Fall Conference Offers New York PDH Credits Following the successful seminar program in the 2004 conference in Philadelphia, when 70 of the 85 total attendees participated in some part of the educational presentations and earned NY PDHs, NHSPE has planned six seminars for Thursday afternoon (two) and throughout Friday (four). At publication time, the application for New York credits is still being processed. However, based upon the seminar content, it is expected that most – if not all sessions – will be approved. Updated information will be available by mid-September on this. The city of Portsmouth and its surrounding area have many attractions for both members and their families to enjoy. These include walking tours and cruises at Portsmouth harbor, the Seacoast Science Center, the USS Albacore (submarine) Museum and Park, and Fall Foliage Cruises by the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company for $24 (adults) and $14 (children). In addition, there are two major shopping malls within two miles of the hotel; and the famous L. L. Bean outlet and other stores is a little over one hour drive in Freeport, Maine. The complete package of Conference information – including descriptions of the individual seminars, tours and optional excursions, and hotel & travel details may be accessed on the NHSPE website by clicking here. If you do not have access to the Internet, please contact Patricia Brewer at NJSPE headquarters to have a hard copy of the material sent to you by fax or regular mail. The deadline for hotel reservations at the Sheraton Harborside Hotel and Conference Center is September 26.
Delegates
Meeting A meeting of the Delegates will be held at 3:30 PM on September 19, 2005, prior to the Awards and Installation Banquet that will be commence at 6:30 PM. The purpose of the delegates meeting will be to discuss and request direction from the delegates regarding a Notice published in the New Jersey Register on November 1, 2004, concerning the application of current law regarding whether a licensed professional engineer may prepare a topographic survey or show existing conditions on a site plan without a survey prepared by a licensed land surveyor. This notice was also printed on page 3 of the recently distributed State Board Newsletter, Summer 2005 issue. NJSPE has been working with the State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (SBPE&LS) since the notice was issued to seek clarification of the document. After discussions through last winter with SBPE&LS staff and the Attorney General’s Office, NJSPE’s attorney, Larry Powers, sent a letter to SBPE&LS expressing concern over the language in the notice, and requesting an opportunity for NJSPE to appear before the SBPE&LS to be heard on this issue. In his letter Mr. Powers states, “My client does not dispute that, by statute only a licensed surveyor may prepare an outbound survey or a full blown topographic survey. My client does, however, dispute any interpretation of the statutory and regulatory language which would limit the right of the engineer to “perform such measurements as are necessary for the design, construction, stake-out, construction, and post construction records of an engineering project’. See NJSA 45:8-28(e).” In an April 22, 2005, letter from SBPE&LS, NJSPE was invited to appear at an upcoming meeting to further discuss this issue. For a variety of reasons, to date that meeting has not been scheduled; however, we do expect to be meeting with SBPE&LS, or representatives of SBPE&LS in the very near future. All Chapters are requested to identify and send delegates in accordance with the most recent adopted Bylaws. Chapter Presidents must submit names of delegates to Headquarters by Thursday, September 15. If you have any questions, please call Headquarters. A full text of the Notice is provided below: NEW JERSEY REGISTER NOTICE REGARDING PREPARATION OF TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEYS AND EXISTING CONDITIONS DEPICTED ON SITE PLANS Take notice that on July 15, 2004, the State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (the "Board") approved this notice to inform licensees, consumers and other members of the public of the application of current law regarding whether a licensed professional engineer may prepare a topographic survey or show existing conditions on a site plan without a survey prepared by a licensed land surveyor. The Board has been made aware that there may be confusion within the several regulated communities whose members are involved in the preparation and use of site plans with respect to the pertinent scopes of practice. By this notice, the Board sets forth the authority by which those parameters are established and alerts its licensees as well as those of other boards of its long-standing interpretation of relevant law. Two principles are clear: 1. N.J.S.A. 45:8-28 and N.J.A.C. 13:40-7 provide that only a licensed land surveyor may prepare a topographic survey; and 2. In preparing a site plan a licensed professional engineer must transfer the existing conditions shown on the site plan from a survey prepared by a licensed land surveyor. These principles have been controlling since the enactment of P.L. 1992, c.64, which made specific delineations between the practice of engineering and land surveying. They do not represent changes in policy or interpretation. By way of background, the enactment of the 1992 statutory amendments to the definition of the "practice of land surveying" at N.J.S.A. 45:8-28(e) expanded that term to mean: any service or work the adequate performance of which involves the application of special knowledge of the principles of mathematics, the related physical and applied sciences and the relevant requirements of law to the act of measuring and locating distances, directions, elevations, natural and man-made topographical features in the air, on the surface of the earth, within underground workings, and on beds of bodies of water for the purpose of determining areas and volumes, and for the establishing of horizontal and vertical control as it relates to construction stake-out, for the monumentation of property boundaries and for the platting and layout of lands and subdivisions thereof and for the preparation and perpetuation of maps, record plats, field notes, records and property descriptions in manual and computer coded form, that represent these surveys. A limited exception for a licensed professional engineer, appearing in the last paragraph of subsection (e), was allowed under the definition of the "practice of land surveying" to permit a licensed professional engineer to perform measurements which are "necessary for the design, construction stake-out, construction and post-construction records of an engineering project," but only so long as "these measurements are not related to property lines, lot lines, easement lines, or right-of-way lines," which must be established by a licensed land surveyor. This exception, however, does not permit a licensed professional engineer to prepare a topographic survey or locate and show existing conditions on a site plan without a survey having been first prepared by a licensed land surveyor. The statutes regarding surveys prepared in connection with the submission of site plans have been interpreted by the Board at N.J.A.C. 13:40-7.2(a) to mean that only licensed land surveyors may show existing conditions and exact locations of physical features on a survey, including metes and bounds, drainage, waterways, specific utility locations and easements. Thereafter, the survey information may be transferred by a licensed professional engineer to a site plan prepared by the engineer. N.J.A.C. 13:40-7.2(a)1 requires that the site plan onto which survey information has been transferred must "duly" note the date of the survey in addition to by and for whom the survey was performed. Further, a signed and sealed copy of the survey prepared by a licensed land surveyor must accompany the site plan submission which is to be reviewed by a governmental body. 36 N.J.R. 5008(a)
|
Save
The Date NJSPE will host its Annual Awards & Installation Banquet on Monday, September 19, 2005, at the Trenton Marriot Lafayette Yard Hotel in Trenton, NJ. The event will begin at 6:30 with a cocktail reception; registrants will be seated for dinner at 7:30 pm. Tickets are still available for sale. You may contact NJSPE headquarters by telephone for more details at 609-393-0099 or access the registration brochure online at www.njspe.org.
There are 16 existing Committees, from the Awards Committee to the Young Engineers Committee. I invite you to get involved – it is a very rewarding experience. Please contact Vicky Drew at Headquarters if you are interested in serving on a Committee, or if you would like a list of the current Committees. If you are interested in serving as a Chairperson, please call me at (732) 577-9000. I can assure you that staff at Headquarters will provide all the assistance you need to lead a Committee. I am in particular need of someone to serve as the Awards Committee Chairperson. John Tardy has done a tremendous job as our Awards Committee Chair for many years, and he would like to pass the mantle. John will be involved this year and will help guide the new Chair in this very exciting and rewarding position. I would like to thank the Board of Trustees, all of the Committee Chairpersons, Committee Members, the Executive Committee, and the Executive Director and staff at Headquarters who worked so hard to make this past year a success. Finally, and most importantly, I thank you, the members of NJSPE. No organization can thrive without members. Our 1400 members are a vibrant Society committed to the profession of engineering. It was my pleasure to serve you this past year, and I look forward to serving as your President this year, and working with all of you, Promoting, Serving, and Representing New Jersey’s Engineering Professionals for the Public Interest.
NJSPE Seeks to Honor The Best Selection of the 2006 honorees will be started in January. So, it is not too early to begin thinking about potential honorees. In addition to submissions from chapters and practice divisions of NJSPE, each member, who has been on-roll for a minimum of three consecutive years, may offer a nomination for any of the award categories. Similarly, any firm that employs at least one NJSPE member, who meets the same on-roll criteria, may submit a nomination for any of the award categories. The deadline for submissions is usually mid-January of the year in which the awards will be presented. The process for determining the honorees includes a screening of all nominations by the NJSPE Awards Committee. Those individual members or firms that make nomination(s) are entitled to attend meetings of the committee to defend each’s nomination(s), but may not participate in the voting. The members of the Committee, who represent the chapters and practice divisions of NJSPE, cast one vote each per ballot to determine the preferred nominees. The final decision of the award recipients is made by the NJSPE Board of Trustees…usually at a meeting in early March. Three of the award categories are specific to engineers who are either licensed Professional Engineers and/or members of NJSPE. These three are the Distinguished Engineering Service Award, which is considered the most prestigious of all the NJSPE awards; the Outstanding Engineer Award; and the Outstanding Young Engineer Award, for which the nominee may also be an Engineer-In-Training or an Engineering Intern on the track to become a licensed PE. Two of the award categories are open to any individual…including engineers and NJSPE members. These are the Outstanding Citizen Award, who must be a resident of New Jersey, and the Outstanding Educator Award, who must be employed in New Jersey. The 2005 award is the first for the Outstanding Educator. As a result of changes made in 2004 by the Executive Committee for the Guidelines, the traditional Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award was redefined such that there may be multiple awards, based upon the total number of nominations. At least a total of five nominations are specified for multiple awards to be considered. Those changes also defined three solution categories into one of which the nominated achievement must be assigned. These are (1) project, (2) process, or (3) product/service. In addition, NJSPE seeks to recognize engineering employers for their employment practices and progressive policies and practices on behalf of their engineering employees. Professional Development Awards are available in the practice areas of Construction, Education, Government, Industry, and Private Practice. For detailed information about the criteria for each of
these awards and how to prepare and submit one or more nominations,
please go to the NJSPE website (www.njspe.org)
and select the ‘Awards’ button. If you
do not have access to the web, please contact Patricia Brewer
for a copy of the Guidelines by calling her at 609.393.0099. Meet Another Member
in NJSPE’s
Leadership Program In the recent May-June issue of PErspectives, we introduced two of the participants, who are members of NJSPE. In this issue, we introduce Ben Alter, PG, who is not a member of our Society. Ben and his employer GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc., however, became familiar with this proven program to instill leadership skills in emerging leaders and enrolled him. Many of the graduates of the IPL have been members of other design professions closely related to engineering. Those who know Ben Alter know that he takes his work seriously. Yet, there’s life outside the office for Ben. On off-hours, he can be found cycling around Essex and Morris Counties, swinging away at the racquetball, singing in one choir, or accompanying a second choir on the piano. In addition, every winter he finds time to “hit the boards” in the annual musical performed by a local theatre troupe. When he’s not pursuing these activities or his other hobbies, he’s busy being a husband for Jean, his wife of 21 years who he met at Cornell, and a father for his two teenage boys, Seth and Eliot (a.k.a. the “Alter Boys”). Having graduated with a double major in Mathematics and Geology from SUNY/Albany in 1980, Ben got his Master of Science degree in Geophysics from Cornell University in 1982, packed up his modest possessions, and moved to New Orleans to make his fortune in the oil industry. After five years with Chevron Corporation, he returned to the Northeast, receiving his MBA from Columbia University in 1989. He then took his hybrid background of technical and business degrees into the environmental consulting industry, which has occupied his work hours ever since. After stints at three consulting firms, he joined GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc.’s Wayne, New Jersey, office as a Senior Project Manager in 1998, being promoted to Associate Principal in 2002. He now manages the office’s technical staff, specializing in the assessment and remediation of environmentally impaired properties. Most of his projects are located in northern New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area, although his work sometimes extends into New England and points west and south. Since 2000, Ben has taught a fall semester graduate course in environmental investigations and remediation at the Hunter College School of Health Sciences in Manhattan. He has been a Professional Geologist since 1993, and holds various other federal and state licenses and certifications.Municipalities Strengthen Ability To Deal With Utility
Companies An abbreviated version of subsection b. of the legislation reads “…before a public utility places, replaces or removes a pole or an underground facility located in a single municipality within a 24-hour period, which pole or underground facility is used for the supplying and distribution of electricity for light, heat or power, or for the furnishing of water service or telephone or other telecommunications service on or below a public right-of-way(ROW) in that municipality, the public utility shall, in addition to any other requirements of law, notify an appropriately licensed municipal code official of that municipality at least 24 hours before undertaking any construction…”. In order to enforce this, law requires that the governing body of the municipality first adopt an ordinance requiring the notification of the public utilities providing service of the application of the provisions of the law. The law does make allowances for emergencies where the requirement is that the utility notifies the appropriate municipal official at the earliest reasonable opportunity. Other portions of the amendment address restoration of the public ROW and the removal of abandoned poles. The utility has 90 days to remove from the ROW any abandoned pole or underground utility and restore the property to its previous condition as much as possible. The only exception is installing a “hot patch” (i.e. asphalt pavement) during the cold weather months of November through April. Asphalt does not have to be installed until 60 days following the end of this period. In the event that the utility does not meet the time requirements for restoration and/or removal, the municipality is authorized to impose a fine up to an amount not to exceed $100 per day. In order to assess this, the law states that “At least five business days prior to the end of the 90-day period established by this subsection, the municipality shall notify the public utility that the penalties authorized by this subsection shall begin to be assessed against the utility after the end of the 90-day period unless the utility complies with the requirements (of the law).” The penalty is enforced in a summary manner in any court of competent jurisdiction according to the procedure in “The Penalty Law of 1999”. While this legislation does not address problems in having utilities relocated in a timely manner in conjunction with municipal improvement projects, it does provide some control over restoration after the fact. Just as important, it gives notice to local officials of pending work allowing for planning by emergency services, and a more knowledgeable response to constituents inquiries. Remington & Vernick Engineers is providing this information to allow local officials to become familiar with the legislation and determine if it is applicable for their municipality. Legislature Clarifies Utility Mark Out Law The definition of an “excavator” has been amended to state that it “may include a contractor having oversight for an excavation or demolition, provided the contractor contacts the One-Call Damage Prevention System to give notice of the intent to engage in excavation or demolition work. If the utility company that owns the underground facility fails to properly mark, locate, or otherwise provide the position and number of its underground facilities, then that utility company will be liable for any costs, labor, parts, equipment and personnel downtime incurred by an excavator damaging the facility. For the purpose of the legislation, this also applies to public utility authorities and to municipalities that own or operate utility systems, such as potable water or sanitary sewer. However, if an excavator damages an underground facility that was properly marked out, or if the excavator fails to request a mark out, then the excavator would be liable for any costs, labor, parts, equipment and personnel downtime incurred by the operator that owns or controls the damaged underground facility. This new legislation could either help or hinder your municipality. While it forces utility companies to be more accurate and timely with their mark outs, it also applies the same requirements to publicly owned systems. It is recommended that personnel in your organization responsible for construction and the water and sewer systems become familiar with the details of this legislation. Engineering Ethics: A Search
For Solution - Part
I Engineer A is requested to review and sign a seal a set of drawings prepared by another design professional not under the engineer's direct personal supervision. Should he sign and seal the drawings? Engineer B is requested to serve as an expert witness during litigation involving a project in which his firm performed services for another party involved in the same litigation. Is this acceptable conduct? Engineer C learns that his employer is violating environmental regulations relating to acceptable toxicity levels of waste materials being released by the employer's industrial facility. Does he report this fact to the public authorities or the media? Engineer D, pursuing her Ph.D., deliberately omits certain information from her doctoral thesis because it might raise doubts concerning certain conclusions in her theory. Can she ethically do this? These are just the "tip of the iceberg" of the many ethical issues constantly confronting engineers on a daily basis. Why Codes of Ethics? Except in the most basic circumstances, codes of ethics do not provide "answers" or "solutions" as such to ethical dilemmas faced by engineers, but they do provide guideposts, that can be helpful in assisting engineers in evaluating the circumstances they are encountering and providing possible approaches that may be taken in addressing the ethical issues involved. Opinions of the NSPE Board of Ethical Review History of the NSPE Board of Ethical Review Board of Ethical Review cases are available either in published volumes or on the NSPE website (www.nspe.org) and the website of the National Institute for Engineering Ethics (www.niee.org). To be continued in the next edition of Perspectives in Engineering
NJSPE and NSPE Partnering with Kaplan to offer
FE and PE Review Courses NSPE national is responsible for helping to recruit instructors, interfacing with Kaplan, and creating marketing materials for distribution at the state and local levels. For the fall of 2005, we will offer the FE General, a.m. & p.m., and the PE civil. Kaplan will begin the review of the materials for the mechanical and the electrical exams next. Are you up to the challenge? As a FE or PE Exam Review Instructor, you will be fully supplied with an Instructor Resource Guide (IRG), which includes:
If you are interested in leading an NSPE/Kaplan review course in our pilot session or hosting a course at your location, please contact Vicky Drew at headquarters [609.393.0099]. |
PErspectives Newsletter
Layout/Graphics The opinions
expressed in bylined articles are those of the authors and do not
represent the opinions of NJSPE. The authors are solely responsible
for the information contained in those articles. |
