Alaska Professional Design Council
a forum to coordinate and implement the efforts of its member societies
Registration is open for the 53rd annual Alaska Surveying and Mapping Conference, scheduled February 13-15, 2019, at the Anchorage Hilton Hotel. Early discounts end January 18, 2019. Find details at ://aksmc.org.
Click here to learn more about the conference.
The Anchorage office of Stantec recently expanded its team supporting the Oil & Gas industry in Alaska. Joining the already existing team focused on petroleum industry work are William Cobb, PE, and Jenny Iwinski. Additionally, Nick Arnold, PE, was promoted to project manager.
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Following the November 30th Anchorage area 7.0 magnitude earthquake, my first thought was the safety of my family, fellow staff, friends, and my community. I assumed there would be casualties and the damage to homes and buildings would be severe. I was relieved that my family and staff were unharmed, yet shaken. Upon subsequent news reports, I was shocked that there were no causalities. Additionally, while there was infrastructure damages, there were no catastrophic failures. This is a testament to Alaska design professionals and the design standards we promote and follow. The days following the earthquake were marked by a response from the design community that unselfishly dedicated their personal time and resources to assess the damage and recommend solutions for repair. I am truly proud to be a part of the design community – we do make a difference.
Ahtna, Inc. announces new hires within its subsidiaries. Ahtna Global, LLC, welcomes Rachel Thompson as proposal manager, supporting Ahtna’s proposal and business development activities. Ahtna Environmental, Inc., welcomes Michael Records, MS, EIT, as an environmental engineer and Denise Yancey as proposal coordinator. Records will support environmental and construction work, and manage field staff, subcontractors, logistics, budgets, deliverables, and close-out. Yancey will research and report on new business opportunities and organize corporate information for use in proposals.
Click here to read the full press release.
The Alaska Municipal League (AML) is a statewide organization that represents the unified voices of Alaska’s local governments. The AML aims to influence state and federal decision-making, build consensus and partnerships to address Alaska’s Challenges, and provide training and joint services to strengthen Alaska’s local governments.
All federal and Alaska State agencies are required to use Qualification Based Selection (QBS), and not cost to secure professional design services. However, many of Alaska’s local governments that are represented by AML do not follow QBS; rather they include cost in the selection criteria. At the AML Annual Local Government Conference, held in Anchorage November 12-16, 2018, APDC was invited to hold a panel discussion on the benefits of using QBS. Andrea Story, CPSM, Vice President, R&M Consultants, Inc. moderated the discussion. The panel consisted of Stephen Nuss, PE, Engineering Director, Anchorage Water & Wastewater Utility; Al Beck, PE, Design Group Chief, Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities; Chris Miller, PE, President, Design Alaska; and myself, Mike Rabe, PE, Principal, CRW Engineering Group, LLC.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the local government representatives were generally supportive of the QBS process. In general, they were not following the process because they did not know how to implement a QBS based selection process. Limited resources and schedule further restrained their ability to develop a QBS process. As a result, APDC recently added a “How to Procure Design Services” tab to our website to provide guidance. Additionally, several of us volunteered to assist communities with the QBS process, including tailoring the Request for Proposal document to the type of project, recommending scoring criteria, and assisting with reviewing and scoring proposals. If you are willing to assist in this process please contact the following APDC representatives:
Andrea Story Email: Astory@rmconsult.com
Mike Rabe Email: mrabe@crweng.com
I would like to thank those who participated in the panel discussion, especially Andrea Story who coordinated the effort and Nils Andreassen, Executive Director, AML who supported APDC’s efforts at the conference.
Alaska Professional Design Council 