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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Committee Biographies." National Academy of Engineering, National Research Council, and Transportation Research Board. 2003. Completing the "Big Dig": Managing the Final Stages of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10629.
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Appendix A
Committee to Review Project Management Practices Employed on the Boston Central Artery (“Big Dig”) Project

John T.Christian(Chair) is one of the nation’s leading geotechnical engineers and an expert in consulting engineering. Dr. Christian spent much of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering at MIT and later served on its faculty of civil engineering. Dr. Christian was a Vice President at Stone & Webster when he left to go into private practice. He has published over 90 papers and three books in the geotechnical and earthquake engineering fields. He is currently a consulting engineer in Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. Dr. Christian has actively served as a fellow and former chair of the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology (ABET), the organization that oversees the accreditation of engineering programs at universities. He is also a former chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Geotechnical Engineering Division and edited the Society’s Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. An Honorary Member of ASCE and an Honorary Member of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section, ASCE, Dr. Christian has been the distinguished recipient of several honors and awards. In 1996, he received ASCE’s Thomas A. Middlebrook Award for a paper on the uses of reliability approaches in which he applied probabilistic concepts to geotechnical engineering. In 1999 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Jamie Browder is a civil engineer with over 30 years of experience in virtually all aspects of planning, design, and construction of major civil-works projects, including highways, bridges, commuter rail stations and other transportation elements. Mr. Browder is regional vice president of Wilbur Smith Associates and oversees operations that include civil/roadway design, structural design, construction engineering and inspection, bridge inspection, municipal engineering, traffic engineering, transportation planning, and management of overall staff to ensure conformance to client requirements. Mr. Browder is former Chief Engineer of the Virginia Department of Transportation and throughout his career at VDOT he has served as District Administrator, Assistant District Engineer, and Resident Engineer. His major projects included I-295 and I-95 near Richmond, various roadways and traffic systems within the City of Richmond, and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project. Mr. Browder has a B.S. from the Virginia Military Institute.

John C.Davis retired in 2001 from General Motors Corporation’s Worldwide Facilities Group, where he was Director of Engineering Services, Capital Projects. Mr. Davis spent 36 years at GM, beginning in the Electrical Department of the Argonaut Division. He worked to become a supervisor and then department head of the Electrical and Mechanical Systems Department. He then became manager of the Project and Construction Administration. Mr. Davis managed the engineering of the Spring Hill, Tennessee, Saturn complex from 1985 to 1989. He then became manager of all of GM’s major domestic projects, and later became director of International Facilities, Capital Projects. Mr. Davis is a member of the Industrial Advisory Committee of the

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Committee Biographies." National Academy of Engineering, National Research Council, and Transportation Research Board. 2003. Completing the "Big Dig": Managing the Final Stages of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10629.
×

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Missouri, where he graduated with a B.S. in mechanical engineering.

Chris T.Hendrickson is the Duquesne Light Company Professor of Engineering and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. His research, teaching, and consulting are in the general area of engineering planning and management, including design for the environment, system performance, project management, finance, and computer applications. He has co-authored two textbooks, Project Management for Construction and Transportation Investment and Pricing Principles, and two monographs, Knowledge-Based Process Planning for Construction and Manufacturing and Concurrent Computer-Integrated Building Design. In addition, he has published numerous articles in the professional literature. Dr. Hendrickson is a member of numerous professional organizations and advisory and review boards, and he is editor of the Journal of Transportation Engineering. His education includes B.S. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University, a Master of Philosophy degree in economics from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Hendrickson has been the recipient of the ASCE Turner Lecture Award (2002), Fenves Systems Research Award (2002), AT&T Industrial Ecology Fellowships (2000–2002), the ASCE Frank M. Masters Transportation Engineering Award (1994), the ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Award (1989), the Benjamin Richard Teare Teaching Award from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (1987), and a Rhodes Scholarship (1973).

James Lefter has over 40 years’ experience directing design and construction of major facilities in industry and government. He spent 30 years as a structural engineer—in the private sector with Bethlehem Steel, and in the public sector with the General Services Administration and Veterans Administration (VA). He has also served as Project Director/Contracting Officer for Design and Construction for the VA, and as its Director of Architecture and Engineering. While working for the VA, Mr. Lefter created a national seismic-safety program for its facilities and helped develop the first modern seismic design code. He then went on to become the Director of the Learning From Earthquakes Program at the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. Mr. Lefter has recently been Visiting/Adjunct Professor Lecturer both at the University of Illinois and Virginia Tech, teaching in the area of construction engineering and management. He is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania and Maryland and a member of numerous technical and professional societies. Mr. Lefter holds a B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in government from George Washington University.

Richard K.Sandaas is a consultant in project management and former Executive Director of the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (METRO). Mr. Sandaas has 40 years of public- and private-sector project experience and is a recognized leader in public-works project management and implementation of major capital programs. He has reviewed major public programs, including Boston’s MWRA Deer Island Program; the Clean Waterways Program of Sydney, Australia; the CSO Program of Portland, Oregon; and the Regional Wastewater Program of King County, Washington. Mr. Sandaas has most recently served as Director of the Kingdome Sports Facility, where he was appointed to lead the project to repair and reopen the Kingdome after emergency closure. He has also served as Director of the Technical Services Department, Director of the Transit Department, and Executive Director of the METRO, the largest transit and water-pollution-control agency in the Pacific Northwest. In the private sector, Mr. Sandaas

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Committee Biographies." National Academy of Engineering, National Research Council, and Transportation Research Board. 2003. Completing the "Big Dig": Managing the Final Stages of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10629.
×

has held positions as project manager for Procter & Gamble and the Boeing Company in plant-facility development. He is a member of the American Public Works Association, which cited him as a “Top Ten Public Works Official,” and of the American Public Transit Association. Mr. Sandaas has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington, undergraduate-course experience at MIT, and graduate course work in the University of Washington Management Program.

Richard P.Weaver retired in 1997 as Deputy Director and Chief Engineer for Caltrans (the California Department of Transportation). He held this position for 7 years, having previously worked for the Department for 37 years. During his career there he served as Interim Chief Deputy Director, District Director of District 6 (Fresno), Deputy District Director, and Deputy Project Director of the Sacramento Light Rail Transit Project, among other positions. Presently, Mr. Weaver is a Project Manager at Skillings and Connolly, Inc., for which he manages an office in Ronan, Montana. Mr. Weaver has been a member of various committees at Caltrans, AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials), and the Transportation Research Board. He chaired AASHTO’S Subcommittee on Traffic Engineering and led its delegation on the rewrite committee of the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. He is a registered civil engineer and traffic engineer in California and a registered civil engineer in Montana. Mr. Weaver has a B.S. in civil engineering from Sacramento State University and an M.A, in public administration from San Diego State University. He has a Life Teaching Credential for California Community Colleges and has done graduate coursework in organization management at the University of California, Davis.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Committee Biographies." National Academy of Engineering, National Research Council, and Transportation Research Board. 2003. Completing the "Big Dig": Managing the Final Stages of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10629.
×
Page 40
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Committee Biographies." National Academy of Engineering, National Research Council, and Transportation Research Board. 2003. Completing the "Big Dig": Managing the Final Stages of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10629.
×
Page 41
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Committee Biographies." National Academy of Engineering, National Research Council, and Transportation Research Board. 2003. Completing the "Big Dig": Managing the Final Stages of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10629.
×
Page 42
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Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project, a 7.8 mile system of bridges and underground highways and ramps, is the most expensive public works project ever undertaken in the United States. The original cost estimate of $2.6 billion has already been exceeded by $12 billion, and the project will not be completed until 2005, seven years late. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA), the public steward of the project, requested that the National Research Council carry out an independent assessment of the project's management and contract administration practices, with a focus on the present situation and measures that should be taken to bring the project to a successful conclusion. This report presents the committee's findings and recommendations pertaining to cost, scheduling, and transitioning from the current organization dominated by consultants to an operations organization composed largely of full-time MTA staff. The report recommends that MTA establish an external, independent, peer-review program to address technical and management issues until the transition to operations and maintenance is complete; begin a media campaign now to teach drivers how to use the new system safely; and develop, immediately implement, and maintain a comprehensive security program.

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