Issue 1, 2004
Interchange Design Escalating traffic volumes mandate creative approaches
PLUS Post-tensioni Post-tensioning ng benefits Post-tensioning Biloxi bridge Panera Bread continues to rise The road to completion: U.S. 119 update
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Issue 1, 2004
Focus on Interchanges Transportation planners and officials are working together to reduce traffic congestion through innovative interchange design and improvements
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Maysville Bridge project featured in Engineering News Record
Value Engineering: SR-605, Harrison County, Miss. Post-tensioning provides advantages for structure over Biloxi River
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Site Development: Panera Bread Effective site design keeps store grand openings on schedule
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Design-Build Expedites Project Delivery Ohio bridges damaged by floods are replaced in less than six months
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U.S. 119 Over KY 1441 Kentucky’s first curved steel box girder bridges take shape
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News Briefs • David Tabor named W. Va. Young Civil Engineer of the Year • Surveyors take part in Lewis and Clark celebration
National Engineering and Contracting Co., Strongsville, Ohio, recently won a project with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to refurbish the historic Simon Kenton Bridge spanning the Ohio River and connecting Maysville, Ky., with Aberdeen, Ohio. Palmer Engineering prepared a detailed 3-D computer model of this suspension bridge and used it to demonstrate that a more economical deck replacement sequence could be used with no risk of damaging suspension cables, stiffening trusses or towers. (Hardesty & Hanover provided peer review.) Please see the full story as it appears in the November 17, 2003 issue of ENR.
• Northeast Kentucky Industrial Parkway opens • Ohio project wins AASHTO honor MIDDLETOWN
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Personnel News • New Employees • Professional Vitae • Ralph Palmer inducted into UK Engineering Hall of Distinction
WINCHESTER 400 Shoppers Drive P.O. Box 747 Winchester, KY 40392-0747 Telephone: (859) 744-1218 Fax: (859) 744-1266 E-mail:
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NASHVILLE
Back Cover: Grand opening of new corporate headquarters
Suite 306 2416 21st Ave. S. Nashville, TN 37212 Telephone: (615) 297-8957 Fax: (615) 297-8913 E-mail:
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LOUISVILLE 3403 Stony Spring Circle Louisville, KY 40220 Telephone: (502) 491-2411 Fax: (502) 491-2448 E-mail:
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146 N. Breiel Blvd. Middletown, OH 45042 Telephone: (513) 424-0760 Fax: (513) 424-6122 E-mail:
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TEAYS VALLEY 3058 Mt. Vernon Road Hurricane, WV 25526 Telephone: (304) 760-2151 Fax: (304) 760-2313 E-mail:
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ORLANDO Suite 890 201 S. Orange Ave. Orlando, FL 32801 Telephone: (407) 487-0417 Fax: (407) 487-0419 E-mail:
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CINCINNATI 4242 Airport Road Cincinnati, OH 45226 Telephone: (513) 533-3666 E-mail:
[email protected]
is published twice a year for Palmer Engineering’s clients and employees. Visit us on the Web at: w ww.palmernet.com Palmer News
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The Art and Science of the
Interchange If you can’t tell a spooey from a parclo, or are never quite sure whether you’re merging or diverging while executing a turning movement or motoring across a flyover, don’t let your medians get depressed, you may simply be interchangechallenged!
The world of interchange design is an art and science all unto itself, with its own unique vocabulary, geometry and culture (yes culture— just do a Web search on the word “interchange,” and you’ll find sites meticulously maintained by road geeks enthralled with the subject). Simply put, an interchange is where one road passes over another. The most distinguishing features of interchanges are ramps, which connect the intersecting roadways and allow access between them. The goal of any well-designed interchange is to keep traffic flowing smoothly. To accomplish this, interchanges come in a variety of geometric forms with an array of design features. Understanding which form and features are best for a given application is the job of the transportation engineer. w
Changing times for interchanges…
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uring the past decade, highway congestion levels have steadily worsened as our nation’s population and need for travel have grown at a faster rate than system capacity. According to the Federal Highway Administration’s 2003 Performance Plan, between 1992 and 2000 the annual number of hours that users were delayed in metropolitan traffic increased 46 percent, from 21.9 person-hours to 31.9 person-hours. Congestion, of course, not only adversely affects travel, but also business efficiencies, energy availability, and air quality. While increasing roadway capacity is one approach to reducing traffic congestion, there are limits to how much system capacity can be increased. To mitigate traffic congestion more effectively, transportation planners and officials are working together to optimize the use of existing systems through innovative improvements and designs.
Matching service levels As Jim Zeigler knows, successfully easing traffic slowdowns and backups requires more than just adding lane miles. While driving to visit his daughter one evening last year, the assistant chief engineer for the Tennessee Department of Transportation found himself sitting on the Interstate 24 exit ramp to State Route 10 (U.S. 231) nearly a mile from the ramp’s terminus. “It was 6 o’clock, well after rush hour, and traffic was backed up almost to the interstate,” Zeigler recalled. While traffic slowly inched forward, Zeigler used his cell phone to call Joe Carpenter, TDOT project manager, to inquire whether the SR10 interchange was included in the state’s scope of improvements under way on this section of I-24. Told that
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Backups occur frequently on the I-24 exit ramp to Tennessee Route 10 (U.S. 231).
the project was “just to widen the interstate and tie down as quickly as possible on the ramps,” Zeigler countered, “Not any more.”
Simulating success Palmer Engineering, already in the process of designing the roadway improvements to this section of I-24, was asked to also study potential solutions to the interchange, a traditional diamond configuration with one loop ramp surrounded by heavy commercial development. The team began by counting peak turning volumes on the five-lane SR-10 corridor. By inputting the data into a traffic simulation tool, very quickly the engineers were able to simulate the peak hours when backups occur. The next step was to model the effects of modification options. “You can literally pre-build changes on the computer, like add or subtract signals, add lanes to ramps, or extend turning movements,” explained David Lindeman, Palmer Engineering vice president and director of transportation. “You can put ‘real’ people in ‘real’ cars doing random things and see how it all works. As an engineer, it lets you narrow down solutions that
are not only viable, but also desirable.” For traffic to flow smoothly, one of the basic tenets every engineer understands is that an interchange’s lane capacity should exceed its service volume. At I-24 and SR-10, the solution involved adding and extending lanes at the on- and off-ramps, as well as extending those used for merging. Sometimes, however, more complex solutions are called for, such as the interchange improvements planned along SR-162, the Pellissippi Parkway, in Knox County, Tenn.
Working in synergy As part of its statewide planning contract with TDOT, in 2003 Palmer Engineering was selected to perform a justification study for an interchange at the Pellissippi Parkway and SR475, a proposed beltway around Knoxville to reduce traffic volumes on I-75 and I-40. Interchanges are rarely mutually exclusive. Traffic flow on any given interchange is easily affected by traffic flow on other interchanges, especially when they are located in proximity. Going in, the study team realized that its study for SR-475
INTERCHANGES would need to take into account an existing interchange less than a mile north at Solway Road, as well as a planned interchange located just south at Hardin Valley Road. “What we had brewing here was the possibility of a lot of merge and diverge movements that would be happening at three locations along a short stretch of the parkway,” Lindeman pointed out. Turning to their skills in traffic simulation, Palmer’s engineers were able to strike a balance. The solution is what is called a collector/distributor road, an isolated road running parallel to the parkway between and through the SR-475 and Hardin Valley Road interchanges. Motorists traveling between the two interchanges would utilize this lighter-trafficked, lowerspeed road to safely exit and merge onto the parkway.
“Developing” solutions Increasingly, the demand for redesign is driven by rapid growth in the area of the interchange. As interchanges provide good access to the areas around them, it follows that they attract development. The chal-
lenge is to keep pace with developing areas and providing timely, cost-effective solutions. In Louisville, Ky., officials are striving to control sprawling development while at the same time reduce future right-of-way costs at I-265 (Gene Snyder Freeway) and U.S. 60 (Shelbyville Road). In 2002 the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet asked the team of HNTB and Palmer Engineering to fast-track the preparation of a right-of-way “footprint” for the interchange. The project is closely linked with the reconstruction of the I-265/I-64 interchange, just 1 mile south. A single-point urban interchange with four to eight lanes of collector/ distributor roads was selected for the U.S. 60 interchange. Nicknamed a “spooey,” for the acronym SPUI, this newer type of diamond interchange is distinguished by diagonal ramps placed as closely as possible parallel to the highway. Effectively, all ramp traffic meets at a single point on the intersecting street directly above (or sometimes below) the highway. To ensure that the C/D roads and SPUI will safely handle the expected traffic growth, Palmer developed a simulation of the proposed system. “During the simulation we added lanes to the merging movements and lengthened them until the congestion points were eliminated; then we watched to see how adjacent movements or combinations of movements were affected,” said Lindeman. “This helped us spot bottlenecks that we might not have been able to see had we used traditional, empirical-based calculations.” In West Virginia, Palmer’s design teams are using a similar strategy to study options for reconstructing the interchange at I-79 and U.S. 250 in Fairmont. In the past several years, A collector/distributor road has been proposed to allow safe travel between three tightly spaced interchanges on Tennessee’s Pellissippi Parkway.
Classic Diamond
Partial Cloverleaf
Three-level Stacked Diamond
Turbine
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Changing times call for creative sol
Do you speak interchange? Braid
A design feature where two nearly parallel ramps must cross each other and a grade separation is used to avoid weaving (see “weaving” below).
Buttonhook
A j-shaped ramp that connects to a parallel or diagonal street or frontage road.
CollectorDistributor Road
A one-way road parallel to the main traffic lanes that provides access to or from more than one ramp; collects traffic from on-ramps or the main lanes and distributes traffic to off-ramps or back to the main lines.
Directional
A ramp or interchange where left-turning movements are handled by left exits instead of flyovers or loops.
Flyover
A directional ramp where the left-turning movement passes over the main traffic lanes.
Gore
The thin triangle of pavement between the through lanes and the exit lanes as they diverge; often diagonally striped to remind traffic to stay off.
Stack
A four-level semi-directional interchange with no loop ramps.
Weaving
A type of conflict where traffic veering right and traffic veering left must cross paths within a limited distance.
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I-265 and U.S. 6 0 (Shelbyville Road), Louisville, Ky.
what was once a little-used interchange has experienced a surge in traffic volumes with the expansion of the nearby I-79 Technology Park. With over 500 acres under development, the park is leading the high-tech diversification of northern West Virginia’s economy. Tenants to date include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration/West Virginia University’s Independent Verification and Validation facility, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center, and the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation. According to Dave Clevenger, who works in the Engineering Division of the West Virginia Division of Highways as head of the consultant review section, the state is “open to see” which of the several schemes Palmer is developing will handle traffic best. “Whatever solution is eventually chosen will be unique because of how you have to access the technology park,” he said.
utions As it now stands the interchange, which also accesses a mall, has very tight ramp curves and short merge and diverge movements. Traffic backing up along the ramps onto the interstate has been a problem, and accidents have occurred. “We’re being very wide open in our ideas,” said Paul Martin, a project manager who works in Palmer’s West Virginia branch office. “We’re thinking it’s going to take something out of the box to handle the traffic traveling both to and from the mall and the I-79 Technology Park.”
Ramping up As these projects reveal, anymore it’s not just about designing standard diamond interchanges and constructing quick-fix modifications. More and more, as traffic volumes grow and right of ways become squeezed, complex configurations are required. Transportation engineers must explore many different types of solutions, simulate the various schemes, and competently discuss their merits with planning officials as well as the public. “Today’s interchange situation and the problems of getting cars from A to B have become a very important part of our process and a large part of our
INTERCHANGES expenditures,” said TDOT’s Zeigler. “Our thinking has changed,” he continued. “Where we used to just throw in a couple of loops and diamond ramps and say ‘There you go,’ now we have to be more innovative. Right now, for example, we have two very large interchange projects on the board that feature flyovers and other sophisticated movements — one in Nashville and one in Memphis, representing a combined cost of more than $50 million. Just a couple of years ago, having even a single interchange of that size and scope was unheard of.” Improving the safety and usefulness of our nation’s interchanges will continue to remain center stage for some time. But what’s promising to engineers like Zeigler, Clevenger, Lindeman, and their peers is the way improvements are being approached. “I think we will always need to be improving our roadway systems,” Zeigler remarked, “but now everyone is looking at projects from a future perspective.” “We’re exploring what we can do to improve the interchange beyond 20 years,” Lindeman added. “The goal is to find the best long-term solution and balance it with safety, the environment and total cost.”
Full Cloverleaf
Single-Point Urban
Trumpet
Existing I-79 and U.S. 250 interchange, Fairmont, W. Va.
Semi-Directional T
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If you’re heading down to Gulfport for the
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ongestion on Interstate 10 and other routes leading to Gulfport, Miss., should be eased by next summer when the construction of 8.2 miles of State Route 605, a new four-lane highway, is completed from I-10 to Highway 67—hopefully in time for the city’s big draw. Gulfport is home of the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, billed as the “world’s largest” and held each year as part of the Gulf Coast’s 4th of July festivities. T.L. Wallace Construction, Inc. of Columbia, Miss., was awarded the $24.1 million project, which consists of grading, drainage and bridgework. Palmer Engineering partnered with TLW to value engineer a 3,158foot-long bridge over the Biloxi River, which includes a 491-foot river unit with spans of 147, 197 and 147 feet. John Carnes, manager of business development for Palmer’s bridge division, spotted the project on the Internet and initiated the contact with TLW. “We had never worked with them before. But the project was a good candidate for post-tensioned concrete, and our teams worked well together,” he said. The redesign for the river unit replaced five lines of welded steel plate girders, called for originally, with five lines of post-tensioned concrete spliced I-girders. Although posttensioning systems require specialized knowledge and expertise to fabricate and install, they provide exceptional strength, especially in long spans.
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How Post-Tensioning 1
Concrete beams are cast ahead of time at a specialty fabricator’s plant. Long open tubes, called ducts, are cast into the beams along carefully selected alignments. Once the beams have been transported to the job site and erected on the piers, the small gaps between individual beam segments are filled with concrete. A number of individual steel strands, collectively referred to as a tendon, are next threaded through each of the open ducts, normally extending from one end of the bridge to the other. Once all of the concrete has reached adequate strength, usually 4,000 to 6,000 pounds per square inch, the tendons are anchored on the far end, then pulled to a very high tension using a hydraulic jack at the near end (shown at right). Once the tendons have been stretched the required amount, the strands are anchored at the near end and the jack is removed. The anchorages at both ends keep the tendons from snapping back like rubber bands. Lastly, a highly liquid concrete grout mixture is pumped into the ducts, completely covering the tendons and permanently bonding all of the strands to the concrete beams.
big Fish Rodeo ...
2 orks
The fact that the tendons are both anchored and bonded to the concrete keeps them tightly and permanently stretched. This, in turn, causes an equal and opposite reaction on the concrete, keeping it permanently compressed, or squeezed together. This squeezing helps counteract the tension that normal bridge loads (cars, people, the weight of the bridge itself) would otherwise cause on the concrete beams. Because concrete is very weak in tension, this “prestressing” effect significantly increases the load-carrying capacity of the beams.
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In conventional concrete construction, when a load is applied to the beam, the beam will naturally deflect, or sag slightly. This deflection causes the bottom of the beam to stretch, which in turn causes the concrete to crack when the load gets large enough. In conventional concrete construction, reinforcing bars—called “rebars”— are cast into the bottoms of the beams. The rebars then resist the load once the concrete has cracked. But prestressed concrete, such as the post-tensioned bridge in Biloxi, puts a carefully balanced “pre-load” into the bottom of the beam so that it will not crack. The prestressing also reduces the amount of sag in the beam when it is under load. Pictured above right, Mike Ellis of T.L. Wallace Construction and Jim Gallt of Palmer Engineering ensure the proper placement of a drop-in segment on Highway 605. “Strongbacks” temporarily connect the segments.
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Helping Panera put “a loaf of bread in every arm” This Panera Bread on 21st Avenue South in Nashville, Tenn., opened in December.
PANERA BREAD BAKERY-CAFES are expanding quickly across America—good news for the publicly held (NASDAQ: PNRA) company who states its mission as “A loaf of bread in every arm.” According to the company’s Web site, Panera Bread freshly bakes more bread each day than any bakery-cafe concept in the country. Every day at each location trained bakers handcraft and bake each loaf from scratch, using all-natural ingredients to ensure the highest quality breads.
North elevation
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Palmer Engineering has been working with Panera to bring three new locations online: 21st Avenue South in Nashville, Tenn.; Glenbrook Centre in Hendersonville, Tenn.; and Willow Creek in Canton, Mich. According to Randy Perry, a site development manager who works in Palmer’s Nashville branch office, the number one priority in site design work is to keep the ball rolling. “Each day that a store isn’t open, it costs the
operator money,” he said. “Our job is to keep the project on track.” The key, Perry added, is to develop good working relationships with the many different permitting authorities on the project. “Permitting is really 50 percent of the effort,” he noted. “Once you have the design work done—the plans for how the building is going to physically occupy the site—the rest is largely submitting all the paperwork and plans for approvals and responding to questions and requests for changes.” On projects such as the 21st Avenue South store in Nashville, which is located in an urban overlay district across from the Vanderbilt University campus, site plans were submitted to nearly a dozen city, state and local agencies. One of these permitting agents was the city’s Water Services Office, which approved Palmer’s plan to tie storm drainage for the site into the city’s combined storm and sanitary sewer system. “With the urban overlay and the combined sewer issue, this was probably one of the more difficult sites we’ve worked on in Nashville,” Perry remarked. “But we kept it moving and received the necessary approvals, and most important of all, the store held its grand opening right on schedule.”
Design-build to the rescue “The damage was worse than I was hoping—and much worse than I thought.” Those were the words voiced by Preble County Engineer Steve Simmons last June after a weekend of intense rainfall in southwestern Ohio left many of the area’s culverts and bridges damaged, some beyond repair. While residents set about cleaning up their homes, county officials immediately began assessing the damage and identifying the scope of the repairs. Bronson Funke, a project manager in Palmer Engineering’s
Middletown, Ohio, branch office, volunteered his expertise in the task. For one full day, Funke and another volunteer checked out nearly a dozen of the county’s most heavily damaged structures. According to Funke, many of the bridges were old and built by hand. “Most of the structures were built using laid-up stone and cast-in-place concrete. They were so old and deteriorated, the unusually high flows that weekend were more than they could take.” According to the National Weather Service, some areas received between 4-8 inches of rain in a 24hour period—more than a 100-year storm. Armed with the information they
needed to begin rebuilding, the county outlined the scope of work that was needed and let the projects to bid in mid-July. Palmer Engineering and SK Construction of Middletown, who both recently participated in the County Engineers Association’s design-build pilot program, were the successful bidders on five bridge and culvert replacements. “The last bridge was completed in mid-December,” said Funke, who credited the design-build approach for cutting the project delivery schedule in half. “Usually you’re looking at 8 to 12 months just for design, then another 2 to 3 months to bid the work. We were able to deliver five completed structures in less than six months.”
The damage to this old stone and concrete bridge on Stephen Young Road (left) was typical of last June’s flooding in Preble County, Ohio. The bridge was replaced with a new structure (right) featuring a 10-by-6 foot concrete box culvert.
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U.S. 119 over KY 1441 taking shape
Kentucky’s first curved steel box girder bridges are now under construction, drawing looks of amazement from everyone who sees them firsthand. At nearly 1,300 feet long and 210 feet from the ground, the pair of two-lane structures is one of the most dramatic features in the 20.7 mile reconstruction of U.S. 119 that runs from Pikeville, Ky., to Williamson, W. Va. Because the Raccoon Creek bridges must curve as they cross the steep mountainous landscape, Palmer Engineering’s design team chose steel box girders because they are many times stiffer than traditional I-girders for torsional loads.
Client: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, District 12 Bridge Contractor: Bush & Burchett Inc., Allen, Ky. General Contractor: Bizzack Inc., Lexington, Ky.
NEWS BRIEFS
Tabor named W. Va. Young Civil Engineer of the Year
Craig Palmer collects satellite data with GPS equipment at Big Bone Lick State Park.
David Meadows (left) presents the Young Civil Engineer of the Year award to David Tabor.
David J. Tabor, a project engineer in Palmer’s Teays Valley office, has received the 2003 West Virginia Young Civil Engineer of the Year Award from the West Virginia Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. “David’s personal contributions on the local, state and national levels are rare for a young professional, and I anticipate great things to come in his future,” said David Meadows, P.E., P.S., a section chief in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington District, and 2003 awards committee chair. Tabor, currently vice president of the West Virginia Section, is seated to assume the position of president in September 2004.
Palmer surveyors take part in Lewis and Clark celebration In November, members of Palmer Engineering’s survey team, in con junction with the National Geodetic Survey and the Kentucky Association of Professional Surveyors, took part in commemorating the 200th anniversary of the legendary Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery Expedition. The team set a brass survey marker at the entrance to Big Bone Lick State Park in northern Kentucky. The Corps of Discovery’s objective was to locate the “Northwest Passage,” a dreamed-about, all-water route connecting the trade routes of the Pacific to the Old World of the Atlantic. According to the historical record, in 1803 while traveling down the Ohio River to meet William Clark for the Pacific expedition, Meriwether Lewis stopped at the Big Bone Lick site to gather salt for the expedition and fossilized bones for President Thomas Jefferson—the area was
home to prehistoric mammals toward the end of the Ice Age. The Palmer surveyors used precise global positioning system techniques to locate the marker. The coordinates derived are part of the National Spatial Reference System, which serves as the nation’s geodetic reference framework for latitude, longitude and elevation.
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NEWS BRIEFS
Northeast Kentucky Industrial Parkway opens On Sept. 25, 2003, just 63 months after ground was broken, the Northeast Kentucky Industrial Parkway was opened to traffic. This 14-mile highway passes through Carter, Boyd and Greenup Counties and connects Interstate 64 with U.S. 23 near Wurtland. The new road is seen as key to the economic revitalization of the region and particularly the success of the new 1,000-acre EastPark Industrial Park. Designed by a team of engineering firms led by QK4 of Louisville, Ky., and constructed at a cost of $80 million in four phases, the project includes a new semi-directional interchange at I-64. The interchange and the first phase of the project, which were opened to traffic October 12, 1999, were designed by Palmer Engineering. An innovative partnering process
helped the state construct the project at an unprecedented pace. According to Palmer Engineering Vice President Jim Gallt, the consultant team was empowered with the responsibility for all aspects of the project, from design and right-of-way acquisition to construction engineering and inspection.
The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Northeast Kentucky Industrial Parkway was held Sept. 25, 2003.
Ohio value engineering project wins AASHTO honor The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has recognized Ohio
Department of Transportation District 4, The Ruhlin Company of Sharon Center, Ohio, and Palmer Engineering
of Winchester, Ky., for their value engineering achievements on the redesign of the U.S. Route 20 bridge over the Ashtabula River. Located in Ashtabula County, Ohio, the project was originally designed as an eight-span, steel plate girder bridge supported on hammerhead piers on drilled shafts. The value engineering team of Ruhlin and Palmer, combined with Prestress Services of Decatur, Ind., reengineered the project as a nine-span, prestressed concrete girder bridge supported on two-column stepped piers with foundations of spread footings and piles. The changes provided the Ohio Department of Transportation with a total savings of $960,000. Moreover, the addition of the ninth pier enabled the piers to be repositioned, improving the aesthetics of the main river channel while preserving an identified wetlands area beneath the new bridge alignment. The U.S. Route 20 bridge is 1,224 feet long and crosses approximately 85 feet above the Ashtabula River.
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PERSONNEL NEWS
Jennifer Morris
Jason Morelock
New Employees Jason Morelock, P.E., project engineer – Jason joined the Nashville site development staff on January 27, 2003. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Tennessee. Jason lives in Nashville, Tenn. Ralph Palmer (center) joins UK College of Engineering Dean Thomas Lester (left) and Dr. Issam Harik, chair of the UK Civil Engineering Department, on the podium.
Ralph Palmer inducted into UK Engineering Hall of Distinction Ralph J. Palmer, Palmer Engineering president and chief executive officer, has been inducted into the University of Kentucky College of Engineering Hall of Distinction. He is a 1963 graduate of UK with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. Initiated in 1992, the Hall of Distinction recognizes and honors those alumni who have demonstrated distinguished engineering professional accomplishments, outstanding character, and commitment to community service. To date, 59 graduates have been inducted. Throughout his career Palmer has distinguished himself as a state and national leader in the promotion of engineering education and the engineering profession. This is demonstrated by his professional memberships in 14 societies, councils, federations and associations, including the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, National Society of
Professional Engineers, Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers, Kentucky Association of Professional Surveyors, Kentucky Geological Survey Advisory Board, Kentucky Transportation Center Advisory Board, and the Society of American Military Engineers. His commitment to the profession culminated with his induction into the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) College of Fellows in 1995, an elite group of individuals who have been recognized by their peers as experts in their engineering field. “I was both surprised and delighted to receive this prestigious honor,” Palmer remarked after his induction ceremony on April 25, 2003, held on the UK campus in Lexington, Ky. “It is a privilege both to be honored by my alma mater and to be included among this accomplished group of men and women.”
Jennifer Morris, E.I.T., project engineer – Jennifer joined the structural department in Winchester on February 3, 2003. She earned a Master of Science in Engineering and a Master of Arts in Secondary Education from West Virginia University in December 2002. Jennifer resides in Lexington, Ky. Bill DeHart, maintenance person – Bill joined the Winchester office on April 7, 2003. Bill is a graduate of Morgan County High School. He and his wife, Sandy, make their home in Winchester. Robert Oney, environmental biologist – Robert joined the environmental department on May 12, 2003. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Management from Eastern Kentucky University in December 2002. Robert lives in Lexington, Ky.
Professional Vitae Liz Bullock has successfully completed the requirements for professional engineering licensure in Kentucky.
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New headquarters dedicated July 10, 2003
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lients, colleagues, community officials, families and friends joined Palmer Engineering in dedicating its new corporate offices in Winchester, Ky., on July 10, 2003. Following an invocation by the Rev. Bill Konstantopoulos of the First Church of God, those gathered heard Clark County Judge-Executive Drew Graham and City of Winchester Mayor Dodd Dixon congratulate Palmer not only on its new headquarters building at 400 Shoppers Drive, but the firm’s sustained commitment to the community. Other guest speakers included Bob Babbage, former Kentucky secretary of state, and Luther Deaton, president and chief executive officer of Central Bancshares. Ralph Palmer, who co-founded Palmer Engineering with Dick Nunan in 1969, told the crowd that the firm is looking forward to its first full year in its new home, which includes offices for 70 corporate office employees as well as a fully equipped environmental laboratory. “Highway-related projects are forecast to grow long term,” Palmer remarked, “and Palmer Engineering is looking forward to serving our clients’ needs. Our goal—as it has been from the beginning—is to provide innovative, effective design and support that exceed our clients’ expectations,” he said.
Participating in the ribbon cutting ceremony were (from left) David Lindeman, vice president and director of transportation; Randall Palmer, vice president and director of structures; Ralph Palmer, president and chief executive officer; Winchester Mayor Dodd Dixon; Clark County JudgeExecutive Drew Graham; and Richard Nunan, senior vice president.
At 23,000 square feet, the new facility allows Palmer Engineering to consolidate its headquarters staff under one roof.
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P.O. Box 747 Winchester, KY 40392-0747
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LEXINGTON, KY PERMIT NO. 850
