Spring 2011 - Civiltech Engineering, Inc.

Between The Lines
Transportation | Civil | Construction | Environmental | Structural | Appraisal
CIVILTECH ENGINEERING, INC.’S QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2011 | ISSUE 14
Whitetopping in Lombard
President’s Message
S
ince our inception, the Principals of Civiltech have always felt
very strongly about providing for ownership of stock by all of our
employees. Each year at this time, we afford this opportunity to
our staff. By bringing on a few more shareholders this year, we will be
at 42 employee-owners; about half of our full time staff. We believe this
commitment to ownership results in an extra sense of pride in our company
and in what we do. We also believe our clients will experience an increased
sense of commitment to them and their projects. This opportunity has
proven to be a “win-win” situation for ourselves and our clients.
before
450 E Devon Ave, Suite 300 | Itasca, IL 60143
Tel: 630.773.3900 | Fax: 630.773.3975
www.civiltechinc.com
Congratulations!
Civiltech would like to recognize the
following employees for their 10 years
of service to the company:
Kristen E. Hahn, P.E., PTOE
Senior Project Engineer
Cindy M. Ladd
Accounting Assistant
Sven D. Zimdahl, P.E.
Project Manager
David Kreeger, one of Civiltech’s Phase II Project
Managers, recently spoke at the Transportation
and Highway Engineers (THE) Conference at the
University of Illinois. Civiltech was asked by the
Village of Lombard to present the North Industrial
Park Ultra-Thin Whitetopping Project as part of the
Local Roads and Streets session of the conference.
Dave’s presentation focused on the issues encountered
during the design of this whitetopping project within
an active industrial park. The two-day conference was
attended by nearly 1,100 engineers, a record for the
conference.
Visit Civiltech at Booth #819
at the APWA Conference and
Expo May 25-26, 2011 at the
Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel
& Convention Center. Enter for
a chance to win a gift card in our
raffle. For more information, visit
www.civiltechinc.com/events
The existing pavement within the industrial park
was deteriorating because of the heavy truck traffic
and having outlived its intended design life by more
than 15 years. Without funding available to perform
a full reconstruction, the Village of Lombard selected
Civiltech to design an interim improvement using the
ultra-thin whitetopping process. This method has been
used in the past on rural highways and low volume
residential streets, however, there has been little
experience using this method in areas with high truck
volumes that must be maintained at all times. The large
volume of truck traffic presented challenges for the
design of the overlay as well as constructability issues.
For more information, contact:
Gary A. Blazek, P.E.
[email protected]
500 Coventry Ln, Suite 290
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
Tel: 815.477.1915
Fax: 815.477.1958
McHenry County
For more information, contact:
Michael J. Folkening, P.E.
[email protected]
30 N LaSalle St, Suite 2624
Chicago, IL 60602
Tel: 312.726.5910
Fax: 312.726.5911
Chicago
For more information or to optout of receiving this newsletter,
contact:
Meredith R. Leifheit
[email protected]
450 E Devon Ave, Suite 300
Itasca, IL 60143
Tel: 630.773.3900
Fax: 630.773.3975
To view this newsletter and back issues online,
visit www.civiltechinc.com/newsletter.
Itasca
Between The Lines
Now Available Online
www.civiltechinc.com
Civiltech would also like to congratulate
Omar De Jesus Tobon on becoming a U.S. citizen.
Civiltech analyzed multiple typical section options
in order to provide the best results while minimizing
project costs. The resulting typical section consisted
of 4-inch of fiber reinforced concrete placed over the
existing asphalt pavement and saw cut into a 4-foot by
4-foot grid. The existing curb and gutter and driveway
aprons were replaced in order to accommodate the
raised roadway profile.
Over 150 businesses are located on the 2.2 miles of
roadway within the industrial park, many requiring
truck access twenty-four hours a day, seven days a
week. Two public information meetings were held
to inform the property owners of the rehabilitation
method selected and what to expect during
construction. After the presentation portion of the
meetings, Civiltech and the Village met with the
individual business owners to gather information
about the use of each access point to their properties.
This information was used to prepare detailed
construction staging plans that included specific
driveway closure requirements. These restrictions
allowed the business owners to maintain access to their
properties at all times while maximizing the amount of
workspace available to the contractor.
Working closely with the Village of Lombard and the
Illinois Chapter of the American Concrete Pavement
Association, Civiltech was able to maintain the
Village’s desired schedule of design and construction
completion, all within 2010.
after
Photo: Brian Fritz Photography
Observing National Surveyors Week
What’s
New?
Engineers Without Borders
Civiltech is proud to announce that the firm has been
selected to provide services on the following projects:
Returning from Western Kenya
community. The people of Mayanja were excited
to have the EWB project team in their Village and
expressed extreme gratitude and a hope for the
project team to return soon.
Orchard Road - US 30 to Jericho Road
Roadway Reconstruction
Kane County Department of Transportation
Lynn Overbay and Daniel Atkins in Kenya
Fairfield Road / IL Route 176
Lake County
Photo: Brian Fritz Photography
Representing Women in the Engineering Field
Civiltech and Kara, Co. volunteers at the Surveying USA event in Schaumburg
On Saturday, March 19, the first-ever simultaneous,
nationwide Global Positioning System (GPS) Survey
was conducted by volunteers from the National Society
of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) to commemorate
National Surveyors Week.
Civiltech partnered with Kara Company, Inc. for
this Surveying USA event to promote the use of GPS
and the importance of surveying. The event took
place at Volkening Heritage Farm in Schaumburg, in
conjunction with the Sugar Bush Fair at Spring Valley.
Many families enjoyed an outdoor pancake breakfast at
the Sugar Bush Fair followed by an educational stop at
the Surveying USA event.
Surveying professionals, antique survey equipment and
state-of-the-art GPS units for a hands-on experience
were all a part of the event. Tim Burch, PLS and
Illinois Governor for the NSPS, talked about land
surveying and the NSPS organization, while Eric Kara
demonstrated using a GPS unit and antique survey
equipment to attendees. From Civiltech, Kristen Hahn
and John Rosak spoke about how they use survey
data in their design work, whereas, Denise Rolando
talked about construction surveying. Attendees had
the chance to touch and look through the survey
instruments as well as ask questions.
The event was a great opportunity to share what
surveyors do, why they do it, what equipment and
technology they use and lastly, how the survey data
is used.
Thanks to our Civiltech volunteers who helped make
this event a success: Denise Rolando, Kristen Hahn,
John Rosak and Theresa Bratanch. Also a special
thanks to Barb Stucker for taking pictures.
On Friday, March 11, Mary Young, Director of Traffic, Environmental & Design Studies, and Jennifer (Sis) Killen,
Project Manager, represented the engineering field as a career option for young women at the annual Mother
McAuley Liberal Arts High School career fair. Both Mary and Sis are alumni of the all-girls college preparatory
high school on Chicago’s southwest side and have participated in this event in the past. Their goal each year is to
educate the students on non-traditional careers for women as well as answer any questions regarding careers in
engineering. In addition to participating in events like this, Civiltech offers job shadowing to students who have
an interest in learning more about civil engineering.
As mentioned in our last issue (available at
http://www.civiltechinc.com/newsletter), Daniel
Atkins of the Civiltech Structural Department, Lynn
Overbay (wife of Civiltech Principal, Gary Overbay)
and six other members of the Chicagoland and
Indianapolis Chapters of Engineers Without Borders
(EWB) traveled to Mayanja in Bungoma District of
western Kenya in January to assess the condition
of existing water supply sources. They have since
returned and deemed their trip a success with the
EWB team being able to collect substantial data
related to the existing "infrastructure" supplying
water to a population of around 20,000 people.
During their trip the EWB team visited 52 existing
water sources in Mayanja that consisted mainly of
natural springs and hand-dug wells. Several of these
water sources dry up during the dry season resulting
in people needing to walk up to 2 miles to reach
the nearest water source. Additionally, a majority of
the existing water sources were unprotected which
allows debris and animal waste to contaminate the
water. With the aid of the community, the EWB
team was able to collect valuable technical data
about the water conditions and water-borne illnesses
in the area.
Mary Young (left) and Sis Killen (right) discuss careers in engineering with interested students.
On The Air
Earlier this month, Civiltech sponsored an anti-drug
campaign on WSCR - 670 The Score, to remind
listeners that children are the future and should be
educated about the harmfulness of drugs.
Along with technical work, important relationships
were built with members of the community.
Meetings were held with the local chief and subchiefs to establish trust and begin developing a
partnership between the project team and the
Among the Best
With the data that was collected and the
relationships made with the community members,
EWB is ready to begin engineering solutions, using
local and sustainable technologies, to make the
water sources cleaner and more accessible. Members
of the community will be involved in nearly every
step of the process so that when the project is
complete they can take pride in their work and be
able to continue to build their infrastructure on
their own. After the solutions have been developed,
the project team will travel again to Mayanja (likely
in January of 2012) and begin implementation of
the improvements. They will also continue the
process of educating the community so that the
local population can continue to improve and
maintain their water sources without further
outside assistance.
An existing water source in Mayanja
Along with the project in Kenya, Daniel Atkins,
is also involved in a project in Canchias, Honduras.
Canchias is a small mountain village, where Daniel
will travel in April to help construct a bridge
that was designed by the Chicagoland Chapter
of EWB.
If you’d like more information about
Engineers Without Borders or to make
a donation to the Kenya Water Project,
please visit www.ewb-usa-chicago.org.
CE News ranked Civiltech Engineering, Inc. among the 2010 “Best Civil
Engineering Firms To Work For.” This ranking acknowledges top firms
based on workplace practices, employee benefits, employee retention
rates, and more.