President’s Column

By Susan Gardner

October is a month of transition for ASCE, and this year you can participate in the transitions on both a local and national level. At the National Conference (October 18-21), newly elected officers will take up their duties. Larry Wade, the "senior" vice president, will step down. Larry, in his national positions, has been an invaluable resource for the Section (not to mention the District). He has understood our desire to be informed and provided us with insightful information. I appreciate his commitment and communication, which required sacrifices on his part. Locally, join us at this month’s Section meeting for the changing of the guard as well as a great program.

Actually, most volunteers sacrifice something to fulfill their roles: free time, time with their family, lunch hours, out-of-pocket expenses. This is true for the Section officers, committee chairs, and special assignments including the C2000 committee. As it comes down to the wire, volunteer Denise Pirolo is looking for volunteers to monitor sessions and staff the information booth. If you can help for two-thirds of the day, you can enjoy the remainder for free. Contact Denise at 425-741-3800 or dpirolo@reidmidd.com.

A couple of other members came forward for special assignments. National wanted a 150th Anniversary "Champion" and Chuck Greely volunteered for the three-year assignment. He will be our link to that process. The first event happens in October, with five Building Big programs airing on consecutive October Tuesdays on KCTS Channel 9 (8 p.m.). Seattle is one of ten Sections/Branches that was selected to work with the local PBS channel and middle-school-aged children to promote the profession and accomplishments of civil engineering. Thus, still more ASCE volunteers are training and providing expertise at these activity sessions. A couple of more things about volunteering; it is rewarding and can be addictive.

Tom McDonald traveled to San Antonio to represent us on a Strategic Planning visioning session. Although the process was/is not what we expected, Tom and others will continue to be a part of that process as the nebulous goals are turned into concrete action steps.

Kudos to our Branches. North Branch hosted a November festive gathering for the entire Section when President-Elect Bein visited the area in November. The North Branch has bimonthly meetings, so if you find yourself in the area, join them. And the Kitsap Branch hosted the April meeting this year. Logistically, it was rather easy to take a ferry ride to Bremerton and walk the few blocks to the venue. We even conducted the Board meeting on the boat (I know captains hate that word). It was so much fun, look for it to happen again.

A couple of people have stepped down who served the Section well. Grace (Kwok) Kane has been our editor for the past several years. Thank you, Grace, for keeping us informed. And Cliff Williams, chair of the University Advisory Committee, has moved to the Midwest. He invigorated a floundering committee to the point that, in one of the three foci—mentoring, more mentors stepped forward than there were students. Great work!

There are many more that deserve mention, but you get the idea. The Section is comprised of a lot of energetic and enthusiastic people and you find them at all levels: within committees, working at a Section level, or participating on National committees. I’ve enjoyed my term as president and thank everyone for the support they have shown.

The Seattle Section, through its History and Heritage Committee, nominated the Cedar Falls Hydroelectric Project for designation by ASCE as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark (NHCEL) in January of this year. The Project owner, Seattle City Light, cooperated with the Section committee in the process and issued an "Owner’s Statement of Support". The nomination was successful! After several months of review by the National Committee, and fulfillment of its requests for supplemental information, Cindy Hirsch, chair of the Section’s H&H Committee, was informed in early July that the nomination was accepted and the Cedar Falls Project is henceforth designated as an NHCEL. The Section committee members are very pleased with the designation, as the many hours they spent on preparation of the nomination document over a period of more than four years are justified with this successful result.

The Cedar Falls Project is located on the Cedar River near North Bend in King County, and remains in operation today but with modified and updated features. It has the distinction of being the first municipally developed and owned hydroelectric project in the United States, and was the first financed by the sale of municipal bonds. The original project, constructed between 1902 and 1904, consisted of a rock-fill timber crib diversion dam located one-half mile downstream of the outlet of Cedar Lake, and a three-mile-long wood stave and riveted steel penstock conveying water to two generating units installed in a wood frame powerhouse. The original turbines were 2,000 hp Pelton impulse wheels, driving two 1,200 kW three-phase AC generators. A 37-mile-long transmission line was constructed to Seattle, designed for a voltage of 45kV, the highest transmission voltage in the United States at the time. The project began service on January 1, 1905, and assumed Seattle’s street lighting load. Within ten years additional features were constructed resulting in a total project generating capacity of 10,400 kW. A dam of cyclopean concrete construction intended to raise the normal pool level of the lake by 58 feet and significantly enlarge the reservoir storage capacity was constructed in 1912-1914, but due to major seepage and a blowout through the right abutment, the project never could be operated at the intended pool level. A number of modifications, capacity increases, and upgrades to the Project have been carried out by City Light over the years.

ASCE will formally present a large bronze plaque commemorating the NHCEL designation to the City of Seattle at a ceremony planned in conjunction with the ASCE Civil Engineering Conference and Exposition to be held in Seattle October 18 – 21, 2000. The plaque eventually will be mounted for permanent display at an appropriate location within the Cedar Falls Project area. In addition to Cedar Falls, three other NHCELs have previously been designated within the Seattle Section geographic area. These are the Iron Goat Trail [near Stevens Pass], the Snoqualmie Falls cavity hydroelectric generation station, and the Lake Washington Ship Canal/H.M. Chittenden Locks.

Joe Gilder of Sound Transit spoke at the May 17th meeting of the joint ASCE Management in Engineering Committee / ASEM. As construction manager for Link, he described the project as the riskiest, running 21 miles through multiple jurisdictions from SeaTac to Seattle. One third of the system will be subterranean, one third on-street, and one third elevated.

The two billion dollar project will ultimately connect 21 stations in 21 miles. Light rail service will provide headways of five minutes and transport passengers from SeaTac to the University District in fifty minutes.

The critical path for the project is the First/Capital Hill/University Street Tunnel. Sequential excavation to depths approaching 250 feet is cutting edge in the U.S. The amount of cut will be 1.7 million cubic yards, much of that muck, as it passes below Portage Bay. Mr. Gilder stepped through the rail alignment and described multiple challenges ranging from technical, to financial, to political.

Other major issues include contracting packages, risk allocation, roles and responsibilities. All of this must be done in a very time-critical fashion, consuming an estimated four million labor hours to complete. In this time, Joe noted the project will proceed, as all projects do, through six psychological and organizational phases:

(1) Enthusiasm; (2) Disillusionment; (3) Panic; (4) Search for the guilty;
(5) Punishment of the innocent;
(6) Praise and honor for the non-participants.

Having said this, Joe expects there will be hiccups. Success requires a tolerant public, steadfast political support, and solid contractors.

Would you like to help shape civil engineers of the future? Would you like to pass the knowledge of the lessons learned to the next generation of civil engineers? If the answer is Yes! then this is your opportunity.

The ASCE University Advisory Committee is launching the 2000-2001 mentoring program for civil engineering students at the University of Washington and Seattle University. We are recruiting volunteers as mentors to coach these civil engineering students into the 21st century gracefully.

As a mentor you will share your civil engineering experience and background with the students, and answer questions concerning their career path. We also want to encourage and promote professionalism within our industry by being a positive role model for the students.

You can help shape civil engineering into what it is meant to be by becoming a mentor. Pass on your knowledge and what you have learned to young minds that are ready and able to expand your teaching and continue the civil engineering ideals of building a better and safer environment.