2012 Concrete Canoe Luncheon

A concrete canoe? And it floats? Doesn’t seem possible, does it? 

On Saturday April 20, GBA sponsored a luncheon for the 25th Annual ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition. Students from the Mid-Continent Conference gathered at Holmes Lake Park in Lincoln, Neb. to test their engineering skills and paddled their concrete canoes. The canoes were a concrete mixture that was light enough to float and strong enough to carry two engineering students.

Nine volunteers from GBA made the trip to Lincoln and provided a Bar-B-Que lunch for the 250 students, volunteers, and professors. Lunch included pulled pork made by the GBA BBQ team, brats, baked beans, chips, and cookies. The weather didn’t seem like it was going to cooperate at the beginning of the day, but the sun finally broke through the clouds and the wind died down. It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon.

This was the fifth time GBA sponsored the luncheon at the event and the students that ate the food on Saturday hoped it would not be the last.

Volunteers from l to r: Adam Stodola, Keri McGill, Jennifer Gunby, Kiel Johnson, Cheri Schoenhals, Matt Fowler, Molly Oller, Erin Moeder, and Scott Moeder

East Village Parking Structure - Opening for Business

Construction has been completed on the 340-stall parking structure located between 9th and 10th Streets on Cherry, which serves the needs of the adjacent building leased to the FAA and other nearby tenants.

The structure, built within a budget of $5.1 million, adds a great amenity to East Village with a design as aesthetically appealing as it is practical and cost-effective. GBA’s economical design reduced the overall pricetag of $15,000 per stall.

“Compared with other recently constructed parking garages in the vicinity for more than $20,000 per stall, we were very happy to deliver this project to our client within their budget,” according to Craig Rogge, AIA, LEED AP, GBA’s project manager.

Design features include cast-in-place, post-tensioned concrete, decorative architectural precast and anodized aluminum perforated panels for screening. The single-threaded helix design contributes greatly to the cost efficiency on the project. Particular attention also has been paid to streetscaping and landscape around the entire perimeter next to the downtown streets.

GBA was selected by GF Properties, a subsidiary of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, to provide architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, and traffic studies.

"Working with the GBA team was a key factor in the success of the East Village Parking Structure. The exterior appearance, efficient design, and cost of the structure exceeded our expectations. It is also nice to work with people who have such a professional attitude. Throughout the design and construction process, I always knew GBA was looking out for our best interests. We hope to work with GBA again in the future." - Linda Kaboth, Vice President - National Division, GF Properties

GBA Opens Office in Broomfield, Colorado

GBA has opened an office at 12303 Airport Way, Suite 105 in Broomfield, Colorado.  The office will focus on providing GBA’s multi-disciplined services for building projects in the life sciences industry, as well as data centers and telecommunications to clients in the region. 

GBA's Life Sciences Group has been serving clients in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries for over 20 years and will be expanding services in this office with the addition of Joe Winslo on staff. Winslow, who has more than 20 years of experience in the industry, will oversee the GBA Colorado operations. "We are very excited. For the past several years our Life Sciences Group has been working with clients in Colorado. To allow us to better serve that market, we have opened an office in Broomfield," says Dan Abitz, PE, Senior Vice President and Principal.

Progress on El Dorado Wind Turbine

The foundation for the 1 MW Nordic wind turbine that will be providing clean renewable energy to the Wetlands and Water Reclamation Facility in El Dorado, KS is being poured today. The installation is expected to be complete by May of this year.  The hub height of this Nordic wind turbine is 70 meters (approximately 230 feet) above the ground.

 

GBA engineers completed permitting and all necessary design work, while GBA Builders is providing construction management. The foundation is 50’ in diameter by 10.5’ deep octagonal footing. There will be enough concrete poured to build a 4’ wide sidewalk almost two-miles long. With that concrete is approximately 91,000 lbs of rebar.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress so keep checking back!

Striking Out for a Good Cause

The GBA team shown in the picture includes (l to r) Doug Carpenter, Rob Kline, Geoff Vohs, and Jim Jarrett along with his daughter Abriel Jarrett. Geoff is with Johnson County Public Works. The team came in first place (B-Flight) with a total pin count of 1,835. According to Rob Kline it was truly a team effort. Way to go team!

Although first place is always nice, the real reason behind playing the game was even nicer. This was the Second Annual ‘Feed the Need to Strike Out Hunger Bowling Bash’ hosted by Johnson County Government. The poverty level in Johnson County is unfortunately increasing and Johnson County has found a way to help combat this by inviting all departments to host events to 'Feed the Need'. Members of the community are asked to form a team and the money raised goes to support 10 local food pantries serving the County.

The Strike Out Hunger Bowling Bash 2012 was a great event, raising a total of $3,200 for the pantries. GBA was glad to be a part of this effort and looks forward to another victory next year.

Testifying in Favor of Commercial Net Metering

Jennifer Gunby, PE, LEED AP

Jennifer Gunby, an engineer in GBA’s Wind Energy group, testified in favor of Senate Bill No. 383 on Monday February 13. She was not alone in this endeavor. Jennifer, along with Michael Wenger, Chief of Energy Operations with the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC); Kurt Bookout, Director of Public Utilities with the City of El Dorado; and Brad Estes with BTI Wind Energy in Greensburg.  Jennifer Jenkins, Executive Director of Distributed Wind Energy Association (DWEA) and Phillip Dickinson, Director of Sales & Marketing Nordic Windpower also submitted written testimony in favor of the Bill.

Senate Bill No. 383 would amend the current net metering policy, increasing the net metered project cap from 200 kW to 3 MW for commercial, industrial, school, local government, state government, federal government, agricultural and intuitional customers.  

Michael Wenger opened the proponents testimony stating, “When the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) issued its 2011 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard it was disheartening to learn that Kansas was ranked 48 out of 51.  The Commission Staff was asked ‘What can Kansas do to improve this ranking?’ A simple change would be to increase the net metering limit for commercial and industrial customers from 200kW to 3MW.”

Not everyone is in favor of Bill No. 383. Mark Schreiber with Westar Energy, who was also representing KCP&L and Empire District Electric, testified against the bill while David Springe with Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board (CURB) submitted written testimony against it. They are opposed to the Bill because it increases the cap to 15 times the limit they agreed to three years ago.  They feel that integrating a 3MW wind turbine into their distribution system would be a challenge and would also be expensive.  They also feel that this creates a greater cross-subsidization of net-metered power.

The proponents of SB 383 pointed out in their testimony that distributed renewable energy (i.e., behind-the-meter installations) generates local economic activity, increases tax revenues, improves fuel diversity, promotes energy independence, lowers consumer energy costs, reduces the need for expensive long-distance transmission projects and visibly demonstrates a commitment to environmental conservation.  To counter Westar’s concern, since net metered customers would size their generation to their expected load, it was stated that a utility could handle 3 MW moving across their lines as they are able to provide a customer with 3 MW of energy coming into the facility.

If you would like more information regarding Senate Bill No. 383, please contact Jennifer Gunby at jgunby@gbateam.com.

Record Crowd Gathers to Participate in Resourceful Kansas Seminar

Public officials throughout the State of Kansas attend one-day session demonstrating benefits on energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy conservation.

A record-breaking number of participants, including 28 people from 18 organizations attended a full-day of training and education as Resourceful Kansas launched its fifth seminar on January 25. GBA’s Energy Studio, in partnership with Riley County Public Works and Kansas State University, hosted the event which provides an in-depth tutorial on energy saving technologies, public and private financing, incentives and installations of renewable energy systems.

Resourceful Kansas is funded by a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and is intended to engage communities throughout Kansas in making a fundamental shift towards a more energy efficient economy. Cities, counties, and state agencies; public schools, unified school districts, and private schools; public colleges, universities, and technical schools; agribusinesses; and non-profit organizations are all eligible to apply for the program. Once selected, organizations have an opportunity to attend the one-day seminar in Riley County, Kansas at no cost.

By the conclusion of the program in 2013, eight seminars will have been held at Riley County Public Works, an award-winning facility demonstrating the benefits of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources. A tour of facility grounds provides a glance at these installations, some of which include, a 100kW wind turbine, solar energy systems, a 200,000 BTU waste oil heater, and a 30-ton geothermal heating and cooling system.

After attending the seminar, GBA’s technical staff provides on-site assistance to selected participating organizations to promote energy efficiency, energy conservation and renewable energy generation projects. The program is also designed to provide more than 80 energy assessments which will be conducted across the state to participating organizations, free of charge, as funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

To date, 74 participants have successfully completed the program. Three more Resourceful Kansas seminars will be held in the coming months and more than 45 organizations will receive an opportunity to attend these remaining sessions. Find out if your organization is eligible to apply for Resourceful Kansas by visiting http://www.resourcefulkansas.org./