Internships

One the unanticipated difficulties with this assignment has been coming up with interesting things to write about with regards to my internship. Being an intern is not a glorious position. Most of my day is spent performing meanial tasks that nobody else in the office wants to do. In addition, when I accepted this position I was asked to sign a confedentiality agreement that precludes me from discussing a lot of the information that I am exposed to on a daily basis.  I spend a lot of time going to meetings, some are interesting, while others are not. However, I have enjoyed my time at ARPA and I have gained exposure to members of the industry that I otherwise would not have had the opportunity to meet.

 Moving forward I am not sure how my internship will benefit me in finding immediate employment. The Construction Industry has been hit hard by the economic downturn and the primary advocacy groups that serve the industry are not adding any staff. Hopefully by the time graduation comes around things will improve, otherwise I might be enrolling in the Masters Program.

 

Finals

The semester is almost over and now comes my least favorite part of being back in the University setting - Finals! It is so difficult for me to get motivated to prepare for my finals. I am not sure why. I think it is because I get myself all worked up about trying to figure out what will be on the exam that I mentally just shut down. I get so frustrated knowing that all the work that I have put into my classes throughout the semester all comes down to the results of one exam. I have contemplated taking a new approach this semester - not studying for the exams. Somehow I do not think that will be a sucessful technique, but it sounds good.

Good luck to everyone! 

ARPA Concrete Technical Committee Meeting

I recently attended a meeting of the ARPA Concrete Technical Committee. This committee is comprised of material engineers from member companies along with civil engineers from the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). In addition to mining aggregates, many of the ARPA member companies also are suppliers of  concrete that is used on all types of construction projects. The technical committee was formed to design concrete mixtures that will be utilized on ADOT roadway and bridge construction throughout the state. The reason for this meeting was to satisfy a  request from ADOT to develop a  single mixture design that will be used on all refurbished and new bridge decks in the state. The difficulty with this task is Arizona has a diverse climate. Traditionally, concrete mixture designs for environments that experience a weather cycle that include a pattern of freeze/thaw - Flagstaff - have been vastly different than areas that do not have this type of weather pattern. Freezing and thawing is destructive to concrete. This is compounded by the use of corrosive road salt that is placed on street surfaces to eliminate icy street conditions. 

One way to mitigate the damage caused by freezing and thawing is through the use of additives in the concrete mixture. One such additive is Fly Ash, a bi-product of burning coal to generate electricity. Now that you have had a lesson in concrete technology, you are wondering: what does this have to do with public policy? There is an ongoing policy discussion regarding the use of Fly Ash. The EPA has suggested that Fly Ash is a hazardous material and should be treated as such. If Fly Ash is deemed to be a hazardous material it will have a profound effect on how it can be disposed. Currently, the bulk of the Fly Ash being generated is dumped into landfills around the country. However, as a hazard waste this would not be possible. Disposal would require the material to be disposed of in a facility specifically designed to handle hazardous waste. This would be extremely expensive and has caused an outcry by the Coal and Energy Industries and has led to some intense lobbying of Congress by both sides. 

The main topic of the ARPA meeting was trying to determine if Fly Ash is indeed deemed to be a hazardous material and it is incorporated in the mixture, would this satisfy the EPA requirements of proper disposal. The industry material engineer's argument is that the Fly Ash would in essence be encapsulated in the concrete and would not be of any danger. However, ADOT is concerned that if the EPA disagrees, then all concrete that contains Fly Ash would have to be removed and disposed of in a hazardous waste facility. After two and half hours of discussion the only decision reached was that the committee will meet again next month to continue the debate. Policy decisions can take a long time...         

Interviewing

As I move closer to graduating I have started to interview for employment and I thought I would share some of the things that I have experienced during that process. Over the course of the last week or so I have had three interviews and all three had several things in common.

• Despite my having arrived early, each of my interviews started ten to fifteen minutes late. There is really not much I could do about this, but  with trying to fit interviews in between classes, it was irritating none the less.
• Secondly, each interview lasted over an hour, so my advice to you is make sure you leave yourself plenty of time in between appointments.
• In all three the interviewer asked me why I wanted to work at their company. Aside from my initial reaction - to get paid - I was glad that I did a little research on each company prior to my interview and was able to give each person an answer that included something about their organization.
• Lastly, and I know we have all heard it before - dress appropriately! One interviewer told me that prior to my interview, he had spoken with another ASU student who arrived at the appointment in jeans, flip flops and a hat. The interviewer said he was impressed with the student's qualifications, but could not consider him for the position because, based on his attire, he did not think the student took the position seriously.

I hope this helps any of you who read it. We have spent countless hours in the classroom and doing homework, spend a little more time and prepare for the interview, it will payoff.

 

 
 

MAG Specifications Meeting

This week I had the opportunity to attend a meeting of the Construction Specifications Committee that was held at the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) building. MAG is a coalition comprised of representatives from the municipal governments within Maricopa County. The function of the Construction Specifications Committee is to write new standards and to review and modify the existing construction standards that are related to street construction within the member cities. In addition to governmental representatives, the committee also includes several members of the construction industry.

Throughout the course of the last several decades this committee has written a set of construction standards that have been adopted by member communities in order to provide engineers and contractors with a consistent set of road building specifications from one city to the next. This uniform set of guidelines provides one set of specifications to be applicable for work performed anywhere in the county. This eliminates the possibility of confusion that would arise if each municipality had their own set of specifications. It also makes transition from one city to the next seamless. In general, this why a person driving north on Rural Road in Tempe does not realize when he has crossed into Scottsdale and is now traveling on Scottsdale Road. One set of building specifications used by all area cities produces roadways that all look alike.   

Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum

The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum is an interesting place that provides visitors an opportunity to see some of the history of the Mining Industry in the State of Arizona. The Museum has an incredible amount of minerals and unusual stones on display, all of which have been found here in Arizona. There are also several models on of various types of mining operations. The director of ARPA, Steve Trussell asked me to begin gathering items to be used in a new aggregate mining operation model that will be on exhibit at the museum. He suggested that before I started work on the model I should first visit the Museum to view the other mining exhibits. The attention to detail in the copper mining exhibit is very impressive. The Mining Museum is an great place to visit, although a prior interest in mining history and minerals is probably a prerequisite.

Fomulating Policy

I recently had the opportunity to attend a meeting of the Maricopa County West Valley Mining District. The purpose of this group is to represent the interests of the aggregate producers who are mining aggregates from the Agua Fria and New River basins. The West Valley Mining District is part of a non-profit organization that is comprised of representatives from Maricopa County, the municipal governments of Avondale, El Mirage, Glendale, Peoria, Phoenix, Surprise and Youngtown. There is also a citizen's committee that represents the residents who live in the the housing developments adjacent to the production facilities.

Prior to attending this meeting and in order to be prepared for the event, I spent two days reading minutes from previous meetings and reviewing information written by the National, Stone, Sand & Gravel Association. This was not very interesting, but it did provide me with some background information of the issues that were discussed at the meeting. The mining operations are in the vicinity of a large West Valley retirement community whose residents are protesting the ongoing mining that is being done in the area. The Mining District has held monthly meetings for the last several years and during this time the District has formulated several policy changes in an attempt to appease the area residents. Changes include modifications to the hours of operations, dust control and the companies that have been mining in the area constructed a paved roadway in the river bottom in order to allow their trucks to travel without having to drive on public roads. 

The most significant compromise that the Mining District formulated is an agreement between the mining companies and the local governments to reclaim the land after mining operations have ceased. The plan is to turn the area into a recreational greenbelt zone similar to the area that runs along Hayden Road in Scottsdale and will include biking trails, several small lakes and a golf course. The reason for the ongoing meetings is to work out the particulars on how and when the work will begin and to keep the residents informed of the changes being made to the overall plan for the area. I found the meeting to be interesting, however I was surprised at the audacity of the local residents who continuously interrupted the meeting to request additions to the developing plan.