Geotechnical News December 2011
43
ASFE NEWS
Hal Branum
Professional Service Industries, Inc.
President William Howell Branum,
P.E.
died suddenly on July 1, 2011.
Born in Hornersville, Missouri on
September 8, 1941, Hal worked on
his family’s farm through high school,
then went to the University of Missouri
School of Mines and Metallurgy,
where he earned a Bachelor of Science
degree. He then enrolled in West
Virginia University where he earned
his master’s, then joined the United
States Army Corp of Engineers as a
second lieutenant. He left the Corps as
a captain in 1975 and a few years later
joined PSI. Focused on his children (and
later his grandchildren), Hal always
made time to coach his sons’ baseball
teams on the weekends and attend his
daughter’s dance recitals weekday
nights. His family has requested that
expressions of sympathy take the form
of donations to St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital in Memphis, TN.
Jim Suttle Wins Professional Practice Leadership
and Ethics Award
James H. “Jim” Suttle, P.E., the
50
th
mayor of Omaha, NE, has won
the 2011 ASFE/ASCE Professional
Practice Leadership and Ethics Award
for his superior ethics and leadership
while participating as an engineer in
service to the public. Elected mayor in
2009, Mr. Suttle was previously vice
chairman of the board of directors of
Omaha-based engineering and design
firm
The Foundation for
Professional Practice, established by
ASFE and ASCE, donated the funds
to create the Award. Its intent is to
recognize engineers for leadership in
nonengineering venues.
You’ve Just Got to be Kidding
For years, our “news of the weird”
feature was dominated by stories from
California, for reasons we could only
speculate about. We now return to the
Golden State, this time with a true story
that, as usual, features outrageously
whacky behavior, but – for a change
– is no laughing matter. Join us now,
as we venture to the San Francisco-
Oakland Bay Bridge, whose seismic
safety hasn’t been quite the same
since the 1989 Bay-area earthquake,
prompting the state to spend $7.2
billion for a replacement span. The 2.2-
mile eastern crossing (which connects
Yerba Buena Island to Oakland)
is a complex suspension bridge,
comprising a single, 525-foot tower,
anchored to bedrock and supported by
a single, steel-wire cable. “We wanted
something strong and secure, but we
also wanted something iconic,” said
Bart Ney, a California Department
of
Transportation
(Caltrans)
spokesperson.
Workers will assemble the bridge
from 28 steel modules that will be fit-
ted with a concrete road surface. The
“finishing touch” should be – but won’t
be – be the placement of a huge, rectan-
gular sign on either side of the bridge,
writ large with the words MADE IN
CHINA, because, in fact, that’s where
the bridge will have been made…by
3,000 engineers, steel cutters, welders,
and steel polishers who, unlike many
of their U.S. counterparts, have jobs re-
building American infrastructure.
California officials like the fact that
they saved so much money – hundreds
of millions of dollars, they claim – by
having the work done in China, by a
fabricating company owned by the
Chinese government. (Isn’t the United
States kind of opposed to government
ownership of commercial enterprises?)
Of course, the savings are understand-
able, given what
The New York Times
labels a typical worker who arrives at
7AM, leaves at 11PM, and often works
seven days a week. The worker lives
in company-owned quarters and earns
about 75 cents an hour. Think how
much more California citizens could
have saved if only slavery were still ac-
ceptable in China or some other bridge-
building country.
