ALSITE NEWS

A Publication of the Alabama Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers

Volume XLV - Issue 2

Summer 2015

IN THIS ISSUE
ALSITE Quick Links
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Upcoming Events

 

ALSITE Annual Meeting

Wednesday-Friday,

June 3-5

Gulf Shores, AL


 

ITE Annual Meeting & Exhibit

Sunday-Wednesday,

August 2-5

Hollywood, FL

Meeting Website


 

Ur Keys 2 Drv
Teen Driver Safety Summit
Wednesday, September 30

Huntsville, AL

Meeting Website


 

 


 

2015 Officers 

 

President

Jeff Stephenson

 

Vice- President

Rod Turochy

 

Secretary/Treasurer

Clark Bailey

 

Affiliate Director

Darrell Vines

 

Assistant Affiliate Director

Dan Vincent

 

Southern District Representative

Becky White

 

Immediate Past President

Greg Dawkins

 

Contact an Officer

Officer Elections

 

Biographies for officer candidates were recently emailed to all members and affiliates.  Ballots will be sent by email as well.  Please vote!

 

President's Message
Jeff Stephenson, P.E., PTOE
ALSITE President

 

I hope everyone is having a great year so far! This year is blowing by, and it's hard to believe it's time to write the President's Message for the summer newsletter. Time flies when you're having fun. There is so much going on in ALSITE right now! Just one example is our Teen Driving Safety Summit, #URKEYS2DRV. We are very excited about this program and how it is impacting our younger generation of drivers and drivers-to-be.


ALSITE had nearly 40 in attendance at the Southern District ITE Meeting in Biloxi where we won the Outstanding Small Section Award for the sixth year in a row. A full recap of the meeting is included in this newsletter.


I hope that everyone will be able to join us for our Annual Meeting in Gulf Shores. The folks at Vulcan do such a great job with the local arrangements for the Annual Meeting. This year is again a joint meeting, so join us with our friends from the Deep South Section. Please be sure to thank the folks from the Deep South Section for their hard work in hosting the Southern District ITE Meeting in April!


The Harold M. Raynor Scholarships, Inc. is awarding two scholarships again this year. The scholarship recipients will not be able to attend the Annual Meeting this year, so we will recognize them at the Fall Meeting. The scholarship recipients are featured in this newsletter.
Please remember to bring items to donate to the Scholarship Auction so we can continue to invest in our students and the future of our profession! We are changing things up a little bit this year to a combination silent/live auction format.


Thanks to everyone for their hard work in making ALSITE such a great Section. I look forward to seeing everyone in Gulf Shores! 

 

 

2015 Montevallo ALSITE Spring Meeting

Submitted by Jeff LaMondia

 

 

The 2015 Spring ALSITE Meeting was held in Montevallo, AL on March 12th. Things kicked off with a stirring performance from an American Village actress portaying the first African American female to be published, Phillis Wheatley. The meeting included a number of presentations, including the difference between dropped lanes and lane reductions and an update on the Birmingham Northern Beltline Project. Students from the state university ITE chapters presented on their past years, and each university gave a summary of their current research projects and areas of expertise.

At the end of the day, the ITE Student Chapters from Auburn, Alabama, and UAB competed in the annual Traffic Bowl. The Student Traffic Bowl Competition follows the same format of the game show "Jeopardy", with the questions all being transportation related. The match came down to "Final Jeopardy", and in the end, the Auburn University ITE Student Chapter pulled out the victory, and earned the right to represent the Alabama Section in the Southern District Competition at the Southern District Annual Meeting in Biloxi, MS. All three teams represented their ITE Student Chapters very well.
 

Joint ALSITE-DSITE 2015 Annual Meeting 



We look forward to seeing you at the beach for the Annual Meeting on June 3-5, 2015.  The meeting will be held at the Beach Club in Gulf Shores, AL.  

 

Scheduled events include:

  • Professional Development Session
  • Three Technical Sessions
  • Technical Tour - Drone Demonstration
  • Officers' Reception
  • Banquet & Scholarship Auction
  • Section Breakfast & Traffic Bowl
  • Section Business Meeting
  • Vendor Exhibit
  • Fast Eddie's Shrimp Boil
  • Billy Jones Memorial Golf Tournament

This year, the scholarship auction will include both silent and live auctions.  The silent auction will be held from Wednesday through Thursday night.  The live auction will take place immediately following the banquet.


 

For additional information - including links to online registration for the meeting, vendor exhibit and golf tournament - see the Upcoming Events section of the newsletter, or visit www.alsite.org.

2015 Southern District Annual Meeting

Submitted by Becky White, Section Representative

 

 

In April the Deep South Section hosted a great annual meeting for SDITE in Biloxi, MS. The meeting was well attended by members from the Alabama Section. Along with an interesting technical program there was plenty of time for socializing with old and new friends. Following are some highlights of the annual meeting that may be of interest.  

  • SDITE offered another scholarship for free meeting registration to a young Member from each Section. Cody Long was the scholarship recipient from Alabama. The scholarships are aimed at encouraging young Members to attend the annual meeting.
  • The Sunday evening social event was hosted by the Associated Business Division at the famous Mary Mahoney's restaurant. The food certainly lived up to the hype, and all who attended raved about the great southern hospitality.
  • Alabama brought home the Outstanding Section Award (Group 2).
  • Dr. Bob Vecellio was presented with SDITE's Excellence in Transportation Engineering Education Award.
  • The SDITE Board approved the University of South Alabama's request to establish an ITE Student Chapter.

SDITE is continuing to focus on outreach to young members, leadership development, and providing technical learning that is relevant to today's workforce. There are lots of ways for ALSITE members to contribute at the District level. If you are interested in becoming more involved with SDITE, please let me know so I can help you find a place of meaningful engagement. 

 

 Alexander and Jones Memorial Scholarship Winners
Submitted by Dan Turner

 

Harold M. Raynor ALSITE Scholarships, Inc. is pleased to announce the winners of its 2015-16 Scholarships. Ms. Elizabeth Lim, a senior majoring in Civil Engineering at Auburn University has been awarded the Charles E. Alexander Memorial Scholarship in the amount of $6,000. Ms. Rachael Thompson, a junior Civil Engineering Student at The University of Alabama in Birmingham, has been awarded the Billy Jones Memorial Scholarship in the amount of $3,600. Both of these young ladies already have career goals in transportation, and are deeply involved in education and training activities related to their goals. Both recipients will be recognized at the ALSITE Fall Meeting in Prattville on October 29th.


Ms. Lim has maintained a high GPA, as evidenced by inclusion on the Dean's Honors List and her induction into Auburn's student chapter of Chi Epsilon, the civil engineering honor fraternity, where she currently serves as Vice President. She is a member of the Cupola Engineering Ambassadors, which promotes, unifies and serves Auburn's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. Her prior employment reflects her career goals. She was a Student Engineer Trainee for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, where she performed surveys, inspection and other duties while working with the Resource Engineer. Last summer she was an intern at Kimley-Horn Associates, Inc., working in their Transportation Planning and Traffic Operations section. 

 
Ms. Thompson maintains a perfect GPA, is in the Experiential Learning Honors program and the CE Research Honors program, and has been on the President's Honors list continuously. She is a UAB Dupuis Engineering Scholar and an Ambassador for both UAB and the UAB College of Engineering. She is a member of both International ITE and the UAB ITE student chapter. At the same time she is the secretary of the ASCE student chapter, and a volunteer intern at the Alabama Environmental Council. 

 

#urkeys2drv Events are a #Success!

Submitted by Jeff LaMondia


 

Over the past three months, ALSITE has provided volunteers to work at a series of #URKEYS2DRV Teen Driver Safety Summits across the state.  Most recently, the event was held at Auburn University on April 22nd.  The goal of these events is to connect with young teens and teach them how to make the safest decisions when driving.  Each event includes a presentation by Mike Lutzenkirchen, who is the father of Philip Lutzenkirchen, former Auburn football player who lost his life in a vehicle crash in 2014, and Cole Cubelic, college football analyst for SEC Network and host of the Cube Show on WUMP.  The series is sponsored by StateFarm, Alabama Public Health, Children's of Alabama, Alabama Department of Transportation, MADD, and Injury Free Coalition for Kids.  The final event will be held on September 30th in Huntsville, AL.  Volunteers are still neded, so please participate if you are able!
 


 

 

Alabama Section Traffic Bowl Student Team Heads to International ITE Meeting Competition
 
Submitted by Jeff LaMondia


 
(PICTURED:  Ashley Steele, Mikhail Gordon, and Michael Moore)

 

Following their win at the Alabama Section ITE Traffic Bowl Competition, students from Auburn University went on to compete at the Southern District ITE Traffic Bowl (the "William H. Temple Scholarship Challenge") during the Southern District Annual Meeting in Biloxi, MS, on April 20-21. In a great show of excellence, Auburn University's Team bested the eight other university teams from the Southern District to bring home the win for the Alabama Section! The team will now move on to compete in the international Traffic Bowl at the Annual ITE Meeting in Hollywood, FL in August. This is the first time the Alabama Section has won the Southern District competition. Congrats students!


 

2015 ALSITE NEWS Sponsors

Thanks to our current ALSITE NEWS Sponsors! 

 

 


 

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A big THANK YOU to our current ALSITE NEWS sponsors - we appreciate your commitment to ALSITE!


 

If you would like to become an ALSITE NEWS sponsor, please contact Jeff LaMondia by email, at [email protected], or by phone at 334.844.6284.

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