ASCE Metropolitan Section

Craig Ruyle, P.E., M.ASCE

This month our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Haiti who are suffering from the effects of the earthquake that occurred near Port-au-Prince on January 12th. The scale of the devastation and loss of life is staggering. I urge all members who can do so to make a donation to the charity of their choice to help out these people in need. Also, for those interested and able, there is a need for engineers to assist with the recovery and rebuilding effort. Please be sure to check our website for updated news on ASCE activities and also the websites of other organizations and relief agencies for their needs.

Closer to home, the ASCE Met Section will celebrate its 90th Anniversary on February 18, 2010. It is because of the dedicated membership of the Met Section that this milestone has been reached. We are looking forward to serving the civil engineering community of the metropolitan area for another ninety years. To that end, I invite everybody to participate in a Met Section event and to become an active member of the Met Section and one of its groups. A major focus of the Met Section over the past several years has been to provide continuing education credits to our members at events that are free of charge or have nominal costs. Please check event calendar on the Met Section website for a list of upcoming technical lectures and seminars offering PDHs. Also, please feel free to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for additional information or to share your thoughts and ideas for future activities.

On January 14, 2010, the ASCE Long Island Branch held a joint presentation with the Nassau County Chapter of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers (NYSSPE) at Domenico's Restaurant in Levittown on "Helical Piles & Anchor Applications, Design, Installation, and Verification."
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35th Martin S. Kapp Lecture and 6th Annual "Meet & Greet" Dinner

Walter J. Papp, Jr. (center) presented Golden Apples to Mr. Fisher (left) and Mr. Rhyner (right) after the Kapp Lecture (Photo by Robert Talby)

The 35th Martin S. Kapp Lecture and the 6th Annual "Meet & Greet" Dinner was held at Il Campanello Ristorante in Manhattan on Thursday, January 21, 2010. Alan Fisher, P.E., Chief Engineer of the Construction Structures Group for Cianbro Corporation and Frederick C. Rhyner, P.E., Associate at Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers presented a talk on "Solving the Problem of Creep at Amtrak's Thames River Bridge."

The research essay topic of the 2010 Future City Competition took on a special meaning following the recent earthquake in Haiti and the large number of people in the United States that have been losing homes due to foreclosures. Since September, middle school students have been using their creativity to solve these current problems facing society by writing a paper on "providing an affordable green living space for people who have lost their home due to a disaster or financial emergency" and making a model of a future city.

ASCE stands ready to contribute its technical expertise for relief efforts in Haiti. Structural engineers or civil engineers that can speak French or Creole are urgently needed to help at the site of the earthquake in Port-au-Prince. To volunteer to help in Haiti, you can enroll in the ASCE Disaster Assistance Volunteer Directory to match your skills with disaster relief efforts. So far, nearly 1,000 ASCE members have signed up to volunteer.