Hoover Dam Bypass Wins Prestigious ACEC Award

The Hoover Dam Bypass Project was awarded the Grand Conceptor Award, 2011 by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) at the annual Engineering Excellence Awards program in April, 2011.  The Grand Conceptor Award is the highest award given by ACEC.

Soaring nearly 900 feet above the Colorado River, the Hoover Dam Bypass features a 1,900-foot-long arched concrete bridge — the highest and largest of its type in the Western Hemisphere, and the world’s tallest pre-cast concrete columns. A triumph more than 40 years in the making, the bypass eliminates wearisome traffic congestion along the dam’s hairpin turns, while increasing security for the Dam — a vital Southwest source of power and water.

The project team utilized groundbreaking design to overcome challenges of high winds, extremely rugged terrain and severe heat to complete the project, which includes which includes 4.3-miles of new highway and seven additional bridges.

Two 2,500-foot-long cableways connected to 330-foot-high towers on each side of the Black Canyon transported crews and 50 tons of equipment and materials into place during bridge construction.

Because of triple digit temperatures, concrete was poured from midair at night and cooled with liquid nitrogen-filled tubes. The concrete arch — built in two segments that began 1,060-feet apart on each side of the canyon — was closed just three-eighths inch off perfect.

The Hoover Dam Bypass compliments the historic Hoover Dam with its own majestic presence, while effectively bridging engineering’s greatness of the past with today’s brilliance.

Converse Consultants provided services for the construction of the Colorado River Bridge, which is part of the overall Hoover Dam Bypass Project.  The bridge is the longest concrete arch in North America, which required over 243 million pounds of concrete and 16 million pounds of steel to build at an estimated cost of $120 million.

ASTM Continuing Obligations Standard Published

by Mike Sowinski | 07 / 06 / 2011 |

After years in the making and on the heels of two recent court decisions addressing “appropriate care,” ASTM published E2790-11, the “Standard Guide for Identifying and Complying With Continuing Obligations.”

Continuing Obligations And the Need for an Industry Standard

The phrase Continuing Obligations owes its origins to EPA guidance.  EPA’s “Common Elements” guidance, as it’s known, summarized the various post-purchase obligations that must be shown “by a preponderance of evidence” in order for non-contaminating landowners to successfully assert CERCLA defenses made newly available in the 2002 Brownfields Amendements – namely, the Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser Defense, the Contiguous Property Owner Defense, and the Innocent Landowner Defense (which was actually modified from the pre-Amendments version).  In doing so, EPA characterized these post-purchase requirements as “Continuing Obligations.”

ASTM’s Continuing Obligations Guide began as Bob Wenzlau’s vision when, after working closely in the area of institutional control monitoring, or LandWatch as we call it, and witnessing the passage of the 2002 Brownfields Amendments, he saw the absence of any regulatory guidance and thus the need (and heard the same from others) for the type of procedural guidance an industry standard could provide in this murky area.  The need he saw seems highlighted by the recent Ashley II and Robertshaw “appropriate care” decisions as well as state laws and state programs, such as recent amendments to Michigan’s statute which requires landowners to comply with institutional controls, a Wisconsin Continuing Obligation administrative program, among others.  Together, all of these developments help stress the importance of Continuing Obligations while indirectly showing how uniformity in this area can help bring certainty to brownfield site management while also working positively for environmental protection.

The CO Standard Guide

With it’s primary focus on procedures for institutional control compliance assurance and taking “reasonable steps” in light of residual contamination, the Continuing Obligations standard recommends a four-step process. The first step begins with a screening process to help identify whether Continuing Obligations are relevant.  Next, it suggests steps for learning about the environmental conditions, including institutional controls and/or recognized environmental conditions, so that Continuing Obligation procedures can be appropriately designed for site specifics. Step 3, in turn, suggests immediate steps to take soon after the need for Continuing Obligation arises – usually shortly after property purchase. Finally, step 4 describes long term inspection, monitoring, and management procedures meant to make sure that, over time, proper management of residually contaminated and/or institutional controls keeps people and the environment safe.

Aided by this four-step framework, the standard provides instruction on developing a Continuing Obligations Plan – which, when completed, sets forth the actual Continuing Obligations for site specifics.  The standard goes on to recommend formats for and forms for documenting Continuing Obligation site inspections and for preparing periodic reports to document proper Continuing Obligation performance.  The standard provides a uniform framework while giving users tools to tailor Continuing Obligations to site specifics.

The primary users, in all likelihood, will be those who recently purchased contaminated property and desire to remain eligible for CERCLA’s Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser defense, the Contiguous Property Owner defense, or the Innocent Landowner defense.   These defenses, among other things, require owners seeking the defense to show they have performed Continuing Obligations.  In addition to these users, other landowners of contaminated property often wish to properly manage contamination and institutional controls, even if they do not feel the need to qualify for CERCLA defenses.  This situation arises for many reasons, ranging from a desire to responsibly steward recycled property to the need to comply with state-law requirements, such as the need to periodically assure state regulators that institutional controls remain effectively operating.  Parties like these are also likely to use the standard.

Having participated closely in the drafting of this standard, I can tell you that many smart and talented people offered wise, sometimes disagreeing, perspectives into the process – which proved a difficult one.   In the end, though, I think the product that resulted will help inform persons performing Continuing Obligations, and particularly the process of assuring compliance with institutional controls and with establishing and assuring compliance with reasonable steps designed for site specifics.

This is a repost of a Terradex blog regarding an important new environmental standard.  Converse Consultants regularly provides brownfields grants writing, and other brownfields services.  For more information please contact Norman Eke at 626-930-1200 or neke@converseconsultants.com.

Hoover Dam Bypass Wins APWA Award

The Hoover Dam Bypass has been awarded Project of the Year in the Transportation Project over $75 Million category by the American Public Works Association (APWA).

United States Highway 93 (U.S. 93) has been designated a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) route. The increasing congestion caused by the switchbacks leading to the Hoover Dam site and the restrictions at the dam crossing led to the development of the Hoover Bypass Project.  The project is a 3.5-mile corridor beginning in Clark County, Nevada and crossing the Colorado River approximately 1,500 feet downstream of the Hoover Dam, then terminating in Mohave County, Arizona on U.S. 93.

The 1,900 foot-long Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge is the centerpiece of the project, which includes approaches on both sides of the river and six other bridges.  It is the highest and longest arched concrete bridge in the Western Hemisphere and features the world’s tallest precast concrete columns.  It is the first steel-concrete hybrid arch bridge in the United States.

Opening in October 2010, the Bypass was delivered on time and on budget by a team including Obayashi Corporation, PSM Construction USA, HDR Engineering, TY Lin International, Jacobs Engineering Group and Converse Consultants among others.

This large, complex team worked with a six agency consortium to meet the design, construction and safety challenges posed by such an iconic project.   Converse Consultants provided Q.A./Q.C. materials testing and inspection services for concrete and asphalt testing and inspection services beginning in February of 2005.

For more information on this project or Converse Consultants construction services in Nevada contact Vance Smith at 702-269-8336 or dvsmith@converseconsultants.com.

Brown Signs Bills That Kill Redevelopment

Governor Jerry Brown signed a pair of bills on Wednesday that will force redevelopment agencies to make “voluntary” contributions to the state or be eliminated

Under AB 26 1x and AB 27 1x, California will force its existing network of more than 400 redevelopment agencies, which spend property tax dollars to fix up blighted areas, to dissolve and join a new redevelopment program. The agencies would have to hand over $1.7 billion to the state and $400 million each year thereafter.

Supporters of redevelopment agencies have likened the plan to extortion and have promised to sue.

“Make no mistake about it: AB 1x 26/27 would lead to the elimination of redevelopment agencies throughout California,” said California Redevelopment Association Executive Director John Shirey in a statement. “Since the (legislative) passage of these bills, we’ve heard from dozens and dozens of agencies that will not be able to make the ‘ransom’ payment, and thus will be forced to shut down, eliminating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.”

Shirey has vowed that CRA and other organizations will file suit if the governor signs the bills. He contends that they violate Proposition 22, which was designed to prevent the transfer to certain funds, including redevelopment agencies’ tax increment, to the state.

Converse Consultants has worked with City and County Redevelopment Agencies throughout California, providing environmental, geotechnical and materials testing services on projects that have cleaned up slums, constructed low-income housing and improved communities in other ways.

We will continue to serve redevelopment and community development agencies to make our neighborhoods a better place to live.

For more information on Converse services for Redevelopment Agencies contact Beth George at bgeorge@converseconsultants.com.

Converse Plays Role in PA Job Growth from Marcellus Shale

The Marcellus Shale is the second largest natural gas field in the world.  Nearly 48,000 people were hired in the last year by industries related to drilling in the Marcellus Shale. The average salary was higher than the statewide average. And the rate of hiring is accelerating.

The production of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation is important because it produces a clean-burning, energy source in an environmentally sound manner. It also provides economic benefits to communities across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Natural gas producers already invested more than $4 billion in lease and land acquisition, new well drilling, infrastructure development and community partnerships, with an even greater investment expected in the future.

Marcellus Shale natural gas wells in Pennsylvania are drilled horizontally because it offers access to a larger quantity of natural gas, while disturbing a smaller area on the surface.

The drilling process focuses first on reaching – and protecting – water-bearing zones beneath the ground. Drilling is completed using a small amount of lubricating agents, then the entire length of the well, from the surface to the groundwater strata, is cased and cemented tightly to form a barrier between the wellbore and the earth. As the drill continues to push deeper into the earth, a series of long drilling pipes follow it to establish the well.

After drilling vertically to the depth that reaches slightly above the Marcellus Shale formation, the drill bit can then turn to drill horizontally into the Marcellus Shale, sometimes as much as 5,000 feet. This allows for the extraction of larger quantities of natural gas from a single wellhead. Marcellus Shale wells generally take between 15 and 30 days to drill, operating around the clock.  Converse Consultants can provide water supply and geotechical engineering in support of the drilling activities.

As a result of the economic activity generated by the Marcellus gas play, Converse also provides property transfer due diligence (Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments), brownfield, and geotechnical consulting services to support development activities in the region.

For more information on Converse Consultants’ capabilities regarding the Marcellus Shale drilling please contact Bill Brusse, Chief Geologist, at 814-234-3223 or wbrusse@converseconsultants.com.

California Governor’s Legislative Analyst Urges Doubling of Consultants For State Transportation Projects

In its report to the legislature on the Governor’s State Budget the state Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) urges increasing from 10 percent to 20 percent the portion of state transportation work which is contracted out.  See the report here. (Caltrans recommends increasing it to 11.5 percent.)  The LAO cited declining transportation funding, Caltrans’ need for more flexibility in managing its resources and the importance of avoiding long term spending commitments.  LAO was also critical of the accuracy of Caltrans’ personnel and cost data for projects–the same criticism that the State Auditor’s (SBA) reported last month.  See this report here. Both the LAO and the SBA are recommending that a major state study be done comparing the advantages and disadvantages of using consultants and state employees.

Converse Consultants is currently providing services for several state transportation projects.  We stand ready to assist our public and private clients on these, and other projects.

Services we provide for state transportation projects include environmental assessments, aerially-deposited lead, air quality, geotechnical, foundation and materials reports, as well as soils and materials testing and inspection in our Caltrans-certified laboratories.

For more information regarding our services for California transportation projects contact Beth George at bgeorge@converseconsultants.com or 951-264-1684.

Converse Brownfields Program Assists Redevelopment of Blighted Areas

A brownfields site is land that has been abandoned or underused which was previously used for industrial or some commercial purposes. The sites are usually contaminated with pollution or hazardous waste and has the potential to be reused when it is cleaned up. The USEPA has recently made available “coalition” site assessment grants which allow a group of 3 or more eligible entities to submit a single grant proposal on behalf of the coalition. This new approach will assist communities with limited resources procure the services needed to help restore depressed areas. Other grants are also available to communities. For sites planned for redevelopment, EPA Brownfields Grants can provide funding for Phase I and II Assessments, cleanup and reuse planning, and activities that support community outreach & involvement.

Converse recently  assisted the County of Los Angeles  to successfully obtain EPA Brownfields grant funding for the assessment of sites in the East LA area.

Presently, Converse is conducting Site Assessment and Cleanup Planning under EPA Brownfields grants for 5 communities that have received EPA Brownfields funding, including:

• Grass Valley, CA
• Firebaugh, CA
• Sparks, NV
• Mineral County, NV
• Lyon County, NV

Converse will soon begin similar work for two recent EPA grant recipients: Oroville, CA and Rancho Cordova, CA, bringing our total to 7 ongoing EPA Brownfields Site Assessment and Cleanup Planning grants.

Our Brownfields services include:

• Site Characterization (includes Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments)
• Site and Remedial Investigations
• Remedial Action/Clean Up Plans
• UST Services
• Risk Assessment/Risk Based Closure
• Brownfields Project Management
• EPA Interface
• Stakeholder Outreach
• Permitting
• Site Redevelopment
• Foundations Design &

Recommendations

• Dredging Sediment & Beneficial Reuse
• Specifications & Construction Drawings
• Construction Phase Services
• Soils & Materials Testing
• Asbestos & Lead Based Paint Surveys

Learn More About the Brownfields Process and How it Could Help Your Neighborhood…call Tom Mix at (707) 206-1647 or email to tmix@converseconsultants.com

Half a Bridge??? Riverside Avenue Interchange Project Progresses

Motorists traveling on the I-10 through the Rialto area the week of May 1^st witnessed something rarely seen:  a half-bridge.

Early Saturday, April 30th, road crews took apart the northern half of the Riverside Avenue bridge as part of a $32 million project to replace the 50-year-old structure with a modern, wider bridge.

An excavator-mounted hydraulic jackhammer demolishes the northern half of Riverside Avenue bridge in Rialto.

(Al Cuizon/Staff Photographer, SB County Sun)

“You just don’t see this every day!”

The San Bernardino Association of Governments (SANBAG) and the City of Rialto are working together to replace the Interstate 10/Riverside Avenue interchange in Rialto. This project includes replacing the existing five-lane Riverside Avenue bridge over I-10 with a nine-lane bridge. The new bridge will feature five northbound lanes (three through-lanes and two left-turn lanes) and four southbound lanes (two through-lanes and two left-turn lanes). One additional lane will be added to each of the on-ramps and off-ramps to aid in entering and exiting the freeway. Related lane additions and safety improvements also will be made on Riverside Avenue between the interchange and Valley Boulevard, north of the freeway.

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The gap over the westbound lanes of the 10 Freeway was quite a sight until…
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the wee hours of May 7th, when the southern half of the bridge came down.
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CC Myers, Inc. is the general contractor for the project, and Berg & Associates, Inc.  are the Construction Management firm representing SANBAG.  Converse Consultants is providing QC soils and materials testing and inspection services as part of Berg’s team.

The new 9-lane bridge will incorporate several artistic elements representing Rialto’s history and is scheduled for completion later this year.

Converse is proud to be part of this project and to be part of Berg & Associates, Inc. team.  Our scope of services include providing Quality Control inspection and testing of soils, concrete and asphalt, both in the field and the laboratory, using Caltrans test methods.

For more information about this project or Converse Consultants’ capabilities, please contact Beth George at 909-796-0544 or bgeorge@converseconsultants.com

President’s Budget Calls for $53 billion in Spending

President Barack Obama is calling for a six-year, $53 billion spending plan for high-speed rail, as he seeks to use infrastructure spending to jumpstart job creation.

An initial $8 billion in spending will be part of the President’s new budget plan. The money would go toward developing or improving trains that travel up to 250 miles per hour, and connecting existing rail lines to new projects.

Several states, including California, Texas, Washington and New York, have High Speed Rail Commissions or plans to implement one.  Converse has a long history of providing services during the design and construction of commuter rail on both coasts.  We are looking forward to involvement in the future of public transportation.

President Commits to Infrastructure, Converse Ready to Help

On January 25, 2011, President Barack Obama gave a rousing State of the Union address.  He asked us to look to the future and embrace innovation and reform.  During the speech he committed to “redoubling” the investment in infrastructure.

He mentioned that the engineering community, who has designed and built our country’s infrastructure, now gives it a grade of ‘D’, because it is old, crumbling and poorly maintained and insufficient to meet the needs of the population.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), recently joined by the American Public Works Association (APWA) annually grades the infrastructure of our country (http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/) in several categories:

Aviation, Bridges, Dams,  Drinking Water, Energy, Hazardous Waste, Inland Waterways, Levees, Public Parks and Recreation, Rail, Roads, Schools, Solid Waste, Transit, Wastewater

Converse Consultants stands ready to assist our engineering partners in meeting the needs of our communities and our country.  With expertise in each of the areas graded, our offices nationwide are actively involved in projects that will improve and repair much needed infrastructure.

Many of the professional and technical staff with Converse are actively involved in ASCE and APWA.