D&K is pleased to announce that following Chuck Goodling’s appointment to President of D&K, Jonathan Ashley, PE, was chosen to lead the firm’s Public Works Division. Jon has steadily grown his responsibilities and is now responsible for Public Works operations in five offices in four states. Prior to joining D&K, Jon was a Vice President at Phelps Engineering in Middlebury, where he managed a wide variety of civil and environmental projects. Jon brings high-level experience with hazardous waste sites, including brownfield investigations, remediation, disposal, and site stabilization. Bringing decades of hands-on experience in the area of water, sewer, and stormwater engineering, Jon regularly oversees the firm’s services for onsite, small- and large-scale wastewater treatment; water sourcing and supply; and site/stormwater projects. He has also helped to grow the firm’s slope protection practice.

Jon provides ongoing mentoring, helps resolve issues, and keeps people gainfully busy and productive. Jon was also elected to the D&K Board of Directors in 2019 and continues to serve in this key leadership position. D&K is very fortunate to have Jon on the D&K team and serving in this senior leadership position.

D&K has received a Grand Award for the Bethel Mountain Road Emergency Slope and Roadway Repair in Rochester, Vermont. The award was received in the Special Projects Category of the annual American Council of Engineering Companies of Vermont (ACEC/VT) Engineering Excellence Awards Program, a showcase of exemplary engineering projects completed around the state.

On April 15, 2019, a significant rainfall event melted snowpack on frozen ground above the Bethel Mountain Road, a vital mountain connector road that carries 1,400 vehicles per day between VT 100 and VT 12. The stormwater and sediment runoff overwhelmed inadequate drainage and scoured the unstable roadway embankments, leading to six roadway slope failures and rendering the road impassable.

D&K led the design and supported the project through the reconstruction of a half-mile section of road and repairs of steep embankments in a compressed six-month timeframe, meeting schedule requirements that resulted in the town receiving one hundred percent federal funding. Working with the Town of Rochester, the Vermont Agency of Transportation, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the Federal Highway Administration, Sanborn Head (which provided geotechnical engineering), G. W. Tatro (contractor), and John Turner Consulting, D&K successfully led the stabilization of six failed slopes, developed new stormwater collection and erosion mitigation practices, and reconstructed 2,800 linear feet of roadway. Construction was completed and the road reopened for traffic on October 11, 2019.

DuBois & King received a Silver Award in the Structural Systems Category for the Lilac Bridge Replacement project in Hooksett. The award was presented by the American Council of Engineering Companies of New Hampshire Engineering Excellence Awards Program, a showcase of exemplary engineering projects completed in the state and/or by New Hampshire firms.

DuBois & King provided investigation, evaluation of alternatives, and design for a replacement of the Lilac vehicle bridge with a new pedestrian bridge. The new bridge maintained the viewscape of the previous bridge—a historic high Pratt through truss bridge constructed in 1909—and served as a crossing over the Merrimack River. The existing bridge was bypassed and closed to vehicles in 1976 and closed to pedestrians in 1995. In August 2014, the NHDOT advised the Town of Hooksett that a recent inspection revealed the existing bridge had failed, citing four locations where critical truss members had fractured, and the bridge was in imminent danger of collapse. While closed to vehicles and pedestrians, the bridge still supported a major sewer line.

D&K led planning, design, and permitting of this project while simultaneously balancing the needs of eight stakeholder groups that had interest and jurisdiction in the project. Managing the stakeholder groups’ conflicting needs added complexity during the project’s compressed schedule. The replacement bridge satisfies pedestrian and sewer crossing requirements while providing an economical, long-lasting structure that mimics the appearance of the historic structure it replaces.

Construction Contractor E. D. Swett developed an aggressive construction schedule that demolished and removed the superstructure, rehabilitated the substructure and erected the new bridge to carry the sewer line before the bridge succumbed to collapse and failure of the supported sewer line and impending environmental disaster.