American Society of Civil Engineers - San Francisco Section

April Meeting Summary

Our featured speaker for the April luncheon was Malcolm Dougherty, Caltrans District 6 and Central Region (5, 6, 9, and 10) Director. Mr. Dougherty is in charge of the overall design, construction, environmental, and right-of-way direction for the Central Region and maintenance and operations for District 6.

May Meeting

The Golden Gate Branch will hold our May meeting in conjunction with the San Francisco Chapter of WTS. Kent Sasaki, PE, SE will be the featured speaker, describing the evaluation of structural elements of I-580/880 affected by the MacArthur Maze Fire on April 29, 2007.

April Meeting in Review

Approximately 50 attendees enjoyed our April lunch meeting listening to two distinguished speakers over an excellent Italian meal at Bella Mia in downtown San Jose. Tom Bishop, Vice President of Strategic Developments at URS, spoke about the current state of engineering as profession. He emphasized that the nation’s need to replace its aging infrastructure is “too great to ignore” in the wake of disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the I-35 bridge collapse in Minnesota. Financial measures such as inviting foreign bonds and promoting public-private partnerships must be encouraged to overcome the slowing economy and a grim budget scenario to achieve that goal.

April Meeting in Review

On April 24 the North Coast Branch hosted their annual award’s banquet at Jambalaya Restaurant in Arcata. The Engineer and Project of the Year awards were announced as well as the winner of this year’s student design competition. The Humboldt State University Environmental Resources Engineering Department also presented awards to outstanding engineering students.

1st Annual YMF Golf Tournament

Need an excuse to play some golf? Join us Friday, June 6 for the 1st Annual YMF Golf Tournament. Help us raise money for the upcoming 2009 ASCE Western Region Conference in San Francisco. The conference will include student, younger member, section and branch leaders from 10 states. We are currently looking for sponsors and golfers to help us in our effort. For more sponsorship or golf registration information, please visit: www.asce-ymf.org/sf/golf or contact Sarah Berndt at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Bay Bridge Tour

Spots are filling up quickly as YMF will again be taking a tour of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Friday, May 9. The day will consist of presentations and tours on the two current Bay Bridge projects: the San Francisco west approach and the Oakland Skyway. Attendees will tour one project in the morning and then the other project in the afternoon. Lunch will be provided. The event is limited to only 40 people, so RSVP quickly to Michael Witt at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

May Meeting – New Location and Menu

First Design-Build Pilot Community College Project. Award Winning “Innovative Campus Project with Green Elements and a Neat Planetarium”. The complex features a Planetarium, an Observatory with a retractable roof and an adjoining 3-story Science Building housing lecture halls, offices and laboratories. Synthetic plaster was used instead of cast-concrete to reduce dead load, high-reflective ceiling tiles and daylight sensors reduce the demand for energy consuming electrical lighting, auto flush valves and rain water retention reduce water use, a reflective roof and high efficiency glazing with shading reduce heat gain combined with a direct/indirect evaporative cooling system to conserve energy. Ceiling Panels were made from recycled and non-petroleum based materials and other low VOC products were used throughout the buildings. The $24 million project used a multi-stage “fast track” approach, while providing for pedestrian traffic and maintaining a safe work site. Major utility relocations, bedrock and landscape restoration presented additional challenges for the project team.

May Technical Workshop

Program: 26th Annual Geo-Engineering Lecture Series at UC Berkeley

Ray Seed, M.ASCE; Demetrious Koutsoftas, M.ASCE; Jim Mitchell, Fellow and Hon.M.ASCE

Date: Friday, May 9

Time: 12:30 pm Lecture; 5:30 pm Social; 7 pm Dinner

Location: Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Building at UC Berkeley

Cost: $100 lecture + Banquet ($40 students); $70 Banquet only ($35 students); $45 lecture only ($5 students)

RSVP: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/conferences/geo2008.html by Monday, April 28

The Power to Change Requires You and Me

“It feels like you could possibly change the world, like you could have an impact,” said Malcolm Knapp, a volunteer with Engineers Without Borders-USA San Francisco Professionals Chapter (EWB-SFP), when he was interviewed by the Bay Area ABC 7 News. His sense of empowerment is a sentiment and a motivation that is shared by many of the dedicated volunteers of EWB-SFP.