happeningsvolume 30 // december 2012

transportation team winsinside transportation team wins ohio river bridges (ORB) project

newsletter news

cameren sholl completes the tough mudder

the award-winning indianapolis cultural trail

setting transportation standards

app of the month

congratulations nikhil bodhankar!

volunteers help runners quench thirst at the monumental marathon

rehabiliting the historic briscoe bridge

mike devoy receives special recognition from ACC

abu dhabi IT department delivers high-tech consulting

“movember” team: “mo mustache, less problems”

We are pleased to announce that the Walsh design-build team, of which RW Armstrong is a member, has been selected to construct the Ohio River Bridges (ORB) Downtown Crossing. The project (illustrated to the right) includes sections 1, 2, and 3 on the map. In a nut-shell, the team will be building a new six-lane bridge over the Ohio River, re-furbishing the existing six-lane bridge, and reconfiguring the bridge approach-es to accommodate the modified river crossing. RW Armstrong’s primary role is lead designer for section three, the Indiana portion of the project.

Competition for the project was fierce! I remember walking into a man-datory pre-bid meeting at the Louisville Convention Center and finding a conference room filled with hundreds of contractors and engi-neers all vying for the project. Out of the sea of construction and design professionals, five teams

ultimately formed to submit statements of qualifications. The Kentucky Transporta-tion Cabinet short-listed three of these teams on April 23—one of which was the Walsh team.

Having made it over the first hurdle, we spent the next six months working with other team members to prepare a technical proposal which was then reviewed by the

By Kevin Rearick

ohio river bridges (ORB) project

(story continued on page 8)

Submitted By: Walsh Construction | 929 West Adams | Chicago, IL 60607 | (312) 563-5400

LOUISVILLE-SOUTHERN INDIANA OHIO RIVER BRIDGES PROJECT | DOWNTOWN CROSSING | Electronic Copy

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL VOLUME 0101

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL Narrative, Form

s, & DBE and W

orkforce/EEO Project Plan

THE WALSH DESIGN-BUILD TEAM international resources& LOCAL FOCUS

Map of the full ORB project

Rendering of new cable stay northbound I-65 bridge in foreground. Existing I-65 bridge in background (will be converted to southbound only).

2

As CEO Ray Rudolph has mentioned, the coming

months will be a time of unity; a time of engaging our

staff, developing our combined expertise and integrating

our channels of communication. In 2013, we will focus

on new means of delivering information and we will

take a new approach with our newsletter. Our monthly

newsletter will now be delivered on a quarterly basis

and will be brought to you by our employees to showcase

our firm’s people, projects, and progress in a convenient

e-newsletter format. Jennifer Voreis (Indianapolis, IN) and

Cybil Kelly (Albany, NY) will spearhead our efforts to bring

you a compilation of company information, from project

highlights and technical endeavors to community outreach

initiatives that ultimately support our organization’s mission

and vision.Our next newsletter will be released in early 2013. Stay

tuned for more information and ways to become involved…

newsletter news

cameren sholl completesBy Cameren Shollthe tough mudder

“Mud runs” and obstacle course races have surged in popularity over the last sev-eral years. A multitude of different types of these races exist and thousands of people participate in them every year for the chal-lenge, the experience, and usually to sup-port a good cause.

The Tough Mudder is a 12-mile ob-stacle course designed by British Special Forces. It has a special cause—all proceeds go to support the Wounded Warrior Proj-ect (WWP). I was inspired to participate specifically in the Tough Mudder because I have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and value the mission of providing aid to vet-erans who have been injured in battle. I used this event as an excuse to raise funds for WWP as well. Through the support of friends and family, I was able to generate a significant contribution.

My brother, a Marine stationed in Louis-ville, Kentucky, and I completed the Kentucky Tough Mudder on October 20. I consider myself to be in fairly decent shape, but I can honestly say that running 12 miles up and down steep, rocky hills in 45 degree temperature, submerging myself in ice water, get-ting shocked by 10,000 volts of electricity (as shown in the picture), hurdling fire, and wading through hundreds of yards of thigh-deep mud was one of the most difficult, yet rewarding, experiences of my life.

welcome!The following new hires have joined us since our last news-letter. Say hello if you see them around!

Dina Faik, UAE

Nelly El Ridy,UAE

Rimounda Laham,UAE

Farhan Butt, EI,Columbus

Hany Khorshid, Cairo

Nick Abdullah,Indianapolis

Shelly Bernardino,UAE

Cameren gets shocked by 10,000 volts of electricity as he crawls through

a portion of the course

3

the award-winning indianapolis cultural trail

The Indianapolis Cultural Trail, a Legacy of Gene and Marilyn Glick, is a world-class urban bike and pedestrian path that winds through eight miles of downtown Indianapolis. It connects neighborhoods, cultural districts, and entertainment venues and is the downtown hub for the central Indiana greenway trail system.

In November, the Cultural Trail team led by Rundell Ernstberger Associates, LLC was honored with the prestigious 2012 Monumental Affair Award. Projects worthy of this distinction must significantly enhance Indianapolis’ physical and visual environment, align with the vision of making Indianapolis a great city, and have a broad-reaching effect on Marion County residents. The project was also recognized with the Honor Award in the (re)Think category, presented by the In-diana Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council in recognition of the project’s sustainable design, as well as additional awards for engineering, landscapes archi-tecture, public art, and downtown development.

RW Armstrong is the City’s program manager for this project, providing bud-get coordination, design review, public outreach, stakeholder coordination, envi-ronmental documentation, land acquisition, and construction management. Work began during Christmas 2005 and construction will wrap up at the end of this year.

As shown below, the trail loops downtown on Alabama, Washington, and Blackford Streets and a combination of St. Clair, Walnut, and North. It runs up Massachusetts Avenue to the Monon Trail, down Virginia into Fountain Square, and down Capitol to Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts. Half the distance is a combined bike and pedestrian facility, the other half has separated bike and pedestrian areas.

The trail was developed as a private-public partnership (P3) using $27.5 million in private funding, $15 million in Federal trans-portation money, and a $20.5 million TIGER grant. The private money was used for fund-ing matches so it required no money from the city. About 40% was used for infrastructure improvements to aging storm sewers, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, street improvements, and lighting.

Incorporating the trail into the built ur-ban environment required thinking and act-ing outside the transportation engineering box. The Cultural Trail was designed to be uni-versally accessible with new curb ramps at 73 intersections. Seventy infiltration basins and 6,000 trees and shrubs lessened the impacts of storm water runoff. High-quality street fur-nishings and paving materials serve as brand-ing elements so you always know when you’re on the Trail.

A $2 million art budget delivered twelve installations. An additional $2 million con-structed the Peacewalk, honoring 14 Ameri-cans for their peaceful contributions to soci-ety.

The Cultural Trail also helped spur eco-nomic development: two new businesses opened on rumors that the Trail was coming, three mixed-use developments were added once the route was finalized, and two more may be coming. At least ten new businesses have opened on the Trail since construction began.

By Mark Zwoyer

Pedestrians enjoy a stroll on the Cultural Trail

AmericanLegion

Mall

Veterans Memorial

Plaza

University Park

Military Park

IUPUI

White River State Park

Eli Lilly and Company

HolidayInn

Express

Marriott WestinHyatt

Regency

CrownePlaza

Canterbury

OmniSeverin Homewood

Suites

Hampton Inn

LaQuintaInn

EmbassySuites

Hilton

Courtyardby

Marriott

Sheraton Hilton Garden

Inn

Conrad

JW Marriott

ComfortSuites

StaybridgeSuites

To Zoo and Gardens

IndianaState

Capitol

City Market

Monument Circle

Circle Centre Mall

Bankers Life

Fieldhouse

Union Station

Lucas OilStadium

Indiana Convention Center

Victory Field

Baseball Park

Indiana State

Museum & IMAX

Theater

EiteljorgMuseum

Indiana History Center

Indiana World War Memorial

Marion County Public Library

Old National Centre

Madame Walker

Theatre Center

NCAA Headquarters & Hall

of Champions

Indianapolis Zoo & White River Gardens

Vis

itor

s C

ente

r

70

70

65

TO WHITE RIVER GREENWAY

TO FOUNTAIN SQUARE AND PLEASANT RUN GREENWAY

TO BROAD RIPPLE VILLAGE VIA MONON TRAIL

GLICK PEACE WALK

West St.

Blackfo

rd St.

University B

lvd.

Senate Ave.

Cap

itol A

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Illinois St.

Merid

ian St.M

eridian St.

Merid

ian St.

Pennsylvania St.

Delaw

are St.

Alab

ama St.

New

Jersey St.

East St.

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llege A

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West St.Ken

tuck

y Ave

.

Misso

uri St.

McCarty St.

Merrill St. Merrill St.

South St.

Maryland St.

Georgia St.

Washington St.

Washington St.

Market St.

Ohio St.

New York St.

Vermont St.

Michigan St.

New York St.

Michigan St.

North St.

Walnut St.

St. Clair St.

9th St.

10th St.

South St.

Washington St.

Market St.

Ohio St.

New York St.

Michigan St.

Mas

sach

uset

ts Ave

.

Indiana Ave.

St. Clair St.

10th St.

Cap

itol A

ve.

Illinois St.

Madison A

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Madison A

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Pennsylvania St.

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Virginia Ave.

INDIANA AVENUE

CULTURAL DISTRICTS

WHITE RIVER STATE PARK and THE CANALWHOLESALE DISTRICTMASS AVEFOUNTAIN SQUARE

Trail commissioned public art projects

4

setting transportation standards

For more than a decade, Thomas Sommers, PE, CPESC, of our Nashville office has played a leadership role in help-ing clients set policy, establish guidelines, develop innova-tive engineering solutions, and create technical standards for transportation projects. Of significant note is his long-term partnership with the Tennessee Department of Trans-

portation (TDOT). Since 2002, Tom

has been integral in helping the Department

update guidelines and de-velop new standards for TDOT

in many facets of transportation-related engineering—from geometrics and drainage to environmental compliance, structural roadway components, ADA compliance, pavement markings, and construction.

With the help of RW Armstrong’s structures team, the Nashville office recently revised all of TDOT’s 136 catchbasin standards to comply with new load and resistance factor de-sign (LRFD) codes for buried structures. As part of this fast-track project, the Nashville team gained approval from the Federal Highway Administration to re-issue these standards along with 18 new pipe headwall standards, impact attenua-tor selection guidelines, and three new 360-degree slip-base breakaway sign support standards that are utilized for Ten-nessee highway projects.

Known within the Tennessee design community for au-thoring TDOT’s 1,436-page Drainage Design Manual, Tom and other RW Armstrong experts have presented profession-al development seminars to clients, peers, and industry lead-ers at the Indiana Water Environment Association (IWEA), Tennessee American Water Resource Association (TNAWRA), and Ohio Stormwater conferences. The TDOT drainage man-ual is continuously amended and updated to support evolv-ing regulations.

In 2011, the team completed Chapter 11, Natural Stream Design, of the manual and in 2012 made substantial revisions to the entire document for compliance with new Environmental Protection Agency and state regulations.

In August 2012, the Tennessee Department of Environ-ment and Conservation (TDEC) and the University of Tennes-see re-issued the Tennessee Erosion and Sediment Control Handbook (fourth edition) to serve as the standard for all construction sites in Tennessee. We are proud to note that much of the content of this manual, including most of the new standard drawings, reference or are taken directly from documents our team authored for TDOT. This is a testament to our team’s exceptional work over the past eleven years.

This work has positioned RW Armstrong as a leader within the Tennessee transportation design community. The standards we’ve developed are followed by our competitors in the Tennessee transportation market and have helped standardize and improve design and construction work being done throughout the state. Our demonstrated leadership in this area is a strategic differentiator for our firm in allowing us to build important new relationships and compete for—and win—assignments in this niche market outside of Tennes-see. One such project involves the design of the 60-kilometer highway from Baku, Azerbaijan, to the Russian Federation border, which we are completing for the Republic of Azerbai-jan’s Ministry of Transportation.

If you have the opportunity to contribute to a client’s guidelines or standards or you’re submitting a proposal for a similar project and would like input or assistance, please con-tact him at 615.377.1320 ext. 403 or tsommers@rwa.com. He’d be glad to help!

Did you figure it out? The sequence of the numbers in last month’s newsletter are in alphabetical order from left to right. Eight, five, four, nine, one, seven, six, ten, three, two, zero.

?BRAIN TEASER

What is special about the following sequence of numbers?

8 5 4 9 1 7 6 10 3 2 0

Thomas Sommers, Nashville office

5

By Gabe Peters app of the month

Google Drive—5GB of Free StorageGoogle Drive has made

storing files simple and ex-tremely accessible—it lets you keep all of your stuff in one place. Google Drive is available on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, An-droid and PC.

This app allows you to create new Google documents or save existing files and share any-thing on your drive with anyone else who has an account. You can even make documents available offline for viewing while on a plane.

No matter what happens to your devices, even if your phone goes for a swim, your files are safely stored in Google Drive.

Scan the QR code to the left to download the app from iTunes.

volunteers help runners quench thirstBy Troy Jessopat the monumental marathon

RW Armstrong employees came out in record numbers on November 3rd to volunteer for the Fifth Annual Monumental Marathon. We’ve sponsored the Station C water and Gatorade tables since the inaugural event in 2008. In previous years, Sta-tion C was staffed by RW Armstrong volunteers plus others as-signed by the Monumental Marathon Committee to give us ad-equate capacity to set up the site, fill thousands of small cups, hand out water and Gatorade to participants, and clean up after the 10,000-plus runners and joggers had quenched their thirst. This year we had such great turnout that we didn’t need any other volunteers!

This year’s race saw an increase in runners because of the uncertainty of the New York Marathon as the city antici-pated power outages and floods from Superstorm Sandy. It was crucial that we had a veteran team this year because our supplies showed up an hour late, giving us little time to set up and get in place for the runners and joggers. True to RW Armstrong form, the team excelled at the challenge and we were ready for the elite runners with two minutes to spare. We received many compliments and thanks for a job well done from the runners as they passed through our station. Thank you RW Armstrong volunteers, and hope to see you next year.

Last month, one of our electrical engi-neers, Nikhil Bodhankar (CHA), was recognized at the American Coun-cil of Engineering Com-panies (ACEC) National Conference for being named a Young Profes-sional of the Year. He is pictured here with ACEC Chairman Ted Williams (left) and ACEC Presi-dent and CEO David Ray-mond (right).

Nikhil, who works on-site at the GE Global Research Cen-ter, has traveled to India to explore possibilities for student and faculty exchange in collaborative research, and was a member of Syracuse University’s Graduate Global Ambassa-dors collaborative initiative team. He also had his research into Functionally Integrated Reactive Surface Technologies (FIRST) and short circuit fault analysis published and present-ed at major symposiums.

Please join us on congratulating Nikhil on gaining this im-pressive national recognition.

congratulations, nikhil!

Nikhil accepts his award for being named Young Professional of the Year

Marathon Volunteers (left to right): back row – Peter White, Ryan Pattenaude, Marc Skillman, David Henkel,

Simon Davies, Jeremy Kosegi, Mary Appel; middle row – Daniel Kurdziel, Tammy Schroeder, Steve Lawrence,

Troy Jessop, Scott Crimmins, Jackie Dohrenwend, Betsy Meulendyke; front row – Luke Henkel, Denise Doyle, Joel

Henkel, Leilani Sebolboro, Ariel Jessop, Kelly Tingle

6

RW Armstrong provided design and construction management for the

Briscoe Bridge

mike devoy receives

On November 6, Mike DeVoy, vice pres-ident and director of aviation, received

a very special award from the Airport Consultants Council (ACC)—the Board of Directors Chair Award. Each year, the outgoing board chair bestows this award on someone who has made a unique and significant contribution to ACC. Mike was recognized for his many years of dedicated service to the orga-

nization with an emphasis on the the work he’s done during his two-term tenure as globalization committee chair. As Courtney Beamon, ACC board of

directors chair, explained, “Mike has been absolutely instrumental in setting the course for ACC’s globalization efforts and has recruited fabulous people to

help with important initiatives such as the Global Business Summit.” She also noted that Mike has played a key role in ACC’s increased communications with ACI-World, ICAO,

and IATA, and in developing an international track for ACC’s 2013 Symposium. Congratulations, Mike, on this prestigious award and thank you for your continued dedication to advancing the goals of the profession and our firm.

rehabilitating the historic bricsoe bridgeBy Tony Marino

RW Armstrong’s transportation team in its Evansville office recently complet-ed the design and construction management for the rehabilitation of a historic iron truss bridge in Warrick County, Indiana. The Briscoe Bridge (Warrick Bridge 271) is a five-span bridge originally built in 1893. Its configuration includes a Whip-ple-type truss bracketed with Kingpost-type trusses. Because the bridge is eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, regulations governing the treatment and preservation of historic structures determined that the bridge, which was originally identified for replacement, would instead be preserved and repaired.

The bridge inspection revealed the structure to be in very poor condition. Sev-eral critical members of the iron trusses exhibited significant impact damage and deformation from overstressing, and the timber deck planks were badly warped. The deterioration had progressed to the point that a restrictive three-ton weight limit was posted, requiring maintenance and emergency vehicles to drive an eight-mile detour into the neighboring county to access areas south of the bridge.

Finite-element structural analyses modeled the bridge in its deteriorated con-dition and allowed our engineers to prepare a detailed scope of the work needed to repair the structure and improve the load capacity. Care was taken to detail re-pairs and retrofits that would not adversely impact its historic character. The work included replacing the stringers and hanger rods, retrofitting the riveted trans-verse floorbeams, heat straightening, repairing and strengthening the damaged truss chords, installing a new Glulam timber deck, restoring the decorative lattice bar railing, and blast-cleaning and repainting the bridge.

The bridge re-opened to traffic in October, and the detailed improvements were load rated for the county’s maintenance vehicles. The project improved the bridge’s load carrying capacity to ten tons and extended its service life for 30 more years.

Congratulations to Craig Riley of our

Indianapolis office who recently passed the LEED AP

exam. Also, congratulations for being named to this year’s Men’s Silver Anniversary Team for the

Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. Way to go, Craig!

double kudos,craig!

By Denise McFadden

special recognition from ACC

7

abu dhabi IT departmentBy Annemarie Frannsendelivers high-tech consulting

RW Armstrong’s IT department in Abu Dhabi has been providing consulting services to the Masdar Institute of Sci-ence and Technology (MI) in Abu Dhabi since 2009.

The Masdar Institute was established in affiliation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first building (Phase 1A) was completed in January 2010. From it, MI offers coursework in computer science and engineering. This phase saw the construction of 102 apartments, two open-plan laboratories, two clean rooms (1000 and 100 Class (ppm)), three hi-bays, a knowl-edge center, wind tower, 90-seat auditorium, gym, medical center, canteen, and retail shops.

The second phase (Phase 1B) is currently under construc-tion and is expected to open at the end of 2012. Its facilities

include 219 apartments, three open-plan laboratories, seven hi-bays, a multi-use hall/sports hall that can be converted to a confer-ence facility, a gym and aquat-ics center, student affairs center, café and retail shops, offices, and meeting rooms.

You can feel the high-tech atmosphere everywhere on campus—unmanned electric ve-hicles transport students between university buildings, and video walls display information in place of traditional signs and bulletin boards.

Our IT team, led by Ahmed Soliman, is in charge of su-pervising the IT vendors that are designing and implemen-tating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Audio-Visual (AV) systems for Phase 1B.

These systems use state-of-the-art technology to meet faculty requirements and reflect the core function of the in-stitute as a technology hub and research center. A central-ized data center will host a converged data-voice network in a virtualized environment to optimize hardware utilization and energy consumption.

The main data center will be connected to 33 service equipment rooms to provide data, voice, and internet con-nectivity to campus facilities and student residential units over a high-speed fiber optic network. Classrooms, labs, and meeting rooms will be equipped with audio/video confer-encing equipment, smart boards, and PC terminals integrat-ed into the campus wide area network.

Students will attend joint classes and collaborate in real-time with MIT students via content-sharing and video con-ferencing. Electronic room schedulers will be used to reserve conference rooms and interactive LCD displays mounted next to each room will display meetings and classroom schedules. Digital signage in common areas will broadcast content and class schedules synchronized with a centralized content man-agement system.

Our project team includes Khaled Zaghloul, project di-rector; Ahmed Soliman, global IT director; and Saeed Ch-ishti, network administrator.

An electrical vehicle to transport the students

Indianapolis, Indiana: Did you know? Fun facts about the City. � Indianapolis’ historic Union Station, the building that houses RW Armstrong’s largest office, was the first union station in the world, opening in September 1853. In fact, Thomas Edison worked there as a telegraph operator in 1861.

� Indianapolis is home to the world’s largest children’s museum in both square footage and number of artifacts.

� Indianapolis is second only to Washington D.C., the nation’s capital, in its number of monuments and memorials (33).

� Indianapolis is home to the two largest single-day sporting events in the world, the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400. Both take place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

� Elvis Presley performed his last concert (at the former Market Square Arena) downtown Indianapolis in June 1977.

The Masdar Institue of Science and Technology

8www.rwArmstrong.com

“movember” team:By Gabe Peters“mo mustache, less problems”

A team from RW Armstrong’s Indianapo-lis office made up of (from left to right) Pete White, Dan Kurdziel, Jonathan Mooney, Vinod Abraham, Dave Henkel, Gabe Peters, and Chris Garretson (and Chris’ dad Richard—not pictured) all participated in “Movember”. This event is a month-long mustache-growing bonanza to raise awareness (and money) for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer. Par-ticipants shave clean on the first day of No-vember and then grow their ‘staches for the remainder of the month.

While some of you may “not care for” these hairy upper lips, the cause was much greater than us. Some had personal reasons for wanting to join the team and some just wanted a reason to grow a nice mustache without much pushback.

Prior to Movember, some of this year’s participants hadn’t shaved in years. Vinod, for example, believes he has only shaved his mustache off one time 15 years ago. So, when the beginning of the month came around and his bare upper lip walked into the office, many people had to take a second look to recognize him. Hats off to Vinod and Chris’ dad (who has had a mustache for 40 years) for shaving their mustaches for this good cause.

By the way, yes I (Gabe) have a mustache in the picture above—it’s just blonde and the lighting’s bad, OK? Thanks again to everyone who participated and donated to this great cause!

transportation team wins the ohio river bridges project (story continued from page 1)

Cabinet and graded for its innovation and for compliance to the project scope and schedule. The election process con-sisted of two components: bid price and proposal grade. Via a somewhat complicated equation, the bid and technical pro-

posal grades are combined to determine the “best value”. The Walsh design-build team received the highest grade on the technical proposal. When the bids were opened, Walsh was second at $971.4 million, but because our technical grade was superior, the Cabinet identified our team as providing the overall best value.

We believe that design-build and P3 (public, private partnership) projects are the wave of the future. We also believe that we’re very well positioned to ride that wave.

The Indiana transportation team is now charged with developing final con-struction documents for the infrastruc-ture illustration to the left. We have 19 months to pull this off and we’re ready for the challenge. Section 3 of the Ohio River Bridges project

The ”Movember” crew showing off their ‘staches