Nick Zembillas and Christopher Proulx of TBE Group to Speak on Underground Utility Engineering at The Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, January 15, 2008

12/26/2007

• Zembillas will speak on Mapping the Underworld – Enhancing Subsurface Utility Engineering Performance
• Proulx will speak on Achieving a More Complete View of the Subsurface with 3D Underground Imaging
• Transportation Research Board 87th Annual meeting to be held in Washington, D.C. from January 13 – 17, 2008
  

CLEARWATER, FL – Nick Zembillas, Sr. Vice President, Utilities Division, and Christopher Proulx, Senior Geophysicist for TBE Group (tbegroup.com), Clearwater, FL, have been selected to speak on Mapping the Underworld – Enhancing Subsurface Utility Engineering Performance and Achieving a More Complete View of the Subsurface with 3D Underground Imaging, respectively, at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 87th annual meeting (trb.org/meeting). The program will attract approximately 10,000 public and private transportation professionals from around the world to Washington, D.C., January 13–17, 2008. Zembillas and Proulx’s presentations will take place at 1:30 PM on Tuesday, January 15, 2008, Session # 503 at The Omni Shoreham Hotel. The TRB Annual Meeting program covers all transportation modes, addressing topics of interest to policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. The spotlight theme for 2008 is "Partnerships for Progress in Transportation".

Zembillas’ presentation will be co-presented with Professor Christopher Rogers, School of Engineering, University of Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. They will discuss the research into stakeholder needs related to subsurface underground engineering (SUE) and complementary UK research that aims to provide advances in the SUE process via the Mapping the Underworld (MTU) project. MTU is researching the integration of multiple geophysical sensors into a single device able to detect all buried utilities without the need for proving excavations, together with positioning, data record integration and asset tagging technologies.

Proulx’s talk will cover the latest three-dimensional (3D) underground imaging technology available to the subsurface utility engineering (SUE) field. This new technology greatly enhances the ability to locate and identify underground utilities, trenches, storage tanks, rock formations and even voids in the soil. This has proved very advantageous to engineers and public and private owners particularly when working in large or highly congested areas, such as urban centers. Actual case studies in which the 3D technology was employed will be presented. Christopher Proulx holds a BS in Earth Science from The Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from The University of South Florida.

TBE, incorporated in 1984, is a full service international civil engineering and consulting firm based in Clearwater, FL, which specializes in subsurface utility engineering (SUE), survey, right-of-way mapping, and utility coordination services. TBE currently ranks #3 on Trenchless Technology’s Top 50 Design Firms (2006) and #175 on Engineering News-Record’s (ENR) List of Top 500 Design Firms (2007). TBE has received numerous industry and civic awards, including the 2006 North American Society for Trenchless Technology (NASTT) Industry Achievement Award for its contribution in the development and support of the trenchless technology industry over the past 15 years and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) 2006 Excellence in Utility Relocation and Accommodation/Innovation Award and Excellence in Right-of-Way/Streamlining and Integration Award. TBE has more than 40 offices throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, China and Puerto Rico. Visit us at www.tbegroup.com, and learn more about subsurface utility engineering at www.subsurfaceutilityengineering.com.

The mission of the Transportation Research Board is to provide leadership in transportation innovation and progress through research and information exchange, conducted within a setting that is objective, interdisciplinary, and multimodal. TRB is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council— a private, nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academies in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The National Research Council is jointly administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. For more information on the TRB annual meeting, visit trb.org/meeting.

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