2022 Fall Conference Proceedings

FA22-01 Change Proof: Leveraging the Power of Resilience
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

As leaders are faced with the challenges of optimizing employee performance and at the same time facing disruptions and changes in culture, the way forward is to become Change Proof, to build long-term growth. Resilience is the foundation, individually and organizationally. Individuals and organizations have the capacity for higher performance and engagement even under extreme stress. Resilient organizations enjoy 73% better health, 41% higher quality of life, 51% more energy and 52% lower burnout – resulting in lower turnover and greater team innovation and productivity.

In this high impact keynote, Adam Markel (More Love Media Group) shares innovative recovery techniques and impactful resilience-building rituals to help attendees immediately improve their capacity to address stress and avoid costly burnout. These practices will enable you to leverage the power of uncertainty to build long-term growth while becoming Change Proof. (60 minutes)

FA22-02 Adapting to a Changing Climate
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

The climate is changing, and this change brings about a new level of uncertainty for those working in the built environment. Our infrastructure is suffering the consequences of having been designed for past climate conditions. Engineers, particularly geotechnical engineers, have successfully addressed elevated levels of uncertainty before. This session, presented by William A. (Bill) Wallace, F. ASCE, introduces methodologies for handling climate uncertainty in civil infrastructure projects along with example applications.

For centuries, engineers and other practitioners have been working on the assumption of climate stationarity, which led engineers to devise standards and practices which, if followed, would produce infrastructure projects that are safe, dependable, and long-lived. Now that assumption is no longer true. The greenhouse emissions have overwhelmed and degraded the Earth’s climate-regulating ecosystems. Working on adaptation to a changing climate opens new opportunities for innovation, replacing prescriptive standards with ones that are flexible and performance based. At the same time, not considering climate change in infrastructure project delivery is opening new possibilities for claims and litigation against engineering companies. (46 minutes)

FA22-03 Can You DIGGS It? Exploring the Benefits and Risks of Subsurface Data Exchange
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

Data Interchange for Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists (DIGGS) is a data exchange standard developed through the cooperation of a multinational group of agencies, organizations, academics, and industry. During this session, learn about DIGGS and better understand the value of the data exchange as our panel of experts (Allen Cadden, P.E., D.GE (Schnabel Engineering), Carrie Foulk, P.E., GE (BSK Associates); Terence Scanlan, Esq. (Cairncross & Hempelmann)) discuss the benefits, risks, and liabilities of sharing your subsurface boring data along with the benefits, risks, and liabilities of using data provided by others. Join our panel of consultants and legal counsel as they explore the future of this forward-thinking database.

Learn:

• Basic information about Data Interchange for Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists (DIGGS)
• The benefits of the data exchange to the future of the geoprofessions
• The liabilities and risks of sharing soil boring data
• The liabilities and risks of using other consultants’ soil boring data

(49 minutes)

FA22-04 Outstanding Project Award: Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

The new cable-stayed, six-lane bridge structure spans the Back Channel waterway in the Port of Long Beach, California. At 2,000 feet long, 50-feet higher than the old bridge, and supported by two towers each 515-feet tall, it is the longest cable-stayed bridge on the West Coast and the second tallest in the nation. Geotechnical challenges of the site included high seismic activities, compressible soils, and liquefaction. Seismic loading coupled with down drag forces imposed by the compressible and liquefiable soils resulted in tremendous capacity demand of the foundation system. The height of the bridge and existing features and improvements also presented difficulties in using conventional scaffolding for construction.

This project employed innovative techniques to mitigate the challenges, including two that were the first for a California bridge. By applying lessons learned from GBA membership throughout the project, from contract negotiation through design and construction, Leighton successfully executed and managed the complex geotechnical tasks. Djan Chandra, P.E., G.E. (Leighton Group) explains how. (27 minutes)

FA22-05 Champion Change: Rebranding Your Company to Focus on the Future
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

What is your brand? It is much more than a logo. Why do successful, growing, healthy companies change and update their brands occasionally. Join three GBA leaders (Lisa Sedivy, ABC (Olsson), Shawna K. Zachman (Gannett Fleming, Inc.), and Vanessa Zambo CPSM (Terracon)) that championed change and successfully rebranded their companies. Our Executive Director will lead a panel discussion to unpack what drives a brand change and what you should consider before embarking on this journey.

What you learn:

• What is your brand and why is it important?
• Why do companies update or change their brands?
• How do you communicate a new brand to your employees and clients?
• How much time does it take and what are the costs?

(47 minutes)

FA22-06 The Future of Engineering
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

As we expect massive changes from climate to autonomous vehicles, engineers are confronting a variety of environmental challenges, demographic shifts, and technological changes that will require a drastic rethinking of how we build, operate, and maintain our infrastructure systems.

We all need to learn how to ask the right questions, think critically about future trends and business phenomena, be bold and comprehensive in our planning, develop potential solutions, and collaboratively promote those solutions to change our industry culture and improve the communities we serve.

This presentation by Gerald “Jerry” Buckwalter (Strategy Essentials) focuses on how engineers should think about future trends impacting their industry, how to visualize the future using immersive technology, the role of innovation in preparing for the future, how to become change agents, and how to strategize to create value for clients, providers, and society. (52 minutes)

FA22-07: The Future of Work: How to Amplify Human Potential in the 4th Industrial Revolution
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

AI, robotics, additive manufacturing, AR/VR, quantum computing, and gene editing are among the suite of revolutionary technologies that are disrupting every industry in the world. What do they mean for the future of work and jobs? Dr. Ayesha Khanna (Addo AI) takes you on a journey through the main forces that will reshape the corporate world and labor markets, emphasizing how each sector can leverage these breakthroughs to make workers more productive, innovative, and empathetic. This process of human-technology co-evolution will forever change how we view the global economy and our role in it. (53 minutes)