In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida—Jersey Style

hile I don’t believe that either ATCO records or the iconic 1960s rock group Iron Butterfly had New Jersey in mind with their song about the Garden of Eden, the Garden State showed an idyllic side during our visit for the 2013 summer workshop. This summer marked the 33rd consecutive annual summer workshop for our

committee—Environmental Analysis in Transportation. This time we had the pleasure to meet with the TRB Committee on Hydrology, Hydraulics and Water Quality (AFB60). The workshop ran from July 22nd through the 25th. Coming into town just prior to workshop, the weather was hot and humid but thankfully the heat abated over the time that we were there. We were spared from the oppressive heat of the previous two weeks. Though this is New Brunswick’s peak rain month, only once did we encounter even a little rain—missing most of it while at the committee dinner at the Makeda Ethiopian Restaurant just blocks from the hotel. New Brunswick is rich in history. Originally inhabited by the Lenape Tribe, the first European settlement came in 1681. At the time the settlement was named “Prigmore’s Swamp”. The village changed names many times over many years. Finally, in 1714 the town was given the named “New Brunswick” after Braunschweig, Germany—a then influential city in European affairs. The town was formally established by British Royal Charter on December 30, 1730. It was finally incorporated as a city though an act by the New Jersey legislature on September 1, 1784. Centrally located between New York City and Philadelphia, the city of New Brunswick played an important role in the early years of our country. Our workshop hosts were the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA). Our hosts, along with Rutgers University, were absolutely fabulous and immensely supportive—making us feeling welcome and helping us every step along the way from planning to execution. All three had engaging speakers covering many sessions.

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The historic Albany Street Bridge over the Raritan River. The bridge was con-structed in 1887 and twice the focus of major work this last century.

A tree-lined walkway graces the north side of Albany Street just outside the Hyatt Regency where the work-shop was held.

The 2013 Joint Summer Workshop

The clock and steeple of First Reformed Church—one of two historic churches across the street from the Hyatt hotel where our event was held.

Gretchen McGrath (Left) and Ileana Ivanciu both from Dewberry grab a quick cup of coffee before the start of the hectic day. Both contributed so much to the success of the workshop. Dewberry was and is significantly involved in the initial efforts as well as the rebuilding effort in the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy.

For two years in a row, Carissa has delivered a successful research symposium covering both how to develop a research proposal as well as brainstorming emergent transportation research needs.

Chris Gesing, Ken Hess and Harold Draper of our committee discuss research ideas.

Carissa Schively Slotterback is an Associate Professor and Director of the Urban and Regional Planning Program in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Monday’s Research Symposium

The research symposium was held from 1:00 to 3:00 PM Monday. About 30 people attended. The symposium explored cross-cutting research opportunities in light of changes in environmental analysis in transportation changes over the last 5-10 years. The Environmental Analysis in Transportation committee business meeting followed the symposium. While the Hydrology, Hydraulics and Water Quality committee business ran concurrent with both, some members broke from that meeting to attend the symposium.

Genevieve Clifton is the manager of the New Jersey DOT’s office of Maritime Resources.

Mary K. Murphy, Executive Director of the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority spoke at and moderated the opening session.

Thomas Abdallah is the Chief Environmental Engineer for the MTA New York City Transit.

Tom Hicks moderated the session on Super Storm Sandy Response. He is Vice President and Office Leader at HNTB.

Hunterdon County Freeholder Matthew Holt is Chairman of the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. He gave a very enthusiastic

Bob Marshall is the Assistant Commissioner for Sustainability and Green Energy for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Richard Hammer is an Assistant Commissioner for Capital Program Management at the New Jersey DOT.

Tuesday Early Morning’s Plenary Session—New Jersey Perspectives in

Transportation Planning and the Environment

Tuesday Late Morning’s Plenary Session—Super Storm Sandy Response

Tony DeJohn is a Senior Engineering Manager and Vice President at Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Very knowledgeable and dynamic speakers gave great insights to how New Jersey’s agencies are a step ahead of many in planning and implementing environmentally sound transportation systems.

The region’s many agencies and consultant organizations came together when most needed to clear rail lines and roadways, reestablish power, get aid to the affected population, and open important marine transportation systems following the destruction in the wake of the nation’s second costliest hurricane.

The audience listens intently to a presentation by Genevieve Clifton on storm response for New Jersey’s maritime transportation system. Genevieve mentioned that the ability to manage information in a dynamic system lies in the ability to provide a framework for information, and data acquisition that will add context to the system managed. Such a systematic approach would allow for better resource allocation and prioritization as well as sound decision-making.

“We are stronger

than the storm.”

– New Jersey

Governor Chris

Christie

Andrew Tunnard is the Director of Operations Support at the New Jersey DOT.

Craig Johnson is Executive Vice President at Dewberry.

Steve Santoro is the Assistant Executive Director of Capital Planning and Programs at New Jersey Transit.

Tuesday Afternoon’s Plenary Session—Super Storm Sandy Response

Pat Hu, Associate Administrator and Director of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and co-chair of the TRB Committee on Visualization in Transportation (ABJ95) helped open the workshop.

Muggs Stoll is the Director of Land Use and Transportation Planning at the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). Muggs is also chair of the TRB Committee on Environmental Analysis in Transportation. He made our committee’s welcome address.

Gretchen McGrath and Barbara Eljenholm had the most thank-less job at the workshop—they worked the registration desk. They both did a great job! All totaled they assisted more than 150 people through numerous issues and addressed multiple challenges over the three and a half days of the workshop.

Ty Dickerson and Jean Huang talk among the exhibits on one of the typical 30-minute breaks.

The foyer outside the meetings was always packed during the breaks as people wandered through the eleven exhibitor booths.

Jon Zirkle welcomed the group as chair of the TRB Committee on Hydrology, Hydraulics and Water Quality (AFB60). This is the first time we have met jointly with this committee. Jon works for the Tennessee DOT in Nashville where we will have our 2014 summer workshop.

Tuesday Morning Plenary—TRB Committees’ Welcome

Registration

Exhibits

After a close personal introduction by Genevieve Clifton, Jane Kozinski, Assistant Commissioner for Environmental Management at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, gave a lunch time audience of a 120 people her agency’s view of the state’s response to the devastation reeked by Sandy—especially concerning debris removal. Her message strongly focused on a team effort among all agencies to meet the Governor's challenge to get all public services back on line within a short period of time.

Our committee had its dinner on Tuesday night. We went to Makeda Ethiopian restaurant on Church Street just blocks from the hotel. Present were (left to right)(Back Row) Ileana Ivanciu, Sue Killen, Pat Trombly, Chris Gesign, Muggs Stoll (Seated) Marianne Hatzopoullou, Mike Davis, Diane Nulton, Rick Record, Harold Draper, Ken Hess (Front) Martin Palmer

Cool Reception

Oldcastle Precast had a separate event occurring concurrent with our workshop so they extended an invitation to attend their event—a social networking gathering on Tuesday evening. The 3-hour event had transportation-related product displays on the perimeter and within had three bars, six food stations and live music. Several door prizes were awarded and three lucky people from our committee were recipients.

People in the picture on upper left are (left to right) Tom

DiChiara, Rick Record, Muggs Stoll, Chris Gesing, Martin

Palmer, Ken Hess

Inspired by how its easy reach, five of us ventured to New York City for a Wednesday night feast at Tony Di Napoli on West 43rd Street.

(L to R) Harold Draper, Martin Palmer, Alex Fisher, Barbara Eljenholm, Muggs Stoll

Route 18 Tour

With goody bags from Gannett Fleming Inc. in hand we boarded the 37-passenger bus that took us on a 2 hour tour of New Jersey DOT’s flagship project—Route 18 reconstruction through downtown New Brunswick. The project completed in 2010 incorporated many features such as the faux brickwork and arched bridges to keep in character with the surrounding historic area as well as pedestrian sensitive amenities and clear noise barriers to enhance the human environment. The economy-driven project was designed to also help preserve historical features and protect the natural environment.

Our Route 18 tour group with the reconstructed Route 18 in the background.

The entrance to Boyd Park. The Route 18 tour included a walk through the park as it was an important part of this vital project. The inset photographs are of the Historic Delaware and Raritan Canal and Lock which are part of the park. These canal and lock system was important to freight movement in the region. Once in the canal system, mule teams pulled barges through miles of canals. This segment was once one of the busiest in the nation.

Susan Jones is a civil engineer with the FHWA in Washington, DC and is a young member of our committee. She moderated FHWA’s Wednesday morning session. Speakers in her session include Carol Braegelmann, Patricia Cazenas, Shana Baker and Tina Hodges.

Jeffery Perlman with the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority addressed sustainability through the inventory of assets and criticality, and conducting vulnerability analyses based on current storm data and future trends during the Tuesday afternoon session on climate change adaptation strategies.

Glimpse of Some of the Breakout Session Presentations

Matthew Mampara is a Water Resources Engineer at Dewberry. Matthew presented information on the state hazard mitigation plans and its connection to climate change adaptation. Matthew spoke in Wendi Goldsmith’s session along with Tina Hodges and Jeffery Perlman (right).

Shana Baker, Livability Team Lead at FHWA. Gave an energetic presentation on the Transportation Alternatives Program, Livability, Environmental Justice and Bicycle and pedestrian activities.

Carol Braegelmann, Senior Environmental Protection Specialist at FHWA. Carol presented in FHWA’s Wednesday morning session on accelerated project delivery and spoke on reducing costs in an efficient and effective manner. She outlined many provisions in new codes and initiatives that help in that regard.

Dan Saunders is the Administrator and Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer for the state of New Jersey. Dan spoke about the genuine collaboration between the SHPO’s office and the New Jersey DOT that creates trust.

Patricia Cazenas spoke about implications of MAP-21 on research and how it differs from SAFETEA-LU. Patricia gave a broad overview of where federal environmental and transportation research money was focused. She also gave an update on SHRP2. Patricia is a Senior Transportation Specialist and Team Leader with the FHWA.

Bruce Hawkinson is an Environmental Project Manager with the New Jersey DOT. Bruce not only moderated the Wednesday morning session on Assessing Tools...Is Interagency Collaboration Better of Worse but

as a representative of one our two hosts did so much to help plan and support efforts to make the workshop a success. Thank you Bruce!

People in one of the plenary sessions listen carefully to one

of the 61 individual presenta�ons made in the workshop.

Stephen Dilts is Vice President of the Transportation Business Group at CH2M HILL. Stephen moderated the Thursday morning session on Assessing the Effectiveness and Tools in MPO Planning Processes and What it Means to People and the Environment. The session focused on looking at whether or not regional plans are really achieving what they set out to do.

Steve Mars is a Senior Biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Steve made a presentation on the Route 72 Manahawkin Bay Bridges Project and mitigation requirements met on Cedar Bonnet Island. The project mitigation is to restore spartina coastal marsh and coastal maritime/forest scrub-shrub habitat.

Stacey Bricka is a Research Scientist and Program Manager at Texas A&M University. Stacey moderated and presented in the session about using the National Household Transportation Survey for environmental assessments. Her session gave an overview of the NHTS and how visualization can be used to better communicate information. Other presenters were Jean-Daniel Saphores and Pat Hu.

Ken Stone with the Washington State Department of Transportation gave a comprehensive presentation about the efforts from AASHTO SCOE Research Taskforce, updates on the TERI database and AASHTO SCOE research submittals to NCHRP. Ken was one of three other speakers in Thursday morning’s session on research.

Jean Huang gave a great presentation on the changes to and the benefits of using the Advisory Base Flood Elevation Data.

Tom DiChiara spoke about sustainable planning and building practices in the face of ever increase storm intensities and rising sea levels.

Ty Dickerson, New Jersey Transits Senior Director for New Starts outlined in word and pictures the heavy damage to the transit system throughout the state.

Helene Roberts of the FHWA New Jersey Division Office spoke about the heavy damage sustained by the infrastructure from the storm.

Thursday Morning’s Plenary Session—Super Storm Sandy—Resilient Rebuilding

Candice Butler waves goodbye on the last day of the workshop. Candice is the Catering Manager at the Hyatt Regency Hotel where the event was held.

The Super storm Sandy—Resilient Rebuilding session focused on post Sandy rebuilding and what steps New Jersey is taking to harden the infrastructure in light of a robust rebuilding effort and more frequent storm events.

Workshop Closeout

Martin Palmer of the TRB Committee on Environmental Analysis in Transportation and Jon Zirkle, Chair of the TRB Committee on Hydrology, Hydraulics and Water Quality reflected on the insights and lessons learned from the storm and how New Jersey met the challenge. Both thanked the presenters, moderators, hosts and sponsors for making the event a success. Overall, we had a total of 127 people register for the workshop and of those there were a number of one day registrations. We had a total of 47 people sign up for just one day of the workshop – more than any previous Summer Workshop our committee has held. Attendees came from 17 states and Canada.

The Johnson and Johnson headquarters building.