Jonathan Kramer, OHM VP Named to Crain's 40 Under 40 List

Young, smart and fast - that's OHM's Vice President of Operations, Jonathan Kramer. At the tender age of 36, he's made history as the youngest person to be elected to the board of directors for OHM.

Crain's recognized Kramer for his achievements and his ambition. Kramer graduated from high school at 16, graduated from college at 20. This year, 2009, marks 20 years of employment with OHM. We're so much the better for it, Jon.

Improve Energy Efficiency & Get Some Green from Uncle Sam

A study recently released by consulting giant McKinsey estimates that an investment of $520 billion in energy-saving improvements could produce $1.2 trillion in savings on energy bills through 2020. According to the study, "if carried out over the next decade," the program "could cut the country's projected energy use in 2020 by about 23 percent." New York Times (7/30, B3, Galbraith)

Half a trillion dollars may be a staggering sum, but the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in February, included $10 to $15 billion in spending on energy efficiency.

Some of the spending goes to the US Department of Energy (DOE), which issues Energy Efficiency and Conservation Community Development Block Grants (EECBG) to encourage investments in energy efficiency and conservation. The EECBG program is designed to assist US cities, counties, states, territories and Indian tribes in a number of initiatives, including reducing the total energy use of the eligible entities, and improve energy efficiency in the transportation, building and other sectors. The program includes a competitive grant component. Since OHM is focused solely on public use infrastructure and facilities, we'll list grant-eligible activities in that sector:

-Development of an energy efficiency and conservation strategy;

-Building energy audits and retrofits, including weatherization;

-Financial incentive programs for energy efficiency such as energy savings performance contracting, on-bill financing, and revolving loan funds;

-Installation of distributed energy technologies including combined heat and power and district heating and cooling systems;

-Installation of energy efficient traffic signals and street lighting; and

-Installation of renewable energy technologies on government buildings.

OHM is one of the DOE's certified Technical Energy Analysis(TEA)consultants. Tracie Williams, PE, describes the energy audit as the first step in increasing energy efficiency in a building. "The audit is like your benchmark; it tells you where you are currently, and what effect various changes could have on your energy usage."

The energy audit starts with an analysis of the building's existing energy costs, including infrastructure sytems and the envelope of the building.

Next is a report of existing conditions.

The third component of the audit is a list of energy usage improvements, which includes the improvement's cost to prioritize investment dollars.

The final piece of the audit lists the improvements with their associated payback period.

An audit may be necessary to pursue EECBG grants. We'll provide more information in future communications. In the meantime, contact OHM for any questions about energy audits or measures to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

Cost Effective Solutions for Congestion

A June story on the website Inside Science presents several innovative intersection designs as a solution to the rising problem of traffic congestion.

These unconventional intersection designs - continuous flow, median u-turn, and diverging diamond - share a common feature. They focus on reconfiguring the flow-stifling left turn. See the linked article for accompanying video that illustrates some of these

Can these designs prevent the $2.3 billion gallons of fuel currently wasted each year by vehicles idling at intersections? We don't know if it's The Answer, but we're working hard to be part of the solution, not the problem.

For more details on innovative intersection design, including the diverging diamond interchange, mark your calendar for Feburary 3, 2010. OHM's Stephen Dearing, PE, Professional Traffic Operations Engineer will present More, Better, Faster: Existing and Innovative Interchange Designs. The webinar is co-sponsored by ASCE's Transportation & Development Institute and ASCE Continuing Education.

Creative Commons Photo Credit: richardmasoner

TAUD Take Two: A Simple, Do It Yourself Asset Management System

By now most of the altruistic souls dedicated to public works know that our infrastructure - in the case of utility districts, water and sewer systems - requires a minimum level of annual maintenance to function. Asset mManagement is a philosophy that makes intuitive sense. It's like owning a car. You have to invest modest sums every so often to keep your vehicle in operating condition. Want to skip the oil changes, tire rotation and brake replacements to save a few bucks in the short term? We'll see you at the side of the road.

If asset management is a smart concept, why isn't everyone using it? One reason could be that asset management as it relates to finance's depreciation accounting (like GASB 34) is complex, time consuming and does not incorporate the condition of your infrastructure. We advocate an easy, do-it-yourself method of managing your community's biggest assets. With historic data and simple tools, you can benefit from the promise of asset management: to provide the level of service you wish at the lowest life cycle cost.

Asset Management for Infrastructure: Identification, Prioritization and Justification

View more documents from OHM Advancing Communities.

OHM Talks to TAUD about Declining Revenues

Last week, OHM principal Evan Pratt spoke to leaders in the Tennessee Association of Utility Authorities about a painful subject: declining revenues. While the recession hasn't hit Tennessee as hard as some of the original rust-belt states (Michigan, anyone?), Utility Authority leaders are still looking for ways to trim expenses and stretch those shrinking revenues a bit further. OHM's message? Utilities and municipalities must find a way to cut costs, but eliminating or postponing maintenance is not the answer!

Failing to invest in maintaining a community's billion dollar assets (its water, sewer and storm systems) is akin to buying a luxury car and driving it for 100,000 miles without changing the tires, brakes, or oil.

Municipal Utility Districts Declining Revenue OHM

View more documents from OHM Advancing Communities.

Civil Engineering Society Releases Criticial Infrastructure Guidance

ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) just published a report, Guiding Principles for the Nation's Critical Infrastructure. The purpose of the guide was to outline key attributes for "successful, safe, resilient, and sustainable critical infrastructure systems". The ultimate goal is to protect public safety, health and welfare to "prevent infrastructure disasters, such as levee breaks in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis."

ASCE's website lists four fundamental guiding principles for the Nation's critical infrastructure systems:

1. Quantifying, communicating, and managing risk.

2. Exercising sound leadership, management, and stewardship in decision-making processes.

3. Employing an integrated systems approach.

4. Adapting critical infrastructure in response to dynamic conditions and practice.

The final 42-page report is available for download from ASCE's website: http://content.asce.org/files/pdf/GuidingPrinciplesFinalReport.pdf

Seoul, New York and Ann Arbor Expose Watery Havens

OHM is currently designing a low impact development (LID) stormwater management project for the University of Michigan and the City of Ann Arbor, on U of M's Arboretum property. The project includes step-pool dissipater structures, an intermittent watercourse, a "meadow" infiltration basin and restoration with native plantings. We're pleased to see that Michigan's Ann Arbor is in good company with Yonkers and Seoul, all seeking ways to combine environmental pursuits with urban energy.

Excerpted from the New York Times, July 16, 2009:

In New York State, a long-stalled revival effort for Yonkers’s ailing downtown core that could break ground this fall includes a plan to re-expose 1,900 feet of the Saw Mill River, which currently runs through a giant flume that was laid beneath city streets in the 1920s.

Cities from Singapore to San Antonio have been resuscitating rivers and turning storm drains into streams. In Los Angeles, residents’ groups and some elected officials are looking anew at buried or concrete-lined creeks as assets instead of inconveniences, inspired partly by Seoul’s example.

By building green corridors around the exposed waters, cities hope to attract affluent and educated workers and residents who appreciate the feel of a natural environment in an urban setting.

Environmentalists point out other benefits. Open watercourses handle flooding rains better than buried sewers do, a big consideration as global warming leads to heavier downpours. The streams also tend to cool areas overheated by sun-baked asphalt and to nourish greenery that lures wildlife as well as pedestrians.

Some political opponents have derided Seoul’s remade stream as a costly folly, given that nearly all of the water flowing between its banks on a typical day is pumped there artificially from the Han River through seven miles of pipe.

But four years after the stream was uncovered, city officials say, the environmental benefits can now be quantified. Data show that the ecosystem along the Cheonggyecheon (pronounced chung-gye-chun) has been greatly enriched, with the number of fish species increasing to 25 from 4. Bird species have multiplied to 36 from 6, and insect species to 192 from 15.

The recovery project, which removed three miles of elevated highway as well, also substantially cut air pollution from cars along the corridor and reduced air temperatures. Small-particle air pollution along the corridor dropped to 48 micrograms per cubic meter from 74, and summer temperatures are now often five degrees cooler than those of nearby areas, according to data cited by city officials.