We are pleased to announce that Westbrook Associated Engineers, Inc. is under new ownership that consists of Andrew Knutson and Aaron Palmer.

Andy Knutson has been appointed as Westbrook Associated Engineers, Inc.’s new CEO and President, and Aaron Palmer will be the Vice President and CFO.

Andy Knutson started with Westbrook in 1999 and previously served as Vice President and Structural Project Manager.    Andy obtained a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1995, and a Master of Science in Structural Engineering in 1997, both from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. He is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois (SE),Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Mr. Knutson has experience in designing construction falsework and shoring systems, bridge demolition and erection procedures, bridges, rating existing bridges, developing repair procedures for rehabilitation of existing structures, marine engineering, and residential and commercial buildings.  He also has extensive experience in forensic engineering and failure analysis including structural collapse of buildings, bridge structures and industrial, commercial, marine and agricultural facilities.  Westbrook regularly handles forensic projects involving proper material usage, proper drainage, and temporary shoring during construction, as well as fire, flood, hail and wind damage. He is familiar with all applicable structural design codes, including AASHTO Standard Specification for Highway Bridges and AASHTO Guide Specification for Bridge Temporary Works, AREMA, ASCE,  AISC, ACI, IBC, and is an OSHA qualified person.

Aaron Palmer will retain his role as Vice President and be appointed WAE’s CFO.  He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering in 1996 from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL.  He has over 20 years of professional experience and has effectively managed projects for the federal, state and local governments.  He has also worked with private developers to deliver their projects within their allotted budget and time frame.

Mr. Palmer is a Professional Engineer in Wisconsin and Illinois.  He is also a Federal Highway Administration certified bridge inspector.  He has performed over 750 routine and fracture critical bridge inspections in his career and has also served as the Bridge Program Manager for various counties and municipalities in Wisconsin.

Mr. Palmer is responsible for all construction administration and inspection projects, all highway design services, and for the overall management of all local program bridge rehabilitation and replacement design projects completed by Westbrook.  Aaron also serves as Westbrook’s Quality Control / Quality Assurance engineer overseeing all site development and highway designs reviewing the plans and construction documents for constructability and completeness.

“Plan the work…work the plan!” One of the many memorable quotes Jeff left us with during his nearly 33 years here at Westbrook Associated Engineers, Inc.

As of today, March 1, 2021, Jeff Koch has officially retired. We are forever grateful for his many years of service, vast knowledge, mentorship, and experience. His many contributions will be valued and remembered.

On behalf of the entire company we wish Jeff congratulations on his retirement and the best of luck in his new chapter of life! Enjoy all your travels and the time with your family!

Last October NEW Cooperative, Inc began construction of their new marine shipping facility in Blencoe, IA with the installation of mooring pipe piles by Massman Construction Co. The past few months NEW Cooperative has also been making progress on the landside construction activities involving installation of mechanical items and construction of the new fertilizer storage building. We would like to thank NEW Coop for choosing Westbrook to provide site civil, marine, and landside structural engineering services for this facility.

Granite Construction has contracted Westbrook for the inspection of the falsework required for the construction of the Cline Avenue Bridge in East Chicago, IN. The falsework towers are constructed from steel pre-fabricated modules that are assembled together at each concrete pier of the bridge. The falsework towers help to support the eccentric loads imposed by the placement of the precast box girders segments as the Cline Avenue Bridge is built out from the pier. The proper assembly of the falsework tower is crucial to support the bridge dead loads during the various construction stages and for the safety of the construction crew. The projected completion date for this project is the end of 2020.

Here is a great slideshow to show the progress of the project: https://www.clineave.com/construction

 

This project is a new agricultural marine shipping facility, which will be located along the Missouri River (rm 680.75) in Monona County, Iowa near the town of Blencoe.  The proposed Ag shipping facility will involve a barge unloading area for dry fertilizer, roadway salt, and roadway aggregates (gravel & stone).  These materials will be unloaded from product barges by the use of a material handler with a clamshell bucket sitting on a platform barge.  Materials will be placed into a hopper sitting on the platform barge and then conveyed to the land side storage areas.  The dry fertilizer products shall be conveyed to a building enclosure. Roadway aggregate and roadway salt shall be conveyed to radial tele-stacker conveyor to be stock piled.  The empty product barges will then be cleaned and positioned downstream breasting against another platform barge, which will be used for loading the product barges with soybean or corn.  The loading area will use a combination of belt conveyors and a radial tele-stacker conveyor to convey material to be load to the product barges and then transported down the Missouri River.  The proposed Ag shipping facility will have roadways for semi-truck access to each of the above described unloading and loading areas of the site.

Westbrook Associated Engineers provided the following engineering services for this project:

• Agency Coordination & Permitting – coordination with US Army Corps of Engineers, Iowa DNR & Monona County regarding work within the Missouri river which included a Hydrologic & Hydraulic Analysis (H&H) to be included with “Joint Application” submitted to the USACOE and IDNR.  Westbrook also prepared Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) including design of all associated stormwater devices to meet state and federal stormwater quality and quantity requirements for this new site development project.
• Design Phase Administrative Services – coordination with geotechnical, bathymetric survey, landside survey, building contractors, mechanical equipment suppliers, preliminary coordination with various construction related activities involving site grading, concrete foundations, structural steel, etc.
• Structural Analysis & Design – barge mooring pipe piles, modifications to both platform barges, access ramp to platform barges, modifications to used belt conveyor truss’s for increase span lengths, access walkways to barge mooring pipe piles.
• Structural Foundation Design – access ramp to platform barge, belt conveyors, fertilizer building, access walkways to barge mooring pipe piles
• Site Development – grading plan and details for loading / unloading truck traffic and design for site drainage and all stormwater devices
• Construction Phase Administrative Service – RFI’s, shop drawing review, material cert’s, on-site inspections and construction documentation control.

For more information from two local news stations with coverage of the ground breaking ceremony held in Blenco on September 9^th: Gov. Reynolds, Blencoe community break ground on NEW Coop Ag port along Missouri River | KMEG & Port of Blencoe breaks ground, potential money-saver for farmers | 4KTIV