The Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers to get a New Arena

Construction is now underway on the new Suncoast Credit Union Arena, which will host the Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers athletic teams, and numerous community events on the Thomas Edison Campus in Fort Myers.

The Buccaneers have once again begun to call Fort Myers home. Florida SouthWestern State College, (FSW) after 18 years, has brought back their sports program. The college resumed its athletic program in 2015 and while the softball and baseball teams are currently both housed at the City of Palms Park in downtown Fort Myers, the college’s basketball teams need a place to compete.

To solve this issue, the college broke ground in April 2015 on the construction of the 75,000 sq. ft. arena, which will host the FSW Buccaneers basketball and volleyball teams and a student activities and wellness center. The arena is planned to house 3,300 seats and will complement the adjacent Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall by hosting concerts, tournaments, graduation ceremonies, and various large social events.

Behind the scenes, we were part of the key team responsible for making this arena a reality. Our team provided the overall site design, surveying, utility design, and drainage for the arena.

This project was both challenging and unique for our team. One of the major challenges we encountered in early construction was determining a method to integrate the new utility system with the existing aging utility pipes that are located under the site. Our engineers were able to successfully connect the utilities with no major issues. At the same time, our surveyors laid out points for the building and steel columns for the structure. As the enormous steel roof trusses were lifted into place, our surveyors meticulously provided the truss elevations. Surveying for the steel columns and roof trusses requires some of the most accurate surveying possible to ensure all the preconstructed steel fits together and the holes line up.

Together these components play a critical role in achieving a quality arena that will not only provide a home for the sports teams, but will also attract businesses and revenue to the college and Southwest Florida.

This has been a significant time for growth at the college, which now has three campuses in Fort Myers, Naples, and Punta Gorda, and a regional education center in LaBelle. The college changed its name in 2014 from Edison State College to Florida SouthWestern State College and the Lee County Campus was then renamed the Thomas Edison Campus. With the arena expected to be completed this fall, it’s an exciting time for students and the college to embark on a new chapter in FSW’s history.

For more information on our work at FSW, contact Dana Hume, P.E. at [email protected].

We’re Now Offering Electrical Engineering Services

Since our company’s inception 70 years ago, we have diversified our services to meet the ever changing market and continually expanding client needs. We are pleased to announce we will now be offering electrical engineering services to our clients.

The company has welcomed Senior Electrical Engineer, Wayne Wright, P.E., who brings 30 years of experience working as an electrical, instrumentation & controls (EI&C) engineer. Wayne will work with all market groups within the company to handle any electrical needs on new and existing projects.
His addition to the company brings about design and implementation of instrumentation, process control, industrial control, systems integration and commissioning, site and process evaluations, SCADA architecture, networking, telemetry, and PLC/HMI/OIT programming. Wayne has provided control panel electrical designs for motor control, instrumentation, low voltage power distribution, lighting, and lightning protection.

This will benefit our clients by complementing our existing work and allowing us to provide an even wider range of services in-house. For more information, contact Wayne Wright, P.E. at [email protected].

FAA Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologists on Staff

Many can recall airline captain “Sully” Sullenberger and the emergency water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River off New York City in January 2009. Canadian geese were ingested in both engines of his Airbus 320. This incident resulted in increased media attention, but the problem of aviation wildlife strikes has been present since the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers in December 1903. On September 7, 1905, the first reported bird strike, as recorded by Oliver Wright in his diary, occurred when his aircraft struck a bird (likely a red-winged blackbird) over a cornfield near Dayton, Ohio. Globally, wildlife strikes have killed more than 258 people and destroyed more than 245 aircraft since 1988. At a minimum, wildlife strikes annually cost the USA civil aviation industry $193 million in monetary losses. However, based on unreported wildlife strikes and the underreporting of strikes in general, top experts believe that actual annual costs are likely two or more times higher than this minimum estimate.

Senior Ecologists John Curtis and Laura Brady Herrero, of Johnson Engineering’s Environmental group, were notified by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in May 2016 that they met the education, training and experience requirements as stipulated under Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular (AC) 150/5200-36A to be classified as “Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologists”.

The FAA requires that “Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologists” conduct Wildlife Hazard Assessments (WHA) for airports certificated under Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 139 (14 CFR Part 139), and at non-certificated airports funded by various FAA programs. A WHA is an ecological study of the potential for wildlife strikes at a given airport and requires an examination of wildlife activity, management strategies and wildlife attractants on, and in close proximity to, the airport. The purpose of the WHA is to provide the basis for the preparation of an airport’s Wildlife Hazard Management Plan (WHMP), which identifies the specific actions the airport will take to mitigate the risk of wildlife strikes on or near the airport. The WHMP focuses on mitigating wildlife hazards through habitat modification and exclusion, harassment technology, flight schedule modification and research. To meet the requirements of §139.337(c) and (f)(7), a Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologist must:

(1) Have the necessary academic coursework from accredited institutions and work experience to meet the qualifications of a GS-0486 series wildlife biologist as defined by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management classification standards or be designated as a Certified Wildlife Biologist by The Wildlife Society and,
(2) Have taken and passed an airport wildlife hazard management training course acceptable to the FAA Administrator and,
(3) While working under the direct supervision of a Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologist, have conducted at least one Wildlife Hazard Assessment acceptable to the FAA Administrator and,
(4) Have successfully completed at least one of the following within five years of their initial FAA approved airport wildlife hazard management training course, and every five years thereafter: (i) An airport wildlife hazard management training course that is acceptable to the FAA Administrator or, (ii) Attendance as a registered participant at a joint Bird Strike Committee-USA/Bird Strike Committee-Canada annual meeting or, (iii) Other training acceptable to the FAA Administrator.

Working under the supervision of Mrs. Sarah Brammell, a Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologist with Environmental Resource Solutions, Inc., John and Laura recently participated in the preparation of the WHA for Lee County Port Authority’s Page Field (FMY) General Aviation Airport, assisting in setting up the assessment methodology, conducting wildlife observations and developing the assessment document. In January 2016, the FAA accepted the FMY WHA and determined it “meets the Agency’s current guidance and regulatory requirements for WHAs”. In March 2016, they both successfully completed the FAA-approved Advanced Airport Wildlife Management Training course at Tulsa International Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They also assisted with the wildlife observations required for the Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) WHA, which was approved in 2010.

The designation of John and Laura as Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologists allows them to personally oversee WHAs and assist with the preparation of WHMPs at airports across the United States. For more information on how Johnson Engineering can assist you, please contact John Curtis or Laura Brady Herrero at [email protected].

Tim Bailey – Retires after 44 years of Dedicated Service

Tim Bailey is the longest full-time tenured employee to ever work for Johnson Engineering. He is also the only employee to have worked for all five of the company’s presidents. More than 40 years of dedicated service, working for the same company, is an amazing accomplishment.

Tim’s story here began in 1965 and 1966, during his high school summer breaks, when he began working part-time for our company founder, Carl E. Johnson. In 1972, Carl’s son Leif hired Tim full-time, after he returned from his tour in Vietnam where he served as an aircraft maintenance technician in the United States Air Force.

Although he started with surveying, he was pretty much a jack-of-all-trades, going wherever the projects needed him. He provided surveys, construction inspections, and even plan sets.

The company’s second president, Archie Grant, took Tim under his wing and taught him everything he knew about stormwater management and groundwater, mostly working with surface water discharge and watershed mapping. As a stormwater technician, before a project could be built, Tim was sent out to measure the water table at the project location, observe surface water discharge, and install water measurement equipment.

Tim takes with him invaluable knowledge and experience of a simpler time, before technology made things easier. He is one of the last few who possess the lost art of being able to perform his work without modern tools used to auto calculate results. He will be missed. We are honored by his dedication and humbled by his perseverance.