in the kitchen by 10 degrees, increasing cooling costs two to five percent.
• Employ the Fans:  Turn up the thermostat and turn on a fan when you enter a room. Costing only two to five cents per hour to operate, a fan can make a room feel four to six degrees cooler without running your whole house system.

Fuel

• Lighten the Load:  A vehicle with added weight gets less gas mileage as opposed to the same vehicle with lighter cargo.
• Purify the Ride:  Change the air filter in your car. Having a dirty air filter can cause your gas mileage to go down by one to two miles per gallon.
• Monitor Tire Pressure:  Having one tire that is two PSI (pounds per square inch) under the manufacturers recommended level can increase fuel consumption by nearly one percent. When temperatures change, the air in your tires will expand or contract causing the pressure in your tires to increase or decrease.

Lighting

• Lighting for Less:  Replace light bulbs with compact fluorescents. These cfl bulbs save money using 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs by emitting 90% less heat, providing additional savings on your cooling bill.

Water

• Skip the Sink:  A standard dishwasher uses about six gallons of water per load, while hand washing will require nearly 20 gallons to complete the same size load.
• Reuse and Recycle:  Collect water when rinsing fruits and vegetables or water used to boil food. This water can easily be reused to water plants around the house.
• Seek the Leak:  Leaking toilets often go overlooked, but can be costly. Checking a leaky toilet is simple, add food coloring to the tank and then wait about fifteen minutes. If the food coloring shows up in the bowl then a leak is present. 

We are the Champions of... the Grill!

Congrats to the GBA BBQ team!


GBA Team members: Clint Loumaster, Scott Moeder,
Molly Oller, and Jennifer Gunby. Not pictured: Jon Karst.

On June 14^th, the American Public Works Association (APWA) KC Metro chapter held the 9^th Annual BBQ Challenge and membership drive. The challenge is a friendly competition and is intended to generate interest in APWA. What better way to promote an organization in the KC Metro than through BBQ? And GBA’s team walked away with the Grand Champion trophy.

 

There were 13 teams with four BBQ categories to compete in, including sausage, chicken, ribs, and pork. Aside from being the overall winners, GBA also received first in the rib category with 88 out of a possible 90 points.  The GBA team includes Jennifer Gunby, Jon Karst, Clint Loumaster, Scott Moeder, and Molly Oller.

 

If your mouth is watering for some championship BBQ, the team will be at the Lenexa BBQ challenge this weekend, June 21-23, held at Sar Ko Par Park.

Driving on a Diverging Diamond Interchange

 

Driving on the wrong side of the road is normally reserved for trips to Europe, action movies and soon-to-be jail time.

But one of the most innovative new highway interchange ideas in transportation design has drivers doing just that, resulting in not only optimized traffic flow but also increased safety in several ways.

The Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI), first introduced in the United States by MoDOT in 2009, increases both capacity and safety by removing traditional left-turn movements. As seen in the video above, each direction of traffic is shifted left, creating an “X” pattern that has drivers spending a short time on the wrong side of the road.

Because of this change, left-turning vehicles don’t turn in front of on-coming traffic and the number of points of conflict (where crashes are most likely to occur) are reduced from 30 to 18. Moreover, traffic speeds are slowed, signal timing is improved and it’s nearly impossible to go the wrong way in a DDI configuration, adding additional levels of safety and efficiency.

Add it all together and it’s easy to see why the design was chosen as one of Popular Science’s top engineering innovations in 2009.

Thus, despite its out-of-the-box nature, the DDI is emerging as a preferred option for traffic and transportation engineers — GBA included —when designing certain complex interchanges. Currently, GBA has three DDI designs in the works:

1. A brand-new six-lane DDI at 211^th Street and I-49 just in Peculiar, Mo.
2. A DDI at K-7 and 130^th Street as part of a complex redesign of I-70 and K-7 in Bonner Springs, Kan.
3. The modification of a current interchange at K-10 and US-40 in Lawrence, Kan., that will preserve an existing bridge while enhancing capacity for proposed residential and commercial development, including the University of Kansas’s “Rock Chalk Park” athletic complex.

For more information on the use of DDIs, check out information provided by both MoDOT and KDOT.

Gary Beck to Present at WEF’s Collection Systems 2013 conference

GBA’s leader of the Infrastructure Services Group, Gary Beck, will be a featured presenter at the Water Environment Federation’s annual specialty conference “Gold Nuggets of Knowledge” that will be held June 9 to 12 in Sacramento. 

Gary is delivering “MSD St. Louis – Bonfils I/I Removal Pilot Study – Bust or Lucky Strike?” The paper was co-authored with Gary Moore, a project manager with the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD).  The technical presentation, which will be held at 11:15 a.m. on June 12, will examine all facets of the long-term project that led to many lessons learned.

GBA invites you to join Gary at this important mid-year conference to discuss this project topic and more. 

Conference registration details are available at http://www.wef.org/CollectionSystems/.

Olathe Community Center

GBA provided structural engineer services for the new 72,000 square foot Olathe Community Center currently under construction at Stagecoach Park in Olathe, KS (scheduled to open mid-2014).  Amenities at the facility include an aquatic space complete with waterslides and a lazy river, cardio and weight training areas, fitness studios, a gymnasium with basketball and volleyball courts, an elevated indoor walking and jogging track, multi-purpose activity rooms, locker facilities, and childcare space. 

 



Rendering of Community Center

The building design features a dramatic wood glulam entrance canopy that flows into the central lobby of the facility with exposed building columns and lateral bracing accented with wood.  The central lobby divides the space between the community wing and the fitness wing of the facility.  The high bay, curved roof for the fitness wing consists long span steel joist girders that clear-span the gymnasium and natatorium areas, supported by load bearing masonry walls.  Roof overhangs are framed with structural kickers that accent the exterior façade of the building.  The curved roof line of the fitness wing is replicated on the low bay community wing by cantilevering the building columns up above the roof line to support the roof overhangs.  The building columns and walls of the facility are supported by drilled pier foundations that extend bedrock, approximately 10’ below grade.