Ed Young Joins GBA as New Aviation Market Leader

GBA is expanding its transportation services to include aviation. To help with the new focus, GBA has hired Ed Young as the aviation market leader. He will be headquartered in the Lenexa, KS office with efforts focused on growing GBA’s presence as a trusted partner with aviation consultants and airports within the FAA Central Region. Young’s specialties include airport planning, airspace, land acquisition, project financing, public engagement and environmental issues.

“We’re looking to increase GBA’s transportation group to include all modes of transportation and offer a more well-rounded service to our clients and the community. Ed brings a vast amount of knowledge and experience in the aviation sector and we’re excited to grow this group with him,” said Jim Jarrett, GBA’s Bridge Group Principal and Vice President.

Ed brings 20 years of aviation experience, most notably as the Director of Aviation for the Kansas Department of Transportation, Aviation Division. During his time there the division was recognized with several awards including the President’s Award for Aviation from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Engineers. Along with Ed’s aviation experience he also spent several years in city and county government serving as a city administrator, county administrator and county counselor.

Most recently, Ed taught airport law and airport environmental planning for Kansas State Polytechnic (K-State Salina). He is a commercial pilot and flight instructor as well as a licensed attorney. He earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Kansas, School of Law, a Master in Public Administration from the University of Kansas School of Public Affairs and Administration and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kansas. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Kansas Association of Airports, Kansas Commission on Aerospace Education and the Fly Kansas Foundation.

Rob Kline Recognized as Young Leader at NPWW

Rob Kline (left) receiving his award.

Rob Kline was recognized by the American Public Works Association (APWA) at the annual National Public Works Week (NPWW) Luncheon on May 20 as the 2015 KC Metro Chapter Young Leader. The award recognizes Kline’s exceptional service to the organization and the profession. 

 
He has been involved with APWA since 2009 and has been a part of several committees including the Arrangements Committee where he assisted with event registration and setup. Then he moved to a position as Chapter Meeting Chair which he has held since 2012. He is also a graduate of the 2014 Emerging Leaders Academy (Class VII).  As a young member of the organization, Rob is dedicated to creating a beneficial environment within the chapter for engineers in the early stages of their careers. He is the Chair of the chapter’s Emerging Leaders Committee and is in the process of bringing the chapter a Young Professionals Group.  

Kline, who joined GBA in 2006, is an engineer with the Highways and Streets Group where he provides planning and design for state and local agencies.               

Congratulations, Rob!

Traffic Group Restructuring

With the impending retirement of longtime principal and vice president Paul Bertrand, P.E., PTOE, GBA’s Traffic Group has been restructured.

 

As of April 2, heading up the group is Mandy Anderson, P.E., PTOE. In addition to being the Traffic Group Leader, she is also the lead for traffic modeling. Her new responsibilities include staffing, business development, strategic planning, simulation modeling (VISSIM, Synchro, SimTraffic) and travel demand modeling (VISUM, TransCAD). Mandy has a degree in civil engineering from Iowa State and a master’s in business administration from Baker University.

Dave Mennenga, P.E., PTOE, is now the group’s technical lead for studies, including traffic impact studies and access justification reports (AJRs). Mark Stuempel, P.E., PTOE, and Janelle Clayton, P.E., PTOE, will share design leadership responsibilities. Mark’s and Janelle’s duties include noise studies, signal design, traffic control design, lighting design and permanent signing design.

“This is an exciting time for our entire group,” Mandy says. “Everyone has opportunities to take on new responsibilities and stretch into new roles.”

Under Paul, GBA’s traffic group has grown to eleven engineers and technicians, and has served various municipalities, counties and DOTs in Kansas, Missouri and other areas across the Midwest. Paul has been with GBA since 1987 and has been a traffic engineer since 1971. He will retire at the end of 2015.

Noise Studies and Mower Man

Have you ever been relaxing in your backyard, enjoying the warm sunshine of the spring day, listening to the chirping of birds, admiring the new buds on the trees and—BAM—your tranquil oasis has been invaded by your neighbor, aka, the Mower Man?

You know the guy—he mows the lawn at least twice a week, whether it needs it or not, and seems to time his noisy yard maintenance perfectly with your personal enjoyment of your usually serene outdoor sanctuary.

If you’re mad, you’re totally right to be: the noise created by Mower Man’s lawn ritual is roughly equal decibel-wise to the amount deemed loud enough by Federal law to negatively affect quality of life.

Ouch, right? Though those laws aren’t in place to imprison Mower Man (darn), they are there for a reason much more frustrating to outdoor serenity than poorly timed lawn maintenance: highway noise.

If you live next to a highway, your backyard might see the equivalent of Mower Man 365 days per year. So loud, in fact, that if you were sitting on your deck during peak hours, trying to have a nice after dinner conversation with friends, you would struggle to hear each other.

You’ve got to admit, that’s way more annoying than Mower Man.

Which is exactly why those laws—including two key Federal ones—are in place. And those laws lead to noise studies. These studies are completed by qualified engineers like those at GBA—our engineers are recognized by the Missouri Department of Transportation and others as experts in Traffic Noise analysis.

When conducting these noise studies, engineers collect existing data in the study area like topography, surrounding land use (homes, schools, commercial property), traffic information (volume, speeds, types of vehicles) and existing noise. After existing data is collected, future noise levels are predicted and impacts are evaluated. If the noise is deemed excessive, abatement options would be identified and could be recommended for implementation. 

If your backyard is included in the area determined to be impacted by excessive highway traffic noise, there are a variety of ways it can be shielded, but the most effective tend to be noise walls and berms.

They can’t do anything about Mower Man and his habits, but if you’ve got more on your plate than his John Deere, they might just return your backyard to Zen-level peacefulness.

Winter’s toll on the Roads

Winter is a tough season on anything exposed to the elements. Plants die. Animals hibernate. Waterways get caught in a messy game of freeze and thaw.

But our roads also bear winter’s brunt.

And it’s not snow and ice that are the biggest problem—it’s what we do to remove them.

Winter moisture alone already does a number on concrete by itself, as water—snow melt, sleet, runoff—expands 9 percent its original size when frozen. That means when concrete freezes, any moisture in the concrete can create pressure in the pores of the concrete. When this pressure exceeds the concrete’s tensile capacity, it causes cracking and spalling of the concrete surface.

If large aggregate in the concrete is porous or absorptive, the moisture in the aggregate can freeze and crack and split. If these aggregates are close to the surface, they can create pop outs that look like cone shaped indentions on the surface of the concrete. This cracking can also create D-cracking, which is closely spaced cracks that parallel joints. These cracks will continue to multiply over time and show up further and further from the joint.

Deicing chemicals can make this process worse in different ways.

First, the deicing chemicals reduce the freezing temperature of the offending moisture. So rather than the moisture in the concrete freezing at 32 degrees and staying frozen until the concrete temperature exceeds 32 degrees, it thaws at a lower temperature and refreezes at a lower temperature. Therefore, the concrete goes thru more freeze/thaw cycles than it would have if deicing chemicals were not used. Each time the concrete freezes, it repeats the expansion pressure that can create more cracking and spalling.

Most deicing chemicals contain chlorides. These chlorides are like sponges that attract and hold moisture. Therefore, concrete that is more saturated with chlorides is probably more saturated with moisture and thus more susceptible to damage when the concrete freezes.

Even worse, certain deicing chemicals can actually chemically attack concrete. Deicers containing ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate aggressively attack and disintegrate concrete.

But that’s not where the wear and tear stops. The same chlorides that weaken concrete also bombard metal with enough moisture that it will rust—a huge problem when you’re talking about concrete reinforced with metal. When metal rusts, the rust can become four times larger than the original metal, causing the concrete it is reinforcing to expand and crack. And once this process starts, both the concrete and the steel deteriorate even faster than before.

There are various ways to protect concrete and steel from winter’s ways—air entrainment, low permeability in concrete, etc.—but the best thing for our roads can hope for in the winter? No moisture.

Let it snow? Not if you’re a road.

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.