The ACEC California Blog and Forum

Reaction to Governor's State of the State

2012-01-20T11:18:00.001-08:00

The American Council of Engineering Companies of California commends Governor Brown for articulating in his State of the State speech the importance to our economy of dramatically improving California’s infrastructure. Governor Brown recognizes that major improvements to our water delivery system are vital to California's future, that the high speed rail project with substantial reforms will give our state a much needed economic boost, and that permit streamlining is critical if California is going to meet its ambitious renewable energy goals. ACEC California looks forward to continuing to assist Governor Brown and his administration with achieving its infrastructure goals.

Paul Meyer
Executive Director
ACEC California

Problems at Caltrans Show Need for State to Reform the Agency

2011-11-23T19:17:00.001-08:00

The recent public revelation that a Caltrans employee submitted fabricated safety test results and destroyed testing data for the $6.3 billion Bay Bridge project is deeply troubling.

First and foremost, everyone is rightly concerned about the safety of the new bridge. Fortunately, that employee can no longer engage in such appalling conduct. After The Bee broke the story – following an exhaustive investigation – Caltrans announced it had fired the offending employee and his supervisor. Furthermore, independent experts are now reviewing the integrity of the foundations for the Bay Bridge project.

However, The Bee's findings also raise serious questions about Caltrans itself. The Bee found evidence that Caltrans discovered the employee had falsified reports on other projects after he had tested the foundations of the Bay Bridge project, yet took little action against that employee. Regardless of which official knew what and when, by any standard, such a performance by an organization is unacceptable. At a minimum, such findings demonstrate that at Caltrans there is not nearly enough basic accountability.

In contrast, if a private engineering firm falsified test reports and destroyed data, that firm would almost immediately cease to exist. It would be legally liable for tremendous damages. Its invoices would not be paid. Its reputation would be destroyed. No one would hire the firm.

Today, Caltrans – with 22,000 employees – is so large that it is difficult to properly manage. Indeed, Caltrans is far larger than any other state department of transportation in the nation, including transportation departments with project workloads similar to Caltrans. Whereas Caltrans relies on state employees to do 90 percent of its workload, other state transportation departments use fully accountable engineering firms for an average of 50 percent to 60 percent of their workloads.

Many studies have documented Caltrans' internal problems. For example, the California state auditor found that Caltrans regularly experiences employee cost overruns on projects and fails to keep accurate employee time records, and the state Legislative Analyst's Office conservatively concluded that Caltrans is overstaffed by at least 1,500 employees.

Adopting the LAO's recommendation would free up at least $200 million a year for the hard construction of new transportation projects. It would create thousands of new and badly needed construction jobs.

Freeing up this money for actual construction projects is particularly important, because other sources of funding for transportation are rapidly diminishing. Proposition 1B, the $19 billion bond fund passed in 2006, is running out. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act federal stimulus funds are winding down. Traditional federal transportation funding is diminishing. And between inflation and an increasing number of people shifting to high-mileage vehicles, the gas tax is losing its ability to generate revenue.

There is no question of the need to dramatically reform and downsize Caltrans. A particularly effective way of accomplishing that – entirely consistent with Gov. Jerry Brown's realignment proposals – is transferring a substantial portion of the state's current transportation funds and authority from Caltrans to local transportation agencies.

Since the mid-1980s, county transportation agencies – often referred to as the "Self-Help Counties" or SHCs – have made many major improvements to our highway and transit systems. Today, more than half of the transportation projects that drivers and transit riders see when they travel actually are sponsored by "Self-Help Counties", not by Caltrans.

The Self-Help Counties have developed a well-earned reputation for speedy, cost-effective delivery of transportation projects and are fully accountable to local voters. The SHCs' revenue comes from local sales tax measures – typically1/2 cent – dedicated to transportation. Those sales tax measures must be approved by two-thirds of the local voters. If the SHCs do not deliver on their promised projects within a reasonable time, the voters will not renew the sales tax measures. It is as simple as that.

Extending the governor's realignment proposal to transportation will greatly improve accountability and efficient project delivery. There is no reason to wait. With our economy hurting, our roads and transit systems in terrible shape, and the public rightly expecting safe transportation facilities, now is the time for realignment.

Eddie Kho, PE
ACEC California President

EEA Update: Project Design Consultants Wins 2011 Engineering Excellence Merit Award

2011-10-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

Project Design Consultants (PDC) received an Engineering Excellence Award (Merit) for the San Dieguito Wetlands Restoration Project. PDC was contracted by Southern California Edison (SCE), as the prime consultant to provide project management, final grading/dredging plans, flood control coordination, survey/mapping, and permit processing for the restoration of 150 acres of wetlands as part of a 440-acre nature preserve. The preserve is accessible by viewing platforms, a visitor’s center and trail system that is linked from the ocean along the San Dieguito River. The project was an outstanding success by all measure. Southern California Edison (SCE) and other stakeholders are very pleased.

About San Dieguito Wetlands Restoration Project (YouTube Video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1dTzms5Sck

We Need More American-trained Engineers to Design America's Future

2011-09-06T17:22:00.000-07:00

Just before Labor Day, a coalition of 45 companies companies, including Facebook, Intel, Bayer, McKesson, JP Morgan and other big names from the private sector, announced a program to double the number of internships they offer engineering students in 2012.

ACEC California applauds the move, which has a goal of creating 6,500 internships and was announced by the White House as part of the Obama Administration’s goal of increasing the number of engineering students who graduate from U.S. colleges and universities by 10,000 each year. That, in turn, is tied to the Administration’s plans for creating jobs, part of which is to promote engineering disciplines, including infrastructure development which is at the core of what our members – chiefly consulting engineers and land surveyors – are involved in.

It’s a great start, but it’s hardly enough.

Just look at the situation here in California: it has been estimated that each year our higher education system produces 10,000 – or about one sixth -- of the engineers in the U.S. Seventy percent of those graduates hold BS degrees while 20 percent hold a Master’s and the remainder are PhD candidates. Of the 1,000 or so PhD candidates, about 70 percent are foreigners, many of whom return home upon completion of their degree requirement.

Meanwhile, India produces 600,000 engineers per year and China, a staggering one million engineers through its education system. Here in California, we need to at least double the number of engineers we produce here each year to 20,000 just to keep pace and that goes for the U.S. as a whole also.

The U.S. is not alone in being slow to recognize the importance of a strong engineering sector. Earlier this summer, Sir John Parker, head of Britain’s Royal Academy of Engineering, cautioned that the U.K. needs to double its output of qualified engineers if the Cameron government’s goal of “rebalancing the economy” by boosting manufacturing output and jobs was to become reality. Here in the U.S., our manufacturing sector has long been on the wane and part of the reason is a lack of qualified engineers. As Sir John correctly pointed out in his interview with the Financial Times: “If you look at what lies behind the products and services of many companies, from pharmaceuticals to railways, you will find that their creative focus is invariably centred on the art and science of engineering.”

In our industry, we look to engineers to solve huge problems from how to create a safe bridge span, to how high to build a dam and where to establish a wastewater treatment plant. Some solutions are routine, some extraordinary. We honor many projects each year through our Engineering Excellence Awards. Last year’s national winner was a project to design a facility for Southern California onion producer Gills Onions allowing the company to turn onion byproducts into energy to help power a local onion processing plant. Member firm HDR provided that solution.

We also do our bit to promote the sector to students at high schools and colleges throughout the state. Our website has links to resources for students and ACEC California, its local chapters and member firms regularly take outreach to high schools up and down the state. And, in addition to internships and scholarships provided by our national organization, local chapters and member firms, our state Scholarship Foundation provides annual scholarships to engineering students in California.

But we can, and will do more. The Business Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, American Chemistry Council and the White House have led the way in shining a light on this issue and we hope to intensify the attention on this critical issue.

EEA Update: Kjeldsen, Sinnock & Neudeck, Inc. for the San Joaquin County Flood Contingency Mapping FEMA Pilot

2011-08-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

International Bridge Technologies, Inc. received a Small Firm Merit Award for the Pitt River Bridge. International Bridge Technologies, Inc. was contracted by Associated Kjeldsen, Sinnock & Neudeck, Inc., (KSN) contracted with San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services to provide civil engineering, surveying, and mapping services for the San Joaquin County Flood Contingency Mapping FEMA Pilot Project. KSN collaborated on the development of the standards and procedures used in the preparation of detailed flood contingency mapping and prepared maps for Smith/Weber Tract, Roberts Island, Boggs Tract, and Mossdale Landing Reclamation Districts.

EEA Update: Cornerstone Structural Engineering Group, Inc. - History of Tulare County Farm Labor and Agriculture Museum - Wins 2011 Engineering Excellence Small Firm Merit Award

2011-08-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

Cornerstone Structural Engineering Group received a Small Firm Merit Award for the History of Tulare County Farm Labor and Agriculture Museum located in Visalia , CA. Cornerstone was contracted by Kleinfelder West to provide structural engineering services for this $2.66 million-dollar project funded by a California Council and Historical Endowment grant committed to strengthening California’s historic and cultural preservation program in a time of diminishing historical and cultural awareness. The museum was modeled after pre-engineered farming sheds that are commonly seen throughout the Central Valley. The “barn” design represents Tulare County’s farming history and conveys a sense of historical significance. Opened to the public in October of 2009, this symbolic structure received awarm welcome by the Tulare County community.

For information, click here.

Why AB 1210 Makes Sense

2011-07-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

AB 1210 was introduced to correct inconsistencies created by SWRCB Order 2009 - 0009 - DWQ, also known as the Construction General Permit (CGP). The CGP is inconsistent with existing law as it relates to the scope and practice of civil engineering.

The CGP “requires that all engineering work must be performed by a California licensed engineer” per Item F-45 of the CGP (2009-0009-DWQ as amended by 2010-0014-DWQ). This is because Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPP) generally include civil engineering design calculations for grading and paving, storm drainage runoff, detention/retention basins, water quality basin and features, soils analysis, soil stability, and other engineering-related calculations, all of which fall under the practice of civil engineering. This is not to mention that most civil engineering improvements plans of the past have included an erosion control and winterization plan long before a SWPPP was even required.

However, the CGP simultaneously creates the classification of Qualified SWPPP Developer (QSD) and Qualified SWPPP Practitioner (QSP). A QSD/P can prepare all aspects of a SWPPP after attending a training course and passing a certification exam. It is by most accounts, a course that teaches one how to pass the exam. And despite acknowledging in the CGP that civil engineering expertise is necessary to prepare a SWPPP, the Water Board expressly authorizes non-licensed persons to practice within the scope of engineering if a SWPPP includes such elements.

AB 1210, which also has the support of both ASCE Region 9 and BPELSG, seeks to address this misalignment between statement of intent and application by restating that civil engineering activities must be done by, or under the responsible charge of, a civil engineer. In the event that a SWPPP incorporates practices licensed in California as civil engineering work, then this bill would apply to those aspects of the SWPPP.

AB 1210 also proposes to exempt professional engineers from obtaining a QSD/P certificate. Most licensed civil engineers have a BS, some with an MS in civil engineering, have taken semesters of hydraulics, hydrology, soils and other advanced classes in water quality and water resources engineering, years of work experience before qualifying and then passing the state licensing exam. I submit that a 2 or 3-day training course designed to help one who is not a licensed civil engineer pass the QSD/P certification exam is not the equivalent. As of June 13, 2011, 530 out of 699 (75.8%) QSD/P certificates have been issued to licensed engineers, further underscoring ACEC California’s contention that this certificate is an imposed requirement on the practice of engineering in California, something that can only be implemented by BPELSG, the Board overseeing the practice of engineering in California.

Finally, AB 1210 contains extensive amendments that clarify that many other professionals can continue to obtain a QSD/P certification, if they so desire, and can continue to prepare SWPPPs in a professional capacity. The requirements for supervision under responsible charge of a civil engineer apply only if elements of civil engineering are incorporated into the SWPPP being prepared.

Contrary to allegations, ACEC CA is not circumventing existing law or BPELSG. In fact, ACEC California and the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists sent the SWRCB letters in 2009, during the rulemaking process highlighting each of these issues. Their recommendations to protect the scope of practice of civil engineering, and the resulting affects on public safety, were ignored. As a result, this legislation is intended to correct the drafting contradictions, ensure that requirements to practice engineering remain the purview of the BPELSG, and uphold the standards of public safety and protection that we have come to value in California.

Eddie W. Kho, P.E., F.ASCE, LEED AP BD&C
President, ACEC California
MORTON & PITALO, INC.

EEA Update: Provost & Pritchard Consulting Group - North Side Regulating Reservoir - Wins 2011 Engineering Excellence Merit Award

2011-07-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

Provost & Pritchard Consulting Group received a Merit Award for the Oakdale Irrigation District North Side Regulating Reservoir Project. The project added flow control and regulation capabilities at a strategic location on the Oakdale Irrigation District’s North Main Canal, serving approximately 40 percent of the District’s service area. The project provides the District with the ability to balance surpluses and shortages in irrigation water demand, providing an annual water savings estimated at 6,000 acre-feet per year. The project presented unique and diverse design and construction challenges, but resulted in an overall successful project that met the District’s specific needs, was completed on time, and for an excellent price.

For more information, please click here.

ACEC California members: Take Action Today to support AB 1210

2011-07-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

ACEC California is sponsoring AB 1210 (Garrick, R-Carlsbad) to make it clear that a state agency—just like anyone else—may not violate the Professional Engineers Act. The bill specifically addresses the State Water Resources Control Board’s (SWRCB’s) regulations on Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPPs). These regulations purport to authorize QSD/QSPs, many of whom are not professional engineers, to do civil engineering. For example, SWPPP documents include water flow calculations, water load calculations, drainage and flow rate calculations, soils analysis and soil stability calculations, and other civil engineering work. AB 1210 makes it clear that the SWRCB is not above the law, i.e. the Professional Engineers Act, which provides that only licensed civil engineers and persons under their responsible charge may practice civil engineering, is the final authority on who may or may not practice the elements of civil engineering.

Support RDA’s in the CA Budget!

2011-06-22T00:41:00.001-07:00

With budget cuts effecting many sectors of California,redevelopment agencies (RDAs) are not exempt. ACEC is part of a coalition to save RDAs through either a budget deal or legislation such as AB 1250. AB 1250 requires empirical evidence showing “prevalence of specific conditions of blight so substantial they prevent proper utilization of a proposed redevelopment area.”

If approved, AB 1250 would also require performance-based goals for a development and ensure at least 50% of non-housing expenditures are focused on “job creation, transit-oriented development, remediating contaminated property, military base conversion, basic infrastructure needs, or affordable housing.”

ACEC CA asks for your continued support of RDAs through this time of uncertainty.

EEA Update: Penfield & Smith, Inc. Wins 2011 Engineering Excellence Merit Award for Amargosa Creek Underground Conveyance Project

2011-06-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

Penfield & Smith, Inc. received a Merit Award for the Amargosa Creek Underground Conveyance Project. The City of Lancaster contracted P&S to provide innovative design and construction phase services for a high-quality, durable underground conveyance structure, large enough to carry 2,500 cubic feet per second (cfs) travelling at 15 feet per second (fps), for nearly a full mile. The team implemented a porous channel liner to accommodate this demand, and designed the project to be easily accessible for maintenance crews, and aesthetically appealing to the public. The project was completed in May of 2010, ahead of schedule and within budget.

EEA Update: Mark Thomas & Company Project Wins 2011 Engineering Excellence Merit Award

2011-06-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Mark Thomas & Company received an Engineering Excellence Award (Merit) for the Foster City Consolidated Wetland Mitigation Site. This site provides mitigation for three separate projects which resulted in increased project development and cost efficiencies while maximizing ecological benefits. State of the art science was used to design a new marsh that operates like a naturally occurring one. The project also provides safety and recreational benefits through increased flood protection and construction of a portion of the Bay trail.

Just Like We've Always Said: Follow The Money!

2011-05-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

Despite all of the dire warnings about how using the public-private partnership format to complete the improvements to San Francisco's Doyle Drive entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge would end up in disaster, now comes news that 16 private banks are now looking to fund the project.

Click Here to Read Article.

EEA Update: PBS & J Wins 2011 Engineering Excellence Merit Award

2011-05-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Atkins (formerly known as PBS&J), honored 2011 ACEC California Engineering Excellence Merit Award for the Haven Avenue Grade Separation Bridge

A Merit Award also goes to Atkins (formerly known as PBS&J) for the Haven Avenue Grade Separation Bridge project. Atkins developed an innovative architectural concept and structural design for the Haven Avenue Underpass that is economic, effective, and a bold compliment to the backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains. This innovative solution featured precast colored concrete arched girders spanning between arched piers. Locally produced prefabricated arch girders, pilasters, and balustrade railing units provided precise quality, reduced formwork cost and accelerated construction. Due to Atkins’ innovative solutions and close coordination with the City of Rancho Cucamonga, the result is a visually stunning bridge that was constructed on an aggressive schedule and met budgetary constraints.

Video: http://www.pcidesignawards.org/pages/TE_02/TE_02.html

Issue: http://www.aspirebridge.com/pdfs/magazine/issue_18/Haven_Avenue_Web.pdf

EEA Update: International Bridge Technologies, Inc.’s, The Pitt River Bridge, Wins 2011 Engineering Excellence Merit Award

2011-04-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

A Merit Award goes to International Bridge Technologies, Inc. for the Pitt River Bridge. International Bridge Technologies, Inc. was contracted by Associated Engineering to work on the detailed design of this cable stayed bridge as part of the design/build team headed by Kiewit Construction and engineering consultant Marshall Macklin and Monaghan. The new bridge replaced two existing two-lane bridges on the Pitt River connecting Pitt Meadows and Port Coquitlam near Vancouver, British Columbia. With seven lanes of traffic and one lane dedicated to bicycles and pedestrians, it has eliminated the Highway 7 bottleneck created by the existing swing span bridges. This iconic structure supported by three planes of stay cables was opened to traffic ahead of schedule in the fall of 2009.

EEA Update: Fuscoe Engineering's Sunset Park Project Wins 2011 Engineering Excellence Merit Award

2011-04-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

Fuscoe Engineering, Inc. received an Engineering Excellence Award (Merit) for Sunset Park in the City of San Marcos. Fuscoe Engineering, Inc. was contracted by the City of San Marcos as the prime consultant to provide Full Circle Thinking® solutions to address grading and drainage challenges and to preserve a natural stream and wetlands area. The end result is a more sustainable and ecologically harmonious park design that has a positive impact on the community.

News Release: http://www.fuscoe.com/press_releases/110314.html

EEA Update: Fugro West, Inc. Honored for the Hueneme Outfall Replacement Project

2011-04-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

A Merit Awar d goes to Calleguas Municipal Water District and Fugro West, Inc., for the Hueneme Outfall Replacement Project. Fugro was contracted by the project’s design engineer, Black & Veatch, to provide marine survey, marine geophysical surveys, and geotechnical evaluation and design. Fugro also provided geotechnical and construction materials testing services to Calleguas throughout the construction phase. The Hueneme Outfall project consists of 2,300 feet of horizontal directionally drilled 36-inch OD HDPE pipe that exists in 30 feet of water off of the coast of Port Hueneme, Ventura County.

Project challenges include successfully permitting one of the few new ocean outfalls in California, sequencing operations to minimize drilling fluid escape to the ocean, 24-hour construction in a highly visible recreational area adjacent to a densely populated residential neighborhood, and construction conducted within two separate and very limited seasonal windows due to weather and regulatory restrictions.

EEA Update: Dokken Engineering Honored for the I-5 HOV/Lomas Santa Fe Drive Interchange Project

2011-04-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

Dokken Engineering received an Engineering Excellence Award (Merit) for the 1-5 HOV/Lomas Santa Fe Drive Interchanges project. The diverse project team created solutions to effectively balance the needs of the City of Solana Beach, Caltrans, and the community. Throughout the process, Dokken continually engaged the City by attending City Council meetings as well as holding project development team meetings, monthly coordination meetings, and field meetings. During the construction phase, Caltrans implemented A+B methodology which encouraged the contractor to reduce the construction time and finish a year ahead of schedule. This allowed the HOV lanes to be open to traffic prior to the start of the U.S. Open Golf Championship at Torrey Pines and the San Diego County Fair at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The end result was a project, delivered ahead of schedule and under budget that provided an economical and cost-effective solution for the city.

Degenkolb Engineers Honored for the Caltrans District 4, Seismic Upgrade Project

2011-04-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

A Merit Award was given to Degenkolb Engineers for the seismic upgrade of the Caltrans District 4 Headquarters, a 15-story 750,000 square foot steel moment frame structure that houses the San Francisco Bay Area’s transportation management center including its emergency response team. A team under the direction of Degenkolb Engineers as prime design consultants employed extensive state-of-the-art analysis techniques, a building damping system, and full scale upgraded connection testing to design a retrofit scheme that will protect the building. The team was challenged with providing a seismic upgrade to the building while it remained in full operation, also while staying within the project schedule and budget limitations. Upon completion, Degenkolb’s team had met and satisfied all the goals and timelines of the owner.

A Bridge Too Far?

2011-03-25T19:53:00.001-07:00

We have been saying it for years, but no matter how often it is said—or how many others join the chorus—the basic problem persists: California’s transportation infrastructure is among the worst in the nation….and, no surprise, it keeps getting worse, not better.

This week, Transportation for America, a Washington, DC-based non-profit, again documented the problem. California’s bridges and elevated roadways are now ranked the 18th worst in the nation. One in eight of our state’s bridges is considered to be a “high priority” for repair. The problem is so bad that just last week the federal government announced the adoption of new bridge inspection standards.

Perhaps most troubling is that the report finds that the average age of California’s bridges is 44.4 years. Most bridges are designed to last just 50 years. Does that portend a new wave of structurally deficient bridges?

The problem appears to be more severe in northern California. According to the study, in the San Francisco Bay Area one in five bridges are in the high priority category. In fact, San Francisco is at the top of the list of the group’s cities in America for concern over bridge conditions and safety. And outlying parts of the Bay Area do not have it any better. Solano County has 61 bridges that are “structurally deficient.”

The public understands that this is a serious matter. A recent national poll found that 91 percent of the voters believe that repairing and maintaining our roads and bridges should be the top priority for state transportation spending. [make “recent national poll” hot: http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/documents/lessons-from-the-stimulus.pdf]

How on earth did we get here? California has one of the largest economies in the world. Last year, the state spent $907 million in federal dollars on bridge repair, far more than any other state. Yet still we have not kept pace. Part of the problem is that state and federal transportation funding fluctuates from year to year. Another problem is that inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the gas tax. Another problem is that multiple studies have found that Caltrans has higher than average overhead costs.

Another problem is the terrible financial condition of the State of California. California now has the lowest credit rating of any state in the union and so must pay the highest interest rates when it borrows money and issues bonds. Also, according to the State Treasurer, the State’s debt service on already approved bonds will reach the historically unprecedented level of ten per cent of the state’s total general fund spending.

There is a project delivery technique, which avoids these problems, which is getting more and more use throughout the United States and indeed around the world. That technique is public-private partnerships (P3s), which combine public sector oversight and project sponsorship with private sector financing, expertise and accelerated project delivery.

P3s are especially vital to California now, when our economy is down, when people are hurting and when voter approval of tax increases is difficult to achieve.

Support for expanding California’s use of P3s has grown and grown. Construction unions, business leaders, public policy commentators, local public officials and many others now support the use of P3s to finance and quickly deliver need transportation projects. It represents a timely, innovative solution to fixing our critical infrastructure.

Unfortunately, though, when it comes to actual use of P3s, California severely lags most other states and many nations. The reason for that lag is not hard to find: A politically powerful union of Caltrans employees (Professional Engineers in California Government or PECG) has fought California’s use of P3s in every possible way: in the legislature, during the state’s administrative procedures, in the courts and in the media.

At this point what California needs is a complete overhaul of our approach to financing and fulfilling infrastructure projects in the state. To move forward we need to bring together the best that the public and private sectors. And we need to get moving quickly. We must not ignore the need to fix our structurally deficient bridges and elevated roadways.

Cinquini & Passarino, Inc. Honored for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit Top of Rail Survey AECOM Project

2011-03-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Continuing our series on the recent Engineering in Excellence Awards, a Merit Award was given to to Cinquini & Passarino, Inc. for the Sonoma ~ Marin Area Rail Transit, Top of Rail Survey. Cinquini & Passarino, Inc. was contracted by HDR, Inc. to perform a top of rail survey for the northerly 60 miles of the Sonoma ~ Marin Area Rail Transit corridor. Cinquini & Passarino, Inc. was the first surveyor in the United States to incorporate an Amberg GRP rail measuring instrument with RTK GPS connected to a virtual survey network to survey 60 miles. Performing the field work using conventional survey technology would have taken 90 days. Cinquini & Passarino, Inc. completed the field work in less than 10 days. Using the Amberg GRP, Cinquini & Passarino, Inc. was able to accurately collect the horizontal and vertical position of the existing rail, existing track stationing, existing rail gauge and superelevation as well as the railroad station of roadway, bridge abutments, and culvert crossings needed throughout the rail corridor. Incorporating the unique technology and creative approach to collect the top of rail information from a rolling platform, Cinquini & Passarino, Inc. was able to quickly and accurately collect all of the necessary rail data required by HDR, Inc. The survey was seamlessly incorporated into the project’s existing LiDAR survey.

AECOM Technology Corporation Honored for the Mineta San Jose International Area Improvement Project

2011-03-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

Several Merit Awards were granted to firms who entered ACEC California’s Engineering Excellence Awards.

A Merit Award was presented to AECOM Technology Corporation for its participation in the design and implementation of the Terminal Area Improvement Program on behalf of Granite Construction and Fentress Architects for the Mineta San José International Airport. AECOM acted as the lead Roadway Design Engineer for Granite Construction and as the Civil Engineer for Fentress Architects on the terminals as part of a design-build team. The Terminal Area Improvement Program is the largest public works project in the City of San José’s history and the first project the City has undertaken using the design-build delivery method. It is also currently the largest design-build airport project in the United States. AECOM’s roadway improvements are saving travel time, lowering emissions, and improving air quality. The team’s commitment to sustainable design resulted in one of the largest airport solar power installations in the U.S., and the first LEED Silver certified new passenger terminal west of the Mississippi River. AECOM and its design-build partnersdelivered this project three months ahead of schedule and $60 million underbudget.

Stantec Consulting Services Inc. Honored for the Research Support Facility for National Renewable Energy Laboratory

2011-03-08T15:12:00.001-08:00

Continuing our series on the recent Engineering in Excellence Awards, an Honor Award was given to the San Francisco office of Stantec Consulting Services for the firm’s work on the Research Support Facility, National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. Now the nation’s largest building designed to achieve net-zero energy use—this 222,000 square-foot facility allows its 800 occupants to consume only the amount of energy generated by the renewable power on and near the building. An inspired and bold vision brought to reality by a progressive and dedicated Design-Build team, this building has set a truly remarkable standard and example for the industry. For more on the project:

http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/2010/10/101001integrated_design.asp

Once More into the Breach

2011-03-03T10:41:00.000-08:00

Yet again the executive of the Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG), in the name of its membership, is off to the Appeals Court in an attempt to delay or derail a legitimate engineering project in which PECG believes the private sector plays too great a role and PECG members too little.

No surprise there. The "I'm All Right Jack" position consistently taken by the union representing state payroll engineers is one of the reasons that our state is in the state it is in.

PECG's litigious position might be understandable if its members' livelihoods were threatened by projects like the Presidio Parkway, but the fact is that more than 90 percent of the transportation design work in the state is in the hands of the public sector engineers already and there's little sign that is going to change. That's a far higher proportion of work going to the state payroll than any other state in the union, and any country in the world with the possible exception of China. As a result, our state engineer payroll is one of the largest in the world. It even grows during recessions!

So, because PECG can't come out and say that their jobs are put at risk by public private partnerships (P3s) like Presidio Parkway, they instead claim to oppose because they are protecting the taxpayer. Presidio Parkway, they claim, will place an undue burden on future taxpayers, even though studies have shown that this project will be less costly to build under the structure proposed by Caltrans and SFCTA, the agencies responsible for the project.

Mr. Blanning's apparent assertion that the Presidio Parkway P3 will become a taxpayer liability is even more disingenuous at a time when the state struggles with the very much larger question of how to pay one of its biggest unfunded liabilities: the more than $500 billion (and growing) in pension obligations demanded by Mr. Blanning's members and other state sector unions. If Mr. Blanning is really concerned about undue financial burdens placed on the taxpayer, he should be talking about that and not a legitimate project which, precisely because it is structured as a P3, will cost taxpayers less to build than a traditional state managed project and will be built on time to the highest standards.

Parsons Corporation for the Bakersfield Wastewater Treatment Plant 3 Upgrade and Expansion

2011-03-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

ACEC CA has recognized Parsons Corporation, as a finalist this year for ACEC California’s Engineering Excellence Awards for the Bakersfield Wastewater Treatment Plant 3 Upgrade and Expansion, addressing capacity (16 mgd to 32 mgd) and renewable energy and regulatory requirements including nitrogen removal for groundwater recharge.

Prior to the upgrades, Plant 3 continuously violated its effluent discharge permit. As the design engineer, Parsons incorporated several innovative, out-of-the-box process modifications, as well as cost- and energy-saving ideas such as an extensive and creative odor control for the zero odor plant, conversion of old secondary clarifiers to covered primary clarifiers, an integrated renewable energy system with biomass energy and PV solar energy for significant GHG reduction, and LEED-type buildings. This sustainable design earned more than $3.5 million in rebates/grants from PG&E and ARRA. PG&E estimates an annual operating cost savings of $556,000 for the upgraded plant. Completed on time with no recordable OSHA accidents, Plant 3 has outperformed all regulatory requirements.

Degenkolb Engineers for The Bowls Project

2011-02-24T11:14:00.001-08:00

Inspired by ancient Babylonian amulets known as “demon bowls,” The Bowls Project is a unique multimedia art installation in which antiquity meets high-tech seismic design. It consists of 2 domes that sit atop a state-of-the-art base-isolated platform that Degenkolb Engineers designed for seismic safety. The project team worked tirelessly and donated time and material on this challenging pro bono project to ensure that it made its opening day. During its limited stay at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, thousands will enjoy the workshops and musical performances that take place inside the domes.

Safe Water in CoCo County Thanks to Carollo

2011-02-22T16:13:00.001-08:00

ACEC CA has also recognized Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Carollo Engineers, Inc., as a finalist this year for ACEC California’s Engineering Excellence Awards for the Middle River Intake Project.

The Contra Costa Water District selected Carollo to serve as program manager for the planning, design, and construction of this $100 million project to improve delivered water quality for its 550,000 customers. The project, which included a setback levee, 250-cfs intake and pump station, and conveyance pipeline and tunnel, featured several innovative design and construction strategies. These included a state-of-the-art intake and pump station that balances intake flow and protects Delta fisheries, a detailed construction sequencing plan that allowed key project elements to be constructed within two critical in-water work windows, and creative construction techniques to build a conveyance pipeline and 90-foot-deep microtunnel in difficult soil conditions. The resulting project, which was completed on schedule and within budget, improves operational flexibility and provides a safe and reliable source of drinking water to Contra Costa Water District’s customers for years to come.

Eastside LA Transit Project on Budget, On Time with Zero Claims.

2011-02-16T11:27:00.000-08:00

AECOM Technology Corporation was a finalist in ACEC California’s EEA Awards for its Gold Line Eastside Extension Project linking East LA to Downtown’s Little Tokyo district .

AECOM Technology Corporation, in joint venture with Washington Group International, was the designer for this eight-station, 6-mile-long light rail project that brought rapid transit service. Combining the latest technology with unique, community-inspired art at each station, Metro’s ﬁrst design-build project was hugely successful. Following 4 million work hours without a lost-time injury, the project came in on schedule, on budget, and with zero claims.

http://www.publicartinla.com/Metroart/GoldLine2/soto.html

California Engineering Projects: Excellent!

2011-02-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

ACEC California’s Engineering Excellence Awards competition has grown in stature and size over the years. This year, no less than 46 major projects were considered for awards and in the next 22 weeks we’ll be profiling many of them.

The competition has become an effective tool for engineering and surveying firms to gain much-deserved recognition for projects that benefit local communities and California as a whole. Indeed, last year, a California project garnered the coveted national Grand Conceptor Award bestowed by ACEC’s national organization in Washington DC. HDR Engineering’s Advanced Energy Recovery System (ARES) designed and built for onion processor Gills Onions in Oxnard, Calif. was a prime example of private sector initiative and expertise in action.

This year, ACEC California is proud to announce that the Golden State Award goes to T.Y. Lin International for the East Tie-In Structure, which is part of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Seismic Safety Projects. The Joint Venture of T.Y. Lin International/Moffat & Nichol was contracted by California Department of Transportation to design the 288 foot-long detour structure, a double deck steel truss, that was assembled 150 feet above ground and rolled into place over the course of a four-day long weekend. This temporary detour set the highest standard for engineering excellence and marks an unprecedented feat of design engineering and is the most significant realignment of traffic to the Bay Bridge to date.

ACEC California Executive Director Paul Meyer Interviewed in Fox Business Channel

2011-01-27T18:20:00.000-08:00

ACEC California Executive Director Paul Meyer was interviewed on the Fox News Business Channel on 1/27/11 regarding the Public Engineers in California Government's (PECG) most recent court challenges on the Presidio Parkway project in San Francisco, helping to bring national awareness on this important issue.

California Engineering Projects Demonstrate Innovation, Ingenuity and Pursuit of Excellence

2011-01-20T14:17:00.000-08:00

Projects as diverse as seismic safety on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the expansion of a wastewater treatment facility in Bakersfield and the extension of Los Angeles’ Metro Gold Line transit system are among this year’s Engineering Excellence Award winners announced today by the American Council of Engineering Companies of California (ACEC California). The EE Awards are bestowed every year to recognize excellence in engineering design. Projects are judged based on criteria such as technical complexity, uniqueness and originality, social and economic value and public awareness.

Last year, HDR Engineering took ACEC’s premier national honor, the Grand Conceptor award for its pioneering Advanced Energy Recovery System designed and installed at Oxnard, Calif.-based Gills Onions facility. The system converts onion waste such as peels, stalks and tops into biofuel which, in turn, powers the company’s adjacent processing plant.

This year’s California award winners are:

T.Y. Lin International and Moffat & Nichol received the highest honor, the Golden State Award, for a joint venture for the East Tie-In Structure, which is part of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Seismic Safety Projects. The Joint Venture of T.Y. Lin International/Moffat & Nichol was contracted by California Department of Transportation to design the 288 foot-long detour structure, a double deck steel truss, that was assembled 150 feet above ground and rolled into place over the course of a four-day long weekend This temporary detour sets the highest standard for engineering excellence and it marks an unprecedented feat of design engineering and is the most significant realignment of traffic to the Bay Bridge to date.
www.tylin.com
www.moffattnichol.com

AECOM Technology Corporation/Washington Group International: An Honor Award goes to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority for its Gold Line Eastside Extension Project. AECOM Technology Corporation, in joint venture with Washington Group International, was the designer for this eight-station, 6-mile-long light rail project that brought rapid transit service to East Los Angeles. Combining the latest technology with unique, community-inspired art at each station, Metro’s ﬁrst design-build project was hugely successful. Following 4 million work hours without a lost-time injury, the project came in on schedule, on budget, and with zero claims.
www.aecom.com
www.urscorp.com

Carollo Engineers, Inc.: An Honor Award goes to Carollo Engineers, Inc., for the Middle River Intake Project. The Contra Costa Water District selected Carollo to serve as program manager for the planning, design, and construction of this $100 million project to improve delivered water quality for its 550,000 customers. The project, which included a setback levee, 250-cfs intake and pump station, and conveyance pipeline and tunnel, featured several innovative design and construction strategies. These included a state-of-the-art intake and pump station that balances intake flow and protects Delta fisheries, a detailed construction sequencing plan that allowed key project elements to be constructed within two critical in-water work windows, and creative construction techniques to build a conveyance pipeline and 90-foot-deep microtunnel in difficult soil conditions. The resulting project, which was completed on schedule and within budget, improves operational flexibility and provides a safe and reliable source of drinking water to Contra Costa Water District’s customers for years to come.
www.carollo.com

Degenkolb Engineers: An Honor Award goes to Degenkolb Engineers for The Bowls Project. Inspired by ancient Babylonian amulets known as “demon bowls,” The Bowls Project is a unique multimedia art installation in which antiquity meets high-tech seismic design. It consists of 2 domes that sit atop a state-of-the-art base-isolated platform that Degenkolb Engineers designed for seismic safety. The project team worked tirelessly and donated time and material on this challenging pro bono project to ensure that it made its opening day. During its limited stay at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, thousands will enjoy the workshops and musical performances that take place inside the domes.
www.degenkolb.com

Malcolm Pirnie : An Honor Award is presented to Malcolm Pirnie for the Alvarado Water Treatment Plant Ozone Project. For over a decade Malcolm Pirnie has been the engineer for the City of San Diego to upgrade its 60-year-old Alvarado water treatment plant and expand its capacity from 120 to 200 million gallons a day. In this last expansion phase, state-of-the-art ozonation facilities replaced chlorine as the primary disinfectant enabling the plant to utilize changing blends of source waters and continue to meet federal drinking water regulations, and ultimately supplying some 650,000 customers with safer and better tasting drinking water. Innovative approaches associated with pumping, disinfection transitions during power failures and, the ozone production control system won the enthusiastic support of plant operators and regulators.
www.pirnie.com

Parsons : An Honor Award goes to Parsons Corporation for the Bakersfield Wastewater Treatment Plant 3 Upgrade and Expansion, addressing capacity (16 mgd to 32 mgd) and renewable energy and regulatory requirements including nitrogen removal for groundwater recharge. Prior to the upgrades, Plant 3 continuously violated its effluent discharge permit. As the design engineer, Parsons incorporated several innovative, out-of-the-box process modifications, as well as cost- and energy-saving ideas such as an extensive and creative odor control for the zero odor plant, conversion of old secondary clarifiers to covered primary clarifiers, an integrated renewable energy system with biomass energy and PV solar energy for significant GHG reduction, and LEED-type buildings. This sustainable design earned more than $3.5 million in rebates/grants from PG&E and ARRA. PG&E estimates an annual operating cost savings of $556,000 for the upgraded plant. Completed on time with no recordable OSHA accidents, Plant 3 has outperformed all regulatory requirements.
www.parsons.com

Stantec Consulting Services Inc. : An Honor Award goes to Stantec for their work on the research Support Facility, National renewable energy Laboratory in golden, Colorado. Now the nation’s largest building designed to achieve net-zero energy use—this 222,000 square-foot facility allows its 800 occupants to consume only the amount of energy generated by the renewable power on and near the building. An inspired and bold vision brought to reality by a progressive and dedicated Design-Build team, this building has set a truly remarkable standard and example for the industry.
www.stantec.com

“The projects receiving awards this year highlight some of the innovative and experienced approaches taken by private sector companies to solve engineering challenges in both the private and public sectors in California,,” said Paul Meyer, executive director of ACEC-California.

The ACEC California award winners will be honored at a banquet to be held February 1, 2011 at the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento. The Golden State winners will be entered into the national awards for the organization, which will be announced in April.

State report finds many positives, some limitations to Presidio Parkway Project

2010-12-22T11:01:00.000-08:00

In its December 9, 2010 letter on the Presidio Parkway public-private partnership (P3) project in San Francisco, the state Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) concludes that the project has many valuable features. Specifically the LAO finds that this P3 project, which will dramatically improve the southern approach to the Golden Gate Bridge:

1. Makes significant public safety improvements,

2. Provides environmental benefits,

3. Provides aesthetic benefits,

4. Saves the state millions of dollars in upfront costs, thereby freeing up transportation funds for other needed projects,

5. Shifts substantial liability from the state to a private entity (concessionaire), which is contractually responsible to promptly design and build the project. If the concessionaire fails to perform on-time or to specified standards, the concessionaire will suffer penalties,

6. Gives the concessionaire the flexibility to solve construction problems quickly. Here the LAO is rightly contrasting this P3 with Caltrans’ normal non-P3 system for delivering transportation projects, a system in which resolving construction problems can be a time consuming, bureaucratic process.

7. Gives the state more certainty over the project schedule,

8. Gives the state more certainty over the project’s cost, and

9. Assures maintenance of the project by the concessionaire for 30 years. This is important, because in the annual state budget fight the legislature regularly gives low priority to maintenance of our state highway system. In contrast, under the P3 agreement Presidio Parkway will be well maintained regardless of what happens in the annual state budget fights.

The LAO finds some limitations to the Presidio Parkway P3 project, but those limitations are because in the LAO’s view, the P3 arrangements do not go far enough. There are four areas where the LAO makes this type of comment:

First, the LAO notes that Presidio Parkway does not rely on toll revenue financing. Since the project already relies on toll revenue for part of its financing (i.e. that portion of the financing provided by the Golden Gate Transportation District), the LAO is really saying that the project should rely more on toll revenue. That’s OK to say, but the fact is that with other revenue already available for this project, there was simply no need to charge more tolls.

Second, the LAO notes that under the P3 arrangement the state retains some risk (that there may be unknown environmental, hazardous waste and archeological findings), but the concessionaire is assuming risk—as a practical matter a much higher risk—for any disagreements or conflicts in the interface between design and construction.

Third, the LAO recognizes that under the P3 the state gains more certainty over the project schedule but notes that it is not absolute certainty. There are still some events—events beyond the control of the concessionaire—which could extend the project schedule. That’s true, but it is also true that there is simply no such thing on the face of the earth as a contract, which eliminates every conceivable risk that could delay a project.

Fourth, the LAO recognizes that under the P3 the state gains more certainty over the project’s cost but notes that it is not an absolute cost guarantee. So although the LAO is correct that there are still some events that could increase costs, it is also true that with the P3 there are fewer potential events of that sort, than if there were no P3.

So in these four areas the LAO comments that the P3 should be greater than it is. However, there are good reasons why P3 agreements (which are now being used more and more throughout the world) only go as far as they do: In any contractual arrangement to deliver a complex, billion dollar project, there will always be an allocation of some contingencies to the state and an allocation of other contingencies to a concessionaire. The state still has and must have ownership and control of the state highway system (Presidio Parkway will be a part of that system), and the state should never relinquish its fundamental responsibility to oversee and control our basic infrastructure. Of necessity P3 agreements reflect those divisions of responsibilities and also those unknown contingencies in the world, which are impossible to completely eliminate in advance.

Right at the very end of its letter the LAO makes a brief comment on the alleged value of “a more traditional procurement approach.” However, that comment is of questionable value, because the LAO makes its comment without discussing at all the tremendous risks associated with Caltrans’ traditional ways of delivering projects: project delays, cost overruns, slow decision making, lack of accountability in the civil service system, lack of maintenance, more liability exposure, more overhead costs, no private entity to hold accountable and the long term cost of state staffing commitments.

So in summary, the LAO perceives many public benefits to using a P3 on the Presidio Parkway Project, in four areas comments that the P3 should be greater than it is and at the end makes a brief unfortunate comment about “a more traditional procurement approach” without discussing the many drawbacks associated with that approach.

By Paul Meyer
Executive Director of ACEC California
December 21, 2010

In California, a Road to Recovery Stirs Unrest--From the Wall Street Journal--Ianthe Jeanne Dugan

2010-12-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

For construction workers in California, the new highway being built to the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco should have been great news—bringing thousands of jobs at a time when the state is furloughing workers to cope with a record deficit.
But the "Gateway to San Francisco" is being built in a partnership with foreign investors under a new law that allows private firms to build public roads in California. And state engineers, who are missing out on much of the design work, are suing to stop it.

The case is among the first brought by a union to stop a public project being handled by private investors, an area that is growing in the U.S. as cities and states struggle financially. Lawyers for the state who are fighting the lawsuit and others familiar with the case say it poses a threat to the $1 billion project, which is among the first public-private partnerships in California and a model nationwide for how municipalities can rebuild crumbling roads.
Daniel Near, a lawyer for the state's transportation department, says that the state's contract is legal. "They don't like the idea of losing control of state engineers designing and overseeing construction of projects," he says.

The union, which represents 9,000 public workers, brought the suit in State Superior Court in November claiming that state and county transportation agencies are "illegally proceeding with a public- private partnership." The suit is asking the court to force the state to put the project up for bid and stop work in the meantime. While the case awaits a hearing, construction is proceeding.

"They are holding the project hostage," says Paul Meyer, executive director of the American Council of Engineering Companies of California, a trade group representing private engineers. "If a judge temporarily stops this project, it will be a disaster." Michael Likosky, a professor at New York University who is a specialist in public finance, says that the case holds ramifications for similar projects around the country. "Municipalities are rejiggering the way they handle construction of roads, bridges and other infrastructure—and this project is a watershed," he says. "If it is derailed, it could make it harder to put together these deals around the country."

Private investors, seeking alternative ways to make a profit, are teeing up more money than ever to invest in roads and other infrastructure projects. They are buoyed by new state laws allowing these deals as well as federal programs that are financing them.

President Obama's economic stimulus program pumped $100 billion into infrastructure and energy partnerships and has attracted nearly three times as much in private money to fund a total of $380 billion in projects, according to federal figures.

With budget deficits growing—California's shortfall rose to $25.4 billion—Mr. Near says that such partnerships are the only ways for cash-strapped states to embark on new projects now.
The hard times inspired California to turn to a private firm when it decided to replace Doyle Drive, the 75-year-old, 1.6-mile road leading to the Golden Gate Bridge. The new six-lane road will be known as Presidio Parkway and wind through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, connecting the city to the iconic bridge. The project was made possible last year when the state passed a law allowing private investment in public projects.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the congresswoman from the district, was at the unveiling in 2009. "Together, we will build not only a new bridge," she said, "but a new opportunity for job creation and economic recovery here in San Francisco." The project is projected to create 13,000 jobs over the next 30 years—between construction, maintenance and administration. While construction and planning began last year, it was only in recent weeks that the state announced it was entering a partnership with Germany-based Hochtief Concessions and Luxembourg's Meridiam Infrastructure to design, construct, operate and maintain the road.

California is to give the group a lump sum when the project is completed, scheduled for 2014, and pay off the rest over 30 years, saving the cost of selling bonds for the already cash-strapped state.

Bruce Blanning, executive director of the state engineers' union, is worried about the fate of state workers as more jobs move into private hands. In California, state-employed construction workers—like all state workers—were recently mandated to start staying home three days a month without pay.

"My paycheck was cut by 15% this year," says Matt Hanson, an engineer who is president of the Professional Engineers in California Government, a labor union that brought the lawsuit. "It is frustrating because the state could have floated a bond and done this project for less money with state workers."

Mr. Blanning said the issues go beyond state versus private workers doing the project. "Much of the design work can be done overseas," he says. "This isn't about union versus nonunion jobs; this is about taking away American jobs."

Write to Ianthe Jeanne Dugan at ianthe.dugan@wsj.com

Caltrans’ Union Holds Hostage San Francisco’s Presidio Parkway

2010-11-11T13:16:00.000-08:00

Once again a union of Caltrans employees is using the courts to hold up an important public safety project, gain leverage over the project and force its will on the people. This $1 billion project, called Presidio Parkway, would make major public safety improvements to and ease congestion on the southern, San Francisco approach to the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Caltrans union—Sacramento-based Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG)—has filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction that would delay the delivery and increase the costs of the project. Moreover, PECG’s project-threatening, job-threatening lawsuit comes at a time, when California’s economy is in terrible shape, and when elected leaders of all political persuasions are urgently calling for more job creation in California.

It is a real travesty when Caltrans employees—the very public officials whose fundamental duty it is to provide the public with a safe and efficient transportation system—go to court to stop an important and badly needed transportation project.

This latest PECG lawsuit was filed against both the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority alleging that they made technical violations of SBX2 4 (Cogdill), California’s public-private partnership (P3) law enacted in 2009.

However, the allegations in PECG’s lawsuit are really just a smokescreen. The truth is that PECG opposed SBX2 4 in the legislature and in every subsequent public agency hearing on the issue. What PECG really wants from its lawsuit is to prevent competition and to maintain and expand its near monopoly on engineering work for major transportation projects.

The passage of SBX2 4 in 2009 was California’s modest step forward towards catching up with the rest of the nation and the world. For today public agencies everywhere, except in California, regularly use P3s to combine government oversight with private sector expertise and financing to speed up the delivery of needed infrastructure improvements. P3s are a particularly vital technique for delivering projects, when governments are strapped for cash—and that is certainly the case today in California. (http://www.acec-ca.org/news.asp?nid=268)

Sadly, as evidenced by its anti-Presidio Parkway lawsuit, PECG is far more interested in prohibiting competition with its monopoly than it is with helping to deliver needed projects. Once you get past the legalese, PECG’s anti-Presidio Parkway lawsuit is clearly a calculated move designed to divert attention from the union’s primary goal: to make sure that transportation work in California is awarded only to PECG’s members.

In addition to being patently unfair, a state-union monopoly scares away private investment. Private sector partners want open competitive bidding combined with public agency oversight—not a state employees union monopoly—in order to foster innovation, accountability and speedy project delivery.

PECG’s anti-Presidio Parkway lawsuit is a tool for eliminating private sector competition so that they can keep their bloated union staff intact, in spite of growing calls to cut state overhead.

This is not the first time that PECG has filed a lawsuit in order to get its way. In fact this run-to-the-courts strategy is becoming its standard operating procedure. Since the passage of Prop 35 in 2000—a measure which gives public agencies the choice to use public or private sector engineers as the public agencies see fit—PECG has filed multiple lawsuits attacking that measure. However, the courts, including the California Supreme Court in two separate lawsuits, have resoundingly and repeatedly rejected PECG’s legal claims.

Unfortunately, PECG’s past failures in court have not deterred PECG from continuing to run to court. In fact PECG’s anti-Presidio Parkway lawsuit includes yet another legal attack on Prop 35.

PECG is once again thumbing its nose at the Governor, the legislature and the people of California by holding hostage an important project for public safety and transportation efficiency. It is long past the time when PECG should be held to accountable to every California citizen for constantly placing its own self-interests above the interests of the public.

Paul Meyer
ACEC California Executive Director

We cannot, in good conscience, allow more infrastructure failures like those in New Orleans and San Bruno

2010-09-30T14:34:00.001-07:00

The national leadership of the American Council of Engineering Companies announced earlier this month that they support the President’s new $50 billion transportation infrastructure initiative and urged the White House to also advocate other pending, longer term infrastructure proposals. In its letter to the President, our national organization commended him for using infrastructure investment as a mechanism for economic growth and urged him to work with Congress in breaking the logjam on multi-year aviation, water and surface transportation bills currently awaiting action in the House and Senate. Right now, details of the President’s $50 billion initiative are still being developed, but to be realistic the prospects for passage this year are remote--especially given our current contentious political environment.

It is unfortunate that the President chose not to launch this effort six months or a year earlier when professionals who can solve infrastructure problems advocated the idea as a key tool for an effective economic recovery agenda. If he had, perhaps Stimulus 1 would have been a more powerful, longer-term tool for job growth in the private as well as the public sector. But one thing is certain: President Obama’s proposal has, once again, injected infrastructure investment back into the arena of public discourse. Meanwhile, here in California the public has been made acutely aware of our infrastructure problems by the deadly failure of a 60 year old gas pipeline in San Bruno.

Whatever changes occur in Congress and the California Legislature after the November elections, both bodies should be pressed hard to commit to rebuild our state and national infrastructure now, not later. In fact one of the more lasting results of the battle for our hearts and minds that is happening right now in California and in Washington DC should be a new resolve to finally tackle the modernization of our crumbling infrastructure--with a new energetic offensive equal to that planned for the trip to Mars. These investments may be both public and private in nature, and they could even be used to enforce increased oversight initiatives over such entities as private utility companies.

If we do not, our lack of resolve will diminish our global competiveness. Worse, there is increased risk that we will experience more New Orleans catastrophes and San Bruno infrastructure failures. These failures will not just come from sleeping defects under our homes--but in the form of increased highway deaths caused by failing roadways, a loss of clean drinking water as aging water systems fail, and yes, the catastrophic failure of delivery systems for natural gas, gasoline, electricity and other life supporting materials. The loss of life and property that those catastrophes entail will surely be more painful than inconvenient. The fact that we as a society need loss of life to intensify our resolve weighs heavily, especially on those of us who know how to solve these problems, and who stand ready at a moment's notice to roll up our sleeves to get the job done.

Jerry Michael
ACEC California President

Isn’t PECG Just Sneaking Around To The Back Door?

2010-07-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

In committee testimony on the recently amended AB 2620 (Eng), the American Council of Engineering Companies of California (ACEC CA) thanked the bill’s sponsor Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG) for finally acknowledging what we have known for many years: that the Legislative Analyst’s Office and the Department of Finance are correct in their assertion that the “loaded” costs of public engineers and private engineers are essentially the same - $224K to $230K.

PECG has finally, after years of assertions to the contrary and countless dollars spent on lobbying and PR, admitted they were wrong.

However, AB 2620 (see below for summary analysis and comments) which was approved by the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee yesterday, is a blatant attempt to artificially reduce PECG’s reimbursable rates to local agencies by inappropriately shifting overhead costs associated with state resources and not accounting for them when billing their services to those local agencies. The problem? Those costs don’t go away. As the analysis below points out, the State Highway Account (SHA), which is already underfunded and can’t keep up with state transportation needs, will ultimately bear these costs...to the tune of at least $66 million per year (and potentially higher).

Additionally, this is more evidence that PECG is seeking to take over local agency work. Why? PECG knows its members do not have enough work to do to keep busy. Just this spring the state's Legislative Analyst's Office reported that Caltrans is overstaffed by at least 1500 employees.

ACEC CA’s understanding is that several local transportation agencies originally were pleased that their costs for reimbursed work would be going down. Who wouldn’t be pleased? However, on closer scrutiny, they realized that the pressures on the SHA from shifting overhead costs are going to result in potentially a half-billion dollar loss over a five year transporation planning cycle and that short term cost gains will be more than offset by a lack of funding in the future. ACEC CA understands that several local agencies are now considering opposing such legislation because of the pressure this puts on the SHA.

Here’s just another example of the public sector and its allies in the Capitol adopting flagrantly protectionist legislation designed to protect state employee jobs, health plans and pensions while hurting private jobs, health plans and pensions and placing further burden on California taxpayers. If these actions were being taken by a private company they would almost certainly be viewed as anti-competitive pricing tactics and violations of the Sherman Act (anti-trust). It’s outrageous that some members of the Legislature and California’s public employee unions believe that there should be one law for the rest of us, and none for them.

The irony here is that the original bill, while still bad policy in our eyes, recognized a shortfall in SHA dollars and actually sought to increase funding. AB 2620 now creates additional pressure on the SHA by forcing overhead costs for state workers to be paid out of the account. The irony speaks for itself.

SUBJECT:

AB 2620 (Eng) Department of Transportation: capital outlay support services.

DESCRIPTION:

This bill changes the overhead rate that the Department of
Transportation (Caltrans), charges for reimbursed work it
performs for local agencies or private entities.

ANALYSIS:

Existing law authorizes Caltrans to recover its direct and
indirect costs for capital outlay support services it performs
for local agencies or private entities, except when Caltrans
performs work on the State Transportation Improvement Program
(STIP). Existing law exempts STIP projects from being charged
indirect costs.

This bill :

1) Defines "capital outlay support" to mean services
related to project development, including development of
specifications, preliminary engineering, prebid services,
preparation of project reports and the environmental
documents, design service, preparations of plans,
specifications and cost estimates, construction inspection
and management services, surveying and materials testing,
and related functions.

2) Defines "indirect overhead cost" to mean the pro rata
share of existing administrative salaries and benefits,
rent equipment cost, utilities, and materials

3) Requires a public agency or a private entity to
reimburse Caltrans for staff salaries and benefits for
staff needed to perform capital outlay support (COS)
services, as well as for the cost of administration
directly related to the function, such as space, equipment,
and required materials.

4) Denies Caltrans reimbursement for indirect overhead
costs unless the cost can be attributed solely to the
capital outlay support functions and would not exist if
Caltrans did not perform that function.

5) Requires an agency or an entity to reimburse Caltrans
when Caltrans uses a contractor to provides capital outlay
support services for the cost of the contractor plus costs
directly associated with the contracted function, including
but not limited to, advertising and awarding the service
contract, inspection, supervision, and monitoring of the
contractor.

COMMENTS:

1) Purpose . According to the sponsors, the Professional
Engineers in California Government (PECG), Caltrans is
unnecessarily charging local and regional agencies overhead
and administrative costs that are not related to the
delivery of COS services associated with designing highway
improvements. PECG argues that for reimbursed work Caltrans
is currently charging local and regional authorities for
all Caltrans' administrative costs, including charges for
building depreciation, bond interest charges, audits, and
multiple other items unrelated to state highway project
delivery.

2) Overhead rates . Federal guidelines require that projects
funded with federal gas tax revenues are charged the
"functional" overhead rate and the rate for indirect costs.
The functional overhead costs are associated with a
specific function, such as COS. Annually, the Department
of Finance and the Federal Highway Administration approve
Caltrans' direct and indirect overhead rates. When
performing COS services on projects funded with local
funds, Caltrans charges local agencies both the functional
rate, as well as for the indirect costs associated with
operating Caltrans. By not charging the indirect cost for
reimbursed work, the state would be subsidizing local
agencies. Moreover, if Caltrans does not charge the rate
for indirect costs for reimbursed work, the federal
government will not reimburse the state for those costs.

3) Costs are real money . This bill exempts indirect costs
related to the overall management and operation of
Caltrans, including legal, personnel, civil rights, audits,
space charges, and other similar costs, from being charged
to public agencies or private entities if they contract
with Caltrans for COS services. It is a customary
accounting practice in any enterprise, public or private,
to allocate overhead costs across all functions of the
organization. By exempting public agencies or private
entities from paying the indirect costs, the bill offers an
incentive to those entities to retain Caltrans to provide
COS services and not to retain private engineering firms.
The exempted costs, however, do not go away. They are
charged to the other functions of Caltrans.

In end, this exemption reduces the amount of funds in the
State Highway Account that will be available to improve the
state's highway system. According to Caltrans, it received
nearly $66 million in reimbursements for indirect costs
associated with providing COS services in fiscal year
2008-2009. To exempt local agencies and a private entity
from reimbursing Caltrans for this cost means that the
State Highway Account will have to absorb the cost. State
highway funds are already at a premium. Caltrans indicates
that the minimum cost of performing rehabilitation work on
a state highway is approximately $240,000 per lane mile.
Failure to collect indirect overhead costs is equivalent to
approximately 275 line miles of highway not being
rehabilitated.

4) Federal accounting issues . The exemption from being
reimbursed for indirect costs may be contrary to federal
regulations governing cost allocation procedures for
agencies receiving federal highway revenues. If Caltrans is
out of conformity with federal accounting requirements,
remedial actions would have to be taken to bring the
department into conformity or the state not be reimbursed
for the costs.

2010-07-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

ACEC California Welcomes CTC Approval of Presidio Parkway P3

2010-05-20T16:30:00.001-07:00

SACRAMENTO – May 20, 2010 – ACEC California today applauded the California Transportation Commission (CTC) for its timely approval today of the proposed public-private partnership (P3) project called Presidio Parkway, which will dramatically improve the southern approach to the Golden Gate Bridge.

The CTC's voted on a project submittal sponsored by the San Francisco County Transportation Agency and Caltrans under SB XX4, legislation passed last year to allow the use of P3 to deliver some important transportation projects in California. SB XX4 was enacted in an effort to build appropriate transportation projects more efficiently and achieve faster delivery while transferring risk to the private sector and reducing overall project costs. Presidio Parkway is the first project to be brought before the CTC for P3 approval under the legislation and has been strongly endorsed by ACEC California and other parties.

“Presidio Parkway is a badly needed project to improve traffic mobility and public safety in the San Francisco approach to the Golden Gate Bridge and it can now move forward expeditiousl. The project is a high standard solution for meeting tomorrow’s traffic needs and safety standards,” said Paul Meyer, executive director of ACEC California.

“Thanks to SB XX4, California is now able to utilize –- albeit it on a limited basis -- what has become a valued and accepted project delivery system throughout the world. Not every project is appropriate for a P3 delivery but public agencies do now have a valuable tool for speeding up the delivery of needed projects without having to take on all the risk and that is a very positive development for California taxpayers,” Meyer added.

Public Engineers’ Union Misinformation Campaign Against Presidio Parkway Project is a Disservice to San Francisco Citizens

2010-05-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

ACEC California today condemned the shoddy “public disservice” campaign of misinformation launched this week by the Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG) union, which aims at stopping an important and badly needed project to improve traffic mobility and public safety in the San Francisco approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. The project is called the Presidio Parkway.

Many transportation experts believe that the existing San Francisco approach to the Golden Gate Bridge is not nearly adequate for meeting today’s traffic needs and safety standards. The Presidio Parkway Project is sponsored by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, which has worked hard for many years to build community support for the project and identify multiple funding sources.

The California Transportation Commission (CTC) is scheduled to consider the project at its May 19-20 meeting in Sacramento.

The project can be completed and delivered to the public much more quickly than traditional methods by using a new delivery technique authorized by SBXX 4, which was signed into law on February 20, 2009. SBXX 4 authorizes state and local transportation agencies to use public-private partnerships (P3s) in order to reduce project costs, expedite project completion or achieve improved design features.

After much study both the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) have determined that a P3 is the best structure to design and build the project on time, on budget while achieving high design, construction and ongoing maintenance standards.

Commented Paul Meyer, Executive Director of ACEC California, “It would be a real tragedy for San Francisco residents and visitors, if after all of this work, PECG’s misinformation campaign succeeds in slowing down or increasing the cost of such an important, urgently needed project.”

A recent, thorough analysis of the value of using a P3 to deliver the Presidio Parkway Project is now posted on the CTC website. To see the analysis go to www.catc.ca.gov .

Meyer also said that, “In recent years P3s have become a valued and accepted project delivery system throughout the world.” He cited the example of the Australian state of New South Wales. Just this week the former premier of that state, Bob Carr of the Australian Labor party, met with California legislators to discuss how New South Wales successfully used P3s to quickly deliver transportation projects in the run up to the Sydney Olympic games in 2000.

Carr was a P3 skeptic upon taking office in 1995 but soon realized their value and became a supporter of the technique. Since 1995 New South Wales opened six major freeway projects with a total capital value of A$5.4 billion (US$4.85 billion) around its capital, Sydney, at a net cost of only A$ 800 million (US$717 million) to the state government.

“SBXX 4 doesn’t require every project to be built as a P3,” said Meyer. “What it does offer is a valuable tool to public agencies for speeding up the delivery of needed projects. Unfortunately, PECG with its misinformation campaign does not have the public’s interests at heart, apparently only its own.”

ACEC California

California Project Captures ACEC’s Top Design Excellence Award

2010-04-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

HDR, Inc.’s innovative “energy from onions” facility in Oxnard, Calif. cements California’s reputation as center for innovation and engineering excellence

On Tuesday evening, the American Council of Engineering Companies awarded Omaha, Neb.-based HDR Engineering, Inc. its coveted Grand Conceptor Award for the Gills Onions Advanced Energy Recovery System Project in Oxnard, Calif. This is the second year in a row that an engineering design project in California has received the council’s top award at the Engineering Excellence Awards, also known as the Academy Awards of the engineering industry. Last year’s award was bestowed on Cambridge, Mass.-based CDM for its Groundwater Replenishment System designed for the Orange County Water and Sanitation Districts.

The Gills Onions project was one of eight projects considered for ACEC’s top award. Other contestants included the new $1.3 billion Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas and the Sea-to-Sky Highway project in British Columbia, Canada. The award was presented at ACEC’s Engineering Excellence Award (EEA) gala in Washington, D.C.

HDR was selected by Gills Onions, the largest fresh-cut onion processor in the nation, as the lead engineering firm on this breakthrough $9.5 million facility that converts onion waste to power. In the facility, juice is extracted from onion peels and treated in a high-rate anaerobic reactor to produce methane-rich biogas. The biogas is then treated and used to power two fuel cells that provide electricity for the processing plant. As a result of this project, the owner has achieved increased energy independence, elimination of a waste stream, reduced operational cost, and a smaller carbon footprint. The combination of the energy produced, cost savings generated, and grant funding achieved by the project will result in a full payback in less than six years.

The EEA Gala applauds the accomplishments of private engineering firms in an elegant celebration attended by industry leaders, members of Congress, federal agency officials and the media. This year's EEA competition featured 163 projects from throughout the world all vying for honors of excellence — culminating in the Grand Conceptor Award for best overall engineering achievement.

ACEC California

No Water, No Development

2010-04-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

The report released today (click on the title of this post to read report) by Ernst & Young and the Urban Land Institute calls water profligacy an “American way of life” and sees real limits to where people can go to live in the US because of water supply issues.   Nowhere is this more evident than in California where, after the best rainfall totals in years, the state has announced that water allocations will still be far below normal. In fact, they call for much needed “long-term solutions to improve water supply reliability.” As engineers we applaud this kind of investigation and implore you to write about this issue with a sense of purpose.

  Tom Blackburn
President,  ACEC CA

ACEC California's Executive Director Response to the LAO Report on Caltrans Overstaffing

2010-03-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

The LAO Report clearly spells out what we have been saying for years: Caltrans is overstaffed and inefficient. It needs to be downsized in the same way that private engineering firms have been forced to downsize due to a lack of work—including lack of a fair share of state work. We fear that the legislature will, once again, adopt a ‘business as usual’ approach, cave-in to powerful public unions, and in effect force the problem onto the business community and the California taxpayers.

For years the Legislature has only allowed private engineering companies to perform less than 10 percent of the state transportation engineering—a level far below the 50 to 60 per cent level in the other 49 states. Instead, as the LAO report demonstrates Caltrans has over-relied on full-time employees. Then when funding for projects dries up, as it is now, Caltrans and the taxpayers are stuck with too many, costly full-time employees.

If the past is any guide, no one should be surprised, if in response to the LAO report the Legislature does the following: Instead of reducing Caltrans huge bureaucracy, the Legislature slashes Caltrans’ current meager use of consultants. If so, the Legislature will face a bit of a problem: At present Caltrans total use of engineers from engineering companies does not even come close to the 1,500 job cuts called for by the LAO.

This is not and should not be about private engineers versus public engineers. The plain fact is that Caltrans—like any state department of transportation—needs both. What this is really about is the plain fact that for years Caltrans has been allowed to grow without limits. We are now at the point where, if anyone had any doubts, the LAO has amply demonstrated that bigger is not necessarily better. In fact, if you take a look at almost any other DOT in this country, the trend has been toward smaller, more efficient operations. California stands alone as the only state in which more than 90 percent of work performed is handled in-house.

Paul Meyer
ACEC California Executive Director

Legislative Analysts Office Releases its report on the 2010-2011 Transportation Budget

2010-03-03T14:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the non-partisan Legislative Analysts Office released its report on the 2010-2011 Transportation Budget (attached). Key recommendations made in the report included a reduction in Caltrans’ workforce by 1,500 in order to better meet actual workload and capture savings of $200 million in the $2B Capital Outlay Support (COS)budget. Tom Blackburn, president, and Paul Meyer, Executive Director of the private sector American Council of Engineering Companies of California have read the report and made the following comments:

Tom Blackburn, President, American Council of Engineering Companies-California, says:

“Finally, the LAO has addressed the elephant in the room. The public unions’ stranglehold on California’s transportation infrastructure has brought California taxpayers a huge cost to bear in the present and the future in unfunded pensions and medical benefits. The LAO concluded that, “the program’s budget lacks sufficient workload justification.” That’s because too much money goes into benefits rather than box culverts, pensions rather than projects and salaries rather than streets. And, once the public union employee is hired, it’s virtually impossible to terminate them. While $200M is a great start it’s not enough to get us back on track and we need fundamental change at the state level to get our finances in order, the economy back on track and jobs where they will be less of a drain on state coffers now and in the future: in the private sector.”

Paul Meyer, Executive Director, American Council of Engineering Companies-California, says:

“The report from the non-partisan state LAO confirms exactly what many transportation experts have witnessed for years: The public employee unions’ control over a key state agency, Caltrans, has resulted in a huge and inefficient bureaucracy—one which is sapping away the state’s limited financial resources. What the public wants are real transportation improvements—not a bloated bureaucracy. The LAO is exactly correct in calling for a dramatic reduction in the Caltrans bureaucracy and modern management systems for controlling costs and holding state employees accountable. ”

California Senate Recognizes Work of Engineering Sector as Part of National Engineers Week

2010-02-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

SACRAMENTO, February 17, 2010 – The California Senate today recognized the contributions made by engineers to the state’s infrastructure and economy with SR 33, presented by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima). The resolution celebrates National Engineers Week, which is celebrated each year during the week of George Washington’s birthday, and this year runs from February 14 through February 20. National Engineers Week is designed to attract more young people to careers in the engineering sector. Washington, the first President of the United States and widely considered to be the father of the nation, was trained as a land surveyor and spent some of his time in the US Army as a military engineer. SR 33 spotlights the wide range of contributions that engineers and surveyors make in all aspects of modern life. ACEC California President Tom Blackburn was on the Senate floor for the presentation of the resolutions.

Speeding up Transportation Projects Benefits Everyone

2010-02-01T13:27:00.000-08:00

This month the Legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger will once again begin to fashion a state budget, and while the specific provisions of that effort are still unknown, the fact that that budget will have a big impact on the future of our state is anything but. The latest projections are that, unless the state changes its basic budget provisions, over the next 18 months the state will be in the red by about $20 billion…and counting.

How did we get here? Well, one clear reason is the state bureaucracy is growing bigger and more expensive and is becoming an ever larger drain on our state coffers. A case in point: Over the past decade Caltrans’ (i.e. our State Department of Transportation or DOT) in-house staff for delivering projects has more than doubled in size (mostly before Governor Schwarzenegger took office).

The primary reason for this dramatic expansion is that powerful state employee unions use their clout in the state budget process to create union jobs and severely restrict the state’s use of engineering companies. As a result, Caltrans uses private engineering companies for only a small portion of its work (about 10 per cent). The other 90 per cent of Caltrans’ project work is handled by full-time long term state employees on the state payroll -- making California’s DOT more financially committed to the use of permanent state employees than any other state in the nation.
Indeed the national average among the other 49 DOTs is to use private engineering firms for over 50 per cent of their workload. Other DOTs do so, because then they can quickly access special expertise when they need it and just as quickly terminate those services when they no longer need it.
Amazingly, state employee unions claim that using private engineering companies for bridge and road design is too expensive and results in substandard services.

First, let’s talk about costs. When state employee unions talk about it, they compare apples and oranges. For the cost of a state employee, public unions only count salary, benefits and a few direct costs. But for the cost of a private sector engineer, the public unions count all of the overhead and support assistance that an engineer needs in order to do his or her job.
Even more significantly, public employee unions ignore the fact that state employee engineers stay on the state’s payroll long after a project is complete. In contrast, once a private engineer finishes a state project, the engineer moves on to work on another project for another client, and the state no longer owes that engineering firm anything. One only has to consider the state’s huge unfunded liability for state employee pensions and medical care, to understand that the difference between hiring a permanent state employee and the cost of procuring a particular service for a limited time is a huge cost difference.

We currently suffer from the worst of two trends: Caltrans is way overstaffed and must still pay those staffing costs, while at the same time there is now little new money available for new projects. It is no surprise then—though largely unknown to motorists—that the state gas tax is now substantially used to pay for state employees, not new projects.
Second, what about the quality of services provided by engineering companies? In a service business such as engineering, the ability to win and retain business is inevitably in direct proportion to the quality of the services provided. Private companies do not stay in business–-and their employees do not stay employed--if they provide poor service. The same cannot be said, unfortunately, of a state bureaucracy where, as everyone knows, it is far more difficult to reward high performance and weed out poor performers.

Frankly, the state’s current practice of severely restricting the use of private engineering companies is not sustainable and ignores opposite trends across the country. The status quo is a recipe for even greater fiscal disaster in California. The alternative to simply using private services when needed--adding more jobs at the state level--will further exacerbate the unfunded pension liability bombshells facing the taxpayers in coming years.
Meanwhile, California’s need for high quality, cost effective engineering services has never been greater. A recent national report found that California’s all too often congested, deficient roads cost motorists an estimated $40 billion per year due to higher operating costs, crashes and delays (www.tripnet.org ).

California’s future will hold even more financial peril--unless the state makes basic changes in the way it conducts business and provides services. By opening the door to smarter use of the private sector to deliver needed transportation projects, California can create sustainable jobs, speed up project delivery, help grow our economy and expand our tax base.

Tom Blackburn
President, ACEC California

How Public Servants Became Our Masters

2010-01-25T15:38:00.001-08:00

Keeping Balance In Perspective

2009-12-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

The California Chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) recently joined together to bestow a Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) Award of Merit for 2009 on Ventura County, Calif. The award is meant to recognize the County’s dedication to the QBS process and represents a very high degree of achievement in the pursuit of Qualifications-Based Selection for design professional services.

QBS is a procurement process used by government agencies to aid selection of architectural and engineering services for public construction projects. The QBS Awards program is a joint initiative of ACEC and NSPE which recognizes public and private entities that effectively use and promote QBS methods to procure professional services of consulting engineers at the state and local levels.

The QBS procedure has been required by law in all federal projects since passage of the Brooks Act in 1972. Chapter 10 of the California Government Code, Sections 4526-4529 also mandates that local agencies in the state select applicable professional consultant services on the basis of demonstrated competence and professional qualifications through a QBS process.

In our opinion, the significance of Ventura County’s decision to use the QBS process to insure that their service needs are provided by both public and private entities went beyond just following the letter of the law. These local administrators have eschewed the admittedly easier rubber stamp approach in favor of going the extra mile for their taxpayers, by enhancing the spirit of competition required to deliver services on time and on budget. In these times of bureaucracy building, any effort made to recognize the expertise and employ private firms deserves recognition.

Tom Blackburn
ACEC California President

We Are A Force of History

2009-11-18T15:39:00.001-08:00

We are a force of history.

November 9th, 2009 was the official launch of UnplugthePoliticalMachine.org and the Citizen Power Campaign. Citizen Power vs. Union Power is what their campaign is all about. As this organization states, “The public employee unions run this state, and are running it right into the ground. Everyone in politics knows it, and increasingly everyone else is figuring it out. Conventional wisdom is that the unions are too powerful to take on. Remember when people said the same thing about the Soviet Union, another tyrannical power that fell 20 years ago when the Berlin wall came crashing down.”

I remember as well. The Soviet Union was just too powerful, or so it seemed. The day the wall began to fall, the East German military were still officially under orders to shoot anyone who came near the wall. But the world had completely changed, even though no one had yet made it official. But many people were oblivious to fear. All they knew was they wanted pieces of the wall – simple souvenirs. So by the thousands they brought sledgehammers and chisels to hack away at that wall. It worked, the DDR quickly backed down in the face of what even they realized was a force of history.

We have seen firsthand the oppression of tyranny here in California. In fact the citizens of this state of California are suffering a similar tyranny right now. But we also have more power than we realize. This time we are the force of history and it is time to chip away at our wall and take this state back.

Thirty years ago, then Governor Jerry Brown created public employee unions in California, now the most powerful special interest by far in California. How powerful? Ask any politician – nothing happens in Sacramento without their permission. They get their power because the government collects their political war chests right off the top of public employee salaries.
The government collects dues for the unions, and the unions give as much as 1/3 right back to the politicians who gave them that right in the first place. It’s a sweet deal for the politicians and the unions. Jerry Brown himself started all this in California. Ironically, he will most certainly receive tens of millions from the public employee unions next year in his run for governor.
How much money is involved? Let’s look at round numbers for just one union – the California Teachers Association. There are 340,000 teachers, who pay approximately $1000 per year in union dues. $300 per year, per teacher, goes toward politics. That’s $100 million per year, right off the top of teachers’ salaries, collected by the government, given to the CTA and its affiliates, and then funneled right back into the political campaigns of the politicians who do their bidding -- which usually means voting for more spending and higher taxes on you and me.
In short – our taxes, being used to make us pay more taxes. As the organizers of Citizen Power put it: It’s a rigged game that is destroying California, and it is well past time we take down that wall to progress and prosperity for all of us, unions and non-unions alike.

I believe the chiseling and hacking has begun. If thousands of us join in, the Citizen Power Initiative can put an end to this travesty in November, 2010.

Tom Blackburn
Blackburn Consulting
ACEC California President

Finally, a Realist in the Public Sector

2009-10-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but an interesting and healthy debate is taking place in the pages of the Yuba City Appeal Democrat these days. It’s a debate that many more Californians should be having.

The fracas began with an editorial from the Appeal Democrat which took public employee unions and Democratic legislators to task for attempting to prevent California cities from declaring bankruptcy. (Doing so would put public employees pensions and benefits in jeopardy but, as the editorial pointed out, these generous benefits are one of the main reasons cities find themselves in fiscal trouble.)

It didn’t take long following the publication of the editorial for Professionals Engineers in California Government (PECG) to weigh in with their tired campaign slogan suggesting public employees don’t get paid enough for years of service or when they retire. (We beg to differ, but their sizable campaign contributions evidently speak louder than our facts.)

Just when you’d expect a riposte from the private sector, Chuck Miller, a retired public employee and past president of PECG, sharpened his pencil and filed his own op-ed taking PECG and current president Mark Sheahan to task.

To quote Mr. Miller: “The Sept. 23 A-D editorial Sheahan rebutted was correct in criticizing public employee unions and elected officials for their lack of concern and prudent management of the taxpayers' money.”

Bravo, Mr. Miller! Finally, a representative of the public employee sector who is willing to stand up and tell it like it is. The fact is that California’s public employees get some of the richest pension benefits in the world AND they get even more generous health benefits, making those pension dollars stretch even further in retirement.

In his editorial, Chuck Miller admits that he is doing quite alright, thank you, with his Caltrans pension. However, he also realizes that the system has run amok and the strains on that system threaten his future retirement benefits.

There are many fine people that work at PECG and other public unions, but I don’t think it serves them or the public to run the system into the ground. Like Mr. Miller, they should realize that the pension system is in desperate need of reform.

Tom Blackburn
Blackburn Consulting
President, ACEC Califronia

Firms feel the pinch when state puts major projects on hold

2009-09-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

Treasurer’s office shifting toward more direct bond funds rather than pooling funds for hundreds of projects

Sacramento Business Journal - by Michael Shaw Staff writer

Tom Blackburn sounds remarkably patient for someone who’s been waiting for more than a year for payment from one of his largest clients.
Blackburn Consulting, a relatively small firm of 40 people with offices in Auburn and West Sacramento, performs soil engineering services mainly on public projects, such as levee work for the state of California. The state’s budget crisis has had a major impact on Blackburn’s company and those like it.
“We have some projects funded by the state that have gone over a year without being paid,” he said. “Typically, we’re paid within 60 to 90 days. This stuff really impacts our firm and I’m sure many others.”
The lack of payments is a direct result of the California’s weakened financial condition, brought on by falling tax revenue, a series of budget crises and unfavorable grades from credit-rating agencies. It has led to the state Treasurer’s Office looking for new ways to fund projects, and to some fighting among union and non-union engineering firms over scarce jobs.
“It’s a big deal for us,” said Blackburn, the newly installed president of the American Council of Engineering Companies’ California chapter, of the impact on engineering firms. “We don’t have furloughs. We have layoffs and real jobs that are gone.”
When the state Legislature adopted a budget in July that closed a $26 billion gap, it didn’t resolve the state’s financial crisis. Many capital projects that were put on hold back in December — when the state’s Pooled Money Investment Account was unable to fund all its obligations for things such as school construction — are still on hold.
That has caused problems for architecture and engineering firms in Sacramento and beyond.
“We have a big project that’s on hold,” said Chuck Hack, business development director at Lionakis, Sacramento’s largest architecture firm. “We get updates, but nothing specific, so we’re in a wait-and-see mode.” The $45 million project is supposed to replace the Department of Forestry camp in Growlersburg with 72,000 square feet of new administration and other buildings and ultimately improve firefighting efforts there. The preliminary plans were 65 percent complete when the project was put on hold, deemed “nonessential” by the state.
But the economy has led to significant savings for projects that have been allowed to move forward. Lionakis is the architect on one such project that will remove asbestos, add seismic support and put a new exterior on the six-story Department of Motor Vehicles building at Broadway and 24th Street. Competition among contractors for this kind of work has significantly reduced costs. The budget for the DMV project was $67 million and the winning bid came in at $44 million.
In Sacramento, budget problems have delayed millions of dollars of work on office building renovati ons. Funding for new school construction this year is also on hold. So unless school districts can raise their own money through voter-approved bond sales, most projects are going onto an “approved but unfunded” list. Local districts with projects on that waiting list include Placer Union High, Davis Joint Unified and Folsom-Cordova Unified.
However, California’s financial officials have been able to find money for some projects that were significantly under way when the crisis struck, such as the Central Plant at Q and 7th streets, which will heat and cool about 20 state buildings downtown. Construction is largely complete.
Officials at state agencies that oversee capital projects, such as the Department of General Services and the Division of State Architects, say their hands are tied until the state’s financial officials can supply the money to move forward.
“Our projects were all the result of PMIB action,” said Eric Lamoureux, spokesman for General Services, speaking of the Pooled Money Investment Board that oversees the fund that supplies hundreds of state projects.
How long will the cash crunch last? The state plans to test investors’ appetite for California bonds by late fall.
“We’re not exactly in a position cash flow-wise where we can resume making hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from the account,” said Tom Dresslar, spokesman for state Treasurer Bill Lockyer. Dresslar expects the state to get back to the business of selling bonds around Thanksgiving. That would give projects much-needed cash. The state also is changing how it goes about funding, shifting away from the idea of pooling funds for hundreds of projects toward more direct bond sales. If the plan works, proceeds would go straight to projects.
“We’d rather not be in the same position again,” Dresslar said.
In the meantime, firms are waiting to see if the plan will work.
Engineer Blackburn notes that some firms that relied on work from private developers and the sweeping master plans that proliferated during the real estate boom are worse off than those who largely do work on public projects.
“I know a firm that went from $16 million in revenue down to $3 million,” he said. “Most of the firms I’m talking to would put it in these terms — it’s a struggle to survive.”
A few large companies are still reeling in government contracts for big projects such as high-speed rail, he said. But those are exceptions.
Blackburn claims that the state’s financial crisis has disproportionately hit private firms represented through the American Council of Engineering Companies. That’s because much of the engineering work on Caltrans projects goes to union engineers represented by the Professional Engineers in California Government.
The state’s financial crisis has exacerbated the disagreements between the two organizations. When times were good, there were more projects to go around. But the economic climate has led to quarrels between the groups over whether private or union engineers are more costly to the state.
Blackburn sees lawmakers’ attitudes about their role as part of the problem.
“The government — their position is that they’re here to provide jobs,” he said. “In my view, we need to figure out how to have a more nimble government than that.”

mshaw@bizjournals.com | 916-558-7861

Use of ACEC California Firms

2009-09-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

Paul Meyer and Tom Blackburn:

Ed Henderson has told me about your continuing efforts to promote the benefits of belonging to ACEC. I have enjoyed many benefits during my 15 year membership, one of which is the opportunity to work with other ACEC member firms. I find that firms that belong to ACEC provide a higher quality of service than those firms that don’t. Firms that we have used as subconsultants have always done an excellent job for us and our clients. We have used member firms throughout the state and have never been disappointed.

I want to let you know of a current project where we reached out to another ACEC firm for help.

We recently were selected for a large project in Southern California, a place that is out of our normal service area. The project engineer for the client is a former TLA employee and he knew we would/will do a great job for him. The project is basically a hydrology and hydraulic study; however the client wants an extensive amount of mapping, which we don’t do. To meet that need, we used our ACEC directory and found a firm in the area. We are teaming with Hillwig-Goodrow, Inc. (Alan Hillwig, PLS). The subcontract portion of the work to Hillwig is $107,000; that will help Alan pay his ACEC dues for a long time.

Without an ACEC firm in the area, I don’t think I would have taken a chance using a firm I don’t know.

Terry Lowell, P.E.
President

TLA Engineering & Planning, Inc.
1528 Eureka Road, Suite 100
Roseville, CA 95661

PECG Ad Campaign is Misleading, Deceptive and Irresponsible

2009-08-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

This is a time when all Californians should work diligently to help put the state back on an even keel by practicing fiscal responsibility. Instead, PECG has chosen to use expensive means to create yet another misinformation campaign and sway public opinion into believing that state employed engineers are cheaper than private companies and that restricting contracted out services will save the state money.

The fact is that a 2007 report by the former head of the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, showed the comparable cost of in house (state-employed) engineers ranged from $173,434 to $209,212 while the average cost of an outside (privately-employed) engineer was $193,000.

Moreover, PECG’s misleading ad campaign states that pension benefits are only $2000 per state worker per month. In fact, a PECG member employed by Caltrans with a term of employment of 22.7 years - which is the average term of employment for state workers -- would have to earn less than $60,000 in the final year of employment to receive a pension of $2,000 a month.

Resources such as the state worker database point to significantly higher current salaries for Caltrans engineers, which strongly suggests that pension benefits themselves are higher than the $2,000 cited in PECG’s misleading ads and also that future pension liabilities will be significantly higher.

And there’s the rub. It’s not just that in house engineers have comparable salaries to contract engineers, it’s that when you consider the extra liability per state worker in pension and health care benefits – sometimes more than a million dollars over a lifetime -- short-term contracts are a much cheaper option for the state and can actually help reduce costs because the state is not on the hook for contract workers’ long term healthcare or pension benefits.

Unfortunately, less than 10 percent of transportation engineering and design work conducted by the state is contracted out to private engineering companies. Ninety percent is handled by state employees. In light of this dramatically one-sided statistic, it is disingenuous of the union representing state workers to suggest that cost savings of any kind can be made by further restricting outside contracts. If anything, the opposite is true.

The taxpayers, state leaders and ultimately the many fine state employees do not benefit from this misleading campaign as we try to identify the appropriate fiscal adjustments.

Tom Blackburn
President, ACEC California
Blackburn Consulting

US House Bill H.R. 2104 is smokescreen to bypass California voters

2009-07-06T17:28:00.000-07:00

H.R. 2104, a bill currently before the U.S. House of Representatives would mandate that only public employees carry out construction inspection functions on all federally funded transportation projects. The bill proposes that such a mandate would identify alleged "conflicts of interest and potential failures to protect public safety and welfare" that might occur if privately employed engineers are given that work.

California’s private engineers vehemently disagree. The whole idea that somehow, all of a sudden, the private engineering firms that can and do perform this work now have ‘conflicts of interest’ or would fall short of ‘providing for public safety’ is ludicrous. Not only is this bill a smoke screen for protecting public union jobs in California and the nation, its premise is based on misinformation which is carefully woven in to the bill.

In fact the entire concept of the bill runs counter to common practices in the industry and is an affront to the high professional standards which California engineers have maintained for decades.

My fellow ACEC California member and engineer Rob Salaber agrees. Rob asks: “Why all of a sudden is the well established system of partnering between the public and private engineering community in question? Simple. At this time of fiscal crisis when everyone is suffering financially, the public unions want all of the work for their members, and U.S. Congressman Bob Filner (D. San Diego) is trying to deliver it to them on a silver platter.”

H.R. 2014 would also directly conflict with Proposition 35, legislation passed by California voters which has withstood two State Supreme Court challenges by California’s public unions since its passage in 2000. At that time, California voters overwhelmingly approved amendment to the California state constitution to give state and local public agencies the choice and authority to use private engineering services, when needed.

Proposition 35 expressly applies to construction services such as inspections as well. It is now regularly used by both state and local agencies to excellent effect to speed up the delivery of badly needed infrastructure projects, including transportation projects. It doesn't cut corners and it has ensured the continued safety of our citizens.
Numerous surveys of practices in states all around the country demonstrate that the traditional system of using private engineering services is crucial to delivering innovative, on-time and on-budget projects to the public. Allowing only state employees to conduct construction inspection work would slow up the delivery of projects at a time when we desperately need efficiencies, both to keep costs low and deliver projects on time and on budget for minimal disruption to the general public.
America’s private engineers are involved in every phase of every type of transportation
project including planning solutions to reduce congestion, assessing environmental impacts, evaluating and improving the safety and sustainability of roads, bridges and tunnels, designing both simple and complex infrastructure to exceedingly high standards, and, yes, monitoring construction to ensure it complies with approved designs and materials.
This proposed legislation sponsored by U.S. Congressman Bob Filner (D. San Diego) is ill considered, and will result in even greater costs for California taxpayers without any discernible additional value to the state.

Tom Blackburn, Blackburn Consulting
ACEC California President

The real cost of hiring public employees is in their pension funds.

2009-06-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

A recent article in the Sacramento Bee outlined where the City’s money will have to be allocated during the next fiscal year in order to keep current employees employed. Bottom line, 85 cents out of every dollar spent in the $386 million California general fund would go to pay for the salaries, health care and retirement benefits of more than 3,000 city employees.

The “cuts” of course will then have to come from a corresponding reduction in Sacramento city services and supplies --which drop from an average of about 22 percent during the last six years to about 5.5 percent of the annual fund. Good news for people who need to keep their jobs; bad news for taxpayers.

But an equally important point made in the article might just be overlooked if one were to miss focusing on all of the ramifications of budget parsing. The overwhelming cost of pension obligations incurred by the city in hiring more full time employees is almost mindboggling for those demanding more efficiency and accountability.

What’s more, according to the proposed budget released last month, the stock market's fall has battered the value of the Sacramento City Employees' Retirement System, and the hit will need to be offset next year to the tune of an $8 million contribution by the city. Then, in the 2011-2012 fiscal year, the city is preparing for a $12 million hike in its annual contribution to the California Public Employees' Retirement System to make up for investment losses in city funds held by CalPERS.

"We're concerned and we would hope that the city, as all cities, will look very seriously at ratcheting down their pension contributions," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association told the Bee. “Still, the numbers – especially the amount of the budget being spent on salaries – aren't surprising,” Coupal said. "California is the land of milk and honey as far as public employees go," he said. Adding to the mix, said Coupal, is that Sacramento is a government town where local politics are dominated by the labor-friendly Democratic Party.

As you might expect, Bob Blymyer, the executive director of the Sacramento County Taxpayers League, sees it differently. He told the Bee: "The public won't stand for" inequity between public and private sector compensation. It was never the taxpayers' intention to upgrade public workers' salaries and benefits to where they are better than private enterprise.”

All of which points out the following reality: Every time the state hires a new public engineer (who makes more money than if he or she worked in a private engineering firm, and then joins the public engineers employees union to fight for his or her “rights”) the state (you and I) are also signing on for a pension obligation that can run into the $1 to $2 million range, depending on salary levels.

So, rather than just saving jobs, perhaps we taxpayers should be focusing our attention away from just salary to consider another real cost of hiring more public engineers – especially when we let their union lobbyists garner favors from state legislators to, for example, prevent the state from outsourcing the work when and where they can.

By the way, the truth is that in recent years thousands of engineers working in the private sector have already lost their jobs. Much of that failure can be attributed to their comparatively poor and

underfunded private unions who failed miserably in “achieving” the same kind attention and support from the California legislature. Perhaps that kind of inequity should be added to the growing list of reasons to make some official changes in the next election?

Tom Blackburn
President-Elect ACEC California
Blackburn Consulting

ACEC California Student Outreach Video

2009-06-23T11:49:00.001-07:00

Now’s the time for broad PPP expansion in California

2009-06-17T15:14:00.001-07:00

Now’s the time for broad PPP expansion in California

The state has no money and is deep in debt–so to fix our broken infrastructure and build much-needed new transport options and facilities, we need to attract more private capital. This means more public-private partnerships.

Regardless of the results of May 19’s special election in California, the state will face a jarring financial future that should force a change in the way we plan and implement spending, and that includes infrastructure. The fact is that there will be no new public money for large-scale infrastructure for many years to come, so we had better start looking for alternatives now. We must act quickly because, let’s face it, the quality of our existing infrastructure – because of inadequate and sometimes wasteful funding - is just not good.

We really can’t delay implementing repairs to dangerous infrastructure problems like corroding bridges and deteriorating water treatment facilities. First, there’s the public safety issue – Californians deserve safe and secure infrastructure; second, there’s the competitive issue – how can we attract and retain businesses if we can’t provide adequate roads, rail and ports to move goods, energy to power manufacturing or research facilities, housing for workers, etc?

Our Governor knows this, and now so do many of our legislators. Earlier in the year, they passed into law SBX2 4, a bill that gives the state, cities and counties authority to adopt alternative infrastructure delivery methods such as public-private partnerships and design- build for certain transportation projects. The bipartisan effort is a great first step toward creating a multidisciplinary approach to California’s infrastructure challenges but it is not the sole solution. Nor will it address all the state’s needs since the PPP legislation expires in 2016 and the number of design-build projects is limited.

California leaders should rapidly expand the use of public-private partnerships (PPP) in the state in order to attract vital private investment capital for future infrastructure projects. Such PPP efforts have been successful in other states and around the globe, but so far California has been way behind the curve.

Private engineers have been steadfast advocates of using private capital and private expertise to make new infrastructure a reality for the benefit of the state and its industries. PPPs and design-build are possible today in California partly because of ACEC California’s overwhelming success in multiple court battles with state employee unions seeking to quash PPPs. Examples of projects now moving forward because of court victories include expansion of the 405 freeway in Southern California, the recent voter-approved high-speed rail project and expansions of subway systems in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. If we want to see more of these projects in the future, we need to bring private sector capital into play a much bigger role in building it.

Paul Meyer