McLaren is Honored with Several Engineering Awards

Recently, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Lower Hudson Valley Branch and the NY State Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE-NY) Rockland Chapter held their annual engineering awards dinner in Nyack, NY. Please join us in congratulating Gerard Bartucci, PE who was awarded ‘Engineer of the Year’ by ASCE Lower Hudson Valley Branch and Steven Grogg, PE who received the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ award from NSPE-NY! McLaren was also recognized by ASCE for its involvement on the Yonkers Toll Plaza’s all electronic cashless tolling system which won the ‘Large Project of the Year’ award. Congratulations to all the others that were awarded at this event!

ASCE LHV Engineer of the Year – Gerard Bartucci, PE

Gerard Bartucci, P.E. is one of McLaren’s newly appointed Vice Presidents, leading its Bridge Engineering Division. He is a professional engineer in eight states and has nearly 40 years of experience with challenging engineering projects that include bridge, highway, railroad and utility components. His technical expertise from project scoping through final design is strengthened by his knowledge of inspection and condition assessment, historic structure evaluation and rehabilitation, and seismic and fatigue analysis and retrofit.

Jerry’s experience encompasses a wide variety of complex bridge projects such as the challenging, award-winning (2018 Project of the Year; ASCE, Long Island Chapter) LIRR Post Avenue Bridge superstructure replacement, which was installed within a 36-hour timeframe; the award-winning (2017 Tappan Zee Large Project of the Year; ASCE Lower Hudson Valley Chapter) NYSDOT Region 8 Bundled Bridges Design-Build project; curved, multi-span interstate bridges such as the Long Island Expressway/Cross Island Parkway Interchange Bridges; and Interstate highway bridges on heavily traveled corridors including but not limited to the New England Thruway (I-95), LIE (I-495), Van Wyck Expressway (I-678), BQE (I-278), and the Major Deegan Expressway (I-87).

As Vice President of Bridge Engineering at McLaren, Jerry provides technical supervision; maintains quality assurance for the preparation of contract documents for new bridge design and bridge rehabilitation projects, ensuring compliance with McLaren’s Quality Management Program (ISO9001); assesses staffing needs; provides training; coordinates work with other disciplines; prepares technical and fee proposals, presentations and negotiating agreements, as well as assisting the other office leaders in preparation of business and marketing plans.

NSPE-NY Lifetime Achievement Engineering Award – Steven Grogg, PE

With over 40 years of site/civil engineering knowledge, Steven Grogg, PE has been an integral part of McLaren and changed the landscape of the firm’s civil division. In his 13 years with McLaren he has worked across all ten of the firms’ markets. Steven has designed projects of various size, scope and complexity. With his proven project management and civil engineering expertise, he has worked on adaptive reuse real-estate developments, new hospitals and even has rehabilitated waterfront parks.

Steven’s ability to breakdown tasks and solve issues in an instant has led to the successful completion of hundreds of projects. He has served as Project Manager or Lead Engineer for major design and development projects throughout the Northeast. Including a wide variety of award-winning New York projects such as the challenging Old Croton Aqueduct Retaining Wall Reconstruction Project in Yonkers, the Hackley School Walter C. Johnson Center for Health & Wellness in Tarrytown and the iconic NYC Parks Beach Restoration Modules in NYC.

Steven acted as the Project Manger for the NYC Parks recovery efforts, overseeing seven A&E sub-consultants with over $140M worth of construction, in response to beach damage caused by Superstorm Sandy. This unprecedented effort yielded the production of over 950 drawings in four separate contracts, within a 6-week period. Once completed, public access to the beaches was restored for the summer of 2013.

A leader in the field, Steven Grogg regularly speaks at events and has given several lectures over the years on stormwater regulations, hurricane impacts and green retrofitting of urban spaces.

Steven Grogg earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland. He is a professional engineer in six states, and he is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Society of Professional Engineers, as well as the New York Society of Professional Engineers.

In 2013, he was awarded Engineer of the Year by the New York State Society of Professional Engineers – Rockland Chapter, and now he is pleased to except the organization’s 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award.

ASCE LHV Large Project of the Year Engineering Award – All Electronic Cashless Tolling at Yonkers Toll Plaza

The New York State Thruway Authority, as well as other transportation authorities nationwide, are turning to cashless tolling to reduce congestion, improve safety and reduce air pollution. The Yonkers Toll Barrier was converted to cashless tolling in November 2018. Located on the Thruway (I-87) near exit 6A (Stew Leonard Drive), the Toll Plaza serviced approximately 17.5 million motorists both north and south each year and accounts for more than 6.5 percent of the Thruway’s overall toll traffic volume.

The project team worked together to fast track the design and construction which encompassed: design report development; environmental permitting and SWPPP; highway reconstruction and rehabilitation; toll barrier and toll building demolition; drainage alterations; reconstruction of one tandem lot/maintenance yard, the addition of a second tandem lot; MPT and signage to support both TANY 18-9B and TANY 18-32B; guide rail and barriers; and electrical relocation. Hands-on project management was necessary to maintain the aggressive schedule.

As Designer of Record and prime consultant, McLaren provided complete design and environmental services. The design encompassed: design report development; environmental permitting and SWPPP; highway reconstruction and rehabilitation; toll barrier and toll building demolition; drainage alterations; reconstruction of one tandem lot / maintenance yard, and the addition of a second tandem lot; MPT and signage to support both TANY 18-9B and TANY 18- 32B; guide rail and barriers; electrical relocation. Hands-on project management was necessary to maintain the aggressive schedule, which included the following deliverables: Pre-Draft/Draft/Final Design Reports; Six Gantry Packages (coordination with On Demand Contractor for NY Division); Advanced Detail Plans; PS&E submittals.