President's Message

Presidents Message

Two years ago I decided to get involved in little league coaching; I love watching the young athletes grow. Reflecting on my time spent coaching, I want to encourage you all to think about how you are helping our next generation of young engineers stretch and grow their abilities. I believe that today’s challenges require more rigor, a larger toolkit, and constant education. This is especially true in the wake of our ever-changing environment and regulations.

Pay it forward and offer new scholarships, new internships, or new innovative ways to challenge your staff to be the best they can be. If you are a new graduate or a young engineer, ask your mentor or supervisor what you can do to better yourself and discuss the path you want to take in your career. We can all make strides in improvement no matter how short or how long you’ve been in the industry.

April was MidPac and the UNR students didn’t disappoint! The concrete canoe team had a final placement of 2nd place for their design paper, oral presentation and final product. UNR’s women paddlers placed 1st in both the sprint class and the slalom races. Men’s paddlers placed 2nd in sprints and 1st in slalom. Overall, UNR was awarded 1st place based on total race points. Go Pack! The water treatment team had a good showing with a final placement of 7th out of 12 teams. GeoWall didn’t fare as well; they were disqualified based on design requirements not being met. The team is still young and I know with time they will find their stride and place in the top with the best of them.

This month’s luncheon topic includes geosynthetics and will located in the Peppermill on Tuesday, May 7th, 2019 at 12pm. We are also looking for luncheon speakers so if you have a topic you want to share or a project that you thought was interesting please let us know. I hope to see everyone at the next luncheon.

Regards,

Randall Rice, PE, M.ASCE President, ASCE Truckee Meadows Branch

May Luncheon Geogrid Roadway Solutions

Cost: $30 for Members $35 for Non-Members $5 for Students

When: May 7th at 12:00 pm

Where: Peppermill Resort 2707 S. Virginia St. Reno, NV 89502

RSVP Here: https://www.ascetruckeemeadows. org/events “Today’s road construction faces many challenges including aggregate base material that is more expensive and is less quality. Geosynthetics can raise the performance levels of aggragete base and asphalt concrete to help them last longer and reduce construction costs. By combining a high performing geogrid with a granular soil, a composite material is created that will have a unique Mr value, deformation characteristics and shear strength parameters. This composite material can then be modeled using Layered Elastic Design methods. Our discussion will cover these design protocols as well as the associated calibration and validation of the improvement factors which vary with subgrade strength, aggregate properties, construction loading, traffic counts and differing geogrids. NCHRP protocol for further validation with full scale Accelerated Pavement Testing at licensed and accredited facilities will also be covered. Additional discussion will cover similar performance improvement using asphalt reinforcement products. Local projects with different applications will be discussed as well.”