APWA News
Fall 2009 / Vol. 45 No.3
In This Issue
- New Logo Unveiled
- Meloy Appointed to Board
- Full Depth Reclamation can Save Time, Money and Environment
- Scholarship Recipients Announced
- Popular Classes Offered
- Oregon APWA Fall Conference
E-Welcome!
Welcome to the first issue of the Oregon APWA e-newsletter. As promised, we’ve completed the change from a printed paper newsletter to an all-electronic publication.
The change has been a real challenge for Kim Mast and me. For starters, we decided our goal was not to continue producing what, in essence, would be a printed newsletter and then claim we met our charge by simply sending you a link to a pdf file. Instead, we committed ourselves to rethink the whole idea of how information is presented. And then we had to learn how to use web authoring tools to format the information in a new presentation. The result: a first crack at embedded hyperlinks, internal navigation links, mouse-over text on photos, and other web techniques that have no parallel in the world of Johannes Gutenberg.
Needless to say, all this remains a work in progress. Almost certainly there are aspects of this first e-newsletter that you’ll enjoy and others that will frustrate you (hint: don’t try to print this newsletter).
Our pledge is to keep working on it until we get it right. You can help. Use this handy embedded link to send me an e-mail and tell me what works and what doesn’t work for you.
Happy clicks!
New Oregon Chapter Logo Unveiled
As the Oregon Chapter moves forward into the digital world, we recognized the need to redesign our chapter logo so that it would be more compatible in various applications. The redesigned logo complements and aligns more consistently with the National APWA image and branding guidelines. The format that the new image is created in will provide more flexibility for reproducing on various products such as banners, T-shirts, imprints on premiums, plaques and other printed items.
If you need a copy of the new Oregon Chapter logo, please send an email to kim.m.mast@ci.eugene.or.us and she will send you the appropriate file format for your particular use.
From the President
What happened to summer? How is it possible that it is September already? I am sure these questions are common in our profession, as well as in our personal lives. This summer has been busy for the public works sector with many projects coming online as a result of the ARRA-funding package. The challenge of advancing so many projects into construction has stretched ODOT and local agency staff to cover many funding and procurement issues. However, the results of their efforts have provided opportunities to complete improvements that not only are visible to the public, but that address a number of maintenance issues affecting the people we serve.
As we move into fall, the Oregon Chapter is preparing for the Fall Conference, which takes place in October at Spirit Mountain in Grand Ronde. The conference committee has been extremely busy preparing for another great week of opportunities for continuing education, networking, and a chance to see what is new in the exhibitor’s arena. Mark your calendar on October 6-9, and explore the Chapter webpage for details. Pat Casey, Head Baseball Coach at Oregon State, will be at the kickoff luncheon on Wednesday, October 7, so make sure you get a good seat! In addition, the Fall Conference provides us an opportunity to recognize projects and individuals during our award presentations at the Thursday night banquet. All-in-all, it will be a great week!
This month is also the National Congress in Columbus, Ohio, and Oregon APWA will again receive the PACE award for Chapter Excellence. Kurt Corey and Hugh Kalani will receive the award on behalf of the Chapter. The Oregon Chapter has been the recipient of this award for several consecutive years and continues to be one of the more active Chapters in the country. If you are attending Congress this year, you may be interested in attending the joint dinner with the Washington Chapter.
The Chapter is in good shape financially and has done well managing expenses in this economy. The Board has worked hard to control costs and to implement the budget and goals agreed to last December. At the October 9th Chapter business meeting, we will consider a change to the By-Laws to increase the Treasurer’s term to two years. The Board has discussed this over the past few years and the consensus is that it generally takes the incoming Treasurer a few months to get up to speed; then, shortly thereafter, a new person steps into the position. Given our responsibility to the membership and the increasingly more complex tax and federal reporting requirements, the Board is recommending the two-year term. We have prepared a draft of this change to the By-Laws for National to review prior to the discussion and vote at the October Chapter business meeting.
We look forward to fall and the changes the season brings to Oregon. We are very fortunate to live in this great State and to have the opportunity to work with such talented public works professionals serving our communities.
Gregg Weston
Meloy Appointed to APWA Board
Mary Meloy, a longtime member of the Oregon Chapter of APWA, has been appointed to fill a vacant position on the Oregon APWA Board of Directors.
Meloy, who is a water resources consultant, is filling the secretary position recently vacated by Jim Carnahan, who accepted a job
with the U.S. Forest Service in Baker City. She is the board's nominee for chapter president-elect in the October board elections at Spirit Mountain.
Meloy currently serves on the Oregon State Water Resources
Commission. She is former public works director for the City of Redmond and previously was chair of the APWA National Transportation Committee.
You can contact Mary at mmeloy@bendcable.com.Mary Meloy
Full Depth Reclamation Can Save Time, Money, and the Environment
By Matt Rodrigues and Paul Klope, City of Eugene
Eugene contracted out its first full depth reclamation (FDR) project this summer. Eugene chose two residential streets and a street in an industrial area of town to reconstruct using this process. All of the streets were alligatored, filled with potholes, and very rough. To travel at speeds above 20 mph was jarring and risky to a car’s suspension.
The results of the FDR project were outstanding, exceeding our expectations for ease of construction, speed, minimizing impact to the neighborhood and cost. The full depth reclamation process Eugene specified reconstructs the road in-place and results in a very strong base treated with portland cement, which is then topped with either a chip seal or a wearing surface of asphalt concrete or concrete.
The FDR procedure involves bringing in a machine called a “reclaimer” to first grind up and thoroughly mix together the existing surfacing, base course and subgrade soil (if you go that deep), to a depth prescribed by your design. This leaves a very fluffy and homogenous mixture that is then compacted with a sheepsfoot roller, rough graded with a road grader and further compacted with a smooth roller so traffic can drive on it until the next step.
The next step is to add the cement and water, mix it in, grade and roll it again. To do this, first a special cement truck lays down the cement in an even layer at a rate specified in your design and at the same width as the relaimer. The reclaimer, hooked up to a water truck, follows close behind the cement truck, and adds water as it is mixing the cement with the pavement/aggregate base/soil mixture, so that the combined mixture can be compacted to as close to maximum density as possible. Then the sheepsfoot roller compacts the mixture until it “walks out”, followed by the grader to shape the surface to finish grade, and finally the smooth wheel roller to achieve final compaction (95% minimum. of maximum density).
Immediately following the finish rolling, a distributor truck shoots the surface with emulsified asphalt cement to seal it while the cement hydrates. The asphalt cement is then covered with sand to prevent tracking. The chip seal or asphalt concrete surfacing can be placed immediately or within a day or so. In our case, we had Lane County chip seal two of our FDR streets and the contractor placed an asphalt concrete overlay over the third FDR street. By observation, the treated bases of all the streets were strong and unyielding under heavy construction trucks the next day, and the surfacing operations caused no damage.
The design of FDR is similar to that for a traditional plant-mixed cement-treated base for both strength and thickness. Based on our research and advice from other agencies and FDR contractors, we decided to design the reclaimed base for a strength between 350 and 700 psi and enlisted help from the Lane County materials lab to prepare the mix design. Since two of the streets are residential, they were designed with a strength at the lower end of the range, and the mix design for the third street, which is industrial, was designed for the upper end of the range. The design thickness of the FDR base for the residential streets was determined to be 8 inches, and 12 inches for the industrial street.
All three streets are classified as local streets, and although we closed them to through traffic, the adjacent property owners were allowed to drive on the streets throughout the process, except when the equipment was right in front of their driveways, so there was very little impact to access. The FDR process is very fast, especially when compared to the traditional excavation and base rock process of reconstructing the streets. The two residential streets intersect, so they were worked on simultaneously. They are 18 feet wide, non-curbed streets and total 5320 feet long, and the FDR process for the two streets took two days. The industrial street is 20 feet wide and 1220 feet long, and the FDR process took one day. Reconstruction of these three streets using traditional methods would have taken over a month.
As a result of the FDR, Eugene not only has strong, long-lasting streets, rebuilt in a short amount of time, but the cost for the FDR was a fraction of what it would have cost using traditional street reconstruction methods. The two residential streets combined cost about $92,000 for the FDR and about $52,000 for the double-shot chip seal for a total of about $144,000. The industrial street cost about $30,000 for the FDR and $30,000 for the 3-inch thick HMAC wearing surface for a total of about $60,000. These costs are contract totals, so they include mobilization, traffic control, manhole adjustments and all the other miscellaneous items of work needed to complete the project. We estimate it would have cost about $458,000 to perform this reconstruction work for the residential streets and $134,000 for the industrial street using traditional methods.
Other savings Eugene realized had to do with the environment. By reconstructing these streets in-place using cement, a total of about 840 truck trips (round trips) were not made—a significant savings in emissions and wear and tear on the road system. Also, since we did not use any aggregate base, we saved about 4500 cubic yards of virgin rock resource, extending the life of the rock source.
For more information about this project, call Matt Rodrigues at 541-682-6036, or Paul Klope, 541-682-5246.
CALENDAR
2009-2010 Scholarship Recipients Announced
The Oregon APWA Scholastic Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2009-2010 scholarships.
Working with faculty liaisons at universities and community colleges around Oregon, Oregon APWA Scholarship Committee Chair Victoria Saager fielded applications from around the state. The faculty liaisons do most of the application vetting, but there clearly was student interest in academic funding. After reviewing the final set of recommendations, the foundation board made eight awards:
$3000 Oregon Institute of Technology Civil Engineering/Geomatics Scholarship has alternated between the civil and geomatic divisions. This year’s scholarship went to Stephen Medina, whose area of concentration is structural engineering.
$3000 Oregon State University Civil Engineering/Geomatics Scholarship went to Jenna Svoboda, whose area of concentration is civil engineering in general.
$3000 Portland State University Civil Engineering/Geomatics/Geotechnical Scholarship was awarded to Marguerite Marks, whose area of concentration is geotechnical.
$2000 Portland State University Michael Lindberg Scholarship was awarded to Kathryn Corone, whose area of concentration is urban and regional planning.
$500 Blue Mountain Community College Les Lyle Memorial Scholarship went to Max Trahan, who is pursuing an associate’s degree in civil engineering.
$500 Chemeketa Community College Civil Engineering Technology Program Scholarship was awarded to Brendan Martinez, who is pursuing an associate’s degree in civil technology and plans to then pursue a four-year degree in water and wastewater technology.
$500 Clackamas Community College Civil Engineering Transfer, Drinking Water / Waste Water, or GIS Scholarship went to Jamie Fisher, who is pursuing an associate’s degree and plans to then pursue a four-year degree in environmental management at Portland State University.
$500 Umpqua Community College Civil Engineering Technology or Civil Engineering Transfer Scholarship was awarded to Kristi Woods, who is pursuing an associate’s degree in civil engineering and plans to then pursue a four-year degree at OIT in the geomatics/surveying program.
The Oregon APWA Scholastic Foundation was incorporated in 1994, by the members of the Oregon Chapter of the American Public Works Association with the goal of establishing a stable revenue source for funding student scholarships. Eligible recipients of the Foundation’s scholarship grants are students of Oregon colleges or universities who have achieved junior standing, and whose chosen education field is related to public works.
The primary source of funding for the scholarship program is donations by members of Oregon APWA, including the Gizmo Award contributions made at each chapter conference.
Important Announcement about Three Popular Classes!
· Public Works Leadership – Nov 17-20, 2009, at Cannon Beach (Surfsand Resort)All three of these classes are part of American Public Works Association - Northwest Public Works Institute, and interest in them is so high; we will no longer be printing and mailing their associated brochures. The brochures will be available online as they are created and you may download/print and mail them in, or just read them and register online.
· Public Works Essentials – Dec 8-11, 2009, in Portland (on the MAX Line at Red Lion at the Convention Center)
· Developing Leader – March 2010 in central Oregon (details to be announced)
This accomplishes two important goals; we are able to keep the cost of the classes as low as possible and we can do our part to reduce our ecological footprint here in Oregon.
Please remember, these classes are held to a finite number to maximize student/instructor relationships. If you are interested, you may want to put yourself on the list even before class registrations open. Call 541.994.3201 or visit www.oregonapwa.org/training for more details.
