I’d like to start our October 2017 Newsletter by thanking everyone that supported our third annual Sierra Chapter Engineering Excellence Awards. We had great attendance at the dinner, and provided a warm welcome to our award winners. We also welcomed our scholarship recipients. I appreciate everyone’s attendance, and the hard work by Debbie, Kathy and Debanik to make sure the dinner was a success. I hope you will join us for the joint meeting with SAME this month.

I wanted to include a couple quick thoughts of the importance of ACEC California and our Sierra Chapter play as civic organizations. As I’ve gotten older, and learned more about economics, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for civic organizations. Why are civic organizations so important?

Civic organizations fill a role in society that isn’t met entirely by the government or private business. Strong civic organizations are an important part of what has made our capitalist economy in the United States successful. What quality makes ACEC California a beautiful civic organization to me? It is the way private businesses (who

are often market competitors) come together to work on common problems or issues. This willingness to work hand-in-hand with market competitors represents a selflessness and concern for the greater good that we need more of in our modern world, and in modern business. ACEC California is truly at its most beautiful when our member firms work together, not just to protect our business interests, but to improve our society, our economy, and our communities.

How does ACEC work to improve our society, our economy, and our communities? There are obvious ways. These include:

Our awarding of scholarships to students from both within and outside the civil engineering and land surveying professions.

Our recognition of public agencies and engineering teams that design and construct projects that are beautiful, functional, and affordable.

Our delivery of education and promotion of high standards of professional practice. These high standard benefit all of our clients and the communities in which we work.

There are also non-obvious ways in which ACEC California improves our society, our economy, and our communities. These include:

Promoting policies that lead to the prudent use of tax payer dollars.

Encouraging public agencies to follow the law.

Asking and answering tough questions about new technology that are changing our communities in addition to our professions.

Developing innovative solution to the challenges we face in affordable housing, transportation and water supply.

I hope ACEC will continue this work of improving our society, our economy, and our communities. While engaging in this work, I also hope that ACEC member firms will continue to cooperate with our competitors to accomplish goals that are not governed strictly by what benefits our professionals financially, but one what benefits our clients and the places we choose to call home. It is while reaching those type of accomplishments that our civic society is at its most beautiful.

Eric Tsai is Acting Branch Chief of the Flood Planning Branch within the California Department of Water Resources.  He focuses on leading integrated flood management planning studies at the watershed scale. For the past 7 years, he has supported both the 2012 Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (CVFPP) and the 2017 CVFPP Update, including basin-wide feasibility studies in the Sacramento River Basin and San Joaquin River Basin.

Before coming to DWR, he worked on a wide variety of water resources planning projects as an engineer with MWH Global, which is now Stantec. He holds a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University.

We kicked off our 2017/2018 year with recognizing the achievements of our members. Two of the local 2017 ACEC-CA Scholarship winners joined us:  Margarita Kovalchuk, CSUS, and Beau Forest, UOP. We awarded five local chapter project awards for engineering excellence:

Best Bikeways and Trails Project to Psomas for Placer County’s Auburn-Folsom Road Class 2 Bike Lane Improvements.

Best Geotechnical Engineering Project to Blackburn Consulting for the City of Sacramento’s Cosumnes River Boulevard Ext. and I-5 Interchange Project.

Best Freeway/Interchange Project to Dokken Engineering for the City of Modesto’s SR-99/Pelandale Avenue Interchange Project.

Best Infill Design Project to Wood Rodgers for the McKinely Village Way Underpass.

Project of the Year to WSP USA Inc for the City of Sacramento’s Riverfront Reconnection Project.

Jesse Gothan, City of Sacramento, concluded the evening with a presentation on the current projects being developed in the City and a brief overview of the upcoming RFP’s in the City, including the vision for the Broadway Complete Streets corridor to reduce the number of vehicle lanes to one lane in each direction, provide buffered bike lanes and sidewalk bulb-

outs at the intersections. The RFP is anticipated to be released in October.

Jesse also talked about the City of Sacramento’s new initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2027. The RFP for this data driven effort will be released this fall.

Finally, Jesse talked about the Richards I-5 projects, for which the PA/ED RFP will be released Spring 2018 and the on-call list RFP’s which will be released soon.

It’s not too late to register for the ACEC California Annual Conference to be held October 10-11, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency, Lake Tahoe. Last week a new session and new speakers were added to the conference agenda.

A panel discussion on Caltrans Contract Opportunities and the Procurement Process, will be moderated by Stephen Boll of Kleinfelder. Jim Davis, Caltrans Division Chief of Project Management, Esther Morris, P.E. Assistant Division Chief DPAC, A&E Office and Dan Purvine, President A/E Clarity will be panelists.

Proposition 1 was passed by the people of California in 2014.  $2.7 Billion of the $7.545 Billion of spending authorized by the legislation is specifically set aside for water storage projects. Two of the most well-known projects that will be contending for Proposition 1 funding are Temperance Flat Dam and Los Vaqueros Reservoir. Shana Kaplan, Deputy Planning Officer, U. S. Bureau of Reclamation will be moderating the water panel and Mario Santoyo, San Joaquin Valley Water Infrastructure from Temperance Flat and Marguerite Patil, Contra Costa Water District from Los Vaqueros Reservoir will be panelists.

There are also many other informative breakout sessions with a diverse blend of valuable professional speakers and an exhibit hall with vendors and consultants pertinent to our industry.

For more information and to register for the conference, go to the ACEC California website: https://acec-ca.siteym.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?=964731&group=