September 2023 President's Report
Michael R. Cunningham, PE, Senior Principal Engineer, Kleinfelder
With the fall season beginning on September 23, we are happy to be releasing the first issue of our newsletter for fiscal year 2024, which marks the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers.
Thank-you to our membership for electing me as BSCES president! I feel privileged to serve in this role and I’m excited to work with our volunteer leadership and The Engineering Center Education Trust (TECET) staff to plan and coordinate great events that support and benefit the civil engineering profession. As the oldest engineering association in the United States, BSCES has a long history of serving its members and it’s an honor for me to be part of it.
Thanks also to BSCES Past-President Ron Burns, PE, LSP, Arcadia Technology, Inc., for his hard work and service to our organization! He had a successful year as president, accomplishing all his goals and finishing with a great awards dinner at the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge this past June. Ron successfully led the implementation of a more centralized event planning process to make event planning more efficient and less burdensome for institute chapter, technical group, and committee chairs. He also supported our transition to more in-person and hybrid events. Lastly, Ron oversaw the development of an important policy for awarding BSCES scholarships and supported the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee’s development of a process for awarding the newly formed Peter S. Eagleson Scholarship.
My goals as president this year are to increase membership and improve a couple of key fundraising initiatives. For membership, I intend to work with our Membership Committee to develop strategies to attract new members and improve member retention. For fundraising initiatives, I am focused on enhancing our STEM Outreach Sponsorship Program and conducting an end of year appeal to our members. I hope that these actions will help BSCES grow and expand the benefits it delivers to members and our engineering profession.
This issue of the newsletter is focused on transportation and features an article from the chair of our Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI) Boston Chapter, Annahid Dastgheib-Beheshti, PE, from Arup. T&DI is busy planning its “Signature Event,” the Bertram Berger Seminar. This marquee event is currently scheduled for Tuesday, October 17 at The Conference Center at Waltham Woods and the theme is “Connecting the Commonwealth.” Monica G. Tibbits-Nutt, Acting Secretary of Transportation for MassDOT, will be delivering the keynote address! There are also the following superb articles in this issue on the work civil engineers are doing in the transportation field:
- Implementing Shared Streets in Cambridge to create a common space for use by all modes.
- The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail in the Towns of Cheshire, Lanesborough, and Adams, a regional destination that showcases the spectacular biodiversity of the New England landscape.
- The Division Street Bridge in Great Barrington, and how the decision to use a prefabricated truss bridge saved time and money.
Transportation has always been such a beneficial sector of what the civil engineering industry delivers to our society as it facilitates the economy and enhances mobility. We are entering one of the most impactful periods on our transportation system as a result of the massive investment in transportation infrastructure by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The March 2023 Fact Sheet provided on the White House website indicates that since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was passed, approximately $3.2 billion in transportation funding has been announced for Massachusetts - to invest in roads, bridges, public transit, ports and airports. Of this amount, $2.1 billion is targeted for roads and bridges. Based on formula funding alone, Massachusetts is expected to receive approximately $5.4 billion over five years in federal funding for highways and bridges. This is truly an exciting time to be working in the civil engineering profession!
Finally, I want to thank our many volunteers and sponsors who make the work of this organization possible. I would especially like to acknowledge my company, Kleinfelder, which is a 2023-2024 BSCES Society Sponsor and the sponsor of this issue of BSCESNews. Thank you!
