We are happy to announce that the Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship, now in its 13th year, has awarded two more $5,000 scholarships! This year’s winners are Emma Docto from Sac State and Mason Koyama from UOP. Congratulations to both of them!

The Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship was established in 2011 after the untimely passing of Tim Fleming in 2010. Tim was a Sierra Chapter Past President and served many years on the board. He was a graduate of the University of the Pacific and Stanford University and served our industry tirelessly as a leader and colleague. This scholarship honors his legacy and reminds us all that life is precious.

Emma and Mason will receive their scholarship checks at our ACEC Sierra Chapter Past President’s Dinner to be held on February 21^st, 2024.

The Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship is administered by the California Transportation Foundation (CTF) and is open to Junior, Senior and Graduate Civil Engineering/Transportation majors at California State University Sacramento, University of California Davis, and the University of the Pacific. Want more information? Contact Marco Palilla at Marco.Palilla@hdrinc.com

By Marco Palilla, Director

New Affiliate Membership Program

Our new Affiliate Membership is available to non-professional service companies such as vendors and contractors.  Please let us know if you would like to find out more information.  Please contact Donald Blackburn 530-305-0686 or donaldb@blackburnconsulting.com for more information.

Did you know that individual members that help to bring a new state ACEC California member can take advantage of the Member-Get-a-Member Recruitment Program that entitles recruiters to a $100 VISA Gift Card? If you know a firm that may be interested in joining ACEC California, please reach out to Donald Blackburn, donaldb@blackburnconsulting.com.

One of ACEC’s most important missions is fighting for our industry and member firms at the local, state, and federal levels. At the state level, most of our lobbying effort focuses on defense against bills that negatively affect us, our industry, and our clients and support for bills that are beneficial to our businesses. We strategically partner with business group allies and a wide range of special interest groups to magnify our influence. Historically, we are often at odds with public unions that seek to protect and expand their membership and frequently align with some contractor groups that seek to fund and facilitate construction. Recognizing the political realities of opposition alliances and the challenges of capturing the attention of legislators for complex bills that directly affect a relatively small number of constituents, we are selective in the bills that we sponsor ourselves. With that in mind, I am pleased to share with you that as a direct result of dedicated effort at the state level over the past eight years, ACEC’s sponsored bill, AB 334, was signed into law by the governor on September 30^th, and will take effect on January 1, 2024. This bill addresses language in Government Code 1090 that, in some cases, precluded consultants that participated in earlier phases of a project from proposing on subsequent phases. This new bill allows public agencies more freedom in determining their own contracting decisions without fear of conflict of interest disputes.  It also grants safe harbor protections against criminal, civil, and administrative enforcement to those that follow it. As a result, it will expand the contracting opportunities for our members. Many thanks to ACEC California’s Director of Government of Affairs, Tyler Munzing, and his team for this win for our industry.

By Erik Fanselau, President

Please join us for our next dinner meeting on November 15^th.  Our featured speaker will be Maria Lehman, PE, ENV SP, F.ASCE,  ASCE national past-president and Infrastructure Market Leader for GHD.  She previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Acting Executive Director of the New York State Thruway Authority and Commissioner of Public Works for Erie County, NY.  Maria has over 40 years of multi-discipline experience in both the public and private sectors. Maria will be speaking to us about national infrastructure policy and priorities.  In today’s unstable political climate, infrastructure spending has never been more important.  You won’t want to miss it!

By Erik Fanselau, President

The October ACEC monthly meeting featured guest speaker Randy Fessler, Principal Engineer & Construction Branch Manager for the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). Randy began his presentation by welcoming all consultants in attendance and sharing that he has previously worked as a consultant and understands our business.

Randy’s presentation highlighted the Pajaro River Emergency Levee Repair Project that was performed by DWR.  Shortly after midnight on March 11, 2023, the Pajaro River levee failed approximately 10 miles inland form the pacific coast, creating a 120-foot-wide breach, resulting in uncontrolled flows onto the adjacent farmland and ultimately flooding the town of Pajaro, where nearly 17,000 people were forced to evacuate.

Randy reviewed the sequence of events leading up to DWR’s presence on the site and how DWR assumed responsibility for the emergency repair.  Prior to the levee failure, the local reclamation district had installed a muscle wall in an effort to stabilize the levee.  As the water continued to rise, the muscle wall failed and the levee breeched.  When the reclamation district requested help from the State, DWR was the first agency contacted to provide help.  DWR assessed their resources and response time and determined they had the ability to support this emergency project.

The first order of work for DWR was to establish a stable point of access to the repair site.  After reviewing the site, there was only one feasible access point that could be established, upstream of the breach.  Once access was established, DWR could start attempts to close the breach.  Their initial plan was to use the National Guard’s Chinook helicopters to place rock-filled super sacks.  After two attempts, it was determined that the weather posed too great a risk for that operation.

DWR moved to Plan B, which was to bring in track mounted dump trucks that rotate on a turret like an excavator.  This eliminated the need to back on-road trucks down the levee.  The on-road trucks delivered rock to a staging area, where loaders loaded the track dumps.  The track dumps traveled to the breach area, rotated 180 degrees, and dumped rock into the breach.  Using this method in a 24-hour operation, DWR was able to close thebreach by March 14^th.  During that time, the breach would grow to a maximum opening of 325 feet.  Once the breach was closed, they switched to 12-hour daytime shifts to place finer material that would hydraulically fill the remining voids in the placed rock.

On March18th cleanup of the site began, providing aggregate base along the levee, removal of excess stabilization material, repairs to private fencing, and replacement of the old access road with a new section of hot mix asphalt. DWR coordinated with local property owners to ensure that adequate cleanup was provided. Cleanup of the site and demobilization of equipment was completed on March 25th.

By Lincoln Lehman, Secretary/Treasurer

On October 25^th, the Sierra Chapter hosted our first PAC fundraiser event at Top Golf in Roseville. We had a great turnout and the evening was filled with good conversation, good food, and fun.  It was entertaining to watch everyone let their hair down a little and demonstrate their golf skills. I wanted to extend my thanks to all of you that supported the event by purchasing tickets.  We had attendees from the East Bay as well as Southern California. This event went a long way towards helping us meet our PAC fundraising goal for this year as we raised almost $4000 from this event. If you missed it, we hope you will join us next year. Many thanks to our sponsors: ACEC California, AECOM, Gannett Fleming, and Wood Rodgers who helped make this event a roaring success.

By Erik Fanselau, President