Transportation Leadership Announced |
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Martin Hanson, PE, has been promoted to the new position of director of transportation relations. Bruce Ommen, PE, succeeds Hanson as vice president for Midwest transportation operations.
In his new role, Hanson will focus on assessing and expanding transportation market opportunities for our 13 offices and developing strategic relationships in the industry. President Thomas Pulse, PE, praised Hanson for his ability to build relationships with transportation design and construction firms and governmental agencies.
"Marty will continue to develop his contacts on the state level as it relates to transportation policy and funding but will expand his role into the national arena, where he will monitor and interact with national leaders in the transportation field," Pulse said.
Ommen, who previously served as manager of transportation engineering, will oversee groups providing transportation engineering, structural engineering, construction observation, and related services in our Wisconsin and Arizona offices.
"Bruce has an exceptional understanding of our Midwest transportation division and market," Pulse said. "In his new role he will build on the regular involvement he already has with staff in our Wisconsin offices and increase his involvement with our Arizona staff." |
Jobs-Boosting Brownfield Cleanup Gets Award |
The work of Ayres Associates and its clients on the site cleanup and development of the Novation Technology Campus in the Town of Madison has won one of three nationwide 2011 Brownfield Renewal Awards from Brownfield Renewal. The project was chosen from among 24 projects nominated for the economic impact category of the awards given out by Brownfield Renewal, a journal dedicated to the remediation, redevelopment, and reuse of brownfields.
Ayres Associates teamed with the Town of Madison and the Alexander Company on the project. The Novation Technology Campus development has brought 1,300 jobs to a 70-acre site along Madison’s busy Beltline Highway that previously supported few jobs. Brownfield assessment and remediation were completed in 2010. The development of the Novation campus is approximately one-third complete. To date, buildings totaling approximately 400,000 square feet have been constructed.
For more information on the Brownfield Renewal Awards, visit www.brownfieldrenewal.com/awards-winners2011.html. |
Instructors Win National Highway Institute Awards |
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The Federal Highway Administration’s National Highway Institute (NHI) has designated James Schall, PhD, PE, and Peter Lagasse, PhD, PE, Instructors of Excellence for fiscal year 2010, based on their superior expertise and learner-focused instruction in NHI courses in urban drainage design, culvert design, highway hydraulics, and bridge scour.
The designation reflects consistently high evaluations from transportation professionals who take the courses. Schall and Lagasse are vice presidents in Ayres Associates’ Fort Collins, Colorado, office.
Ayres Associates also received the NHI Team Administrative Award for its training work in fiscal year 2010. |
Founder Wins Lifetime Achievement Award |
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The Daily Reporter has announced its 2011 Newsmakers of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Owen Ayres, founder of Ayres Associates. The Milwaukee-based publication focuses on the construction and engineering industries.
Ayres started the firm in 1959 in Eau Claire, and he continues to mentor the firm’s young engineers, architects, and scientists today. The company bears the cultural imprint of integrity, innovation, and employee ownership that Ayres instituted from the beginning.
And, at age 86, Ayres is still going strong, arriving at the office around 7:30 a.m. each workday. He is known for going out of his way to get to know the younger employees and taking them out for coffee or lunch, encouraging their efforts to design a better future for Ayres Associates and for the communities where it does business.
Ayres is also known for the humility he expresses regarding his success in business. From his World War II military service to his philanthropy to the many twists and turns he navigated in his engineering career, Ayres often chalks it up to good luck and to the people he hired. |
Clients Boost Ayres Associates in Preference Poll |
Ayres Associates ranked 21st in the nation among road and highway design firms and 19th in the nation among bridge design firms in Roads & Bridges magazine’s annual Go-To List for Design Firms.
Roads & Bridges sent its 2011 voting ballots to more than 10,000 government officials and asked them which design firm they preferred to work with. Unlike other rankings, the Go-To List reflects project owner preference, not gross earnings. |
ENR Ranks Ayres 251st Largest |
Ayres Associates is ranked the 251st largest design consulting firm in U.S. in the latest rankings by ENR magazine. |
Steam Loop Project Wins Design Award |
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The Wisconsin Department of Administration presented the Division of State Facilities (DSF) Excellence in Engineering Design award to Ayres Associates for the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Steam Loop project constructed in 2010.
The DSF retained Ayres Associates to provide design and construction assistance for a new steam and condensate loop from upper to lower campus at the university, replacement of existing steam and condensate lines between two buildings on lower campus, and replacement of piping through one building on lower campus. The loop carries steam from the upper campus heating plant and returns condensed water back to the heating plant.
"I don't recall ever constructing a $3 million project on campus without receiving a single complaint from my clientele," said Terry Classen, director of facilities management at UW-Eau Claire. "That can be attributed to the thorough planning work upfront from Ayres." |
Transportation Project Manager Hired |
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Christopher Urchell, PE, has joined Ayres Associates’ Madison office as a transportation project manager, bringing eight years of experience in civil site, civil roadway, and structural projects and project management. His experience includes managing a six-phase central business district streetscape project for the City of Elgin, Illinois, and leading the design team for a $45 million Chicago Department of Transportation roadway construction project.
Urchell serves as a project manager for Ayres Associates and oversees the development of transportation projects, including feasibility studies, reports, environmental documents, agency and utility coordination, public involvement, preliminary and final designs, and right-of-way delineations. Urchell focuses on transportation design engineering services provided to state, county, city, village, and town transportation clients.
He holds a master of business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign. Urchell is an Illinois registered professional engineer. |
Solid Waste/Civil Engineer Joins Firm |
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Neil Carney, PE, has joined Ayres Associates’ Madison office as a solid waste/civil engineer, bringing 10 years of experience in project management, engineering design, and field work on civil and environmental projects for federal, state, municipal, and industrial clients. He has experience in contaminated soil and groundwater site remediation; combined sewer overflow structure, detention tank, and sewer system design; landfill and wastewater treatment plant design; stormwater detention and sedimentation structure design; installation of landfill gas-leachate wells; and groundwater, soil, and air sampling.
Carney is responsible for managing environmental impact assessments and statements, environmental site assessments, subsurface contamination assessments and remedial investigations, landfill design and beneficial reuse evaluation, civil and environmental engineering design, construction observation, grant writing, and brownfield redevelopment assistance and coordination.
Having graduated with a bachelor of science in environmental engineering, Carney is a registered professional engineer in Wisconsin and Illinois. |
Marketing Manager Wins Friend of Rural Water Award |
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The Wisconsin Rural Water Association (WRWA) recently awarded Sue Leith, manager of marketing, the 2011 Friend of Rural Water award. The award is presented to an individual who has shown a high level of support to WRWA’s mission by participating and assisting in its programs and activities and who has shown exemplary service to clients and communities. WRWA is a nonprofit organization representing most of the water and wastewater systems in Wisconsin. It works to improve and preserve the quality and quantity of water resources in the state. |
Highway and Park Projects Receive Engineering Awards |
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The American Council of Engineering Companies of Wisconsin has named two Ayres Associates projects winners in its 2011 Engineering Excellence Awards competition. The Highway 51/29 Corridor Improvements project, in which Ayres Associates teamed with Strand Associates and GRAEF USA, was awarded a Best of State Award, which ACEC gives to "entries representing the highest degree of technical innovation, client satisfaction, and contributions to the engineering industry." Ayres Associates’ work designing the new Harrington Beach State Park Campground was awarded a State Finalist Award.
The Wausau area Highway 51/29 project includes seven miles of urban freeway, seven interchanges, and associated local roads for six surrounding communities. The project was delivered by a corridor management team consisting of Wisconsin Department of Transportation staff and three consulting firms. The project, which was completed two years ahead of schedule and $6 million under budget, is further described by ACEC at http://www.acecwi.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=688.
Ayres Associates designed the Harrington Beach Campground – the first new state campground in Wisconsin in 20 years – with several green features that help it to blend into its surroundings and tread lightly on the landscape. The Ozaukee County project, completed for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, is further described at http://www.acecwi.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=693. |
Presentation Dissects Design of Dual Lane Roundabout |
Ourston Roundabout Engineering rendering |
Leah Ness, PE, PTOE, an Ayres Associates traffic engineer, presented a recent case study regarding lessons learned in the design of one of Wyoming’s most complex roundabouts.
Converting three closely spaced signalized intersections into one dual lane, five-leg roundabout intersection with high projected traffic volumes presented many challenges on the Cheyenne project, says Ness, a nationally certified professional traffic operations engineer. The project – at the juncture of three streets – needs to minimize adjacent right-of-way impacts while simultaneously providing a design that is expandable to a three-lane roundabout if traffic levels rise to more than 5,000 entering vehicles per hour by 2035 as projected.
The roundabout, with a 2011 construction start, is Cheyenne's third roundabout and its first in a high-traffic-volume arterial location. Besides providing adequate traffic flow, the planned roundabout will reduce possible severe-angle vehicular conflict points to five, compared with 100 potential severe-angle conflict points in the three signalized intersections the roundabout will replace, Ness says.
Ness delivered her presentation at the Arizona Spring Conference of the Institute of Transportation Engineers/International Municipal Signal Association in Phoenix. Part of the presentation is available at http://www.youtube.com/user/222infiniti?feature=mhum#p/a/u/2/qYeG81176dw.
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