MID-ATLANTIC GOES PACIFIC - KCI

MID-ATLANTIC
GOES PACIFIC
Mid-Atlantic Transportation’s
Engineer Dive Team
Tapped for Japan
Inspections
While cool temperatures and clouds held off the
hot summer for much of May, three bridge inspectors
in KCI’s mid-Atlantic transportation
group found themselves working under the sun—the Rising
Sun, that is. John S. Dubiel, Bob A. Heyman, PE, and
Eric J. Kampert, PE, spent nine days traveling, inspecting
bridges and, yes, even sampling a bit of saki in Yokohama,
Japan, thanks to a three-year, open-end worldwide
inspection contract with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
(USACE).
The job entailed underwater and topside inspections of
two structures—a railroad bridge dating back to the early
1930s and a two-way vehicular bridge built in 1994. Both
bridges connect mainland Japan with North Dock, an island
in Yokohama Bay that serves as a sea bound cargo
transfer point.
As consultants for USACE, KCI was hosted by the
Army at Camp Zama, a U.S. military installation situated
about an hour by car from both North Dock and Yokohama,
Japan’s second largest city. The ten-day trip included
five long days of work, four longer days of travel, and a
lively Saturday at one of Japan’s largest annual festivals
in Tokyo.
“This was a kind of get-your-feet-wet type of assignment,”
says Heyman, who oversaw the topside inspections
and served as a dive tender during the underwater inspec-
Above: KCI’s engineer dive team performed underwater and
topside inspections of two bridges at North Dock, an island just
off of Yokohama, Japan’s second largest city.
tions. “They could see what it was like to have their consultant
do overseas work for them; we got to see what it’s like
to travel and work in another country. It was a good learning
experience for everybody.”
Among the obstacles the inspectors had to deal with
were the language barrier and the 13-hour time difference,
which hindered their efforts to secure a dive boat and other
equipment before departing. It all worked out, though,
thanks in part to a Japanese engineer who assisted the team
throughout the trip by serving as a translator on the job,
and by offering recommendations for sampling Japanese
food and culture after hours.
According to Michael K. Rice, PE, assistant division chief
of KCI’s structures division, the invitation to travel abroad was
somewhat of a surprise. Although his crews inspected a third of
the Army’s worldwide inventory of bridges in 2005 and have
traveled all over the continental
United States to
perform inspections for
USACE—from upstate
New York to Louisiana,
from Missouri to
Washington state—this
was the first time their
services had been requested
abroad.
[See Yokohama, p. 3]
Summer 2006
I N S I D E
2
President’s Message
New KCI Technologies president reflects
on company’s past and future, and
shares his vision for success.
Preparing for
the Next Big One
KCI’s Tampa office swings into action for
Sprint Nextel, installing backup generators
at cell sites throughout west and
southwest Florida.
Office Updates
Big project wins for southeast and mid-
Atlantic; new offices open in Ft. Lauderdale,
Fla. and Chantilly, Va.
Snapshot
4
New president Nathan J. Beil, PE,
shares a bit about himself in a Q&A.
People, Awards,
Professional Notes,
Community Service
Promotions and new hires reflect KCI’s
continued growth; awards abound.

President’s
Message
Greetings. With summer in full
swing, vacations and warm
weather have slowed most
of us down a bit. Trips to the
beach and elsewhere are the
order of the day; it is a time to
relax and recharge. At KCI, it is
also a time for change. As I reflect
upon my new appointment,
I am struck by the
dedication and leadership of
my predecessors—Jack Kinstlinger, Trond Grenager
and Terry Neimeyer—who have brought significant,
positive change to the company. Since I joined KCI
in 1988, the firm has become employee owned,
paid off all its debt, and established a strong presence
in 10 states. As I begin my tenure as president,
I look to build upon these achievements, focusing
on three main areas that are fundamental to
KCI’s past and future success: client satisfaction,
a strong financial position, and a dedicated staff of
employees who are engaged in their work.
Without our clients, none of this success would
be possible. In 2005, we completed over $104 million
worth of work. While some of our larger jobs
(like the Sprint Nextel generator project featured
in this issue) have multi-million-dollar fees, roughly
three fourths of our projects have fees of less than
$25,000. The bottom line is this: we take pride in
all of our work, regardless of project size, and we
are committed to earning the confidence and trust of
each and every client. If you have a need, we want
to be your consultant, whether we’re talking about a
$5,000 right-of-way study or a $15 million construction
inspection project.
Financially speaking, KCI has finished the first half
of 2006 in fine shape, and the remainder of the year
looks bright. We’ve opened new offices in Indiana, Florida
and Delaware, and we continue to win outstanding
projects in all four of our business lines—transportation,
construction, site engineering, and environmental engineering.
We have also broadened our venue to include
international contracts in Japan (see cover story) and the
Caribbean.
Throughout this publication you will be introduced
to many outstanding individuals who have
been asked to lead KCI in both new and traditional
areas of practice. These exceptional people have
been chosen for their proven ability to lead other
professionals and serve our clients’ needs. I look forward
to working with them and with our clients as
the company continues to grow and prosper. Enjoy
the rest of the summer.
President
Office Updates
Maryland
Hunt Valley – KCI’s urban planning
and development division
was selected for the construction of the
new Freetown Elementary School for Anne
Arundel County Public Schools. Working
as a sub-consultant to an architect, KCI will
provide site/civil engineering and landscape
architecture for this $12 million, 71,000square-foot
elementary school.
Hunt Valley – The Federal Highway
Administration awarded the mid-Atlantic
transportation group a $5 million contract
for highway and bridge design and
engineering services.
PREPARINGBIG
ONE
FOR THE NEXT
With last year’s Gulf Coast storms still fresh in our
minds and hurricane season once again upon us, KCI
is helping Sprint Nextel Corp. bolster its hurricane
preparations throughout west and southwest Florida.
Since January, KCI Technologies
and KCI Wireless Services have
teamed up to “power harden,” or
augment with a backup generator,
over 200 cell sites. By year end,
KCI Technologies will have designed plans and obtained
permits for the installation of backup generators
at roughly 800 sites in 18 counties, with KCI Wireless
slated to handle all the construction over the next two
years.
According to Bob Azzi, vice president of Sprint
Nextel’s field engineering and network operations,
KCI is playing a critical role in a continuity plan designed
to work towards ensuring uninterrupted service
for Sprint Nextel customers.
“Enhancing and improving network resiliency is
a top priority for our wireless networks,” said Azzi.
“This improvement will help to ensure that our customers,
many of whom are first responders and other
emergency personnel, are able to tend to the needs of
citizens in the immediate aftermath of a hurricane.”
In all, Sprint Nextel plans to invest in the power hardening
of roughly 2,300 cell sites in Florida, Texas, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas.
While it’s not feasible to back up all of their sites, Sprint
Nextel is targeting those that handle high volumes of traf-
Power Hardening a Cell Site
A typical cell site sits on a bed of aggregate
in an area measuring roughly
1,000 to 2,500 square feet and enclosed
by a wooden or chain link
fence. The site is selected for its ability
to provide wireless phone coverage to
the surrounding area and is generally
leased from a private landowner—a
homeowner, business, church, or
other private party. A tower measuring
anywhere from 50 to 500 feet high sits
near a set of radios that are either anchored
to a concrete pad or housed in
a small shelter, and that tap into nearby
phone lines and run on commercial
DELAWARE • FLoRIDA • GEoRGIA • INDIANA • MARyLAND • NoRTH CARoLINA • oHIo • PENNSyLVANIA • VIRGINIA • WEST VIRGINIA • WASHINGToN, DC • DELAWARE • FLoRIDA
Hunt Valley – As a result of the construction
management group’s successful
completion of the $2.9 million Acton Lane
rehabilitation project, Charles County has
adopted KCI’s documentation system for its
road construction program. Moreover, it is
maintaining KCI project management roles
for three additional CM transportation projects
as part of the construction surveillance
services for the Charles County Capital
Improvement Program. The estimated construction
value of the projects is $18 million.
Hunt Valley – KCI’s urban planning and
development division was awarded its first
task under a 5-year, $15 million openend
contract to provide architectural and
engineering services for the Environmen-
“You have to make sure that every-
thing works, and you have to do that
800 times.” – Darryl Kroeze, PE
tal Protection Agency. KCI is providing
site/civil engineering as a sub-consultant to
an architect.
Hunt Valley – The mid-Atlantic transportation
group was awarded a $1 million
contract by the Maryland State Highway
Administration for SHA District 1 survey
and engineering services.
Hunt Valley – KCI’s urban planning and
development division has begun work on
several projects for the Maryland Zoo in
Baltimore. KCI is providing site/civil, structural,
and mechanical/electrical engineering
services for the design of the new giraffe
feeding station, as well as structural studies
of the elephant barn and bird aviary.
fic or serve densely populated urban areas and critical
hurricane evacuation routes, as well as those that support
critical infrastructure such as public safety organizations,
state and local emergency operation centers, hospitals
and nursing homes, major commercial airports and ports,
and government facilities and military bases.
KCI worked with both Sprint and Nextel (prior to
the merger) for nearly a decade before Nextel, in early
2005, affirmed its trust in KCI’s ability to deliver complete
design and construction services
by offering a 14-month turnkey
project in west and southwest
Florida. KCI Wireless handled the
construction and KCI Technologies
took care of the site searches, land use negotiations, surveys,
civil and electrical design, utilities coordination,
permitting and environmental services.
While the Sprint Nextel generator project may
seem simple, by comparison, it entails an abundance
of services and submittals. Since January, KCI has
delivered more than 4,000 submittals, including site
sketches, assessments, leases and permits.
“If you break it down, it’s a really a simple project;
you’re putting a generator on a site,” says Vice President
Darryl Kroeze, PE, head of KCI’s Tampa office. “The
trick is to do two things—one, offer seamless coverage,
and two, anticipate all those little technical issues that
are going to crop up. You have to make sure that everything
works, and you have to do that 800 times. These
are the two things that we’re really good at.”
Like the turnkey project, the generator project involves
two distinct disciplines—design and construction—giving
KCI the ability to offer an integrated
service package that includes everything from start to
finish. And that, says Kroeze, is a valuable asset.
“We can self-perform everything, and that’s a tremendous
benefit to the client, who always wants to
know when we can hand them a completed site,” he
explained. “By doing everything ourselves, we can
minimize their time to market.”
As pioneers in the telecommunications industry,
KCI provides a level of service that only comes
through years of experience. By working together,
KCI Wireless Services and KCI Technologies have all
the experience they need. n
power. A coaxial cable runs up the
tower from the radio equipment, sending
signals to, or receiving them from,
a customer’s cell phone. If the power
should be cut off—during a hurricane,
for example—cell phones relying on
signals from that particular tower will
no longer work. Thus the need for
backup power.
Power hardening entails the installation
of two primary components—a
backup generator and an automatic
transfer switch. As soon as the site
loses commercial power, the switch
is tripped automatically, kicking on the
back up generator and signaling the
cell provider’s national operation cen-
Samuel Arbuthnot, project manager for architectural and
engineering services at KCI Technologies, shows an 80 kw
generator that KCI designed and installed for Sprint Nextel.
ter to let them know power has gone
down. Within 15 seconds, the generator
reaches full capacity, where it can
run for about two days.
Power-hardened cell site, with generator
to right of radio shelter and cell tower.
georgia
Atlanta – The Atlanta office has
moved to Suite 500. Their address
is now 3235 Satellite Blvd.,
Suite 500, Building 400, Duluth, GA 30096.
Washington, dC
The District of Columbia Public
Schools selected KCI’s mid-Atlantic
construction management group
to implement and manage a $546 million,
6-year capital improvement project involving
school modernizations, systemic rehabilitations,
component replacements of major
building systems, small capital projects and
minor remodeling.

[YOKOHAMA, from p. 1] “They have Army bases all
over the world—Korea, Italy, Germany, even Hawaii
and Alaska,” Rice said. “We typically don’t go overseas.
Ordinarily, the client takes his own people, but
this time they wanted a little more expertise.”
Terry R. Stanton, project manager for the Army’s
bridge safety program, says that while it’s more economical
to send members of his own team on overseas
inspections, he needed a high level of expertise for the
ones in Yokohama—especially the railroad bridge, an
oddly configured 72-year old riveted-truss structure
with a failing paint system, and upon which a second
rail line may soon be added.
“We had some of our own people over there inspecting
other bridges at the same time, but we chose
to supplement our crew with KCI, in particular to perform
the underwater inspections,” Stanton said.
Specifically, KCI was tapped for its ability to perform
three types of inspection—underwater, fracturecritical,
and difficult-access. The underwater inspections
required certified divers; the latter two, close
examination by an engineer or other highly trained
professional. Equally important for this assignment
was KCI’s ability to perform all three types of inspection
simultaneously while coordinating with multiple
equipment vendors and a tight inspection schedule.
Taken together, the multiple inspection services
comprise a level of service seldom found in one
firm. While there’s nothing uncommon about
structural engineers providing underwater
bridge inspection services, the actual performance
of underwater inspections by the engineers
themselves is hardly the norm.
“A lot of engineering firms will hire
commercial divers to do their underwater
inspections, but an engineer will write the
report, so there’s a real dichotomy there,”
Florida
Ft. Lauderdale – In June, KCI
Technologies opened a new office
in Plantation, Fla., just outside Ft.
Lauderdale. The address is 8201 Peters
Rd., Suite 1000, Plantation, FL 33324.
Tampa – KCI is providing construction
engineering and inspection services for the
Florida Department of Transportation, District
7, for construction of the I-275 sound
barrier wall project from Busch Boulevard to
the US 41 overpass in Hillsborough County.
Work on the four-mile project began in
February and is scheduled for completion
in January 2007, with a total construction
cost of just under $13.6 million. The project
scope includes the construction of over
19,000 linear feet of precast and cast-inplace
sound barrier walls averaging 20 feet
in height. KCI will help to ensure that the
traffic schemes are compatible with, and
safe for, the traveling public and con-
struction personnel.
Virginia
Of Historical Note ...
Known by locals as “the jewel of the
orient,” Camp Zama is a tranquil plot
of land more redolent of a college
campus than the urban mélange
that surrounds it, yet its descrip-
The KCI team stayed at Camp Zama
and inspected the bridges connecting
North Dock with the Japanese mainland
at Yokohama.
says Kampert, a former member of the U.S. Coast
Guard and one of three KCI inspectors who is both a
professional engineer and a diver, certified by the Association
of Diving Contractors (ADC).
Kampert says it’s one thing to receive a secondhand
report on what a diver’s seeing, but quite another
to see for yourself.
“When I’m topside talking to John over the communications
system, I’m writing down notes, saying
‘Rodger’ and ‘Okay, got that’ while I’m trying to envision
the condition of the structure. But then I go
down there and see for myself and it hits me, ‘Oh!
Okay—now I understand.’”
The fact that KCI has its own engineer-divers on staff
sets it apart from most engineering firms. While many
have no choice but to hire subcontractors to perform their
underwater services, KCI has a staff of engineers and divers
who are “one in the same,” says Rice.
• GEoRGIA • INDIANA • MARyLAND • NoRTH CARoLINA • oHIo • PENNSyLVANIA • VIRGINIA • WEST VIRGINIA • WASHINGToN, DC • DELAWARE • FLoRIDA • GEoRGIA • INDIANA • MARyLAND • NoRTH CARoLINA • oHIo • PENNSyLVANIA • VIRGINIA
Chantilly – KCI Technologies opened a
new Virginia office in June, located at
4215 Lafayette Center Dr., Suite 2A,
Chantilly, VA 20151.
Richmond – A contract for the Stafford
County, Va., Public Schools was awarded
to the mid-Atlantic transportation group for
professional environmental and natural resource
engineering services in the amount
of $1 million.
indiana
Indianapolis – The Indianapolis
office is now open. The address
is 5726 Professional Circle,
Suite 110, Indianapolis, IN 46241.
delaWare
tion belies the grim fact that it once
stood in the fiery shadows of war
as waves of B-29
bombers rumbled
over Tokyo during the raids of 1945.
A month after World War II ended,
U.S. forces took over the berths
at North Dock for the shipment of
cargo, passengers and mail to and
After a long work week, KCI’s inspectors visited sites such as this temple
in Tokyo. (Engineer-diver Eric J. Kampert, PE, bottom right.)
Photo by
Angela K. White
Lewes – KCI Technologies is opening
a new Delaware office in September. The
address will be 1143 Savannah Rd., Suite 3,
Savannah Station, Lewes, DE 19958-1524.
Camp Zama & North Dock
INDIANA
from the mainland. A key port for
later U.S. conflicts in East Asia—first
in Korea, and then
V i e t n a m — N o r t h
Dock still holds strategic importance
for the U.S. and Japan, although its
current development by the Japanese
government reflects a peacetime,
commercial economy.
“Some of the clients really like that
fact. The sticking point is that you’ve got
to keep your divers busy. No one’s going
to dive all the time, so there’s a tremendous
amount of potential for overhead.”
Of course, members of the dive team
who are also engineers can readily head
off such concerns by performing bridge
inspections, writing reports or designing
structures—doing what engineers normally
do. But what about the divers who
aren’t engineers?
As it happens, only one member of
KCI’s underwater inspection team falls
into this category—Dubiel, an ADC-certified
dive supervisor. A “very good commercial
diver,” according to Rice, Dubiel
has 13 years of experience and a track record that has
placed him in waters so cold he’s had to chop his way
in through ice to get in, and so surreal that he once
found himself face to face with a grouper “the size of
a Volkswagen.” Yet for all the hours he’s spent beneath
the surface, Dubiel spends much of his time on land,
“I can inspect a bridge from top to bottom
—no matter where the bottom is.”
– KCI Dive Inspector John Dubiel
avoiding the overhead trap by climbing railroad trusses,
scuttling through storm sewers, crawling through
culverts—doing whatever it takes to stay busy inspecting
bridges and other structures, whether underwater or
on land. “I can inspect a bridge from top to bottom—no
matter where the bottom is,” he quips.
Perhaps this is an apt motto for the entire crew. With
three PE divers available in-house, an experienced commercial
diver on staff, several dive tenders, a host of engineers
and, now, some overseas experience, Rice’s inspection
teams can pretty
well inspect bridges
anywhere and everywhere.
And they know
good saki, to boot. n
north Carolina
KCI Dive Supervisor John
Dubiel prepares for an
underwater inspection in
Yokohama Bay (near left).
KCI performed underwater
and topside inspections
of a 1930s railroad
bridge and a contemporary
two-way vehicular
bridge (far left).
Raleigh – The North Carolina Ecosystem
Enhancement Program has awarded
two full-delivery contracts to Raleigh’s environmental
division. The Farrar Dairy project,
in Harnett County, will involve 12,000 linear
feet of stream restoration and 61 acres of
wetlands, for a total fee of $5.9 million. The
Dog Bite Creek project, located in Mitchell
County, involves 3,200 linear feet of stream
restoration, for a total fee of $1 million. The
projects are scheduled for completion in
2013, following five years of monitoring.

People
on June 6, KCI’s Board of Directors selected Nathan
J. Beil, PE, as the new president of KCI Technologies.
Beil joined KCI in 1988 and quickly moved through
the ranks. In 1994 he was promoted to vice president,
and the following year to senior vice president.
In 2002, while serving as head of KCI’s environmental
group, he was promoted to executive vice president
and appointed head of the mid-Atlantic region. other
key promotions approved by the board at its meetings
on June 6 and August 25 include the following:
Christopher J Griffith, PE, CCM, was chosen to succeed
Beil as executive vice president and head the mid-
Atlantic region. Griffith joined KCI in 1997 and played
a pivotal role in the growth of the mid-Atlantic region’s
construction management group. G. Scott Lang, PE,
CCM, was chosen to succeed Griffith as head of the
mid-Atlantic construction management group and promoted
to senior vice president. Lang previously headed
the construction management division. He joined KCI in
1999 as a professional engineer and diver in the marine
structures and diving division. Joseph J. Siemek, PE,
was appointed senior vice president. As division chief
for KCI’s public utilities division, Siemek oversees KCI’s
subsurface utility engineering (SUE) operations in the
mid-Atlantic region. He joined KCI in 2002.
The board has approved the following promotions to vice
president: David Koss, PE, division chief of engineering
in Raleigh; Charles S. Ruzicka, PLS, division chief
of surveys in Hunt Valley; Corporate Secretary, Director
of Purchasing, and Corporate Safety officer James H.
Shumaker in Hunt Valley; and Franklin R. Snyder, PE,
division chief of the mechanical/electrical division in Hunt
Valley.
other promotions since March 2006 include the following:
Joel S. Keels, CCM, was promoted to division chief
of the construction management division in Hunt Valley.
Keels has nearly 20 years of experience in construction
management and engineering. Gregory K. McKnight,
PSM, chief surveyor and survey department manager
of KCI’s Tampa office, was promoted to assistant division
chief. He will help Darryl Kroeze with the day-to-day
administrative duties in Tampa. William A. Key of KCI’s
Richmond office was promoted to business manager for
Virginia. In addition to managing transportation-related
construction engineering and inspection contracts, he
will oversee business development throughout Virginia.
Richard N. Kingsbury, RLA, head of planning & landscape
architecture in Hunt Valley’s urban planning & development
division, was promoted to associate.
Key new hires since March 2006 include the following:
Richard A. Pagano joined KCI as operations manager
of the mid-Atlantic group’s construction engineering and
inspection division. Pagano has 18 years of construction
management experience with the Maryland Department
of Transportation. Joel Reightler, PE, joined KCI as the
mid-Atlantic transportation group’s transportation planning
chief. Reightler has 38 years of experience in transportation
planning and environmental documentation.
David R. Hayward, PE, joined KCI as an associate in the
Tampa office. Hayward has nearly 20 years of experience
in highway and bridge design, including complex
interchanges and drainage design for highway projects.
David J. Campbell, PE, joined KCI as an associate in
the Ft. Lauderdale office. Campbell has managed annual
budgets of up to $25 million as a supervisor for telecommunications,
transportation, utility and outside plant
projects.
editor & designer, Christopher J. Carbone
editorial & design assistant, trista a. snyder
Copy editor, deborah K. Brown
Innovator
the innovator is a publication of KCi technologies inc., a full-service
consulting engineering firm based in hunt Valley, Md. Please contact us
with any comments or questions regarding the newsletter or the firm.
you can find out more about KCi at our Web site:
www.kci.com
10 north Park drive
hunt Valley, Md 21030-1846
Phone 410.316.7800
Fax 410.316.7885
corpcom@kci.com
s n a P s h o t
Q&A with Nate Beil
B
orn and raised in Bath, Pa., a small town nestled in
the Lehigh Valley, newly appointed KCI Technologies
president Nathan J. Beil, PE, says there wasn’t much to
do while growing up, but between scouting, sports and
working for his father’s roofing business, he managed not
only to keep busy, but to learn a few things that would
help define him. Elisabeth Solchik, from KCI’s Indianapolis
office, visited with Beil to give us a snapshot.
Q: It seems that your experience as a Boy Scout would
foreshadow your future success in the professional arena
and stay with you in more ways than one. By the age of
16, you reached the pinnacle of scouting by earning the
rank of Eagle, and you now have a son in the program.
What did scouting mean to you?
A: The benefits of scouting didn’t sink in until I started
working. The program allowed me to develop independence
and self-reliance, as well as leadership skills.
Scouting also promoted citizenship and stressed the importance
of family life and community service. I can think
of no other program that offers all this.
Q: you received your undergraduate degree from Lehigh
University, a tough school with a solid reputation. How
did you make the transition, coming from a small town
like Bath and suddenly finding yourself at a prestigious
place like Lehigh?
A: College was a wake-up call. Lehigh’s engineering curriculum
was rigorous, and the school had high standards.
You either figured out how to make it at that level or you
didn’t last very long. I think that what helped me make
it through was my work ethic, which I learned from my
family. I used to spend my high school and college vacations
working for my father, who taught me the concept
of a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wages.
Awards
on May 24, at the Maryland State
Highway Administration Symbiosis
in Greenbelt, Md., KCI received the
first annual Administrator’s Award of
Excellence for demonstrating a commitment
to the disadvantaged/minority
business (D/MB) community. KCI was
recognized for its perseverance and
commitment to D/MB firms.
on June 29, KCI Chairman Emeritus
Jack Kinstlinger, PE, accepted an
award on behalf of KCI from the American
Road & Transportation Builders
Association at their 50th anniversary
commemoration of the federal highway
system. The award was given to honor
KCI as an “Interstate Highway System
Pioneer,” one of many who helped
build the interstate system over a 25year
period.
on May 17, KCI’s northeast region
received national recognition twice at
the American Road & Transportation
Builders Association’s seventh annual
Transportation Development Foundation
Pride Awards Luncheon in Washington,
D.C. The Pride Awards honor
“excellence in community relations
and public education that enhance the
image of the U.S. transportation construction
industry.” KCI was recognized
for its public relations initiative on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s
Susquehanna River Bridge construction
project, and for its community
outreach program on the US Route 11
and 15 archaeological data recovery
project for the Pennsylvania Department
of Transportation, District 8.
KCI’s mid-Atlantic structures division
received the outstanding Civil
Engineering Achievement Award, small
project category, by the American
Society of Civil Engineers, Maryland
Section, for their MD 295 pin and
hanger bridge repair project. This project
also received an Excellence Award
for medium size projects at KCI’s 2005
awards banquet.
The American Academy of Environmental
Engineering awarded KCI
with the grand prize for excellence
in environmental engineering (planning
category) for its work on the
enhanced nutrient removal project at
the Patapsco wastewater treatment
plant in Baltimore, Md. As part of a
joint venture with Johnson Mirmiran
& Thompson Inc., KCI developed a
comprehensive process evaluation
and prepared preliminary designs. The
project will contribute to the health
of the Chesapeake Bay by treating
wastewater discharges from bodies
of water leading to the bay, potentially
saving Baltimore and the counties who
utilize the plant over $75 million.
The Florida Transportation Builders
Association presented KCI with its annual
Best In Construction Award in the
design-build category for SR 70 from
Lakewood Ranch Boulevard to Lorraine
Road in Manatee County, Fla. The project
was for the Florida Department of
Transportation, District 1. KCI provided
design-build oversight construction
engineering and inspection services,
including widening the roadway from
two to six lanes and building a concrete
box culvert, drainage ponds, and a
sound wall.
Professional
Notes
Senior Vice President Thomas G.
Sprehe, PE, DEE, and Christopher L.
overcash, PE, of KCI’s environmental
engineering division, along with Vice
President and Chief Information officer
Alan W. Mlinarchik, participated in the
Engineering News-Record’s 2006 Risk
Management Forum in New york City
in June. Sprehe received high praise
from the conference editor for his
discussion of KCI’s forward thinking approach
to risk. “It was the best discussion
on risk management that we have
ever had,” the editor said.
Q: In addition to your role at KCI, you play an active role
in your children’s lives—namely, scouting with your son,
and coaching your daughter’s softball team. you’re also
a husband, a member of various boards, and an active
member of your church and other organizations. What’s
your time management philosophy—and does it work?
A: You fit in what’s important to you. You commit to wife
and kids, you commit to work, and you commit to the
rest with whatever’s left. So far, so good.
Q: It’s been said that the road to success is paved with
failure. With this in mind, what advice would you give
those who work for you?
A: Be confident in what you can do. Don’t be afraid of not
knowing or of making a mistake. Making the mistake is
not the sin; sticking your head in the sand after the mistake
or not learning from the mistake is the sin. There are
enough resources in this company to deal with anything
we can imagine. You just have to go find the resource to
make your project successful.
Q: What’s one of the things you like most about KCI?
A: People will tell me that I’m biased,
but I don’t think that I’ve ever been
told here ‘No, you can’t do it’ when
I’ve presented an idea that had merit.
I’ve been given all kinds of opportunity
to do things at KCI. You can
advance here as far as you want to
advance. I like the fact that if you
want to do something here, we
typically say yes. n
KCI President Nathan
J. Beil, PE, speaking on
June 26 at a reception
to honor his new
appointment.
Vice President Charles H. Hegberg of
KCI’s mid-Atlantic transportation group
gave a presentation on fish passage at
the Virginia Environmental Conference,
held at the Virginia Military Institute in
Lexington, Va.
Vice President Joseph J. Pfeiffer, PWS,
of Raleigh’s environmental planning
division presented “Environmental
Restoration in Urbanizing Watersheds”
at the Indiana Water Resources Spring
Symposium at Purdue University.
Gerald P. Dougherty, PE, assistant
transportation division chief in Hunt Valley,
is currently completing a one-year
term as president of the Chesapeake
section of the American Society of
Highway Engineers. The Chesapeake
section co-hosted the organization’s
national conference in Williamsburg, Va.
in June. Dougherty chaired the conference
advertising committee.
Angela N. Gardner of Richmond’s
environmental design & construction
management group discussed fish
passage at the American Society of
Agricultural and Biological Engineers’
annual international meeting in Portland,
ore., in July.
Community
Service
Nicholas A. Barrick of KCI’s Laurel
office participated in the mid-Atlantic
regional concrete canoe competition
held in Johnstown, Pa. in April. KCI’s
site group gave financial support to the
University of Maryland’s Student Chapter
of the American Society of Civil
Engineers. (Photo: members pictured
at event in concrete canoe; Barrick, last
person seated on right.)