March Lunch Event 2012: Better Times Ahead

Ben Stone will provide an outlook of the Sonoma County economy. He has previously delivered the keynote presentation, “Sonoma County’s Economic Future: Green, Healthy and Creative,” at our 2009 ASCE/ACEC Engineers Week Banquet.

February Lunch Event Report: The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Project

The San Jose Branch held its monthly luncheon on February 8th in downtown San Jose. Peter Trinh and Ivy To of Mark Thomas & Company provided a presentation on the newly constructed I-580/ Isabel Avenue interchange in the City of Livermore. Their presentation discussed how the new interchange will provide the permanent connection between I-580 and Isabel Avenue/State Route 84 to relieve congestion at the existing Airway/I-580 interchange and enhance traffic circulation within the business and commercial area north of I-580. The project will improve access to the residential developments, commercial businesses, Las Positas College, and future development north of I-580 by creating a new interchange and implementing more than three miles of roadway improvements including removal of existing ramps and overcrossings, new bridge structures and crossings over I-580, and more than $14 million in major utility relocations. The project was segmented into three construction contracts with two contracts being administered by the City of Livermore and the third contract being administered by Caltrans.

February in Review:

The North Coast Branch celebrated Engineer’s Week by having Branch officers attend local cities (Eureka, Arcata, Fortuna, Blue Lake, Rio Dell and Ferndale) and counties board meetings and accepted the Engineer’s Week proclamations. The Branch also ran a television commercial during Engineer’s Week sponsored by local engineering firms and manufacturing firms, which displayed some of the work the firms had accomplished in last year.

March 20, 2012 Dinner Meeting: PROGRAM – Los Vaqueros Reservoir Expansion

The Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) is expanding its Los Vaqueros Reservoir from 100,000 acre-feet to 160,000 acre-feet in capacity. CCWD serves treated and untreated water to 500,000 customers, and the Los Vaqueros Reservoir is located south of the City of Brentwood in Contra Costa County. The original 100,000 acre-foot reservoir was constructed in the late 1990s. This expansion project, scheduled for completion in May 2012, will improve water quality, provide emergency storage, and enhances the Delta environment. The existing earth fill embankment dam was raised by 34 feet, from 487 feet in elevation to 521 feet. Over one million cubic yards of additional engineered embankment fill was placed. Material was predominantly produced from core and shell borrow areas located near the dam. Two existing rows of grout curtains were extended on both dam abutments, and a 40,000-cubic yard roller compacted concrete gravity block was constructed on the upper left abutment to support the new portion of the spillway. The total project cost exceeds $90 million including environmental mitigation efforts.

Ski Trip Postponed: Waiting for Snow

The YMF Super Ski Stravaganza has been postponed to April 20-22 to wait for better snow conditions. YMF will rent a cabin near Dodge Ridge Ski Resort, provide dinner Saturday night, breakfast Saturday and Sunday, and beverages for all. Space is limited so be sure to sign up early (friends welcome). Directions and other logistics will be distributed to all registered attendees.

New Dates: April 20-22
Cost: $45 ACE Members, $50 non-ASCE Members (includes lodging, food/drinks, and carpool)
RSVP and Questions: Jon Marshall, ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or 925-688-8155).

2012 Geo-Congress: State of the Art & Practice in Geotechnical Engineering

ASCE’s Geo-Institute will be holding our 2012 Geo-Congress right here in the center of Bay Area, at the Oakland Marriott City Center.

What is special about this year’s Geo-Congress? In addition to being the regular annual meeting of the Geo-Institute, the special focus of this conference is the “State of the Art and Practice in Geotechnical Engineering.” The program will include 32 new State of the Art and State of the Practice talks by eminent leaders in geotechnical engineering, as well as over 400 paper presentations, 200 posters, and of course the Terzaghi, Peck, and Seed Distinguished Lectures will be presented. Full details are available at http://content.asce.org/conferences/geo-congress2012/index.html.

March 13, 2012 Meeting of EWRI
Environmental Issues Associated with the Expansion of the O’Hare International Airport

Presented by Mr. Frederick Blickle

O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois is one of the most important airports in the National Airspace System. 1 Recognizing that the 1950s vintage runways originally built for propeller aircraft were not optimal for takeoff and landing of modern jetliners, and to enhance capacity and efficiency and reduce delay, Chicago set off the O’Hare Modernization Program (OMP) in 2001.