Alaska Section
Alaska offers the Transportation Engineer abundant opportunities, unique challenges, and matchless rewards. The Alaskan Transportation Engineer must possess the skills to complete projects in urban, rural, coastal, and roadless communities. They must balance innovation with practicality while accounting for a wide range of climates, severe temperatures, and extreme terrain. The ITE Alaska Section is made up of such professionals, committed to enriching the Alaskan way of life.
The Alaska Section is as exceptional as our professionals. We provide public and private sector members with unique experiences, informative speakers, and useful information. SocialITE was started to help connect our members outside of the work environment. Our members connect through e-mail, the Alaska Section web page, and Facebook. Monthly speakers have presented on engineering trends, current projects, and improving professional skills. Members are regularly informed of legislative happenings, bills affecting transportation matters, University engineering programs, and educational opportunities. The Alaska Section works hard to equip the professionals that create, maintain, and sustain Alaska’s communities.
The Alaska Section continues to build on our successful past as we look to a promising future.
New officers were sworn in by Zaki Mustafa at our September meeting. Through their dedicated service, the Alaska Section will continue to thrive. We are excited to host the 2011 Western District annual meeting. Through this once in a lifetime event, you will be able to connect with transportation professionals and experience a part Alaska’s distinctive qualities. We invite you to be a part of what makes the Alaska Section great in 2011.
Joshua Cross, P.E.
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Arizona Section
The Arizona Section had a very successful year with active participation at our monthly luncheons, with our active members group, and technical committee, and ITE/IMSA Spring Conference Committee.
The June Arizona ITE Section lunch was held on June 24th, 2010 at Aunt Chilada’s Mexican restaurant. Over 55 people were on hand to listen to Wulf Grote, Director of Project Development from METRO, give an update on the long range transit plan for the Valley of the Sun. Wulf discussed the long term planning efforts which include the planning for potential light rail infrastructure expansions, expanded bus services and the possibility of future trolley service. Wulf Grote is a past president of the Arizona Section and more notably known for being the husband of Western District Administrator Jenny Grote.
There was great attendance at all the monthly luncheons and over the course of the last three meetings we had Anita Shanker from Stantec who spoke about the Traffic Operations Models, Kohinoor Kar from Arizona Department of Transportation gave an update on the Highway Safety Improvement Program, and Larry Reasch from Horrocks Engineering gave an interactive presentation on Moving Bridges, Moving Cars – Saving Time, Saving Money.
On June 25th our Active Member Group took on the Younger Member Forum of ASCE in the second annual broomball event in Phoenix. ITE extended its winning streak to two years by defeating ASCE two games to one. Broomball is played on ice much like hockey but players use brooms and shoes as opposed to sticks and ice skates. It was a great time and one of the best ways to cool off in the heat.
The technical committee, lead by Bob Steele, was very productive this year by working on three projects to benefit the transportation industry in Arizona. They completed an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of exclusive right-turn arrow overlap phases, documented best practices in Arizona for non-15mph school zones, and documented the best practices in the use and installation of accessible pedestrian signal push buttons. All three projects were presented at the ITE/IMSA Spring Conference in March 2010.
Karen M. King, P.E.
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Colorado/Wyoming Section
A Colorado/Wyoming Section ITE luncheon was held on Friday, May 14, 2010 at the MadCap Theatre in Westminster. Section President, Ben Waldman, took the stage, cracked a few wise ones and presided over the meeting.
Dave Hattan announced this year’s recipients of the Section’s Transportation Professional of the Year Award. The 2009 Western District Local Arrangements Committee shared this year’s award. Recipients included: Nate Larson – URS, Will Johnson – SHE, Jamie Archambeau – PBS&J, Alex Ariniello – LSC, Paul Brown – Jacobs Engineering, Aaron Heumann – Martin/Martin, Margie Krell – URS, John La Sala – City and County of Denver, Kari McDowell – McDowell Engineering
Craig Faessler introduced the candidates for the Section’s 2010-2011 Secretary-Treasurer position: Alex Larson and John LaSala. John LaSala was announced as the election winner at the Colorado/Wyoming ITE Golf Tournament on June 4th.
The Section is proud to announce that we have just formed a new University of Colorado at Denver (UCD) ITE Student Chapter!
Fantastic golfing conditions greeted all those who participated in this year’s Colorado/Wyoming ITE Section golf tournament at CommonGround Golf Course on Friday, June 4, 2010. Our participants were treated to an incredible golf experience, complete with a course that was in great shape, service that was second to none, shots that would make Phil Mickelson envious, excellent food and a fruitful networking opportunity. Sixty two players joined in the fun this year. Generous donations from our sponsors made for some great prizes and allowed us to raise well over $700 for the scholarship fund.
Our winners this year were Dennis Lobberding, Dean Friesen, Sean Owens and Steve Sandvik, who negotiated the snaking fairways and undulating greens to a 10 under par 61.
Please welcome and give your support to the new Colorado/Wyoming Section Officers for 2010-2011:
President: Greg MacKinnon
Vice President: Chris Sheffer
Secretary-Treasurer: John LaSala
Our section newsletter, Conveyances, recently received the International ITE award for best Section Newsletter. Congratulations to our co-editors, Bart Pryzbl and Kari McDowell, as well as all of the Section members contributing articles!
The Section also won the Western District Activities Award!
Members are invited to view the Section’s business and luncheon presentations online at cowyite.org. Facebook users are invited to follow the Section news online.
The Colorado/Wyoming Section contact is Greg MacKinnon of the Denver Regional Council of Governments, GMacKinnon@drcog.org. Also, please visit our Section’s website at www.cowyite.org.
Kari McDowell,
Scribe, Newsletter Co-Editor
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SFBay ITE
On May 20, 2010, the San Francisco Bay Area ITE Section (SFBayITE) held its monthly meeting at Osha Thai Restaurant in San Francisco. There were 44 people in attendance. This meeting was sponsored by the Wiltec – Traffic, Transportation, Transit and Parking Surveys. The first technical presentation was made by Ms. Michelle DeRobertis, Senior Transportation Planner at Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA).
In her presentation, Ms. DeRobertis showed slides taken in her trip to Stuttgart in Germany and Turin in Italy, showcasing the best practices which have been implemented in these two cities to encourage walking and bicycling. Examples of pedestrian streets, median bike paths, traffic-limited zones and other techniques were discussed. The second presentation was made by Ms. Ina Gerhard, Senior Transportation Planner/Bicycle Coordinator, with District 4 of Caltrans. Her presentation focused on Caltrans’ efforts to improve access and safety for walking and bicycling on state highways. The Complete Streets Implementation Action Plan and the District 4 Employee Bike Sharing Program and Research Project were discussed.
On June 17, 2010, the San Francisco Bay Area ITE Section (SFBayITE) held a special Year-End Business Lunch at Sinbad’s Pier 2 Restaurant in San Francisco. There were 50 people in attendance. Shruti Malik, the SFBayITE section Vice President, started the meeting.
After the self-introductions, several announcements were made in regards to the upcoming ITE Western District Annual Meeting on June 27-30 in San Francisco.
The first presentation was made by Mr. Jack Fleck, retiring City Traffic Engineer, with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. The title of his presentation was The Role of the Auto in the City – Past, Present and Future, in which he talked about his professional experience as a Traffic Engineer with the City. He discussed the lessons learned from the Embarcadero Freeway project, and changes that have been occurring in City of San Francisco since the earthquake in 1989. He also discussed the global warming issue, and what should be done to stop the increase of emission of CO2 gas from transportation industry.
The second presentation was made by Mr. Ron Gremban, Technical lead, with CalCars, The California Cars Initiative. The title of his presentation was PHEVs & the Future of Urban Transportation, in which he talked about the Plug-In Hybrid Electrical Vehicles (PHEV). He also discussed the urgency to stop the global warming and dependency on petroleum, and why electricity could be a solution to the problem. He also introduced the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), an alternative mode for future urban transportation.
The certificates of appreciation were handed out by outgoing president of SFBayITE, Nate Chanchareon, and the new officers for the next year were introduced and sworn in.
Afsaneh Yavari
