Johnson Drive Ribbon Cutting

On Friday, August 15^th, the City of Merriam cut the ribbon on the Johnson Drive bridge over Turkey Creek, designed by GBA. 

The 150-foot-long, three-span bridge was a superstructure replacement, necessary to replace old pre-stressed double tee beams that were in poor condition and continuing to deteriorate. GBA’s new design included weathered steel girders, a new bridge deck and aesthetic improvements including brick and stone on the bridge columns, decorative lamp posts with hanging planters and new fencing. The project also added barriers and handrails between the sidewalk and driving lands for added pedestrian safety. 

The bridge was built in phases to accommodate the utility conduits on the bridge and maintain pedestrian access during construction. The bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in an effort to meet the city’s primary goal, which was opening the bridge before the grand opening of the IKEA store near the bridge site. The IKEA store opens Sept. 10.

Construction cost was $1.6 million.

Wind Turbines at Fort Hays State University

Earlier this year, two 2 MW wind turbines were added to the Kansas landscape. Though not particularly unusual for Kansas, the project was noteworthy for Fort Hays State University (FHSU) and the first of its kind for a Kansas university.  GBA was retained to provide electrical engineering services.

The project was not without challenges, including local zoning restrictions that prohibited the turbines locate near campus. Instead, they were situated on a ridge nearly three miles west of campus, in an area of high average wind speeds.  With that site, came the arduous process of boring all associated transmission lines and fiber, which allows for continuous monitoring to ensure optimum performance, to the Akers Energy Center on campus. 

Remarkably, these two wind turbines will account for nearly 97% of energy consumption on campus, saving the University up to $1 million annually.  The project paves the way for future energy efficiency measures, energy storage and additional renewable sources for FHSU.

Check out the finished product, live from the FHSU Wind Farm Camera, at http://fhsuwind.click2stream.com.

Saying Good-bye and Good Luck to Our Summer Interns

Now that our summer interns have had a taste of a 40-hour work week and keeping a time sheet, we wanted to know about their experience at GBA before they return to school. We asked what they learned and what they will take back with them and here’s what they told us.

Name: Grant Brady

Department at GBA: Water Environment

What was your favorite thing(s) about working at GBA?
Post stream restoration inspections and pebble counts in the field.

What stands out about your summer internship that was something you never learned in school?
Robots have videotaped almost all of the Stormwater and wastewater pipes below us.

What was the hardest thing to get used to working this summer at GBA?
Holding my attention span for eight chargeable hours each day.

Name:  Katie Cortis

Department at GBA:   Life Sciences

What was your favorite thing(s) about working at GBA?

1.    My coworkers

2.    Way more in depth than an internship where I would just be laying out lights in Walmarts.

What stands out about your summer internship that was something you never learned in school?
They teach you very little in school compared to what will be learned on the job. I’ll learn probably 90% of the knowledge I need to know in a job. GBA has been a great learning environment for me and I can tell that it’s been that way for every employee here in my department. Everyone is very willing to teach you what they know.

What was the hardest thing to get used to working this summer at GBA?
For me, it was the drive. I live 40 minutes away. Luckily, there’s no traffic.

Name:  Nolan Greenaway

Department at GBA:  Traffic and Wastewater

What was your favorite thing(s) about working at GBA?
I really enjoyed getting hands on work with actual projects that GBA works on, such as Traffic Impact Studies. Also, I became more familiar with MicroStation and was able to help out a lot with various tasks. I really enjoyed all of the people I worked with at GBA as well. They are very nice, funny and extremely helpful with anything I did not understand.

What stands out about your summer internship that was something you never learned in school?
MicroStation as a whole was something that really stood out. I had never even heard of the program in school and had never used it so it was a great opportunity to learn a lot about it. Also, a lot of the projects we worked on had a very detailed design process which is something that is not covered as much in school.

What was the hardest thing to get used to working this summer at GBA?
One of the hardest things for me this summer had to be waking up at 6:30 in the morning every day to get ready for work. I was not used to this at all and it was definitely a big adjustment for me. Also, adjusting to working a desk job was a big change for me since I had never done that before.

Name: Cody LaMonaco

Department at GBA: Transportation – Bridge Group

What was your favorite thing(s) about working at GBA?
Some things I’ve really enjoyed about working at GBA have been: being involved with challenging projects, the feeling of comradery both within my group and the company as a whole, and the amount of help and learning opportunities that have been made available to me.

What stands out about your summer internship that was something you never learned in school?
Something that stands out for me is how much I’ve learned about the bidding process. I was able to sit in on a meeting for the contractors to ask questions before formal bids were due; this really gave me a better feel for the issues that can make or break bids.

What was the hardest thing to get used to working this summer at GBA?
There wasn’t really anything I felt was hard to get used to. I really felt like I fit in well both in my group and the company, and when I did run into issues there was always someone there to answer my question.

Name: Justin Seabaugh

Department at GBA: Transportation - Traffic

What was your favorite thing(s) about working at GBA?
The closely knit group, you get to know your coworkers well.

What stands out about your summer internship that was something you never learned in school?
I learned how to rate the condition of pavements, an important concept to understand that is barely touched on in classes.

What was the hardest thing to get used to working this summer at GBA?
It was hard to get accustomed to tracking hours on each project, and working full 40 hour work weeks.

Thanks to our interns and we wish them good luck!! 

45 Years Later...

Remember the good old days when engineers and architects drew plans by hand? Drafting tables were common place scattered with straight edges and tee squares. Handheld calculators were considered “high tech.”  And Bill Gates was still in high school, yet to invent our favorite software company, Microsoft.

For the younger generations, these tools are only something to be seen in a Google search. In 1969 when GBA was established, these were the tools of the trade.

Although the tools of the trade may have changed, our passion has not. 45 years later we’re a thriving company with headquarters in the Kansas City metro and five satellite offices in four states.

GBA is proud to be celebrating 45 years of great engineering and architecture.

And we owe a big thanks to all the people over the years that have helped to make us the company we are today. We are looking forward to many more.

Happy 45th, GBA Team!!