Understanding the nation's infrastructure needs and future plans and keeping track of the myriad of transportation funding options is a tough job in the calmest of years, and today's political climate has made this an even greater challenge. In this constantly changing world, staying on top of transportation funding is a full-time job. While ASCE members and industry professionals are always up to the challenge of developing designs for the most complicated infrastructure needs, navigating the legislative pathways that lead to the funding that pays for the design and construction can be daunting.

In this month's ASCE NCS Transportation Committee lecture, Cathy Connor, WSP's Director of Federal Government Affairs will provide an update on the Trump Administration's new Infrastructure Plan, what it means to the industry, and what funding options are now available and how you or your clients can take advantage of them to advance your programs. In addition to the Trump Infrastructure Plan, she will discuss the FY 18 and FY 19 USDOT budget/appropriations and FAST Act reauthorization, and the related looming insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund. As anyone who watches the news or follows Twitter feeds knows, things change quickly these days, so by March 27, there may be even more to discuss.

WHEN: Tuesday, March 27, 2018, 11:45AM - 1:10PM (lecture starts at noon)
WHERE: WSP USA Inc., 1015 Half Street SE, Suite 650, Washington, DC 20003
(near Navy Yard-Ballpark Metro Station)

Cathy Connor is a Senior Vice President and Director of Federal Government Affairs for WSP (formerly Parsons Brinckerhoff), located in the Washington, DC office. She was previously with the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), where she was Deputy Director of Government Affairs, and prior to that, was a political appointee at the US Department of Transportation where she served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs. Cathy is responsible for directing WSP's federal legislative, regulatory and political activities. Her extensive experience includes working with industry, federal agency and congressional staff on key infrastructure legislation, such as MAP-21, FAA Reauthorization and PRRIA. Cathy also helps clients identify federal funding sources and plan legislative strategies. She acts as the firm's liaison to numerous industry associations and legislative coalitions where she serves in various leadership roles and speaks at industry events. She is frequently quoted in ENR, Civil Engineering magazine and other industry publications on federal legislative activities.

Presented by Ranjit Sahai, PE, F.ASCE, Principal at RAM Corporation

The first revolution in surface transportation saw a shift in motive power from muscle to motor, i.e. from bicycle to automobile. The revolution cut down time five-fold to travel non-stop from the West to the East coast: 10-days for a bike vs 2-days for an automobile.

The tools we use to create design documentation, i.e. engineering drawing, also saw a revolutionary shift from paper drafting to computer-aided design and drafting: from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. The revolution made it possible to extract engineering drawings automatically from 3D design models—an utterly new way to document engineering design. Another revolution is emerging that is transforming the worlds of design and construction in engineering.

With examples drawn from transportation engineering, the presentation highlights the significant discoveries and innovations that led to the earlier shifts and teases out the underpinnings of the next shift that is upon us. An understanding of these shifts is essential to envision the aspects of your technical specialty—whether planning, design, construction, or operation—that are likely to change, and to build the skills needed to leap ahead.

WHEN: Tuesday, November 28, 2017, 11:45 AM – 1:15 PM (Lecture starts at noon)
WHERE: GWU, Lehman Auditorium, Rm B1220, 800 22nd St NW, Washington, DC
Attendees with receive one Professional Development Hour at this no-cost event. Pizza will be served.

Presented by Dr. Samer Hamdar, Transportation Program Director, GWU

Traffic flow capacity drops significantly on roadway segments when bottlenecks are created by high traffic volumes, accidents, and weather conditions. Does traffic flow performance improve with the introduction of connected and automated vehicles on our highways? The George Washington University (GW) Transportation Research Group has been conducting research to answer that question. To this end, it relies on:

• Continuous Count Station (CCS) data administrated by Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) in Northern Virginia
• Collision data administered by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
• Weather data published by the Weather Channel

An analysis of this data leads to the identification of different regimes or conditions, namely, normal commute condition, incident condition, and inclement weather condition. The Intelligent Driver Model (IDM) is then used to compute behavioral parameters that result in the identified regimes. These parameters are then modified to account for the connectivity and automation in driverless vehicles and thus to evaluate the impact of such technology (i.e. connected and automated vehicle technologies) on traffic performance. Finally, the research team conducts a validation effort through vehicle instrumentation at the Vehicle Instrumentation Garage (VIG) located at the GW Virginia Science and Technology Campus (VSTC).

The event was hosted by ASCE-NCS Transportation Committee (Stuart Crooks, HNTB: Chair; Robert Kalbach, WSP: Vice Chair; Alvaro Oviedo, RAM: Secretary; Ranjit Sahai, RAM: Committee Director). This lecture kicked off the Transportation Committee's for ASCE-NCS’ 2017-18 fiscal year.

Ethics is a vital topic; it is concerned with how you evaluate choices to determine which is good or evil, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable. Ethics is a human necessity. It also helps you discover how to assess if situations that make you queasy have ethical implications.

During this session, attendees:

• Learned about the three foundation principles of ethics
• Related these principles to those in the ASCE Code of Ethics
• Reviewed the application of these principles in an ethical case reported to ASCE Committee on Professional Conduct
• Discovered the link to resources on ethics that are made available by ASCE to its members

Those registered in the State of Maryland took advantage of this session to fulfill their 1 PDH requirement on ethics. Those of you registered in the Commonwealth of Virginia and/or the District of Columbia also added 1 PDH toward their license renewal.

About the Speaker: Ranjit Sahai, PE, F.ASCE is the 2013-14 ASCE-NCS Past President. He is an author and principal at RAM Corporation, a consulting engineering firm focused on traffic engineering, storm water management, and technology projects. He has a keen interest in philosophy and has completed several online courses on the topic. Join the NCS Transportation Committee at this session to not only receive a PDH toward your PE license renewal but also to learn from ethical cases ASCE highlights in its monthly communication with its members.