ASCE NHCEL Award 2022

Our founder, Andrew Rossell, P.E., had the honor to represent The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Michigan Section to dedicate the Portage Lake Bridge as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The ceremony took place on June 17 at Houghton’s Bridgeview Park. The bridge was nominated by Dr. Tess Ahlborn, professor of civil, environmental, and geospatial engineering at MTU, and her former students Michael Prast and Emma Beachy. Notable guests included Hancock Mayor Paul LaBine; Michigan State Transportation Director Paul C. Ajegba; Houghton Clerk Ann Vollrath; MDOT Ishpeming Transportation Service Center Construction Engineer Alan Anderson; and ASCE society president Dennis Truax and Tom D'Arcy, one of the original design engineers of the bridge. Andrew served as President of the Michigan Section in 2022 and continues to serve as Past-President on the Michigan Section and as Director of the ASCE SW Michigan Branch.

MDOT has produced a video news release about the award ceremony, available on its YouTube channel.

An historic MDOT documentary on the lift bridge's original construction has recently been digitized and restored, also available online at MDOT's YouTube channel.

AR Engineering Participates in ASCE Round-Table at WMU

The American Society of Civil Engineers SW Michigan Branch hosted their yearly roundtable event at Western Michigan University. AR Engineering joined other companies from the area to speak to the civil and construction engineering students one-on-one about what we do and answer any questions they had. Thank you to all the students who dropped by, we hope to hear from you soon!

SW MiSTEM Growlers Education Day

AR Engineering had the opportunity to volunteer at the Southwest MiSTEM June event, held in collaboration with the Kalamazoo Growlers. This event provides students in Grades K-12 with a hands-on opportunity to explore STEM related fields.  Several staff from AR Engineering worked with students, as they built sandcastles to demonstrate mechanically stabilized earth (MSE). Students enjoyed building their own non-MSE sandcastle and were then able to compare theirs to the strength of sandcastle’s built using MSE. Students were fascinated with how just a few sheets of flimsy material can make such a huge difference in strength and stability of the structure. This was a great opportunity for AR Engineering to give back to the community, while creating a fun STEM related learning environment for students. The students and exhibitors were invited to attend the Growler’s game immediately following the event.

AR Volunteers at Re:Cycle - Sustainable Transportation Exhibition

AR Engineering had the opportunity to join ModeShift at their event held in Bronson Park, in downtown Kalamazoo to support transportation alternatives. A team from AR Engineering used the building of sand castles to demonstrate mechanically stabilized earth. Mechanically stabilized earth is a practice, commonly used in construction, to help build infrastructure necessary to support transportation alternatives such as biking and walking in areas of unsuitable soils.

Annual Goals Meeting and AR Team Curling

Earlier this year AR Engineering held its annual meeting, where we come together as a team to evaluate the achievements from the previous year and discuss personal and professional goals for the upcoming year.  AR Engineering had an excellent 2021 and look forward to an even better 2022, as we have some exciting announcements coming soon!  We were able to celebrate our achievements by hitting the curling sheets at Wings Event Center.  A big thank you goes out to our friends at the Kalamazoo Curling Club and our very own Andrew Woloszyk for coordinating the ice time. The team at AR Engineering spent the afternoon learning the basics, playing a few ends, and sustaining only minor bruising of pride when we fell. It was a well-deserved time away from the office!  AR Engineering will spend some time again in the next few weeks reviewing our goals and ensuring we are on track to make 2022 our best year yet!