ASCE Metropolitan Section - Construction Group

The Construction Group provides practicing civil engineers, resident engineers, construction managers, contractors, environmental engineers, and attorneys associated with the construction industry with a forum to discuss current issues affecting the construction industry. The Construction Group also organizes technical lectures and a seminar to help acquaint the engineering community with the state-of-the-art means, methods and materials utilized on various construction projects including public works capital projects in the metropolitan area and beyond. At the end of every calender year the Construction Group makes recommendations to the ASCE Met Section Board of Directors for the Construction Achievement Award and the Design/Build Award.

The Construction Group is always looking for new members and ideas for future lectures. Please feel free to attend one of our upcoming events shown in the calendar on the right or contact any of the Construction Group officers.

Stewart International Airport Access Improvement Project

The day before Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel days of the year at airports. However, this past Thanksgiving, air passengers in the Hudson Valley region had an easier time getting to Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, New York because of the recent opening of Exit 5A on Interstate 84 and new access roads leading to the airport. Paul Pasternak, P.E., of DMJM+Harris gave a presentation to the Met Section's Construction Group describing the Stewart International Airport Access Improvement Project on March 13, 2008 at Cooper Union in New York City.

ASCE members got to see a glimpse of the future of construction technology when Pete Melas, P.E. of the Office of Construction at NYSDOT’s main office in Albany gave a presentation on “Electronic Engineering Data” at Cooper Union on March 13, 2008. The presentation was the start of a two-part lecture that also included a presentation of the Stewart International Airport Access Improvement Project, highlighting its use of innovative GPS-guided construction and inspection techniques. Mr. Melas’ presentation focused on three major areas: Electronic Engineering Data (EED), Automated Machine Guidance (AMG), and automated stakeout and inspection.

Electronic Engineering Data includes coordinates, alignments, and Digital Terrain Model (DTM) surfaces. The benefits of using EED include the elimination of re-entry of field data (e.g., calculation of quantity items for payment), visualizing the designer’s intent and early identification of potential conflicts, automation of calculations, immediate field access to project information (e.g., an inspector in the field carries project data on a handheld unit), and promoting the sharing of data between parties.