Steve Merritt

Riechers Engineering is California's leading firm in SB9 Lot Splits, with over 50 new residential properties created in the last two years. SB-9 is affecting the social landscape of California! In disrupting the norms of single-family residential zoning, SB-9 offers the opportunity to create more affordable housing throughout CA. I think SB-9 has the potential to play a part in shifting systemic racism, piercing the veil of single family residential suburbs which have for decades been catering to mostly white, wealthy families. https://lnkd.in/gRByWyZa

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So let's suppose I get that CEO job with the California High-Speed Rail Authority www.hsr.ca.gov. Here is. what I have in mind. (1) Travel time by mode placemats; (2) Lunches with the CEO as part of a "listening tour"; (3) An all hands meeting to discuss the findings of the "listening tour"; (4) a one-day retreat. to the Grand Island Mansion to strategize completing Merced to Bakersfield by 2028 when the Olympics come to Los Angeles, so that the Basketball events can take place at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento; and (5) the periodic preparation and submission of infographics (highly informational graphics) periodically to the Legislature with special emphasis on the Legislators who are on the High-Speed Rail Board. The current timeframe for Merced to Bakersfield is 2033. This is unacceptable. We really need to hit the 2028 target. This will save the taxpayers of California billions of dollars.

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Railway Age recently quoted me in an article about the California High Speed Rail Authority's application for a Federal CRISI grant. You may wish to read it -- it is a good article: https://lnkd.in/gmkwyXV8. #railway #railways #railroad

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Part 1: How will Civil Engineering adapt to the challenges of tomorrow? ASCE San Diego board director Isaac Kontorovsky, P.E., recently explored emerging technologies and the profession’s future with the official nominees for ASCE’s 2025 President-Elect and 2026 President. Exciting changes are on the horizon! Here is the link to Part 2: https://lnkd.in/g2fvcEVP Part 3 will also be released this week. The official Nominees for President-elect on this year’s ballot are: ✅ Marsha Anderson Bomar, Ph.D., AICP, ENV SP, F.ASCE, H.ITE ✅ Kenneth Rosenfield, P.E., ENV SP, F.ASCE Did you know that the 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers Leadership Election is still open? Voting is easy; just use your ASCE Username and Password to login and fill out your ballot. Follow this link to cast your ballot today: www.asce.org/VoteNow One important benefit of ASCE membership is the right to select the leaders who will guide our organization into the future – make sure your voice is heard! The election is open through June 1, 2024, 5:01 PM PT. Topics discussed in the series: Emerging technologies in civil engineering and the #AEC Industry, anticipated impacts from the use of #Artificial #Intelligence #Al, #legislation, career advice, and many others. Stay tuned for more!

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THANK YOU for y'alls monumental effort writing letters opposing #AB2580 - a poorly conceived bill that implies preservation constrains housing. The Senate Housing Committee Hearing is tomorrow at 1:30 PM. We hope to see you there. Out of the 8,000 letters we've received, the one from C.C. De Vere is especially poignant: "Preserving California's older buildings for the countless residents who need them is just good common sense... Construction and demolition produce about one-quarter of America's waste, and more than 90 percent of that is from demolition." We especially like the stats: - Of the 35 HPOZs that currently exist, 21 have populations where there is a greater share of racial diversity than in the rest of the city. - As much as 69% of housing in HPOZs has more than one unit, with 39% providing five or more units or apartments. - Between 1999 and 2019, L.A. created over 12,000 new housing units through adaptive reuse of historic buildings.

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The biggest public construction project in decades for the Portland metro area may break ground as soon as late 2025, according to the latest estimates from planners at the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project. IBR is the current incarnation of plans going back more than two decades to replace the aging Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River. Read the full article on Northwest Labor Press at https://lnkd.in/gqFpRKQR. Here at Stiver, we appreciate that each client and project is unique in terms of needs and preferences. This is why our skilled team of engineers is the best choice for your project. We tentatively oversee each process from conceptual decisions to implementing and completing construction so that the integrity of your overall project is robust and durable. See how our commitment to excellence has set us apart in structural design at https://lnkd.in/g4wpS2Bk. #stivereng #structuralengineers #structuralengineering #structuraldesign

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Seismic Design for Module Units has a lot of challenges improving the process and gathering information is the key for surpassing them.

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One of the biggest benefits of construction manager/general contractor (CMGC) delivery is the collaborative nature of making engineering-based decisions while evaluating process and reducing risk. For example, on the Yankee Jims Bridge Replacement Project working with Placer County (owner), HDR (geotech), CONSOR Engineers (design) and Flatiron Construction (CMGC), our team completed numerous analysis/evaluations, had many meetings and countless discussions about the difficult rock removal at this challenging project site. The logistics of removing the rock material on this large project would significantly impact the project costs and overall schedule. The magnitude of this risk could have represented a major amount of the overall project cost. A CMGC delivery process allowed us to roll out anticipated equipment, assemble the various project team members and experts, and put on a live demonstration, which provided the hard data needed to make critical decisions. The result of this demonstration was a reduction in the overall project timeline by months, as well as substantial risk and cost minimization. #Consorprojects #CMGC #bridgeengineering #iworkforconsor

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Per ENR: [The Contractor’s basic counterclaim against the Designer argued that a teaming agreement executed in 2015 between the companies that limited the design firm's liability under a subcontract signed the next year was invalid. The contractor said the Designer failed to meet its promised standard of care. The designer's alleged lapses, according to the Contractor, led to delays and quantity increases, with errors requiring changes in #drainage structures, #barriers and #signs. The #Designer claimed that the #Contractor failed to pay it for out-of-scope design services as it asked the Designer to perform redesign on drainage, signage, and other aspects of the project without resorting to a Design Change Control Board process specified in the subcontract] …. It is unfortunate when some of the parties go to #litigation. However, this is happening more frequently on fast-track design-build jobs experiencing major #design #changes during #construction. The Designer sued the Contractor for $16 million and the Contractor countered by suing the Designer for $260 million on an original contract value of $204.3 million, (i.e., 15 x Designer claim or 127% of the contract value). The Contractor made the judge’s decision a lot easier! #c470 #designbuild #alternative_delivery #fast_track #codot

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What do you think about a Cal-Neva High-Speed Rail Conference at the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada? The Conference would focus on High-Speed Rail developments in California and Nevada with special emphasis on Brightline West (Los Angeles to Las Vegas) and California (San Francisco to Los Angeles). It would also be interesting to have a discussion on the feasibility of connecting Reno and Las Vegas via High-Speed Rail. The distance is around 460 miles, and I had to pleasure of driving it once. It's primarily two lane roads. It's comparable to the distance between Sacramento and San Clemente California, but it's by no means a journey on Interstate Freeways. There is the Interstate 11 planned between Las Vegas and Fallon, intersecting Interstate 80 just north of Fallon.

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Test your knowledge of engineering ethics.

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Part 2: Will Artificial Intelligence replace Civil Engineering jobs? Will legislation help with job preservation against AI? Marsha and Kenneth share their perspectives here. If you missed Part 1, here is the link: https://lnkd.in/g-AmKdQr ASCE San Diego board director Isaac Kontorovsky, P.E., recently explored emerging technologies and the profession’s future with the official nominees for ASCE’s 2025 President-Elect and 2026 President. Exciting changes are on the horizon! The official Nominees for President-elect on this year’s ballot are: ✅ Marsha Anderson Bomar, Ph.D., AICP, ENV SP, F.ASCE, H.ITE ✅ Kenneth Rosenfield, P.E., ENV SP, F.ASCE Did you know that the 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers Leadership Election is still open? Voting is easy; just use your #ASCE Username and Password to login and fill out your ballot. Follow this link to cast your ballot today: www.asce.org/VoteNow One important benefit of ASCE membership is the right to select the leaders who will guide our organization into the future – make sure your voice is heard! The election is open through June 1, 2024, 5:01 PM PT. Topics discussed in the series: Emerging technologies in civil engineering and the #AEC Industry, anticipated impacts from the use of #Artificial #Intelligence #Al, #legislation, career advice, and many others. Stay tuned for more!

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In case you missed our latest presentation on establishing #EVinfrastructure from a #civilengineers perspective, now you can watch the recording. Thanks again to Kari Nelson, P.E. & Lucas Teani, P.E. for sharing the valuable knowledge & experience! #civilengineering #civilinfrastructure https://lnkd.in/gR2W3VR3

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Following the incredible shake table results at PEER, I headed out on the road conducting lunch and learn presentations (https://lnkd.in/gEvk5u_7) for design professionals. Since most of the attendees for these events were structural engineers, and I most certainly am not one, I was quite intimidated at doing these, telling the audience that at least they'd get a lunch out of the deal! It turned out that far and away the most common comment I got from engineers, who were all quite impressed with the video evidence I showed them, was whether or not we had and ICC report. I wasn't certain what was involved in getting such a report, so I called ICC up. A nice man from the International Code Council came to our Burbank, California offices and I showed him the video I'd shared during the lunch and learns and then I showed him the Safe-T-Proof fastening system. What he revealed next shocked me. Apparently, in the history of the code council, no company had ever sought to get an evaluation report, the one the engineers were asking for, on a product that utilizes adhesive-based fasteners to keep items in place during an earthquake. Nobody. Ever. It would take ICC some time, I was told, to even come up with a plan on how to test the efficacy and holding power of such a system. While I was eagerly anticipating the report, the first thing I had to do was wait. And then wait some more. And some more. And in the end, something called a "Plan of Evaluation" was created. It was quite complex. More on that plan next time...

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It’s #NationalRiversMonth, a time to highlight projects helping to keep rivers healthy, mitigate flooding, and deliver the clean, reliable water communities need to thrive. Case in point: a $1.7 billion project by the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (Regional San) to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant. Regional San named the upgrade “EchoWater” to help “bring back” #WaterQuality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta while meeting state-mandated requirements in its discharge permit. The delta is a critical water resource – supplying communities and businesses across Central and Southern California while supporting a vast and fragile ecosystem as well as recreational opportunities enjoyed by millions. A primary feature of the EchoWater project is its biological nutrient removal (#BNR) complex designed by Black & Veatch. Nutrient pollution is a major issue for waterways and watersheds nationwide. The EchoWater BNR treatment complex solves the issue in the delta by producing a stable effluent with nearly all ammonia and most nitrate removed yet with low aeration and carbon requirements.

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The US High-Speed Rail Association tells me that the California High-Speed Rail Authority is one of the most challenging roles in the nation. What are traits of successful High-Speed Rail Authority CEO. I say, three things under the appreciation of "cup". C stands for Communicating Effectively. U stands for Understanding Poverty. P stands for pursuing opportunity. For C, join Toastmasters. For U understand that one of the goals is providing a "Windfall for All" including the impoverished. The project is all about opportunity to all across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds including the impoverished by connecting them to opportunity like never before. For P, passionately pursing opportunity, note that Brightline West just broke ground. They are focused on building Los Angeles to Las Vegas in four years. Take the opportunity to learn from them what it takes to expedite a High-Speed Rail System. Apply it to Merced to Bakersfield, so that this segment can be completely up and running by the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. www.ushsr.com #highspeedrail

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DPR Construction’s Abe Sipes and Chad Arthur will present with the University of California, Davis Health’s, Creed Kampa, Assoc. DBIA, AIA, and SmithGroup’s, Jacqueline Lee, AIA, WELL AP and Gabriel Fonseca AIA, LEED AP, NCARB, Assoc. DBIA at the 2024 DBIA Western Pacific Region Conference on their collaborative efforts on the UC Davis Health 48X Complex in Sacramento, California. Their presentation, Accelerating Projects with Smart Blocking and Stacking and Choosing by Advantage will: ✔Demonstrate leadership techniques for early collaborative decision-making and delegation to cluster teams.  ✔Detail how to align teams in clear design concept communication by using cost modeling Smart Blocking, and Stacking.  ✔Assess cost and schedule impacts while efficiently integrating new input and maintaining project milestones. ✔Help identify, plan, and execute prefabrication opportunities. Learn more about the conference: https://lnkd.in/gCvtdwas

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https://lnkd.in/gkS_juwQ Here is an opinion on BART's San Jose Extension. What I really want to know is this: Was the argument ever settled between Twin Bore as wanted by BART Corporate or Single Bore as wanted by VTA who is tasked with delivering the BART extension into San Jose. The benefit of Twin Bore is it's consistent across the United States. The drawback to twin bore is the "open heart surgery" necessary to accommodate the construction into the City Center. The benefits to single bore is the avoidance of "open heart surgery" and a high-tech operation that is used throughout Europe. In a nutshell, twin bore puts both directions on the same level. Single bore puts the directions on separate levels. I'm not quite sure how the platforms work out. #transit

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Attention High-Speed Rail Stakeholders: Today, the CEO Selection Committee of the California High-Speed Rail Authority met to deliberate over CEO Candidates. I was the only one who participated in public comment. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. The good thing would be if I was the only applicant. The bad thing would be if I needed to go through a staffing agency to be considered. I gave the Authority HR department my $50 submittal package. In a nutshell I summarized the testimonies from the April 2012 Board Meeting in San Francisco. 2012 was a tough year for many of us. I only made $3,000.00 that year where many of my colleagues made 100 times that, and knew nothing about the project whatsoever. I was debating, were all of these trips to San Francisco worth it? Then I heard, "This is our turn. This is our System. Previous generations gave you the transportation systems that you enjoyed. It's your turn to give to our generation. We'll pay for it. Just get it up and running. This defines how we will access our employment and vacation destinations." To answer my question, Absolutely! These are Millennials. I'm a Gen X'er. I felt the previous generation the "Me" generation simply "kicked the can down the road", and failed to deal with the realities of our crumbling infrastructure. I also underscored the importance of getting Merced to Bakersfield up and running by the 2028 Summer Olympics and having the basketball venue at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. The current plan is to have Merced to Bakersfield up and running by 2023. #highspeedrail

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