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."

The Piney Creek Stream Stabilization, Bridge, Outfall, and Storm Sewer project in Centennial was awarded the 2011 Colorado Association of State Floodplain Managers Grand Award for Engineering. Ayres Associates was the prime consultant on the project, which was co-sponsored by the Southeast Metro Storm Water Authority and the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District, both in Denver.

The project addressed the need for a bridge to replace a sometimes-dangerous low-water stream crossing, as well as the need for grade control structures and bank stabilization to handle high channel velocities and reduce erosion in the channel and stream bank. By reducing channel degradation, the project reduces stormwater pollution in the Cherry Creek watershed.

The project involved stream restoration, stabilization of a sand bed channel, scour protection, two grade control structures, an equestrian/maintenance access trail, bridge design, and roadway improvements. .

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.

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.

Ayres Associates ranked 21^st in the nation among road and highway design firms and 19^th 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.

Ayres Associates is ranked the 251^st largest design consulting firm in U.S. in the latest rankings by ENR magazine.

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.

Leah Ness, PE, has received certification as a Professional Traffic Operations Engineer (PTOE) after meeting the prerequisites and testing requirements of the Transportation Professional Certification Board. Ms. Ness, who serves clients nationwide, is one of only 38 consulting firm professionals in Wisconsin who hold PTOE certification.

Ms. Ness' certification is part of Ayres Associates' efforts to remain at the leading edge of the traffic engineering field. Ms. Ness, who is a registered professional engineer with eight years of traffic engineering experience, successfully completed an all-day examination on the following areas of expertise:

• traffic operations analysis
• operational effects of geometric design
• traffic safety
• traffic control devices
• traffic engineering studies
• social, environmental, and institutional issues

The Cheyenne Dry Creek Flood Control project won the 2009 Public Works Project of the Year award, announced in 2010 by the Rocky Mountain chapter of the American Public Works Association. The City of Cheyenne retained Ayres Associates to design the largest flood mitigation project in the City’s history. The project was in reaction to the historic flash flood in 1985 that devastated the City and killed 11 residents.

The improvements involved diverting flood discharges out of Dry Creek and into a nearby reservoir and then routing flows downstream through a series of detention ponds before being discharged back into Dry Creek. The project removed 148 properties from the Federal Emergency Management Agency-regulated floodplain. During the project 520,000 cubic yards of dirt was moved, which is the equivalent of 481,371 midsize cars.

Paul Clopper, a senior water resources engineer in the Fort Collins office, recently participated in an expert panel meeting for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Institute for Water Resources in Washington, D.C. The expert panel is assisting the Corps in determining how best to estimate costs associated with flood damage to roadway infrastructure and to incorporate this into the flood risk management planning processes.

Specifically, this research is oriented toward developing standard models and methods that can be used by Corps planners to incorporate roadway damage assessments in floodplain management projects. Mr. Clopper was asked to participate in the study because of his extensive background on the damage overtopping flow causes to embankments.

Ayres Associates has continued its string of successes in competing for research projects sponsored by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science through its National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). Ayres Associates was recently awarded the NCHRP 24-34 project, aimed at developing a risk-based approach for bridge scour prediction. This is the eighth project Ayres Associates has been selected for by this client in the past 16 years.

The project could significantly change the way bridges are evaluated for scour in the United States. The project will consider reliability and uncertainty in bridge hydraulics and scour calculations and develop probabilistic procedures for scour analyses consistent with the current bridge design approaches used by structural and geotechnical engineers. The scheduled completion date is October 2012.

Ayres Associates has received 2009 Engineering Excellence merit awards from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Colorado for its
I-35W Bridge Hydraulic Analysis project in Minneapolis and its Coyote Gulch Stream Restoration project in Lakewood, Colorado.

For the I-35W project our engineers conducted hydraulic and scour analyses for the design-build team of Figg Bridge Engineers-Flat Iron Manson. The Mississippi River analyses were conducted in an extremely short time frame of about two weeks and under intense public scrutiny. For the Coyote Gulch project our staff developed an innovative technique to control erosion and improve water quality at Coyote Gulch and improve the quality of water entering a nearby lake using specially designed drop structures throughout the realigned channel.

ACEC’s awards program celebrates engineering achievements that demonstrate ingenuity and achieve significant technical, economic, or social advancements.

The Phoenix Branch Younger Member Forum was selected as a recipient of the 2009 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Public Service Award. Ted Smithwick, EIT, a transportation engineering staff member in Ayres Associates’ Phoenix office, is vice president of the ASCE forum.

The forum was recognized for its professional and technical presentations; tours; monthly school outreach; and community service through the Ronald McDonald House, Project Cure, Mathcounts, Canstruction, and Future City.

Ayres Associates has been selected for a project with the Platte River Recovery Program in Nebraska, primarily involving collection of channel geomorphology and vegetation data. Work will extend through the next three years and possibly many additional years.

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Interchange Project Brings Opportunity For significant Changes in La Crosse

Master Plan to Help Arizona Town Zero in on Intersections

Lake Plan Would Freshen Air, Improve Bird Habitat

WisDOT, Ayres Gear Up For Mile-Long Bridge Project

Public Politely Seeks Environmental Assurances For Proposed Mine

Eyesore Turned Into Vibrant Heart of Community

State Campground Celebrates Ayres-Designed Facilities

After Further Review, Ayres Awarded Project

Council Supports One-way Plan for Historic Bridge

Competition Sparks Battery Collection

View ACEC Wisconsin Video of Award-Winning Projects

Options Laid Out For Downtown Facelift

Ayres To Assist With Traffic, Other Marinette Marine Expansion Issues

Upgrade Will Preserve Town Hall

LiDAR Mapping Looks at Forest Structure, Songbird Species

Meeting About Downtown Streets Draws Dozens

Study Provides Options for Two-way Downtown Traffic

Sites Studied for Fort Collins Area Flood Mitigation

Students Learn it Takes Math to Deal with Trash, Wastewater