Khaled Alamdeen, PE
March 2007 Volume 53, Number 7
The evening program will be sponsored by the Sustainability Committee and will include the announcement of the 2007 ASCE-NCS Sustainability Award, a keynote address by sustainability champion Bill Wallace, and information from the Virginia Building Sustainable Network (www.vsbn.org).
The 2007 ASCE-NCS Sustainability Award will recognize private-industry outreach initiatives/programs or public legislation/programs in the Washington DC metropolitan area that advance or promote the responsible and sustainable development of infrastructure, the built environment, or the conservation of natural resources.
The award recognitions will be followed by a provocative presentation by William A. (Bill) Wallace titled “Charging Bulls or Boiling Frogs: How will the engineering community address the issues of sustainable development?” Bill is the Founder and President of Wallace Futures Group, LLC and a recognized industry leader in the field of sustainable development. He is serving on several national and international committees, preparing policies and guidance, leading business development initiatives, and helping public and private organizations apply sustainability principles to their operations. His book, Becoming Part of the Solution: The Engineer’s Guide to Sustainable Development, is an ACEC best seller. Bill is also a frequent lecturer on sustainable development engineering at the University of Colorado, and for professional associations including ASCE, ACEC, and ASFE, at both the national and state levels.
Taken to its fullest extent, achieving conditions of sustainability will require, more or less, a complete change-out of our facilities and infrastructure, replacing legacy systems, processes and technologies with those that are increasingly more sustainable. However, the engineering community, the group most qualified to make this change, appears to be more involved in protecting our current investments in legacy systems and infrastructure than developing new and more sustainable approaches. Other groups seem to be filling that gap at the engineering community’s expense.
Bill Wallace’s presentation will explore the issues of sustainable development as they relate to the engineering community: Is sustainability an urgent problem? What are the significant impacts of non-sustainability and when will they become serious? What are the drivers for taking action? What are the barriers to achieving conditions of sustainability? What has been our experience to date in projects that purport to achieve improvements in sustainable performance? What is keeping the engineering community from becoming more involved in addressing the problems? What should be done to improve our facilities and infrastructure?
Bill has over forty years of professional experience, including thirty years in the field of environmental engineering and management. He recently retired from CH2M HILL where, for over twenty years, he served in a number of senior positions in hazardous waste management, strategic planning, and new market development. He also served a three-year term on the CH2M HILL Board of Directors.
The Section meeting will be held at the Sheraton Crystal City (Metro: Blue/Yellow lines, Crystal City), located at 1800 Jefferson Davis Highway in Arlington, VA (one block from the Metro). The cost of the meeting will be $30, which includes a buffet dinner. Registration, networking begins at 6:00 pm with the dinner at 6:45 pm, and the program from approximately 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Reservations can be made by calling the ASCE-NCS Reservation line at 703-645-9723 or by e-mailing dwestman@wrallp.com. Please RSVP by close of business on Wednesday, March 21, 2007.
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ASCE is seeking nominations for awards honoring distinguished civil engineers. The due date for nominations has been extended to April 1, 2007 for the following awards. This is an opportunity for Section members to be nationally recognized.
John I. Parcel-Leif J. Sverdrup Civil Engineering Management Award: Conferred in recognition of effective leadership and management in the civil engineering profession. Candidates are those who have made outstanding contributions in the field of civil engineering management. Other criteria include evidence of personal and professional integrity. ASCE members only.
Edmund Friedman Professional Recognition Award: Conferred in recognition of attainments in advancing the science and profession of engineering. Candidates are those who have contributed substantially to the status of the engineering profession by establishing a formidable reputation for professional service, improving the conditions under which professional engineers render service to the public in the public or private sectors, improving civil engineering education, or providing guidance to young civil engineers. ASCE members of any grade, but not Honorary Members.
Civil Government Award: Conferred in recognition of meritorious service in an elective or appointive position. Candidates are those whose performance has helped to raise the stature of the engineering profession. The award is intended to recognize outstanding performance by engineers serving as members of Congress, mayors, governors, city managers, city council members, municipal department heads, state or county officials, or members of state legislatures. Nominees for this award must be registered professional engineers. Those holding positions that traditionally have been held by engineers or positions that are filled on the basis of civil service examinations are not eligible. ASCE members of any grade, but not Honorary Members.
Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award: Conferred in recognition of outstanding performance by a civil engineer in the public sector. Candidates must be ASCE members in good standing, and preferably a licensed professional engineer. They must have 15 years in public service, at least 5 of them at a senior administrative level, and presently be employed in the U.S. public sector. Other criteria include participation in civic or humanitarian endeavors and evidence of personal and professional integrity.
Parcel-Sverdrup, Edmund Friedman, and Civil Government Award nominations may be submitted to the Honors and Awards Department at ASCE Headquarters. Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award nominations may be submitted to akarwoski@asce.org or mailed to Alicia Karwoski, Professional Activities Department, 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191-4400. For questions, contact Alicia Karwoski at (703) 295-6324 or (800) 548-2723 extension 6324.
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As we start the month of March, our hope is that we are also starting the season of spring. After what led many to predict a very mild season, winter itself showed us how wrong our prediction can be and how harsh the cold weather can get. As civil engineers we need continuously to think of extreme possibilities and design for the worst. Though we are mostly bound by the limits of current codes and specifications, and by construction cost, such extreme events and weather teaches lessons for improvement and anticipation of exceptions.
The Engineering Family Day held at the National Building Museum in February was great. Thanks to all who volunteered for the event and especially to Kirin Smith who organized the Section exhibit and activities. This is one event where kids and adults can get a hands-on engineering experience. It is also an event that educates the public of the civil engineering profession, as well as other engineering disciplines.
On Saturday March 3rd, the Engineering Management committee is having its 14th annual Engineering Management Seminar. Credit for this year’s seminar goes to Vandy Gyandhar, who took the chairman’s post late last year but was able to put together an excellent team of speakers. This distinguished group will share their leadership experience and knowledge to help the participants set and achieve higher goals in their career path. It is not too late to register for the seminar, see our February Newsletter for details and program or visit our section website at www.asce-ncs.org. We look forward to seeing many of you there.
Next month, April 10th, will feature our annual awards banquet. This year the banquet will be at the Sheraton Crystal City hotel. This is a change from previous years, where the banquet was held at the Officers’ Club at Fort Myer or Fort McNair. The change was made to ease accessibility and security difficulties for our guests. The Sheraton is next to the Crystal City Metro station, and provides free parking to our guests. We are honored to have Mr. William Marcuson III, ASCE President, as our keynote speaker. Mr. Marcuson will share with us his mission and goals for the year 2006-2007 and will help us honor our 2007 life members and the outstanding civil engineers of our National Capital Section.
The Sustainability Committee is proud to sponsor our March Section Meeting. Thanks to Fernando Pons, chair of the sustainability committee, for organizing an outstanding program for the evening. The Committee also will be sponsoring a field trip in July for our members and their families to tour the Chesapeake Bay Foundation Building, a leading green building in the United States.
Finally, congratulations to Mr. Fredric S. Berger, senior vice president of Louis Berger Group for his selection to receive the Opal Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Management, and to Mr. Thomas R. Draeger, President of Bechtel Construction Operations Inc., for his selection to receive the Opal Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Construction.
We look forward to seeing our members and friends at the March Section meeting and at our Annual banquet in April.
Sincerely,
Khaled Alamdeen, PE
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By Stephen C. Powers, P.E.
If you have ever looked at a road map of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, then it is clear where the boundaries of present day Washington, D.C. and Arlington County lie. But how did these boundaries come to be, and how are they defined today? It may come as a surprise to you that these boundaries are denoted by the first monuments ever commissioned by the United States Government, that 37 of the 40 boundary stones remain, and together as a group the Boundary Stones represent one of the oldest lasting surveys of Colonial America.
In 1791, George Washington appointed the Commissioners for the New Federal City to lay down four experimental lines so as to create the boundaries of the “ten mile square” tract on the upper Potomac River where Pierre L’Enfant’s plan for the city would be designed and built.
It was agreed that the area of 100 square miles would embrace approximately 64 square miles of Maryland soil and approximately 36 square miles of Virginia soil. The City Commissioners contracted Major Andrew Ellicott who set the first stone, the South Cornerstone, at Jones’ Point in Alexandria, VA on April 15, 1791 during a ceremony that included the sentiment “May the stone which we are about to place in the ground remain an immovable monument of the wisdom and unanimity of North America.” Assisting Ellicott with the astronomical observations and calculations necessary to establish the location of the initial stone was Benjamin Banneker.
The layout called for establishing a northwest line 10 miles toward Falls Church, where the West Cornerstone would be placed. Along the route, nine 2-foot-high by 12-inch square-stone mile markers cut from Aquia Creek Quarry sandstone were placed. Ellicott then turned northeast and completed the survey on the Virginia side of the Potomac before halting for a brief hiatus during the winter months. In the spring of 1792, work resumed on the Maryland side of the Potomac. The survey continued toward present day Silver Spring where the North Cornerstone was placed. From there, Ellicott’s party, headed southeast toward present day Seat Pleasant, located the East Cornerstone, and closed the square by turning southwest back toward Alexandria and the Potomac River.
 Southwest Face of NE#9 located in the front yard of a private residence along Eastern Avenue in Fairmont Heights, MD. |
Assisting Ellicott were William and Nicholas King and Count de Graff. The field team was headed up by Isaac Roberdeau and consisted of chain men, ax men, mule teams, and laborers. Together they cleared a path 40 feet wide and over 38 miles long (taking into account 3 river crossings). All did not go smoothly for the members of the survey team, as several died from illness and one man was killed by a falling tree.
On January 1, 1793, Major Ellicott returned to Philadelphia with news of his accomplishment. “It is with great pleasure that I report to you that the lines are now opened and cleared 40 feet wide, 20 feet on each side of the line. I have set up square mile-stones, marked progressively except in a few places where the miles terminated in a declivity or in the water. In such case, the measurement was carried either forward or backward until firm ground was reached and the exact distance then marked on the stone in miles and poles. On the sides of the stones facing the Territory is inscribed, ‘Jurisdiction of the United States.’ On the opposite side of those placed in the commonwealth of Virginia is inscribed ‘Virginia.’ And on those in the State of Maryland, ‘Maryland.’ On the third and fourth sides, or faces, inscribed the year in which the stone was set up, and the conditions of the Magnetic Needle at that place.”
To know the stones today is to understand the development and growth of the Washington D.C. Area. Of the 26 stones placed in Maryland, 23 continue to define the boundary between Washington, D.C. and the state of Maryland. They currently reside at or near their original locations and are located on Corp of Engineer’s land, private residences, roadside right of ways, National Park Property, a Cemetery, and commercial property. They are located adjacent to Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Mt. Rainier, Brentwood, Capitol Heights, Temple Hills, Suitland, and Oxon Hill. Of the missing 3 Maryland stones, 2 stones were destroyed/lost in the 1950’s and the individual sites are marked by a plaque (NE#1) and a replica stone (SE#8) respectively. The final stone (SE#4) is in storage after a mid-1980’s traffic accident, and is currently awaiting rededication in the vicinity of its original location in the near future.
The Virginia land was retroceded back to the state of Virginia on July 9, 1846 under a Federal Act of Congress. There are 14 stones on the Virginia side of the Potomac, 10 of which currently define the Arlington County boundary adjacent to McLean, Falls Church, Bailey’s Crossroads, and Alexandria. The remaining 4 stones are located in the City of Alexandria and no longer define a boundary. Thirteen of the Virginia stones are original stones.
Only one Virginia stone (SW#2) has been lost (for at least the last century), and the Old Town Alexandria site is marked by a commemorative stone.
The preservation of these stones came about in the late 1890’s through the 1960’s when Fred E. Woodward, brother of the owner of the Woodward & Lothrup’s department stores, and the Washington, D.C. local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution began a campaign to save the stones by educating the public to their existence and erecting iron fences around as many as possible. That campaign is now championed by NACABOSTCO, The Nation’s Capitol Boundary Stones Committee, a group dedicated toward the preservation of the stones/sites and of which ASCE’s National Capitol Section History & Heritage Committee currently has representation. Among the many goals of this committee is to promote the Stones/Sites for designation as a National Historic Landmark. To that end, ASCE H&H has an effort underway to nominate the Ellicott Survey represented by the Boundary Stones/Sites for an ASCE National Historical Landmark designation.
Hopefully this article has sparked your curiosity enough to visit a stone or two. Certainly if you have ever crossed into the District from Maryland or into Arlington from Fairfax County or Falls Church you have been within a half mile of at least one of the stones if not closer. ASCE is planning to schedule a tour in the future of several of the stones, with more details to follow. For more information on the location and history of the stones, please visit www.boundarystones.org.
Stephen Powers is employed by DMJM Aviation and is the Lead Resident Engineer and Construction Department Manager for Parsons Management Consultants at Washington National Airport. He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and is a recent addition to the NCS ASCE H&H Committee.
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Congratulations to the NCS members who have received Life Member status. These distinguished members will be honored at our Annual Banquet on April 10, 2007. Congratulations to them for their service to the Society.
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Senior and Mid-Level Geotechnical Engineers Wanted. Kleinfelder, Inc. is seeking both Senior and Mid-Level Geotechnical Engineers throughout the US, including in our Hanover (Baltimore), MD, West Chester and Cranberry (Pittsburgh), PA area offices. Ideal candidates will have a BS in Civil Engineering and a MS in Geotechnical Engineering. Professional Registrations (EIT) and (PE) are preferred. Kleinfelder offers an excellent compensation and benefits package including employee ownership. Please apply on-line through our web site www.kleinfelder.com under Careers and People/Employment Opportunities. You may also contact AJ Jahangir at 410-850-0404.
Editor’s Note: By submitting a “Position Available” ad, all employers are certifying that they are equal opportunity employers.
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Section Meeting. The Sustainability Committee will sponsor the 2007 ASCE-NCS Sustainability Award ceremony and a presentation on sustainability by Mr. Bill Wallace. Mr. Wallace is a recognized authority on sustainable development. Where: Sheraton Crystal City (Metro: Blue/Yellow lines, Crystal City) is located at 1800 Jefferson Davis Highway in Arlington, VA (one block from the Metro). The cost of the meeting will be $35 per person and $15 for students, which includes a buffet dinner. Registration, networking begins at 6:00 pm with the dinner at 6:45 pm, and the program from approximately 7:30 to 8:30 pm. Reservations can be made by calling the ASCE-NCS Reservation line at 703-645-9723 or by e-mailing dwestman@wrallp.com. Please RSVP by close of business on Wednesday March 21, 2007.
Nationals Stadium Tour. The Maryland Structural institute (SEI-MD) will sponsor a tour of the new Nationals Stadium, tentatively scheduled for March 31, 2007. Keep this date open as more details will be posted on the website www.seimd.org.
ANNUAL BANQUET
Join us at the Sheraton Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, for one of the National Capital Section's highlights of this year. The Annual Awards Banquet will take place Tuesday, April 10, 2007, beginning with registration and a social hour at 6:00 pm.
This event gives us the opportunity to recognize and celebrate local excellence in projects, engineers and students who have contributed to our society and our community. Recognized parties will include our meritorious service award winners, outstanding civil engineering project, student scholarship award winners, and members of the NCS who have achieved Life Member status.
We are honored to have William F. Marcuson III, President of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and one of the nation's leading civil engineers, as our keynote speaker. He has received five national awards from ASCE, including the Norman Medal, civil engineering's oldest honor. In 1995 he was honored by the National Society of Professional Engineers as their Federal Engineer of the Year. His career has included research and administrative positions at the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station, where he served as Director of the Geotechnical Laboratory for nearly 20 years prior to his retirement in 2000. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1996 for his contributions to the design and analysis of embankment dams. He will speak on his goals for his term as president of the Society. The program will also consist of an awards ceremony honoring the Section's outstanding contributions to the profession and the community.
Where: Sheraton Crystal City (Metro: Blue/Yellow lines, Crystal City), located at 1800 Jefferson Davis Highway in Arlington, VA (one block from the Metro).
The cost of the award banquet will be $35 for members and $15 for students, which includes dinner with a choice of entrees:
• Seared Filet of Salmon Served with a
Lemon Chive Cream Sauce
• Roasted Breast of Chicken Stuffed with Wild Mushrooms and Herbs Served with a
Tomato Coulis
• Sliced Sirloin of Beef Served with Wild Mushroom and Sweet Carmellized Vidalia
Onions in a Cabernet Demi Glaze
• Pasta Primavera
Registration and a social hour begins at 6:00 pm with the dinner at 7:00 pm, and the program from approximately 7:45 to 9:00 pm. Reservations can be made by calling the ASCE-NCS Reservation line at 703-645-9723 or by e-mailing dwestman@wrallp.com. Please RSVP by close of business on Friday, April 6.
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Mark Leeman, P.E., Editor
Facility Engineering Associates, P.C., 11001 Lee Highway, Suite D, Fairfax, VA 22030
Work: 703-591-4855
Fax: 703-591-4857
mark.leeman@feapc.com
April Issue Deadline: March 16, 2007
Published bi-monthly except July and August
To Submit Articles:
Email: mark.leeman@feapc.com
Fax: 703-591-4857
Address Changes:
Call 1-800-548-ASCE, email member@asce.org, go to www.asce.org/myprofile/, or write: ASCE - Membership, 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191. Include your membership number.