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President’s Message – January 2013

Howdy!! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that 2013 is a prosperous and healthy year for all.  I would like to thank the members of the Dallas Branch who donated $831 towards the 34^th Annual KRLD “Christmas Is For Caring Campaign”. Big thanks also to Quinn Spann for organizing and promoting this annual fundraiser.

We had a great presentation last month with Lesley Schwalje, P.E. from HNTB speaking about the Dallas Levee project. This month we have Gail Hicks presenting "US Army Corps of Engineers and the Fort Worth Central City Project". We also have an excellent technical program after the lunch with Brahama Singh, P.E. who will present construction challenges of building Klyde Warren Park over a major freeway with minimum disruptions to traffic.

2013 is a special year for the ASCE Texas Section as we celebrate our 100th anniversary. The first big kick off event is unfortunately scheduled the same day as our Branch meeting with the Texas Section Infrastructure Report Card Event & Day at the Capitol.  Flights to/from Austin are pretty cheap if you want to join me and leave right after the Branch meeting. The first of our monthly centennial webinars is set for Jan 16 at noon. The title of this webinar is “From Austin to Washington: A Legislative Update for Civil Engineers”. We are also working on obtaining Centennial Proclamations from many of our local Dallas area cities. If you are interested in attending your local city council meeting when we receive the proclamation, please contact me.

The Communication Committee has set up a social media page for our members to get updates and information from the Dallas Branch.  To encourage participation, we will give a $100 gift card to a randomly selected Dallas Branch Member who likes our Facebook page.

Other activities we think our members would be interested in include Future Cities judging, Engineers Week Award Luncheon, P.E. review course, and our first Civil Engineering High School Club. And don’t forget about the upcoming Spring Centennial Conference in Corpus Christi. This is sure to be one of many great events for next year.     

Finally, I have to pass along the sad news of the recent passing of one of our long time members, Mr. Richard Pierce, P.E.  I did not personally know Mr. Pierce, but while reading his bio it is obvious he was well liked by all who knew him and was a great contributor to the distinguished Civil Engineering & Surveying Profession.  Please keep his loved ones and family in your prayers.

I hope to see all of you at our branch meeting on January 14.

Sean P. Merrell, P.E., PTOE
President
ASCE Dallas Branch, 2012 - 2013