spring 2009

Faculty of Applied Science Civil Engineering News @ EngineeringThe News University of British Columbia

The Canada Line

Canada Line car travels across the North Arm Bridge connecting Richmond/YVR with Vancouver

Construction on Canada Line, a new 18.5 kilometer River to the City of Vancouver. The alignment is elevated rapid transit system that connects Downtown over Marine Drive and enters a tunnel portal at 63rd Vancouver with Vancouver International Airport Avenue. The alignment then continues in a tunnel under (YVR) and Richmond City Centre, started in late the northbound lanes of Cambie Street until it reaches 2005. Full transit service will commence on or Olympic Village Station. The alignment downtown travels before November 2009, in time for the 2010 Winter in twin tunnels under False Creek, Davie Street and Olympics. Following is an overview and update Granville Street to a terminus at Waterfront Station. on the project. There are three major types of structures which The $2 billion project is a public-private form the guideway: partnership between various levels of government • a 2.5 km long bored tunnel, and InTransitBC, the private sector concessionaire. • a 6.5 km cut and cover tunnel, and SNC Lavalin Inc. (SLI) is responsible for all design, • a 7.5 km elevated guideway which includes two bridges. procurement and construction. Near the airport the guideway also includes a two The alignment (see map on page 8) travels from kilometer at-grade section. There are 16 stations on the south to north from near Richmond Centre line, eight underground, six elevated and two at-grade. (Brighouse), along Number 3 Road to Bridgeport The elevated guideway was constructed using the Station. From here the alignment splits in two. precast segmental methodology. The three meter precast One segment travels westbound over the Middle Arm segments were lifted into place using a special truss and of the Fraser River and parallels Grant McConachie post tensioned together into a beam (see image, page 8). Way to a terminus at YVR Airport Station. The second The majority of the elevated alignment is dual guideway segment crosses over the North Arm of the Fraser with track for both directions of travel. Single guideway Continued on page 8 In this Issue 1 The Canada Line 4 Simulating Disasters 7 Passionate about 10 Meet the Faces of 2 Message from the Head 6 Message from the Dean Structural Engineering Civil Engineering Graduate Student Awards Giving back to Civil 9 Student Co-op 12 Faculty Awards 3 Professor Doug Anderson Tongji Symposium Professor Borg Madsen OUR MISSION leading@civil The Department of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia provides an outstanding learning and research environment inspiring technical innovation, and leadership, in social and environmental responsibility, to address current and future challenges.

Congratulations to these Graduate Students for being selected for these awards!

Ali Abedini Parvez Fattah •BCWWA Award •Donald R. Stanley award for Best Paper Syed Abdullah •Pacific Century Graduate Sepideh Jankhah from the Head Scholarship UBC Graduate •NSERC (PGSD3) Scholarship Message Fellowship •Killam Predoctoral Award Welcome to this issue of the civil@ubc newsletter. Having Kerry Black Bill Johnstone been appointed as the Head of the Civil Engineering •Dr. C. Guarnaschelli •Public Safety Canada Department since July 1, 2008, I hope to make a positive Scholarship impact on the Department which has already benefitted Fellowship in Honour •UBC Environmental from strong leadership and an impressive resume of achieve- of Stuart Nesbitt White Engineering Research ments. We have a world-class facility here that I am proud •Earl R. Peterson Memorial to have the opportunity to lead. As the Head of the Scholarship Scholarship in Civil Department, I hope to help guide the faculty and students •AMEC Masters Scholarship Engineering for Canadian Engineering on an educational journey that, I believe, will teach us all Isabel Londono Memorial Foundation how we can improve the world with our combined efforts. •IAWQ Water Quality Transition has certainly been a theme over the last several Alexander Forrest Scholarship months; we welcome the new Dean of Applied Science, Dr. •Canadian Water Resources Tyseer Aboulnasr; our department has undergone an invigorat- Chad Novotny Association Scholarship ing facelift, from which we will benefit from updated spaces •CAWQ Water Quality •Canadian Space Agency for our faculty and a learning environment that will give Scholarship (CSA) Student Travel Grant students an opportunity to excel in their studies; we have Saifur Rahaman successfully completed a review from the Canadian Blair Fulton •BCWWA Award Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) ensuring that we •Canadian Association on can provide a top-notch education with worldwide recognition Water Quality Scholarship Ryan Thoren to our graduates; we have completed a new strategic plan •Dr. C. Guarnaschelli •UBC Environmental with one of its major goals being the improvement of the cur- Research Scholarship Engineering Research riculum that we offer so we can build on the momentum of •UMA Scholarship in Civil Scholarship our previous achievements and deliver the very best graduates Engineering who make a positive and enduring difference in the quality of •Ian S. Ross Memorial Award people’s lives. in Engineering I hope you will find this issue of civil@ubc interesting •J. Fred Muir Memorial and informative. Our focus in this issue is on the research Scholarship within the Structural and Earthquake Engineering group. Dr. Carlos Ventura gives an overview of his research which simulates human interaction tools to coordinate joint actions by various organizations before and during large scale In our NEXT issue: emergency events. Mr. John Pao, Chair of the Structural • The forward thinking team behind redeveloping the UBC Civil Engineers Association of B.C. (SEABC) discusses his passion Engineering undergraduate Curriculum work to create learning for structural engineering. We welcome some of the people opportunities for students. who have joined Civil Engineering, and bid farewell to those who’ve left us. I hope you gain some insight into the hard • Highlights from the third in a series of lectures work and dedication of the men and women who contribute commemorating the late Professor Noel Nathan, and his to the Department, the University and ultimately to the world. contributions to the Department of Civil Engineering. I welcome your comments and suggestions about • Professor Ventura is ecstatic about the donation of a new this newsletter; please feel free to send me a message at Shaker Table, courtesy of Nokia Products of Burnaby, [email protected] which will enhance the Earthquake Engineering Program. … and much more! Reza Vaziri, Ph.D., P.Eng. Head, Department of Civil Engineering 2 flashback@civil UBC Civil Engineering Remembers Assistant Professor in enough paintings by the Civil Engineering and was Group of Seven that he promoted to Associate could leave one to each of Professor in 1966. He con- his nieces and nephews. tinued to serve the depart- Born in Prince Rupert, ment and Faculty of Applied Doug grew up in Vancouver Science (APSC) from 1964 and studied at UBC, gradu- until his retirement in 1987 ating in 1945 with a B.A.Sc. in various roles, including in Civil Engineering. Upon Assistant to the Head of graduation, he was awarded Civil Engineering, Assistant a Graduate Research to the Dean of APSC and Fellowship at the University Assistant Dean of APSC. of Washington where he Professor Emeritus, From 1948-1956, Doug Doug was an unassum- obtained an M.Sc. degree John Douglas (Doug) worked for the engineering ing person not given to wild in 1947. Prior to beginning Anderson, 1922-2006 department of the Canadian outbursts of enthusiasm, his career at CPR, Doug Pacific Railway (CPR), and but one who has a good was an Instructor in Doug Anderson, long time during his career ascended sense of humour and was a Civil Engineering at UBC Civil Engineering faculty to the fourth ranked engi- faithful friend. He loved from 1946 to 1948. member, passed away neering position for the good bicycles and expensive Doug lived in the family December 8, 2006 at the CPR system, the Assistant cars — Jaguars, Cadillacs (in home in the Dunbar area age of 84. He experienced Engineer of Track. the days when Cadillacs and cared for his aged progressive dementia over In 1958, Doug brought still had some panache) and parents for many years. the last decade. his wealth of experience and Mercedes. He also loved knowledge to UBC as an art, and had collected

Professor Emeritus, engineering applications resistance towards the end Borg Madsen, (he coined the words “in- of WWII, and of his alma 1926-2008 grade testing”). He was a mater, Technical University well known national and of Denmark, conferring Professor Borg Madsen, a international figure, with an upon him an Honorary member of the Civil enthusiastic approach Doctorate degree in 1990. Engineering department towards innovations in the He was extraordinarily from 1970 until his retire- forest industries. active in national and ment in 1991, passed away His passion for timber international Codes for tim- in January, 2008. We engineering included ber engineering and was were saddened by this loss. presenting his ideas around a Fellow of the Canadian Borg focused on timber the globe, at educational Society of Civil Engineering. engineering and he was or research institutions in At UBC he never missed a Borg Madsen will be fond of saying that he was Mexico, Chile, Russia, South morning or afternoon coffee missed, and his unique and studying “timber” and Africa and, of course, break, or lunch at the old outstanding contributions to not “wood”. This distinction Denmark, his native land. Faculty Club, with the rest of the advancement of timber led him to a series of inter- A modest man, Borg the faculty. In fact, he engineering, to the Canadian nationally recognized was particularly proud of two promoted these gatherings forest industries, and to achievements on the proper- accomplishments: of his to maintain the traditional engineering education at ties of timber as it is used in participation in the Danish “civility” of our department. UBC will not be forgotten.

3 research@civil Simulating Disasters

This article describes a research project con- ture: the physical layers, damage assessment, the human lay- ducted at UBC to develop a new integrated ers, database, the infrastructure interdependencies simulator hazard analysis methodology to study inter- (I2Sim) and visualization. UBC’s damage assessment module dependencies among critical infrastructures. involves the estimation of physical damage to the component, The “Decision Coordination for Critical the number of casualties, the economic loss and the loss of Linkages in a National Network of function that results from the damage. The data generated in Infrastructures” project is an initiative by the the human and physical layers are aggregated into a government of Canada, being conducted database called I2DB used to create the I2Sim environment. by a multidisciplinary team at UBC, in coop- The I2Sim simulation environment provides a multi-sys- eration with private and public Canadian tem representation of all infrastructures involved in the infrastructure companies in the areas of disaster response at multiple hierarchical levels (local, munici- energy, water, transportation and data pal, provincial, etc.) of the global system response. In this networks. The purpose of the research is to combined environment, each member infrastructure uses its develop simulation and human interaction own internal models to determine its possible operating tools to better coordinate joint actions states, while I2Sim combines the operating states into a by various organizations before and during system-of-systems solution. Carlos Ventura, Ph.D., P.Eng. large-scale emergencies, such as an earth- Damage to infrastructures during a disaster and greater quake event in a given region. demand for resources creates a situation where decisions need to be made to optimize time and allocation of available The Joint Infrastructure Interdependencies resources. The simulator supports look-ahead and rewind Research Program (JIIRP) functions to predict the evolution of system dynamics to assess the effects of suggested decisions before they are A system of critical infrastructures (CIs) (power grid, actually applied, and a mathematical formulation permits the water network, health system, etc.) constitutes the analysis and discovery of vulnerable points in the system backbone of modern societies. Even though interdepen- as well as gaps in policies and procedures. dencies exist among these components, operations The UBC Point Grey campus was modeled as a case study are centered on each individual infrastructure. During a implementation of the simulator methodology. The geographi- large disaster (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorist cal location, infrastructure complexity, and the diversity of attacks, etc.), the situation is very different from normal its population made it an ideal test case to develop, assess life since the infrastructures are often affected simulta- and validate I2Sim. The university has a population of approxi- neously. Unless actions are coordinated, the overall mately 10,000 full time residents and 47,000 transitory response process may suffer serious stalls. For exam- occupants and most of the utility systems are managed inter- ple, a damaged bridge has to be repaired before a spare nally, whereby it shares many of the attributes of a small city. transformer can be delivered to a power substation; Based on the British Columbia Provincial Emergency if the power available at a substation that supplies a Program’s (PEP) risk matrix, a ranking of critical events for the hospital and a water station has been reduced because UBC campus was developed and an earthquake scenario was of damage to the substation and all power is sent to selected as the disaster to be simulated. Realistic estimates the nearby hospital and none to the local water station, of the damage to buildings and lifeline systems were required the hospital will have power, but will not be able to in order to carry out an accurate disaster simulation. Due to operate due to lack of water. the size of the study area and the amount of time and The government of Canada, through the Natural resources available, Risk Assessment for buildings and lifeline Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) networks on campus was deemed to be the most appropriate and Public Safety Canada has funded research to method of determining the probable seismic damage. develop innovative ways to mitigate large disaster sit- The methodology developed was then used to identify uations. The JIIRP started in 2005 with six universities interdependencies among critical infrastructures. The “studied across Canada involved. space” was disassembled representing the critical infrastruc- UBC-JIIRP aims to model the real-time effects of tures, each containing both the buildings and lifeline systems. a disaster situation and identify the interdependen- Risks are estimated separately and interdependencies are cies among critical infrastructure networks. There are assessed by superimposing the layers, one by one. six principal components of the project’s architec-

4 Example of Interdependency among critical infrastructure on the UBC campus (water system and buildings)

Assuming an earthquake in the region will produce shaking on campus corresponding to Mercalli intensity IX, we apply our damage estimation methodology to estimate the building damage. Figure 1 shows the estimated levels of damage for buildings within a sector of campus. The majority of buildings will be non-functional (orange and red = moderate to heavy damage). Non-structural components and damage to building contents will also affect the overall functionality of buildings. A separate damage assessment to the water supply on campus is conducted. The estimated damage to the water pipelines is also shown in Figure 1. Overlaying both damage assessments does not show the hidden conse- quences of the interdependencies of these two critical infrastructure systems. We apply the methodology to estimate interdependencies Fig. 1: Estimated damage to buildings within a sector of campus between the two infrastructures, shown in Figure 2, the trunk (orange and red = moderate to heavy damage) line providing water to the water station has an accumulated loss of 8%, but the water station is non-functional due to the extended damage to its structural and non-structural com- ponents. When the entire campus is considered, it can be determined that UBC will suffer significant water shortages and remain non-functional until water service is restored. In this simple example, only two infrastructures are considered. When the methodology is applied to all the infra- structures on campus, a clear “picture” of the situation immediately following an earthquake can be developed. I2Sim can then be used to evaluate other scenarios and the possible ways to restore all functions on campus. A better understanding of critical interdependencies among core infrastructures is one of the most important requirements to mitigate the impact of extreme events and improve survivability. The extent of the damage resulting from a catastrophe must and can be minimized by the imple- mentation of better preparedness organization and action plans among the National Critical Infrastructures operators at federal, provincial and regional levels. The UBC-JIIRP has contributed to the development of novel strategies of Fig. 2: I2Sim Interdependency Damage Assessment effective collaboration among public and the private sectors before and during the emergency period.

Bio: Carlos Ventura is a Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Facility at the University of British Columbia.

Acknowledgements: The UBC-JIIRP project includes twelve UBC and SFU researchers in multidisciplinary areas. UBC faculty and graduate students from Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Geography, the Sauder School of Business and the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth have all made contributions to this unique research project. Civil Engineering is well represented in this project and has provided seminal information to develop the earthquake damage scenarios and interdependencies between infrastructures. Graduate students Hugon Juarez and Kate Thibert are Civil Engineering stu- dents who have made significant contributions to this project.

5 development@civil

Message from the Dean

Since my term as Dean of Applied Science began last With the responsibility to “build” fall, I have consistently been impressed by the our society on your shoulders, it is Department of Civil Engineering. From research to no surprise that you care—as students, alumni and teaching, to service within the Faculty and across the faculty—and it shows. university, Civil Engineering is a department of dedicat- As I gradually get to know the professors, students ed people who care about their students, their research, and staff in Civil Engineering, I really look forward to the campus community and society at large. meeting more alumni to discuss how Applied Science Faculty, staff and students have recently shared their and the department can continue to make a world of knowledge with the public during Engineering Open difference in our communities at large. House and UBC’s Celebrate Research Week. The depart- ment’s engagement with and support of community Tyseer Aboulnasr, Ph.D., O.ONT., P.Eng service learning projects is truly a source of pride for all Dean, UBC Faculty of Applied Science of Applied Science. And your efforts are reflected in the many awards for teaching and research excellence received by faculty members. Bio: Tyseer Aboulnasr is currently Dean of The Faculty of Applied As an electrical engineer who loves her own disci- Science and Professor of Electrical Engineering at The University of British Columbia. As Dean, she leads the Faculty of Applied Science, pline, I have always held civil engineering in the highest bringing together 11 engineering programs along with three schools: of regard. Not only is it at the foundation of engineer- Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Nursing and the School of ing, it has also been the source of the one contribution Engineering at the Okanagan campus. Together with more than in human history that has saved and continues to save 400 faculty and staff, she oversees the education of more than 4,000 the most lives to date: clean water! undergraduate and 1,400 graduate and professional students.

Giving back to Civil through guest lecturing, attending events or through the Designer-in-Residence program. This facility, run and used almost exclusively by students, provides work spaces for communal study and design projects, and is in use every day of the term — even on Sunday mornings, it can be hard to find a seat! Improvements to our programs such as this are often a result of the generous contributions from our industry partners and you, our alumni. Each time you contribute to Civil Engineering in UBC’s Annual The Civil Design Studio provides work spaces for students’ Campaign, it provides us with the opportunity to sup- study and design projects. port research initiatives or provide students with field The Department of Civil Engineering works hard to trips, projects, and study spaces that ensure their create programs of education and research that ably education is as broad and encompassing as it can be. prepare our students for their careers as civil Civil Engineering would like to thank all our engineers and at the same time support our indus- alumni and friends who contribute to our success — tries and our profession. As part of this goal, we your contributions make a huge difference in the lives continually strive to ensure that students and faculty of our faculty and students, and in turn allow us to have the resources they need to pursue their make a real contribution to our chosen field. Thank learning and research. you very much! One of our most successful ventures was the cre- If you would like any information on making a ation, three years ago, of the Civil Design Studio — contribution to Civil Engineering, please contact Emma a project that could not have happened without the Starritt, Major Gift Officer, at 604-822-6197 or direct financial support from industry partners. [email protected]. The studio provides a platform for industry and alumni to interact directly with our students 6 industry@civil

Passionate about Structural Engineering

When I was in the third year of my undergraduate studies at small, unusually shaped and UBC, I met a structural engineer who had practiced for over 20 floating structures, and in a variety of materials such as years. He told me, “if you are passionate about structural engi- reinforced concrete, steel, neering, learn it well, you can apply your skills and knowledge wood, masonry, aluminum, anywhere in the world”. Now after almost 30 years of practicing cables, plastic and glass fibre, structural engineering, I can certainly confirm that what he said etc.—in the greater Vancouver area. to me has been very true. More importantly, I have I will definitely offer the same advice to young undergraduate been able to apply the knowl- students. The fundamentals that we learned from the UBC edge that originated from my undergraduate program allow for the potential of a broadly education from UBC to other John Pao, P.Eng., Struct.Eng., S.E. applied and rewarding structural engineering career. regions of the world. It starts with a relentless attitude in one’s pursuit of knowl- We are currently designing three tall blast hardened air edge. To this extent, one’s course mark should be secondary to traffic control towers for the Federal Aviation Administration the actual knowledge gained from each course. It is important in the western United States. We have seismically strength- to understand the principle behind what is taught by profes- ened buildings damaged by the Nisqually earthquake in sors and not to apply formulae without due consideration. In Seattle. We have taken our brand of problem solving tech- practice, I have often told young engineers, “If you understand niques to southern California and designed a large number of structural fundamentals well, you will be able to apply building buildings including parking structures, museums, codes in an effective manner to help solve your design prob- medical and office buildings. In China, we introduced load lems”. bearing steel studs building technology to the city of Dalian In practice, the challenge of a good structural engineering and showed them how to design, manufacture and build design also involves understanding the building owner’s objec- large residential projects. In India, we have worked on hotels tives and construction methods and costs, an appreciation of and housing projects using light gauge steel. In Taiwan, architectural design issues, such as life and fire safety require- we introduced Canadian concrete formwork technology to its ments, and geotechnical engineering problems. central region and showed them how to build concrete Although these are not structural engineering problems structures rapidly. per se, the issues of construction, geotechnical, and architec- In summary, this is my advice to every student aspiring tural constraints must be properly understood by the structural to have a rewarding structural engineering career: “if you are engineer in order to produce the most effective structural solu- passionate about structural engineering, live it and breathe tion that meets the building owner’s overall needs. This is it all the time, your career will follow you wherever you go”. taking problem solving to a most rewarding level. The potential geographically diverse application of this Bio: Mr. John Pao is president of Bogdonov Pao Associates Ltd. and chief overall problem solving knowledge cannot be understated. engineer and designer of many buildings in Greater Vancouver and worldwide. Although building codes may vary between countries, structur- He received his B.A.Sc. in 1980 and M.Eng. in 1984 from UBC and is al engineering principles do not. In other countries, the chal- currently very active in his profession. Mr. Pao is a driving force behind several lenge of producing a good structural engineering solution initiatives to enhance the structural engineering profession in British would be to apply sound engineering principles with consider- Columbia. In 2005, Mr. Pao co-authored a textbook on reinforced concrete ation for specific local and cultural constraints. design that is widely adopted by professors and lecturers at Universities Since receiving my B.A.Sc. in 1980 and M.Eng. in 1984 and Colleges across Canada. from UBC, I have applied the engineering principles I learned to a large variety of building types—tall, slender, short, large,

7 Canada Line continued from page 1

sections are located near the termini and at the junction between the airport and Richmond lines. The bridge over the North Arm of the Fraser River (pictured on the cover) has a 180 meter main span and is the first Extradosed Cable Stayed Bridge built in North America. Since it is located on the flight path to YVR, the towers had to be shorter than normal which led to a relatively flat cable angle. The structure was built using the balanced cantilever method as was the Middle Arm Bridge. Between 63rd Avenue and 2nd Avenue in Vancouver the cut and cover technique was employed to build the tunnel (pic- tured below). In this method a trench was excavated from the surface using backhoes. The sides of the excavation were sup- ported using soil anchors and shotcrete. The cast-in-place con- crete tunnels were then constructed, backfill was placed over the top and the road surface reinstated. The tunnels were of both side-by-side and stacked configurations depending on the space available for construction. A Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) was used to tunnel under False Creek in Vancouver. Twin bored tunnels were construct- ed between 2nd Avenue in the south and Granville and Alignment Map of the Canada Line, travels from Downtown Vancouver to Pender Streets in the north. The tunnels are lined with pre- Brighouse, near Richmond Centre, and Vancouver Airport (YVR) cast concrete segments. The system operates with fully automated trains on three The Canada Line is a traditional metro transit system with minute headways to provide frequent service and meet capaci- a fully segregated alignment. The vehicles are powered via ty requirements. pick up shoes from a power rail alongside the running rails. SNC-Lavalin Inc. is delivering the contract through a series of design-build joint ventures formed by its affiliate SNC- Lavalin Constructors (Pacific) Inc. (SLCP), certain design and supply subcontracts and conventional design-bid-build subcontracts as follows. •A Joint Venture (RSL JV) was formed by SLCP and Rizzani de Eccher of Italy to design/build the elevated guideway and the North and Middle Arm Bridges over the Fraser River (Buckland and Taylor designed the North Arm Bridge). •The twin bored tunnels underneath downtown Vancouver were designed and built by a Joint Venture (SSJV) formed by SLCP and SELI an Italian Contractor. •SLCP acted as Construction Managers for the cut and cover section; Cambie Street Constructors were the contractor. SLI provided the design. •Trackwork and some of the E&M systems were installed by Above: A special Truss is used to lift precast segments into place RSL JV. SLI provided the design. along the elevated portion of the Canada Line. Below: Cut-and-cover tunnel lined with shotcrete runs under Cambie Street on the way •E&M systems, stations and other fixed support facilities such to Richmond and YVR. as the Operations and Maintenance Centre (OMC) were gen- erally delivered using design-bid-build subcontracts. •The vehicles, automatic train control system and communica- tions system were delivered through three design/supply subcontracts awarded to specialist suppliers. SLI is the systems integrator. The Canada Line project is thus far on track to meet transportation needs for the 2010 Olympic Games.

Bio: Roger Woodhead, Ph.D., P.Eng. is the Technical Director of the Canada Line Project. He is founder and principal of Woodhead Consulting Inc. and an Adjunct Professor at UBC Civil Engineering. 8 A student’s co-op experience collaboration@civil at SNC Lavalin by Chris Bazett covers and signage connections. I also acted as a mentor for the junior students in the structural group. The As a recent graduate of Engineering Co-op, there is probably highlight of the term was following the detailed steps of the no better time to reflect on my professional experiences. design process— all the way from conceptualization to Since many of the most exciting opportunities came as I review to drawing issue —to create something that will con- honed my skills in later work terms, I will focus on my experi- tribute to a high-profile engineering project. ence at SNC Lavalin, an international engineering and con- The culture at SNC is very relaxed and flexible; my manag- struction firm associated with many large-scale projects er checked on me every once in a while, but the responsibility around the world, including the Canada Line here in to take the initiative, ask questions, and remain diligent Vancouver. was mine. The co-op experience I had at SNL helped instill Working at a new company involves building trust and a confidence in me to use the knowledge I’ve acquired proving yourself early on, and the best way to do this is to and resources that surround me to best solve problems. perform ordinary tasks exceptionally well. In the first two Bio: Chris Bazett is a graduate of the UBC Civil Engineering months at SNC, I was responsible for reviewing the elevated program. He is currently working with the department on guideway shop drawings to ensure they complied with our Curriculum Redevelopment. design drawings. I gained valuable experience in understand- ing the interplay of different disciplines and the importance of effective communication. As my managers gained confi- dence in me, shop drawing review was replaced by program- ming in Excel, designing a sanitary tank for an Athabasca Oil Sands project, and cost-estimating for a Northern Port and Road project. I was also paired with EIT’s and senior personnel on several Canada Line site visits. This past summer with the company was much different than the previous one. In the first week, I was already applying the technical knowledge I had gained at university and later came to experience ‘real design work’ by managing small structural projects for the Canada Summer 2007, view near Bridgeport Station of the elevated guideway Line, including concrete walkways, platforms, machinery branching to the airport (top two) and to Richmond (bottom right). First Tongji University & UBC Earthquake Engineering Symposium On October 12, 2008, 16 delegates from Vancouver — 10 grad- uate students and four faculty members from UBC and two practicing engineers — arrived in Beijing, China to give presen- tations at the 14th World Conference in Earthquake Engineering. The conference provided an international forum to present current research being conducted at UBC. After the end of the conference, the UBC team travelled from Beijing to Shanghai to visit one of the top engineering universities in China, the Tongji University, to collaborate on the First Tongji & UBC Earthquake Engineering Symposium. The symposium provided an opportunity for researchers and practicing engineers to exchange their extensive knowledge, ideas and culture. The symposium permitted a successful means of technical The UBC delegation included Professors Dharma Wijewickreme, Perry Adebar, Carlos and social exchange and established the interest of professors Ventura and Ken Elwood, UBC technical staff, Felix Yao, Max Nazar, UBC graduate stu- dents Juan Carlos Carvajal, Bishnu Pandey, Otton Lara, Mehrtash Motamedi, Soheil for future joint research efforts. The symposium included tech- Yavari, Hugon Juarez, Jose Centeno, Freddy Pina and Katherine Thibert and Practicing nical visits to the Shanghai World Financial Center, the world’s Engineers from Vancouver, Sharlie Huffmann and John Pao. tallest building, and the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, a 35.6 kilometer The UBC earthquake engineering group has invited a Tongji bridge with a cable-stayed bridge portion that connects the delegation, consisting of students and faculty members municipalities of Shanghai and Ningbo in Zhejiang province. to visit UBC. The Second Tongji & UBC Earthquake Engineering Symposium will take place on July 21, 2009 in Vancouver. 9 people@civil

Meet the faces of Civil Engineering at UBC

This past January of architecture, obtaining began teaching on a part- Greg Johnson was a B.Arch. (1977) followed time basis at UBC in 2002. appointed to the position by an M.Sc.A. (1980) from With this cross-discipli- of Instructor, a position the Université de Montréal. nary background, Greg’s shared jointly between the His thesis research, support- teaching strengths lie School of Architecture ed by a Natural Science & in bringing these two disci- and the Department of Civil Engineering Council plines closer together Engineering. He will be Postgraduate Research and developing a better familiar to some in the Scholarship, involved studies appreciation of what each department through his in the field of wind engineer- has to offer. This coincides 2002-2006 teaching of ing and snow drifting in with a trend in practice — CIVL/WOOD 478 —Building built environments. integrated design — which Greg Johnson, P.Eng. Science & Enclosure Design, Since returning to encourages a greater Instructor an elective course initially Vancouver in 1981, Greg integration of the many con- developed as a response to became registered with the sultants contributing to a the widespread building AIBC and APEGBC, and has building project throughout envelope failures in the practised architecture all phases of design. Lower Mainland of British since, with a strong technical As a complementary and Columbia. focus on issues of energy supportive activity to his Greg received a B.A.Sc. conservation, building enve- teaching, Greg hopes to be from UBC in Mechanical lope performance and able to maintain a minor Engineering (1974), then sustainability. While a princi- involvement in his architec- pursued studies in the field pal in his own firm, he tural practice.

Andrew Wood, Ph.D., P.Eng., ing with regional and local risk management using recently appointed governments before task forces and reducing as Adjunct Professor, completing his master’s project tendering risks. His holds B.A.Sc. (1987), M.Eng. degree with Professors paper, co-authored with (1999), and Ph.D. (2007) Denis Russell and Barbara Professor Lence, titled degrees in Civil Engineering Lence. While working with “Assessment of Water Main from UBC. Working for municipalities, Andrew Break Data for Asset over 18 years in public identified the need for practi- Management”, was awarded works, he is currently the cal approaches to improve the 2007 American Municipal Engineer municipal asset analysis Water Works Association, for Maple Ridge, and his and management practices, Best Distribution and Plant Andrew Wood, Ph.D., P.Eng. research area focuses and focused his doctoral Operations Division paper. Adjunct Professor on public works engineering, research on how managers Andrew is currently a management, operations can collect, assess and Director of the Public and policy, civil infrastruc- utilize water main break data Works Association of British ture planning and asset to improve asset manage- Columbia and Chair of management. He currently ment practices. the Association’s Technical teaches a graduate He has published and Committee. He is also a course on managing civil presented on a number of member of the Canadian infrastructure. topics including asset Society of Civil Engineers After completing his management practices for Hydro-technical Council undergraduate degree, water and road systems, and the Transportation Andrew practiced in consult- public sector business Association of Canada’s planning, improving flood Small Municipalities Task Force.

10 Ye Zhou, Ph.D., P.Eng., is a During his Master’s uncertainties, complexity practicing structural engineer research, Ye started working and nonlinearity in design long associated with UBC at Dynamic Structures, Ltd., space. After completing his Civil Engineering. In January a company providing large doctoral degree, Ye contin- 2009, he joined the depart- movable structures to a vari- ued at Dynamic Structures. ment as a Sessional Lecturer, ety of industries including One of his latest projects teaching CIVL 331—Steel and astronomy and entertain- was the Atacama Cosmology Timber Design. ment rides. Working with Telescope, a first-of-its-kind Ye began studying engi- Professors Stiemer and radio telescope for Princeton neering at the South China Halliday (who is also vice University, which must be University of Technology, and president of the company), fabricated and aligned to 15 continued his undergraduate Ye introduced techniques of microns and a few arcsec- Ye Zhou, Ph.D., P.Eng., Sessional Lecturer studies at UBC Civil artificial intelligence to help onds while in motion. Engineering in 1992. He tackle problems of welding Equipped with the best UBC eventually took his concep- received his M.A.Sc. in 1998 distortion and metal fatigue. education, Ye expanded his tual design to create a fully and, under the supervision of He continued his Ph.D. knowledge beyond typical functional scientific instru- Professor Siegfried Stiemer research developing a solver structural engineering into ment, which turned out to and Adjunct Professor, David using numerical qualitative astronomy, precision fabrica- be the highest ground-based Halliday, earned his Ph.D. reasoning methods, leading tions and motion controls. telescope in the world. in 2003. to a set of algorithms capa- Working in the thin air at ble of depicting engineering 5100 m above sea level, he

Juan Carlos Carvajal erties of soil deposits using His thesis is focused on received his B.Sc. degree downhole records. seismic response of in Civil Engineering at the After his research work bridges with integral deck- Industrial University of at UNAM, he worked as a abutments, which includes Santander (UIS) in project manager, and later calibration of finite element Bucaramanga, Columbia in as a consultant on projects models using experimental 1996. He received his related to design and con- tests and dynamic soil- M.Sc. in Mechanics of Soils struction of deep founda- structure interaction. His from the National tions, excavations, ground research includes static and Autonomous University water control, and founda- dynamic slope stability of Mexico (UNAM) in tion retrofit in difficult sub- analysis, site response 2000. He also worked as a soil conditions at a local analysis for retrofitting of Juan Carlos Carvajal research assistant from 1971 company in Mexico City. schools in B.C., soil/struc- Ph.D. Candidate to 2001 at the Institute of Juan Carlos is currently ture interaction of Engineering in projects relat- doing his Ph.D. in underground structures in measurements, field testing ed to liquefaction, dynamic Earthquake Engineering liquefiable soil deposits, of bridges, and damage response of pile groups, and under the supervision of geophysical exploration detection of structures using evaluation of dynamic prop- Professor Ventura at UBC. using micro-tremor ambient vibration tests.

Retirement@civil engineering technician in Doug also became widely At the end of May 2008, the department’s machine known in the department the Department of Civil shop. During this time, for his succinct, yet insight- Engineering offered its best he established himself as ful mastery of the email wishes to Doug Smith, our a major resource for the message. Since he retired, long-time staff colleague, Materials Lab and the reading email has been upon his retirement. Doug Structures Lab, among other much less interesting. We worked for 14 years as an areas of responsibility. wish Doug all the best.

Doug Smith, Machine Shop Technician

11 achievements@civil Congratulations on a year of success

Professor Nemy Banthia Professor Ken Elwood and Professor Ken Hall was Professor Reza Vaziri joined the Editorial Boards of co-authors received the honoured for Significant was appointed Head of the American Society for Testing Outstanding Paper for 2007 Achievement in Aquatic Department of Civil and Materials (ASTM), Journal award from the Earthquake Conservation on October 8, Engineering as of July 1, 2008. of Testing and Evaluation Engineering Research Institute 2008 at the 14th Annual Professor Vaziri was (JOTE), Bentham Science— for their paper entitled, “Update Murray A. Newman Awards appointed as a member of Open Materials Science Journal, to ASCE/SEI 41 Concrete for Excellence in Aquatic the Editorial Board of and the Indian Concrete Provisions,”: Earthquake Science and Conservation at the International Journal of Journal. Professor Banthia was Spectra, v.23, No.3, August the Vancouver Aquarium. Impact Engineering. also appointed to the Board 2007, pp.493-523. of Directors of the Canadian Professor Greg Lawrence’s Tier The Civil Club has announced Academy of Engineering. The UBC Civil Engineering team 1 Canada Research Chair for that its choices for top including Professors Ken Environmental Fluid Mechanics undergraduate professors for Professors Nemy Banthia and Elwood, Terje Haukaas, Perry was renewed for the next 2008-2009 were Professor Pierre Bérubé each received one Adebar, Carlos Ventura and seven years. Reza Vaziri for 2nd year, of one-hundred 2008 Discovery Liam Finn were awarded a Professors Rob Millar and Accelerator Supplements (DAS) Strategic Network Grant (SNG) Professor Loretta Li has been Violeta Martin for 3rd year and from the Natural Sciences on “Reducing Urban Seismic awarded a UBC Killam Faculty Professor Don Mavinic for and Engineering Research Risk”, a project investigating Research Fellowship to assist 4th year. Professors Barbara Council of Canada (NSERC). rehabilitating existing buildings her in undertaking the research Lence and Sheryl Staub-French DAS represents a new compo- and bridges, led by Denis project proposed in her study were noted for their nent of the Discovery Grants Mitchell of McGill University, leave application during the aca- Exceptional Commitment program which aims at provid- and involving a team of 26 demic year of 2009/2010. to Students. ing resources to accelerate researchers from across Professor Alan Russell, and progress, and maximize the Canada. UBC, the west node co-authors were awarded the impact of outstanding research. of the network, has the largest 2007 Stephen G. Revay Award number of researchers. Professor Pierre Bérubé was by the Canadian Society for awarded a Strategic Network Professor Jonathan Fannin Civil Engineering (CSCE) for Grant that focuses on providing held a Distinguished Visiting their paper entitled, “Project Innovation—a function of civil@ubc is published by the safe drinking water for small Fellowship from the UK Royal Department of Civil Engineering in and rural communities. The Academy of Engineering at procurement mode?”, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering The Faculty of Applied Science project, led by Professor Madjid Imperial College London, in at The University of British Columbia. Mohseni, from the Department June and July 2008, where he (CJCE), v.33, No.12, pp.1519-1537. Production Contributors: of Chemical and Biological conducted forensic research on Professor Tarek Sayed was Engineering involves a team the micro-mechanical structure Dr. Reza Vaziri appointed Co-Editor of the Editor Department Head of researchers from Brock of soils from Canadian dams. Canadian Journal of Civil University, Ecole Polytechnique, Professor Fannin received Engineering (CJCE) since Ms. Clare Quirk Simon Fraser University, the APEGBC 2008 Award for January 1, 2009. Manager Administration University of Calgary and the Teaching at the President’s Mr. Brandon Laviolette University of Victoria. Awards Gala, held at the Grand Professor Sheryl Staub-French Production Assistant Okanagan Resort in Kelowna was appointed the Marshall The Engineering Institute of on October 17, 2008. Bauder Chair in Engineering Ms. ErinRose Handy Canada (EIC) honoured Civil Economics in June 2008. The Communications Officer, Engineering Professor Emeritus Chair is intended to enhance Dean’s Office Peter Byrne with the Julian C. education in engineering Smith Medal in recognition of For further information please economics within the Faculty contact us at: his outstanding achievements of Applied Science, which in the development of Canada. may occur through the BASc The Department of Civil Engineering Peter received his medal at the programs, the Master of 2002—6250 Applied Science Lane EIC annual awards gala in Engineering, and possibly Or online at http://www.civil.ubc.ca Ottawa on March 7, 2009. Continuing Education activities.

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