SEAC has a YouTube Channel. We will be adding content and currently have the 2021 April Project Presentation on Many Glaciers Hotel.

The SEAC Education Committee hosted “1st outdoors committee meeting” on May 13th combined with a hike at the North Table Mesa near Golden. It was nice to see everyone in-person after a while and host a more interactive session.  We had four committee members and one new prospective member to attend the meeting.
 
If you were not able to join us, but are still curious about our committee, feel free to join the next  Education Committee June WebEX meeting on Friday 6/11 at 8am.  Please RSVP at EducationSEAC@gmail.com for additional information.
 
We look forward to meeting you soon!
 

Get ready to dust the candy cobwebs off your old design plans because the SEAC YMG is excited to start planning the 2021 Gingerbread Bridge Competition. The event is tentatively scheduled for Friday, November 19th.
 
We are hoping to hold the event in person, but will have backup plans for a modified event if required by the health climate in November.
 

I recently had the opportunity to vacation in another state and while I was there, I could not help noticing these very large black and white signs with the words “BE DILIGENT” on them. Of course, they were Covid 19 related, but the directive stuck with me.
Shortly after my return, a news story ran about inspectors finding a major crack in a critical member of the six-lane Hernando DeSoto Bridge linking Arkansas and Tennessee in Memphis. Further reading noted the inspectors who found the crack were there to look at the cables, not the steel bridge framing members. The individual who was charged to inspect the steel members failed to find the crack in the last two years even with 15 years of experience inspecting bridges. An official of Arkansas DOT noted: "This fracture had the potential of becoming a catastrophic event that was prevented by our staff's diligent effort in managing our bridge inspection program." In this case, it is the lack of diligence that allowed the implementation of diligence to save the day, bridge, and potentially, lives.
Subsequently, while perusing the up-coming webinars offered by NCSEA – which is highly recommend all of our members do, see my favorites listed below – the July 20^th webinar  titled Kansas City Hyatt Walkway Collapse: Reflections after 40 Years caught my attention. I suspect all of you have heard of this case and are familiar with it. One could say the collapse was caused by a lack of diligence when reviewing the ramifications of changes requested by contractors. In our daily design lives, I would venture to say it is easier (not easy) to be diligent when designing a structure as we are trained to evaluate potential failure modes and overall system stability in a step by step and thorough manner. Being diligent is more difficult when performing mundane or tedious tasks such as reviewing other’s work, evaluating changes, or say, inspecting a bridge.
My vacation take-away is “BE DILIGENT” as the sticky-note on my computer implores. And to take more vacations.
Aloha,
Lacey Goetz
 
 
 
Up-Coming NCSEA Webinars (http://www.ncsea.com/calendar/2021/06/#calendar):
June 10^th, Strategy in Action: Day-to-Day Decisions, Jared Jamison
June 22^nd, Strategies for Increasing Productivity and Streamlining Workflows, Sarah Scarborough, SE
July 20^th, Kansas City Hyatt Walkway Collapse: Reflections after 40 Years, Gary J. Klein, PE, SE
August 5^th, A Common Sense Approach to "Deferred Submittals & Delegated Design", Ben Nelson, PE

SEAC members and guests on April 27 learned what it takes to rescue a century-old, iconic hotel from the brink of closure. SEAC’s Education Committee was proud to host JVA structural engineers Ian Glaser, PE and Brett Robinson, PE, for a presentation on the strengthening and restoration of the Many Glacier Hotel in Montana’s Glacier National Park.
The virtual event marked SEAC’s first project presentation of 2021. Glaser and Robinson shared stunning photos of the timber-framed hotel built in the 1910s by the Great Northern Railway. The $42 million project spanned more than a decade and breathed new life into a hotel that the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1996 called one of America’s “Most Endangered Historic Places.”  Glaser and Robinson along with other JVA staff tackled a host of life safety issues during the project, including deteriorated and compromised framing and an inadequate lateral force resisting system. Glaser and Robinson shared with viewers some of the challenges of the project, including the park’s high design snow loads; remote location; short operating seasons; scarcity of worker housing; and sparse cell phone reception. This project was the 2018 NCSEA Awards winner in the Forensics/ Renovation/ Retrofit/ Rehabilitation Structures over $20M category.
This SEAC webinar drew roughly 115 attendees at its peak, making it one of the more highly attended project presentations in the recent history. The recorded presentation will be shared on SEAC website and social media.
 
Other articles/ references: 
STRUCTURE magazine | Preserving the Many Glacier Hotel
Anderson Hallas Architects' Rehabilitation of Many Glacier Hotel - Traditional Building
 
 

Technical expert, James Baty, has 30+ years of experience in the concrete industry. Upon invitation from the SEAC Young Member Group, Baty presented, “What is Gray, Rock Hard and ALWAYS Cracks,” on Thursday, May 13^th to an audience of 25 remote attendees of varying experience levels. Despite being the world’s most consumed construction material, concrete is quite possibly the most misunderstood. The presentation covered cracking in concrete from the perspective of the basic nature for cause and effect and provided ideas for mitigation and repair solutions. Many of the perplexing crack scenarios found in projects today were discussed throughout the presentation. If you missed the live presentation, you can still check out the recording on YouTube: "What is Gray, Rock Hard and ALWYAS Cracks". We hope to have you join us at our next event!