By Evan Thomas COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT • • • 0 Comments

Road Cleanup 2017

Twice a year, the KC Circleville office comes together to perform roadside clean-up services along Goshen Turnpike. The cleanup is an important act of service for KC, as we continuously strive to better our surrounding community and promote environmental health. Here are some pictures of our employees from our Spring and Fall 2017 cleanups.

By Evan Thomas KC'S BLOG • • • • • 0 Comments

KC Circleville’s Fall Cleanup

This Friday, October 13th, 2017, the KC Circleville team will take to the streets (in our case, to Goshen Turnpike) to participate in our bi-annual cleanup event where members of our team will split into groups of four, garbage bags and trash grabbers in hand, to whisk away discarded soda bottles, pieces of plastic, cigarette butts, and all other materials that harm surrounding plant and animal life and encourage dangerous bacteria and parasites to thrive. The cleanup is an important act of service for KC, as we continuously strive to better our surrounding community and promote environmental health.

Here are KC’s reasons for being committed to cleaning up our surrounding environment:

  1. We care about our wildlife: Deer, squirrels, beavers, oh my! These animals, in addition to black bears, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, otters, and bats, are all native to New York State, and when we litter, we are putting them in danger. Animals can mistakenly eat and ingest the litter, often causing fatal blockages, and also get caught in and be injured and strangled by plastic rings and soda cans.
  2. We care about our water: Litter can make its way into groundwater and eventually into wells, where many people receive their drinking water. “Stormwater pollution,” according to org, “is one of the greatest threats to […] clean water supply.” They continue, “Rain washes pollution from streets, parking lots, and lawns into storm drains, and then directly into our streams, rivers, lakes, and the ocean.”
  3. We care about climate change: Did you know an excess of waste releases methane gas that, when released into the atmosphere, traps heat? Our employees, during past cleanups, have found a myriad of materials, like plastic bottles, plastic bags, and aluminum cans, that could and should be recycled. Removing them from the side of the road is a positive step toward reducing these harmful gases.
  4. We care about community and team building: Conducting a group cleanup, whether it happen among co-workers or volunteers within a local community, is a great way to come together to accomplish an important and gratifying task. While our office may be divided into individualized departments with our own separate schedules and responsibilities, our cleanup allows employees who otherwise would not work together to participate in a team building activity that betters our environment.

Want to help your surrounding community? Here are some helpful tips for organizing a cleanup of your own.

Happy cleaning!

By Evan Thomas KC'S BLOG • • • 0 Comments

Engineering Evaluation of a Treatment System for Village of Warwick Well #3 Project

This project entailed performing an engineering evaluation to determine the best option for providing an additional water source to the Village of Warwick. Options evaluated for the backup source included Well #3 or the development of another new well. Well #3 has an average yield capacity of 250 GPM and can yield up to 400,000 GPD. Well #3 was known to be GWUDI and needed either treatment or pumping to the microfiltration plant before use as a primary source.

Additional options included the development of alternate wells, construction of an entirely new treatment plant, and construction of a water main connecting the new well with the existing treatment plant. KC performed a preliminary investigation and presented a recommendation to the Village. KC also prepared a prelimary design concept, capital and life cycle cost analysis, and an engineer’s report for the preferred option.

By Evan Thomas KC'S BLOG • • • 0 Comments

Remembering the Towers: Engineering Facts about the World Trade Center

Today, KC wishes to commemorate and honor the great engineering feats of the Twin Towers and to celebrate and look ahead to the new feats accomplished with the design and construction of the new World Trade Center. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all victims, survivors, and heroes of the September 11, 2001 attack as we look at the engineering integrity of the World Trade Center. Below are noteworthy engineering facts about the past, present, and future of the World Trade Center.

The Past

  • Development of the original World Trade Center began in 1946. “The original proposal,” according to the WTC Memorial and Museum, “was for only one 70-story building.” However, by the final iteration of the towers' design, the structures doubled in quantity and grew to contain 110 stories each.
  • Design of the towers began in the mid-1960s and construction began in the early 1970s.
  • Leslie E. Robertson, an American engineer who also worked on the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Bank of China Tower, was the lead structural engineer of the towers.
  • The towers contained 200,000 tons of steel, weighed 1.5 million tons, had 43,600 windows, and 239 elevators.
  • Construction of the towers ended in 1971.
  • The total construction cost of the towers was $900M.

The Present

  • Design of One World Trade Center began in 2005. Formerly referred to as the Freedom Tower, One World Trade Center is the building’s ultimate name as decided in 2009 and was designed by architect David Childs from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP, the original architecture firm who proposed the towers back in 1958.
  • Construction of One World Trade Center completed on May 10th, 2013 and opened to the public on November 3rd, 2014.
  • One World Trade Center is 1,776 feet tall, which, according to Reader’s Digest, is “a direct reference to the year the Declaration of Independence was signed.”
  • Reader’s Digest also reports that One World Trade Center “is one of the safest, technologically advanced, and environmentally sensitive [buildings] in the world,” quoting Port Authority design consultant Eduardo del Valle who described its makeup: “[The tower] has a concrete core, with very thick concrete walls […] The podium has some heft blast-resistant walls at the base.”
  • The total construction cost of One World Trade Center was roughly $4B.
  • The structure is now home to companies such as The Port Authority of NY & NJ, Mediacom, BMI, The New York Academy of Sciences, Condé Nast, and many more.

The Future

The World Trade Center complex is the ultimate hub of life—it contains not only office space and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, but “over half a million square feet of new retail,” is surrounded by over 80 restaurants, and hosts a wide array of events year-round. The complex only continues to grow with new companies signing leases to occupy the building, like Spotify, a popular music streaming app, who signed a lease in February of this year, and SNY, the TV broadcasting station for New York sports teams, who signed their lease in March. Beyond its recreational attractions and business offerings, the design of the new tower is said to be setting “a new standard in design” through its masterful combination of green architecture, heightened safety measures, and historic significance. And with this historic significance, which has made the structure one of the most internationally-recognized buildings in NYC, perhaps the WTC will make a true stamp upon the structural engineering landscape. Perhaps the ways in which the tower exceeds NYC safety and environmental standards will, in fact, set new, even higher standards for NYC buildings and beyond.

By Evan Thomas KC'S BLOG • • • • 0 Comments

Wallkill Water System Interconnect Project

The Town of Wallkill is located in close proximity with two adjoining municipal water systems. During emergencies, the City of Middletown and the Village of Goshen share their water. KC, as the Town of Wallkill Engineer, located a suitable grant and successfully pursued the grant application that provided a 25% grant with zero interest loan for the construction of municipal water interconnections.

Upon receipt of the grant, KC worked closely with the Town in negotiations for an intermunicipal agreement between both the City and the Village, as well as assisted the Town with securing the required permits and approvals. All municipalities required the interconnections to function as full-flow connections with bi-directional meters and pressure-reducing valves. The interconnections also needed to allow the interconnection pits to be isolation points.

The connection with the Village of Goshen was configured to allow water to be sourced at one municipality’s well field and treated at the others’ treatment plants, which are located in close proximity to each other. Two connections were made with the City of Middletown to feed the two zones in the City and three zones in the Town of Wallkill due to its proximity to the Town’s booster pump station. KC designed metering vaults and site plans for various locations, as well as prepared contract documents and technical specifications for the project. The connections, once installed, will be able to provide service to three water districts from a combined total of 27 sources benefitting a combined population of over 50,000 people.