Greetings, Minnesota Section members.

I hope everyone had a great summer and fall season. I am excited to begin my term as Section President. We are only six weeks into the official term of office, but the Board and section committees have been hard at work in planning our upcoming calendar of section meetings. 

October’s meeting, already past, featured a presentation from the St. Paul Regional Water Service regarding their efforts to clean up the water supply flowing from the Lake Vadnais Reservoir.  Upcoming meetings will focus on critical infrastructure. The US Army Corps of Engineers will present on recovery and risk reduction efforts with levee repair in New Orleans. The December meeting will feature a panel of speakers discussing critical infrastructure in a broader, more policy-focused sense. Moderated by former St. Paul mayor, George Latimer, the panel will feature representatives from academia, the Minnesota legislature, the transportation industry, and metropolitan public works.

Over the past few years, the volume of discourse in the public arena concerning the declining state of our critical infrastructure and its associated consequences has risen steadily. Earlier this year, ASCE released its 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure – a document describing the current state of infrastructure in several key areas, such as bridges, levees, water treatment, etc. and the anticipated costs necessary to restore them. The Report Card was strategically released during the spring legislative sessions and played a key role in garnering increased funding for new infrastructure and public works projects.

The national ASCE conference in Kansas City last month was heavily flavored with topics of infrastructure. Presentations and panel discussions centered on coordinated efforts between national, state, and local government entities to address their infrastructure shortcomings.  However, ASCE has not only directed its critical infrastructure awareness efforts to policy-makers and legislators, the society has spent resources on educating the general public. 

The national conference also focused on communicating effectively with the public and providing simple, quick, and readily accessible resources for the public to turn to when questions arise. For example, ASCE has produced a brochure and book- let aimed at people living behind levees. The brochure and booklet discusses how people can discern whether they live behind levee and what flood insurances may or may not be required.

As the discourse on critical infrastructure continues to crescendo, we at the Minnesota Section will do our best to provide with you important information of relevance to our profession and its practice here in Minnesota. Also, we will continue to strive to provide quality meetings on interesting and high profile projects in the area. I look forward to seeing you at a future section meeting.

Brent Theroux

Minnesota Section President