In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida—Jersey Style

In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida—Jersey Style
The historic Albany Street Bridge over the Raritan River. The bridge was constructed in 1887 and twice the focus of major work this last century.
A tree-lined walkway graces the north side of Albany
Street just outside the Hyatt Regency where the workshop was held.
The 2013 Joint Summer Workshop
W
hile I don’t believe that either ATCO records or the iconic 1960s rock group Iron Butterfly had New Jersey in
mind with their song about the Garden of Eden, the Garden State showed an idyllic side during our visit for
the 2013 summer workshop. This summer marked the 33rd consecutive annual summer workshop for our
committee—Environmental Analysis in Transportation. This time we had the pleasure to meet with the TRB Committee
on Hydrology, Hydraulics and Water Quality (AFB60). The workshop ran from July 22nd through the 25th.
Coming into town just prior to workshop, the weather was hot and humid but thankfully the heat abated over the time that
we were there. We were spared from the oppressive heat of the previous two weeks. Though this is New Brunswick’s
peak rain month, only once did we encounter even a little rain—missing most of it while at the committee dinner at the
Makeda Ethiopian Restaurant just blocks from the hotel.
New Brunswick is rich in history. Originally inhabited by the Lenape Tribe, the first European settlement came in 1681. At
the time the settlement was named “Prigmore’s Swamp”. The village changed names many times over many years.
Finally, in 1714 the town was given the named “New Brunswick” after Braunschweig, Germany—a then influential city in
European affairs. The town was formally established by British Royal Charter on December 30, 1730. It was finally
incorporated as a city though an act by the New Jersey legislature on September 1, 1784. Centrally located between
New York City and Philadelphia, the city of New Brunswick played an important role in the early years of our country.
Our workshop hosts were the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and the North Jersey Transportation
Planning Authority (NJTPA). Our hosts, along with Rutgers University, were absolutely fabulous and immensely
supportive—making us feeling welcome and helping us every step along the way from planning to execution. All three
had engaging speakers covering many sessions.
The clock and steeple of First Reformed Church—one of two
historic churches across the street from the Hyatt hotel where
our event was held.
Monday’s Research Symposium
Carissa Schively Slotterback is an Associate Professor and Director of the Urban
and Regional Planning Program in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the
University of Minnesota.
Chris Gesing, Ken Hess and
Harold Draper of our
committee discuss research
ideas.
For two years in a row, Carissa
has delivered a successful
research symposium covering
both how to develop a research
proposal as well as
brainstorming emergent
transportation research needs.
The research symposium was held from 1:00 to 3:00 PM Monday. About 30 people attended. The symposium
explored cross-cutting research opportunities in light of changes in environmental analysis in transportation
changes over the last 5-10 years.
The Environmental Analysis in Transportation committee business meeting followed the symposium. While the
Hydrology, Hydraulics and Water Quality committee business ran concurrent with both, some members broke
from that meeting to attend the symposium.
Gretchen McGrath (Left) and Ileana Ivanciu both
from Dewberry grab a quick cup of coffee before the
start of the hectic day. Both contributed so much to the
success of the workshop. Dewberry was and is
significantly involved in the initial efforts as well as the
rebuilding effort in the aftermath of Super Storm
Sandy.
Tuesday Early Morning’s Plenary Session—New Jersey Perspectives in
Transportation Planning and the Environment
Mary K. Murphy, Executive
Director of the North Jersey
Transportation Planning Authority
spoke at and moderated the
opening session.
Richard Hammer is an Assistant
Commissioner for Capital Program
Management at the New Jersey
DOT.
Bob Marshall is the Assistant
Commissioner for Sustainability
and Green Energy for the New
Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection.
Hunterdon County Freeholder
Matthew Holt is Chairman of the
North Jersey Transportation
Planning Authority. He gave a very
enthusiastic
Very knowledgeable and dynamic speakers gave great insights to how New Jersey’s agencies are a step ahead of many
in planning and implementing environmentally sound transportation systems.
Tuesday Late Morning’s Plenary Session—Super Storm Sandy Response
Genevieve Clifton is the manager
of the New Jersey DOT’s office of
Maritime Resources.
Thomas Abdallah is the Chief
Environmental Engineer for the
MTA New York City Transit.
Tom Hicks moderated the session
on Super Storm Sandy Response.
He is Vice President and Office
Leader at HNTB.
Tony DeJohn is a Senior
Engineering Manager and Vice
President at Parsons Brinckerhoff.
The region’s many agencies and consultant organizations came together when most needed to clear rail lines and
roadways, reestablish power, get aid to the affected population, and open important marine transportation systems
following the destruction in the wake of the nation’s second costliest hurricane.
Tuesday Afternoon’s Plenary Session—Super Storm Sandy Response
“We are stronger
than the storm.”
– New Jersey
Governor Chris
Christie
Andrew Tunnard is the Director of
Operations Support at the New
Jersey DOT.
Craig Johnson is Executive Vice
President at Dewberry.
Steve Santoro is the Assistant
Executive Director of Capital
Planning and Programs at New
Jersey Transit.
The audience listens intently to a presentation by Genevieve Clifton on storm response for New Jersey’s maritime transportation system.
Genevieve mentioned that the ability to manage information in a dynamic system lies in the ability to provide a framework for information, and data
acquisition that will add context to the system managed. Such a systematic approach would allow for better resource allocation and prioritization as
well as sound decision-making.
Tuesday Morning Plenary—TRB Committees’ Welcome
Pat Hu, Associate Administrator
and Director of the Bureau of
Transportation Statistics and cochair of the TRB Committee on
Visualization in Transportation
(ABJ95) helped open the
workshop.
Muggs Stoll is the Director of Land
Use and Transportation Planning at
the San Diego Association of
Governments (SANDAG). Muggs is
also chair of the TRB Committee on
Environmental Analysis in
Transportation. He made our
committee’s welcome address.
Jon Zirkle welcomed the group as
chair of the TRB Committee on
Hydrology, Hydraulics and Water
Quality (AFB60). This is the first
time we have met jointly with this
committee. Jon works for the
Tennessee DOT in Nashville where
we will have our 2014 summer
workshop.
Registration
Gretchen McGrath and Barbara Eljenholm had the most thankless job at the workshop—they worked the registration desk. They
both did a great job! All totaled they assisted more than 150 people
through numerous issues and addressed multiple challenges over
the three and a half days of the workshop.
Exhibits
Ty Dickerson and Jean Huang talk among the exhibits on one of the
typical 30-minute breaks.
The foyer outside the meetings was always packed during the
breaks as people wandered through the eleven exhibitor booths.
After a close personal introduction by Genevieve Clifton, Jane Kozinski, Assistant Commissioner for Environmental
Management at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, gave a lunch time audience of a 120 people
her agency’s view of the state’s response to the devastation reeked by Sandy—especially concerning debris removal.
Her message strongly focused on a team effort among all agencies to meet the Governor's challenge to get all public
services back on line within a short period of time.
Our committee had its dinner on Tuesday
night. We went to Makeda Ethiopian
restaurant on Church Street just blocks
from the hotel. Present were (left to right)
(Back Row) Ileana Ivanciu, Sue Killen,
Pat Trombly, Chris Gesign, Muggs Stoll
(Seated) Marianne Hatzopoullou, Mike
Davis, Diane Nulton, Rick Record, Harold
Draper, Ken Hess (Front) Martin Palmer
Cool Reception
Oldcastle Precast had a separate event occurring
concurrent with our workshop so they extended an
invitation to attend their event—a social networking
gathering on Tuesday evening. The 3-hour event
had transportation-related product displays on the
perimeter and within had three bars, six food
stations and live music. Several door prizes were
awarded and three lucky people from our
committee were recipients.
People in the picture on upper left are (left to right) Tom
DiChiara, Rick Record, Muggs Stoll, Chris Gesing, Martin
Palmer, Ken Hess
Inspired by how its easy reach, five of us ventured to
New York City for a Wednesday night feast at Tony Di
Napoli on West 43rd Street.
(L to R) Harold Draper, Martin Palmer, Alex Fisher, Barbara Eljenholm, Muggs Stoll
Route 18 Tour
With goody bags from Gannett Fleming Inc. in hand we
boarded the 37-passenger bus that took us on a 2 hour
tour of New Jersey DOT’s flagship project—Route 18
reconstruction through downtown New Brunswick. The
project completed in 2010 incorporated many features
such as the faux brickwork and arched bridges to keep in
character with the surrounding historic area as well as
pedestrian sensitive amenities and clear noise barriers to
enhance the human environment. The economy-driven
project was designed to also help preserve historical
features and protect the natural environment.
Our Route 18 tour group with the reconstructed Route 18 in the background.
The entrance to Boyd Park. The Route 18 tour included a walk through the park as it
was an important part of this vital project. The inset photographs are of the Historic
Delaware and Raritan Canal and Lock which are part of the park. These canal and
lock system was important to freight movement in the region. Once in the canal
system, mule teams pulled barges through miles of canals. This segment was once
one of the busiest in the nation.
Glimpse of Some of the Breakout Session Presentations
Matthew Mampara is a Water
Resources Engineer at Dewberry.
Matthew presented information on
the state hazard mitigation plans
and its connection to climate
change adaptation. Matthew
spoke in Wendi Goldsmith’s
session along with Tina Hodges
and Jeffery Perlman (right).
Jeffery Perlman with the North
Jersey Transportation Planning
Authority addressed sustainability
through the inventory of assets
and criticality, and conducting
vulnerability analyses based on
current storm data and future
trends during the Tuesday
afternoon session on climate
change adaptation strategies.
Susan Jones is a civil engineer
with the FHWA in Washington,
DC and is a young member of our
committee. She moderated
FHWA’s Wednesday morning
session. Speakers in her session
include Carol Braegelmann,
Patricia Cazenas, Shana Baker
and Tina Hodges.
Shana Baker, Livability Team
Lead at FHWA. Gave an
energetic presentation on the
Transportation Alternatives
Program, Livability, Environmental
Justice and Bicycle and
pedestrian activities.
Carol Braegelmann, Senior
Environmental Protection
Specialist at FHWA. Carol
presented in FHWA’s Wednesday
morning session on accelerated
project delivery and spoke on
reducing costs in an efficient and
effective manner. She outlined
many provisions in new codes
and initiatives that help in that
regard.
Patricia Cazenas spoke about
implications of MAP-21 on
research and how it differs from
SAFETEA-LU. Patricia gave a
broad overview of where federal
environmental and transportation
research money was focused.
She also gave an update on
SHRP2. Patricia is a Senior
Transportation Specialist and
Team Leader with the FHWA.
Bruce Hawkinson is an
Environmental Project Manager
with the New Jersey DOT. Bruce
not only moderated the
Wednesday morning session on
Assessing Tools...Is Interagency
Collaboration Better of Worse but
as a representative of one our two
hosts did so much to help plan
and support efforts to make the
workshop a success. Thank you
Bruce!
Dan Saunders is the
Administrator and Deputy State
Historic Preservation Officer for
the state of New Jersey. Dan
spoke about the genuine
collaboration between the SHPO’s
office and the New Jersey DOT
that creates trust.
Steve Mars is a Senior Biologist
with the US Fish and Wildlife
Service. Steve made a
presentation on the Route 72
Manahawkin Bay Bridges Project
and mitigation requirements met
on Cedar Bonnet Island. The
project mitigation is to restore
spartina coastal marsh and
coastal maritime/forest scrubshrub habitat.
Stacey Bricka is a Research
Scientist and Program Manager at
Texas A&M University. Stacey
moderated and presented in the
session about using the National
Household Transportation Survey
for environmental assessments.
Her session gave an overview of
the NHTS and how visualization
can be used to better
communicate information. Other
presenters were Jean-Daniel
Saphores and Pat Hu.
Stephen Dilts is Vice President of
the Transportation Business
Group at CH2M HILL. Stephen
moderated the Thursday morning
session on Assessing the
Effectiveness and Tools in MPO
Planning Processes and What it
Means to People and the
Environment. The session
focused on looking at whether or
not regional plans are really
achieving what they set out to do.
Ken Stone with the Washington
State Department of
Transportation gave a
comprehensive presentation
about the efforts from AASHTO
SCOE Research Taskforce,
updates on the TERI database
and AASHTO SCOE research
submittals to NCHRP. Ken was
one of three other speakers in
Thursday morning’s session on
research.
People in one of the plenary sessions listen carefully to one
of the 61 individual presentaons made in the workshop.
Thursday Morning’s Plenary Session—Super Storm Sandy—Resilient Rebuilding
Ty Dickerson, New Jersey
Transits Senior Director for New
Starts outlined in word and
pictures the heavy damage to the
transit system throughout the
state.
Jean Huang gave a great
presentation on the changes to and
the benefits of using the Advisory
Base Flood Elevation Data.
Tom DiChiara spoke about
sustainable planning and building
practices in the face of ever
increase storm intensities and rising
sea levels.
Helene Roberts of the FHWA New
Jersey Division Office spoke about
the heavy damage sustained by the
infrastructure from the storm.
The Super storm Sandy—Resilient Rebuilding session focused on post Sandy rebuilding and what steps New Jersey is
taking to harden the infrastructure in light of a robust rebuilding effort and more frequent storm events.
Workshop Closeout
Martin Palmer of the TRB Committee on Environmental Analysis in Transportation and Jon Zirkle, Chair of the TRB
Committee on Hydrology, Hydraulics and Water Quality reflected on the insights and lessons learned from the storm and
how New Jersey met the challenge. Both thanked the presenters, moderators, hosts and sponsors for making the event
a success.
Overall, we had a total of 127 people register for the workshop and of those there were a number of one day
registrations. We had a total of 47 people sign up for just one day of the workshop – more than any previous Summer
Workshop our committee has held. Attendees came from 17 states and Canada.
The Johnson and Johnson
headquarters building.
Candice Butler waves goodbye
on the last day of the workshop.
Candice is the Catering Manager
at the Hyatt Regency Hotel where
the event was held.