Outstanding Journal Paper Award for 2016

The ASCE Forensic Engineering Division (FED) traditionally selects a paper published in this journal during the previous calendar year for our Outstanding Paper Award. This year, the Publications Committee, the Awards Committee, and the FED Executive Committee selected the paper “I-5 Skagit River Bridge Collapse Review,” by Timothy D. Stark, Rahim Benekohal, Larry A. Fahnestock, James M. LaFave, Jiajun He, and Cody Wittenkeller. The paper appeared in the November/December 2016 issue [10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0000913, 04016061].

The Journal Publications Committee noted that it is a very well written case history with clear lessons for all involved in design, construction, use, maintenance, and operation of facilities. It is just the type of paper we try so hard to attract. The paper was featured in ScienceDaily: “When an important bridge collapsed on Interstate 5 near Mount Vernon, Washington, in 2013, questions were raised about how such a catastrophic failure could occur. A new analysis by a team of civil engineering faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign outlines the many factors that led to the collapse, as well as steps that transportation departments can take to prevent such accidents on other bridges of similar design” (ScienceDaily 2016).

Timothy D. Stark (Fig. 1) is a Professor and Excellence Faculty Scholar of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with an expertise in geotechnical engineering since 1991. Dr. Stark has been conducting research on the performance of bridge approaches and transitions, shallow and deep foundations, and other geotechnical-related topics. He is the author or coauthor of more than 300 reviewed technical papers. He is an Editor of the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering and Vice Chair of the Embankments, Dams, and Slopes Technical Committee of the Geo-Institute. Dr. Stark has received a number of awards for his research, teaching, and service activities, including recently Best Paper in Geosynthetics International Journal, 2016; 2015 James M. Hoover Lecturers at Iowa State University; R.S. Ladd D18 Standards Development Award, Standard Designation D6467, ASTM, 2014, 2011, and 2002; Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award from the ASCE, 2013 and 1998; Associate Editor Award, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, 2012; and Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering Scholarly Paper, ASCE, 2011.

Rahim Benekohal (Fig. 2) is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He obtained his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Ohio State University. From 1986 to 1987, he worked for the consultant company RKA in Tarrytown, New York, as a Transportation Engineer. Then he joined the University of Illinois in 1987 as an Assistant Professor and has been working there since then. His area of research is traffic modeling, simulation, capacity analysis, transportation systems evaluation, and transportation safety. He has published over 300 articles and reports in these fields. He is Director, Traffic Operations Laboratory (TOL) at UIUC, Director of the Annual Illinois Traffic Engineering and Safety Conference, former Co-Director of NEXTRANS, the Region V Regional University Transportation Center. He was Guest Professor of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, 2006-2009, and Honorary Professor of Traffic Engineering, Harbin University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 1996-2001. He won the Arthur M. Wellington Prize for the best paper in Transportation or Foundations, ASCE, 1993, and the Past President’s Award by Illinois ITE for exceptional service to the transportation profession, 1998. Dr. Benekohal is active in professional organizations such as TRB, ASCE, ITE, and ITS Midwest.

Larry Fahnestock, Ph.D., P.E., (Fig. 3) is Associate Professor and CEE Excellence Faculty Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he has been on the faculty since 2006. He holds a B.S. (Drexel University, 1996), M.S. (Lehigh University, 1998) and Ph.D. (Lehigh University, 2006), all in civil engineering, in addition to a B.S. (Drexel University, 1996) in architectural engineering. From 1998 to 2000, Dr. Fahnestock worked as a structural engineer for KlingStubbins, and he is a licensed professional engineer in California and Illinois. He has research interests in earthquake engineering, steel structures, seismic building design, progressive collapse mitigation, and bridge performance under service and extreme loading. Dr. Fahnestock is a member of the AISC, the ASCE, and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, and he is a Fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute and Vice-Chair of the Structural Stability Research Council. Dr. Fahnestock is an Associate Editor of the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, and he is a member of AISC Task Committee 3—Loads, Analysis and Stability. His research awards include the ASCE Raymond C. Reese Research Prize (2009), an ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize (2014), an AISC Special Achievement Award (2016), and a University of Illinois College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research (2017). His teaching awards include the University of Illinois College of Engineering Rose Award for Teaching Excellence (2010) and the Chi Epsilon Central District Excellence in Teaching Award (2013).

James M. LaFave, Ph.D., P.E., (Fig. 4) is Professor and CEE Excellence Faculty Scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also serves as CEE Associate Head and Director of Undergraduate Studies. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering from UIUC, and a Ph.D. in Civil (structural) Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has been on the CEE faculty at UIUC since 1999, serving as Chair of the UIUC CEE Structures Group from 2010 to 2014. Dr. LaFave was previously a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and a visiting Associate at NIST. He also has 4 years of professional consulting engineering experience at Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. in Princeton, New Jersey. Prof. LaFave teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the behavior, design, and assessment of reinforced concrete, structural steel, and prestressed concrete building, bridge, and ballpark structures, and has a primary research interest in the experimental behavior and analytical modeling of structural connections. He is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Building Engineering. Dr. LaFave has twice received the UIUC ASCE Student Chapter’s Outstanding Instructor Award, was presented with the ASTM Alan H. Yorkdale Memorial Award, and is recipient of an Outstanding TMS Journal Paper Award from The Masonry Society. He is a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and received the ACI Wason Medal for Most Meritorious Paper.

Jiajun He, MSCE, (Fig. 5) is a Senior Engineer at Saiful Bouquet Structural Engineers in Pasadena, California, focusing on design and analysis of structural systems, construction of new buildings and seismic rehabilitation of existing buildings. His recent involved projects include Los Angeles International Airports (LAX) Terminals, Westfield Century City Mall, Beverly Hills Media Center, and Cerritos College Performing Arts Center. Prior to joining Saiful Bouquet, Jiajun worked as a graduate research assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying fracture critical bridges, collapse sequences, and failure mechanism analysis. In addition, he worked as graduate teaching assistant on behavior and design of steel structure course. During his senior year, he participated in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, where he studied modeling and analysis of debonding fibrous composite materials. While in school, Jiajun was a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Civil Engineering with honors at UIUC in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

Cody Wittenkeller, EIT, (Fig. 6) is currently a Systems Engineer at Parsons Corporation in the Los Angeles area. He received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2014 with an emphasis on Transportation Systems and Safety. He has since worked for consulting firms including Transystems, Kimley-Horn, and Parsons in the Chicago and Los Angeles areas. He has worked on a wide range of traffic engineering and safety projects, including congestion and safety studies for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, and ITS projects for the California Department of Transportation.

Other nominees for the Outstanding Paper Award were: