By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • 0 Comments

Infrastructure Week, Day 2: Water

Water is a vital resource, but with a rise in deteriorating infrastructure and underfunded programs like the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), we’ve run into a nationwide problem.

In recent years, we’ve witnessed water crisis on a national scale in places like Flint, Michigan, whose citizens haven’t had access to clean water in nearly four years; Texas, Florida, and especially Puerto Rico, where recent hurricanes damaged municipal water services; and the Southwest United States, where drought conditions continue to worsen.

Over one million miles of pipes work to deliver water around the country, most of that aging infrastructure having been laid numerous decades ago. Now more than ever, America requires government action to upgrade insufficient water infrastructure. Clean, reliable drinking water is a commodity that everyone, without exception, should have access to.

At KC Engineering and Land Surveying, P.C. (KC), our water supply group works to create sufficient, long-term resolutions to provide safe drinking water. With a group of skilled water, wastewater, civil, and environmental engineers, KC is able to provide lasting solutions to various municipalities, residential developments, and many more.

With projects like the Wallkill Water System Interconnect, Kosuga Well 7 Development, and LaGuardia Airport Trunk Main Relocation, KC continues to play a vital role in ensuring the functionality of filtration systems, water resources, and water treatment.

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • 0 Comments

Infrastructure Week, Day 1: Bridges

How do we resolve a problem as widespread as nationally deficient bridge infrastructure?

Year after year, America’s deteriorating infrastructure is so critically neglected that now, in 2019, we face a multi-billion-dollar backlog for the rehabilitation of bridges, a vital facet of the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

While the number of structurally deficient bridges in the United States is down significantly from years past, according to an Infrastructure Report Card provided by the American Society of Civil Engineers, around 188 million trips are taken every day across these deficient bridges. Rehabilitation needs for bridges are backlogged as much as $123 billion, an investment of over half of the funding already provided. These high repair and rehabilitation costs pose a nationwide challenge to state transportation agencies pursuing the construction of reliable infrastructure.

At KC Engineering and Land Surveying, P.C. (KC), structural engineering remains an integral part of our corporation’s contribution to providing safe, sufficient bridge infrastructure.

With projects like ‘Design and Construction of Emergency Repairs, Park Avenue Viaduct at 118th Street,’ ‘Replacement of Route 59 Bridge over MNRR,’ and ‘Greenkill Avenue Bridge Replacement,’ KC is continuously able to provide survey services, design assessment, and structural analysis for the replacement and rehabilitation of damaged, deficient, and extremely vital bridge infrastructure in various counties of New York State.

By Evan Thomas COMPANY NEWSLETTERS • • • • • 0 Comments

January 2019 Company Newsletter

This January, we speak with KC Vice President Nancy Clark about the creative and collaborative nature of engineering work, and how her decades-long engineering experience informs that process. The newsletter also features photos from our employee holiday cruise, project highlights, employee milestones, and more.

Download KC’s Company Newsletter – January 2019 edition to keep up with KC’s latest news!

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • 0 Comments

The Tappan Zee Bridge Project

As part of the design team for the Tappan Zee Bridge design-build project, KC provided design support services for this project including on the bridge approach, approach roadways, new maintenance access ramps connecting the Thruway mainline and River Road in Rockland County, associated adjustments to River Road, on- and off-ramp adjustments at Interchange 9, retaining walls and noise walls, drainage systems, stormwater treatment systems, signing and pavement markings, lighting, erosion control, slope stabilization and stormwater pollution prevention, and maintenance and protection of traffic.

KC provided design and construction support services.

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • 0 Comments

Understanding Work Zone Traffic Control (WZTC)

When construction takes place near or on roadways, it can result in traffic delays and compromised safety of construction workers, motorists, and pedestrians. As a result of roadway construction, certain measures are enacted to facilitate a safe work area for workers, maintain and protect the flow of traffic, and complete necessary work on schedule.

Work zone traffic control (WZTC) was created with these factors in mind, providing construction workers with the knowledge they need to maintain a safe work environment while ensuring an organized flow of traffic. WZTC protocols seek to mitigate the effects of construction on those directly affected by factors such as lane closures or detours.

Motorists should be alert to changing traffic patterns and possible work zones that may crop up along the road.

The typical WZTC area consists of four components:

  1. The advance warning area is the point where motorists are alerted to upcoming road work, usually through the use of road signs, electronic signboards, and flags.
  2. The transition area is the area motorists are guided to transition out of their normal traffic pattern to the new, temporary traffic detour. This can be done with the use of flaggers, traffic cones, and signs.
  3. The activity area is where the actual road work is being conducted.
  4. The termination area is the point where traffic is allowed to return to its normal pattern.

While every municipality has the ability to mandate or adopt their own WZTC policies, they must remain consistent with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), set in place as a result of the New York State Vehicle & Traffic Law.

At KC Engineering and Land Surveying, P.C. (KC), our field staff are well-versed in WZTC operations and regularly apply said knowledge when providing a variety of services to our clients.