Rosema Construction selected Frost Engineering & Consulting to team with them to provide an efficient, cost effective exterior facade back-up system for the new St. Joseph High School, located in South Bend Indiana. Groundbreaking on the $35.5 million sponsored facility took place June 10, 2011, with erection of the main steel framing currently in progress. An efficient framing system was developed using Frost Engineering’s host of structural design/modeling tools with shop drawings and construction details of exterior wall sections provided to the contractor (Rosema).

Frost Engineering & Consultings president R. Jerry Frost, PE, MS, MBA & vice-president Troy A. Madlem, PE, SE recently became certified as CalEMA Post-Disaster Responders, having successfully complete the requirements of the California Emergency Management Agencies Post-Disaster Safety Assessment Program. CalEMA’s response to post-disaster occurrences are world renowned, with continued prompt efforts they have offered consistent aid to the demand of tragic relief.

“Immediately following the 7.2 earthquake that hit Mexicali, Mexico on April 4th, 2010, Cal EMA officials contacted impacted areas on both sides of the border to conduct needs assessment to begin emergency response efforts. For California, the small community of Calexico in Imperial County sustained significant damages to buildings and infrastructure which dramatically impacted port traffic access and tourism revenue between California and Mexico. As part of Cal EMA’s contribution to the response effort, agency crisis communicators and regional emergency services coordinators were quickly deployed to assist at the border and at the Imperial County Emergency Operations Center.” -California Emergency Management Agency: Online Newsletter

As certificated responders, Mr. Frost and Mr. Madlem are poised to bring their unique expertise in structural behavior and failure assessments to the aid of local government agencies across the country during post-disaster emergency operations. Their involvement during disaster recovery operations, including post earthquake, wind storm and flood events, will include conducting rapid structural evaluations of compromised buildings to assess overall building safety and identify necessary restrictions on continued building use. Through quickly evaluating structures for continued occupancy, the ability of citizens to safely enter buildings soon after the disaster event is increased to allow retrieval of belongings and serve as long-term shelter, thereby reducing the demands on local shelters and emergency support services.

March 3, 2011, Frost Engineering & Consulting’s technicians participated in hands-on software training provided by Transoft Solutions on their new release ‘GuidSIGN 5.1.’ The software, using simple ‘point and click’ technology, offers our clients optimal results creating highway and roadway signs while ensuring conformance with all MUTCD standards. “Using drag-and-drop objects, intelligent letter formatting and spacing, the latest FHWA Series fonts and MUTCD standards together with panel and object libraries – nothing could be easier to design signs in only minutes. ” -Transoft Solutions

“At Frost Engineering we use “GuidSIGN” software to generate standard and custom signs for projects that require signs developed to the M.U.T.C.D. 2003 edition standards. This advanced training session provided the tools to draw and dimension standard signs and develop custom signs. The one-on-one format of the class was beneficial – it was customized to exactly what we needed to perform. This included the ability to modify signs quickly, update their dimensions, and develop custom sign templates. Having the templates allows us to build a library of typical signs, which dramatically improves our speed with this software. The training ended with instructions on building custom content – this knowledge allows us to use the software in just about any application.

Overall the training, communication, and follow-up by Transoft Solutions was of the highest caliber, allowing us to put this training to use immediately in two ways. We are using the program in our detailed interstate signage projects, where the training has helped us detail the signs complete with dimensions and even cut sheets ready for the sign maker. We also use it to efficiently develop individual signs that are required for our transportation drawings.”

-Steve Blackburn, Senior Technician, FEC

Frost Engineering & Consulting is proud to announce Kevin Walsh from our Granger, IN office in his participation as an Adjunct Professor of Civil Engineering for the University of Notre Dame. It is important to invest in the future of upcoming engineers and unveil ideal solutions to modern transportation challenges. We look forward to the opportunities this may bring not only Mr. Walsh but the students as well.

“I am teaching ‘Introduction to Transportation Engineering’ at the University of Notre Dame during the Spring 2011 semester. We are covering topics such as road vehicle performance, geometric design, pavement design, traffic flow, queuing, capacity, level of service, traffic control, travel demand, and traffic forecasting.  My primary objective in teaching this course is to promote the acquisition of the technical skills, conceptual understanding, and work ethic the students will need in order to be immediately productive upon entering the professional realm.”

-Kevin Walsh, EIT, FEC

February 17, 2011, Frost Engineering & Consulting‘s technicians participated in Imaginit Technologies BIM 360 – Models From All Angles course via web-cast. BIM lends extreme capabilities, and attributes advancement in any engineering task, from buildings, bridges and more. BIM 360 was a course offered to ensure maximum utilization of the dynamic software.

“BIM-360 illustrated the entire BIM process, providing a detailed review of Revit and future concepts. Autodesk Ecotect applied in Revit offers contribution of energy analysis; using specific Revit model development techniques which pose benefits to the architect. The workflow presented in Ecotect also provided ideas for us to use on our BIM projects, allowing simplification of the model when transitioning from Revit to Ram prior analysis. Avatech utilities offers a universal project application with ‘Point Clouds,’ allowing us to take a raw point cloud and revise it for our purposes.”

-Steve Blackburn, Senior Technician, FEC

“Strengths revealed from BIM-360 that will enhance Frost Engineering include a few of the qualities demonstrated. Revit model in correspondence with Navisworks will offer provision for plausible clash detection to be useful towards larger structures and working with architects/contractors in prevention of potential building conflict interference – such as a duct line running through a solid wall, or overlapped item. The insight Navisworks revealed in ‘Virtual Construction’ models gave options for building construction schedules and contractor viewing in ‘real time’ status as the building process unfolds.”

-Tyler Madlem, Technician, FEC

Frost Engineering & Consulting would like to congratulate company Vice-President Troy A. Madlem on achieving his ‘Structural Engineering License’ in the state of Nebraska, January 4, 2011. A native of the community, Mr. Madlem is a highly accomplished structural engineer and business leader. Our Staff at Frost Engineering is proud of his recent accomplishment and look forward to the bright future this will offer Mr. Madlem, PE, SE.

-FROST ENGINEERING & CONSULTING

Frost Engineering & Consulting is proud to announce that as of January 3, 2011 Andrew P. Makinson obtained his ‘Professional Engineer License’ in Indiana. We would like to congratulate and commend him on his strong efforts and achievement. We welcome Andrew to the profession as a ‘P.E.’ as he continues to bring his expertise and professionalism in the practice of structural engineering to the benefit of our clients’ projects. 

-FROST ENGINEERING & CONSULTING

ASCE Webinar – Designing Buildings with Overhead Cranes

As part of Frost Engineering & Consulting‘s commitment to continuing education sessions, Frost engineers along with several clients attended the American Society of Civil Engineers ‘Designing Buildings with Overhead Cranes’ webinar on December 20, 2010.

“Frost Engineering & Consulting and our client’s engineering staff attended this webinar together in order to review the design of overhead crane systems. In addition to providing the client with background into what processes are implemented by Frost’ staff in completing heavy industrial crane projects, this meeting provided members of both firms the opportunity to discuss specific issues relevant to the client’s unique systems and design challenges. ”

- Kevin Walsh, EIT, FEC

“ASCE has consistently provided a wide range of seminars on valuable topics. I have been able to take advantage of several of them since coming to Frost Engineering, and have been pleased at the company’s pro-active mindset on training and keeping up with changes in the industry.”

-Andrew Makinson, PE, FEC

FROST ENGINEERING & CONSULTING maintains the most up-to-date training the engineering field has to offer.   ASCE: AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS is a training program equipped to further expertise and education in specified engineering fields. Frost Engineering & Consulting P.E.’s and E.I.’s have been attending these Structural Courses through ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institution which began August 25 and will continue through the end of this month. The professional seminars and workshops have been focused on the following areas: Structural Analysis, Masonry Design, Concrete Design, Steel Design, Timber Design and Bridge Design. These courses are offered through the internet, live on the web (to find out more please click here).