Moles to Honor Wagman, Iovino

Richard E. Wagman, Chairman and CEO, G.A. & F.C. Wagman Inc., York, Pa., and Thomas N. Iovino, CEO of The Judlau Companies, New York, N.Y., have been selected for top honors by The Moles, one of the industry’s foremost construction organizations.

Born in Pennsylvania and educated at Georgetown University, where he received a bachelor’s in business administration, and at Drexel University, where he pursued his master’s of business administration, Wagman represents the third of four generations in the family business. Under his leadership, the company has grown dramatically in size and he has successfully transitioned from solely a Pennsylvania contractor into the “mega-project” market, gaining national recognition for high-profile projects in the Washington, D.C., area with projects including the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, the Inter-County Connector and the I-95/I-695 Interchange in Baltimore. As a result of his involvement and leadership in many industry associations, Wagman has learned and applied many best practices, which have contributed to the company’s growth and achievement of having G.A. & F.C. Wagman Inc. named to “Best Places to Work in PA” five times.

Born and educated in New York, Iovino earned both his bachelor’s in engineering and master’s in civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Iovino founded Judlau Contracting in 1983 in the basement of his home, and built it into a large and successful New York region public works contractor. Originally a sewer and water main contractor, today The Judlau Companies are helping to build New York’s infrastructure, earning annual revenues in excess of $425 million and completing over $1 billion in transportation and transit work. Iovino puts as much energy into his philanthropic endeavors as his work, having served two terms as President of the Suffolk Family Service League, and a volunteer at Huntington Hospital for over 20 years. He is also currently president of the Iovino Family Foundation, which provides funding for clean water and services to developing world nations.

The executives will receive The Moles Outstanding Achievement in Construction Awards at The Moles’ annual award dinner on Jan. 25, 2012, at the New York Hilton. Iovino, a member of The Moles since 1997, will receive the Member Award, and Wagman will receive the Non-Member Award.

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Beavers Announce 2012 Awardees

Ronald P. Wells, President of the Beavers and Chairman Emeritus of Stacey and Witbeck, Inc., has announced the recipients of the 2012 Golden Beaver Awards. The awards will be presented at the 57th annual Awards Dinner to be held Friday, Jan. 13, 2012 at a new location – the J.W. Marriott Hotel at LA Live in Los Angeles. The guest speaker for the event is columnist/author/actor Ben Stein.

J. Doug Pruitt, Chairman of Tempe, Ariz.-based Sundt Construction Inc., will receive the Management Award. A civil engineering graduate of Oklahoma State University, Pruitt joined Sundt in 1966 and rose through the ranks to become president and chief operating officer in 1992, then was named chairman and CEO in 1998. He has served as president of the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University and was elected to its Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2009 Pruitt served as the national president of the Associated General Contractors and is one of the founding members of the Construction Industry Ethics and Compliance Initiative.

James M. Marquardt, Senior Vice President and Eastern Region Tunnel Division Manager for J. F. Shea Co. Inc., will receive the Supervision Award. A 33-year veteran of the underground and tunneling industry, Marquardt is currently involved in the $1.1 billion No. 7 Line extension of the New York City subway system. His past project management has included the $320 million New York City Water Tunnel No. 3, Stage II and the $150 million Weehawken Tunnel Light Rail Transit Project in New Jersey. He has also managed major projects on the Washington (D.C.) Metro and Los Angeles Metro, along with major water tunnel projects on the East Coast.

William W. Edgerton, Chairman of Jacobs Associates, will receive the Engineering Award. Edgerton received his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Tufts University and earned an MBA from George Washington University. He joined Jacobs Associates in 1987, bringing 17 years of experience working for contracting firms (A.S. Wikstrom, Morrison-Knudsen & The Driggs Corp.). During his career at Jacobs Associates, he has been involved with major tunnel and infrastructure projects throughout the United States, as well as in Puerto Rico and Hong Kong. In 2002 Edgerton received the American Underground Association’s “Outstanding Individual Award for the Underground Industry.”

Sam E. Baker Jr., a partner in the Seattle-based law firm of Oles Morrison Rinker & Baker LLP, will receive the Service and Supply Award. Baker holds a B.S. in Construction Management from the University of Washington and a J.D. from the University of Montana. He was a founding member of the University of Washington Contractor Industry Advisory Council and has been a director of the Western Washington University Foundation. He is the only attorney to have been inducted in the University of Washington Construction Hall of Fame. Baker currently serves as a Trustee of the Beavers Charitable Trust, the scholarship program of the Beavers.

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Hanlan Water Project Tunnels Proposed for Region of Peel, Ontario

The proposed Hanlan Feedermain will be a 2,400-mm inside diameter pipeline running from the Lakeview Water Treatment Plant on the shoreline of Lake Ontario in Mississauga, Ontario, approximately 14 km northward to the Hanlan Reservoir and Pumping Station. This project is part of the Region of Peel’s 2007 Water and Wastewater Master Plan.

Once constructed it will enhance the regional water supply, service commitments to growth and provide redundancy for the Region’s system. The major tunnel component is 6 km of 3.6-m diameter bore in shale under major highways and rail bridges. This component will be tendered as a separate contract in mid-2012. In addition to the major tunnel component several additional tunnels of 2.4-m and 3.6-m diameter bores are required for lengths up to 1.4 km. These tunnels are expected to be in more challenging soil conditions and cross under several highway bridges. There will be an informational project meeting, to be advertised in multiple industry publications, for interested contractors in January 2012. The project is currently in the early stage of design.

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VMT Opens U.S. Office

As the American tunneling business is growing up quickly and several large-scale infrastructure tunnel projects on both the East and West coasts require permanent attendance of VMT engineers, the company has set up an office in Sumner, Wash., close to SeaTac International airport.

Whether measurement service for tunnel advances, industrial measurement sales or service, or rental and service for navigation, monitoring, communication and information systems, VMT is now able to provide all American customers the best service and support locally. Along with having the most comprehensive range of products in the branch, VMT offers complete all-round support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Currently, the quite complex Alaskan Viaduct project in Seattle demands monitoring and data management systems as well as technical support from local personnel. With VMT (USA) Technical Measurement Solutions Inc., VMT is closer to its customers in North America.
VMT USA personnel includes Manfred Messing – Director; Jack Brockway – President; Mathias Knoll – System Engineer Tunnelling; and Alexander Seilert – Vice President Sales.

For more information visit: www.vmt-us.com.

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Critchfield Joins Parsons Brinckerhoff

John Critchfield has been named a Senior Project Engineer in the Miami office of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global infrastructure strategic consulting, engineering and program/construction management organization.

In his new position, Critchfield will be responsible for managing construction engineering and inspection of underground works for the Port of Miami Tunnel project. Critchfield has over 36 years of experience in geotechnical and underground engineering with particular emphasis on tunneling. His project experience includes highway, transit and water/wastewater tunnels constructed by cut-and-cover, sequential excavation and tunnel boring machines.

Critchfield holds an M.S. degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois-Urbana and a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Underground Construction Association of SME.

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Preliminary Engineering for Ottawa Light Rail Transit Project Nears Completion

Capital Transit Partners (CTP), a joint venture combining the talents of Morrison Hershfield Ltd., STV Canada Consulting Inc., URS Canada Inc., and Jacobs Associates Canada Corp., is currently completing the Preliminary Engineering Phase for the $2.1 billion Ottawa Light Rail Transit (OLRT) project.

The project, which is the first stage in Ottawa’s planned 40-km light rail network, will see the construction of a 12.5-km LRT system including 3 km of tunnel under the downtown, and 13 stations, three of which will be in the tunnel portion. Implementation of the new system will include converting portions of the existing Bus Rapid Transit to light rail (one of the first such undertakings in North America).

The Preliminary Engineering assignment, awarded to CTP in September 2010 and now nearing completion, required CTP in advancing the OLRT design to reduce capital and operating costs, improve operating characteristics, reduce future maintenance requirements, minimize construction-related impacts and minimize impacts to adjacent properties. CTP also developed the Request for Qualifications and contributed to the related Request for Proposal documents for what will be a Design, Build, Finance and Maintain (DBFM) project.

During the assignment the City of Ottawa made the decision to accelerate the overall project schedule by one year, moving the proposed opening date from the spring of 2019 to the spring of 2018. This decision to advance the overall schedule resulted in the CTP assignment being accelerated by six months to allow the construction of the system to begin in early 2013, approximately six months earlier than had been planned. CTP, due to its extensive experience in planning, design and procurement of LRT projects, was able to meet this new deadline.
In addition to the City of Ottawa’s financial contribution, the project is supported by both the federal and provincial governments who are providing up to $1.2 billion of the costs. The City will require the winning proponent to finance up to $400 million of the construction cost. All three levels of government are committed to working with the successful proponent in delivering an innovative, world-class transit solution.

The Request for Qualifications for the DBFM contract resulted in a short list consisting of three teams:

• Ottawa Transit Partners (OTP), led by VINCI Concessions, with ACCIONA Concessions Canada Inc., ACCIONA Infrastructure Canada Inc., Aecon Construction Group Inc., Bombardier Transportation Canada Inc., and VINCI Construction Grands Projets as prime team members.
  
• Rideau Transit Group (RTG), led by ACS Infrastructure Canada Inc., with EllisDon Corp., EllisDon Inc., Dragados Canada Inc., SNC-Lavalin Capital, SNC-Lavalin Constructors (Pacific) Inc., and Veolia Transportation Services Inc. as prime team members.
  
• Rideau Transit Partners (RTP), led by Bouygues Travaux Publics S.A., with Brookfield Financial Corp., Fiera Axium Infrastructure Canada LP, Parsons Enterprises Inc., Parsons Canada Ltd., Colas Rail S.A. and Johnson Controls L.P. as prime team members.
  

The City is scheduled to select a winning team in late 2012 with construction anticipated to begin in the first quarter of 2013.

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DC Water Breaks Ground on $2.6 Billion Clean Rivers Project

The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) broke ground Oct. 12 on its largest construction project ever, and the District’s largest since Metro was built. The $2.6 billion Clean Rivers Project aims to nearly eliminate combined sewer overflows to the Anacostia and Potomac rivers and Rock Creek, also improving the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

As in many older cities, about one-third of the District has a combined sewer system. A combined sewer overflow (or CSO) occurs during heavy rain when the mixture of sewage and stormwater cannot fit in the sewer pipes and overflows to the nearest water body. CSOs direct about 2.5 billion gallons of combined sewage into the Anacostia and Potomac rivers and Rock Creek in an average year. CSOs contain bacteria and trash that can be harmful to the environment.

DC Water has already reduced CSOs to the Anacostia River by 40 percent with improvements to the existing sewer system. The Clean Rivers Project consists of massive underground tunnels to store the combined sewage during rain events, releasing it to the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant after the storms subside. Similar CSO tunnels exist in Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and other cities.

“There can be no overestimating the scale of this project — it’s absolutely huge,” said DC Water General Manager George S. Hawkins. “The machine our teams will use to build these tunnels is the size of a football field, and needs to be assembled in pieces underground. And because of this work, no single institution is doing more than ours to improve the District’s waterways.”

The first, and largest, tunnel system will serve the Anacostia River. The first segment of that system, the Blue Plains Tunnel, is 23 ft in diameter and runs more than 100 ft deep.

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