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Platform Chats
Platform Chats
Dr. William Hay
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Dr. William W. Hay was a railroader and educator who mentored generations of leaders in the rail industry and his influence is still felt today, over 20 years after his passing. But who was Dr. Hay? Why were those who knew him inspired to create the Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence in his honor? In this episode, host Walt Bleser sits down with Michael Franke, Chair of the Hay Award Selection Committee and a former student of Dr. Hay, Christopher P. Barkan, PhD a Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who still uses the textbook written by Dr. Hay as part of his curriculum, and Mat Fletcher of Hanson Professional Services Inc. In 2020, Hanson won the Hay Award for their project, “Norfolk Southern’s Grand River Bridge Emergency Repairs in Brunswick, Missouri.” They discuss what made Dr. Hay so important to them, what the Selection Committee is looking for in a Hay Award-winning project, and the greater role previous winning projects have played in education. These guests all come from different backgrounds, but they do have one thing in common, the notable Dr. William. W. Hay.
I encourage ambitions uh uh every year and hope we can get an eye set again this year, which I'm I'm sure we will. Uh it is a great tribute to Dr. Hay and all his uh impact uh on the real community that will go on for decades. And uh uh you know, I think it also uh encourages firms uh uh to uh approach uh uh their various projects with the three elements that are involved with the Hay Award in mind. Uh so it's uh it's good all the way around. It's a good uh training exercise, it's a good uh memorialization of major projects, uh and it encourages uh folks uh down the road from looking back, what was successful, how did they handle this particular uh uh incident or situation, and it it's an educational process as well.
SPEAKER_01You may know the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, or AREMA, as the quote, keepers of the manuals. You may know them as the quote people behind the largest annual railroad conference in North America. Heck, you may not know about AREMA at all. This podcast is designed, no pun intended, to change your view of who AREMA is and how AREMA has changed the trajectory of many railway careers over its 100-plus year history. Welcome to Platform Chats with your host Walt Lesser, where he takes a moment to discuss the impacts AREMA has had on the very people who are proud to be called members. Are you ready to roll with AREMA?
SPEAKER_02ARE Corporation is a proud supporter of Arima and Platform Chats. If you are looking to take your Railway Structures career to the next level, or simply start it down the right track, please visit us at ARECorp.com. Please see our brand new job postings on our careers page or on our LinkedIn page.
SPEAKER_06Hello and welcome back to Arima's Platform Chats. I'm your host, Walt Lesser, in my final year as uh director structures for the Arima Functional Group. I don't know what they're gonna do with me at the end of this year. I'm sure they'll find something for me to do in addition to these podcasts because Arima sure loves their volunteers. Today on the podcast, we are leaving Women's History Month, and we are entering April. And with that, we are entering the season of the Hay Award, and we are looking for people to nominate and or apply for uh the Hay Award. Now, you may know nothing about it. I know very little. I've never applied for a Hay Award. Uh, we are gonna cover everything and anything having to do with the Hay Award. In order to do so, we have a heavy hitting panel for you today. We have one of the founding fathers of the Hay Award, uh, Mr. Michael Frankie. We have a judge of the Hay Award, Mr. Chris Barkin, and we have a past winner of the Hay Award with his company, uh Mr. Matt Fletcher. So, you know, the introduction is going to be short today. I got a lot to cover in the next half hour or so. I'm gonna jump right into introductions, and I'm gonna start with Mr. Michael Frankie, uh, who, like I said earlier, is one of the founding fathers. So, Michael, if you could just tell us a little bit about your storied career in the rail industry, uh, your storied career with Arima, and your relationship with the Hay Award, I think we'd love to hear about it.
SPEAKER_03Sure, I'd be glad to give an update. Uh I've been interested in the rail industry ever since a little child. My my dad tells me that I used to ask him to take me down to the train station when I was five, six, seven years old. And that has never left. I attended uh Washington in St. Louis for undergraduate school and took quite a few uh transportation related courses, although they they did not have a formal rail program. But I took such a things, uh I I it was a civil engineering degree. But uh I also took a lot of business courses, uh interstate commerce law, business law, uh, transportation economics, etc. After the uh junior year, I started working summers for Norfolk and Western Railway. And in my senior year, they uh kept me on uh part-time during the year. Of course that later became Norfolk Southern. After graduation, I then enrolled in the uh Hay program at the University of Illinois, Champaign, Urbana uh in the rail program, rail engineering program. And just uh prior to uh uh getting into the school uh the draft came up and I was uh uh uh given a notification that I was being drafted into the army. I was actually on a bus to a uh camp, a fort when uh word came that they had reached the uh mandatory number of uh uh candidates for the army and the bus turned around. I called uh Dr. Hay at that time and said, Can I still come to the program? And he said, Absolutely. So went into the program and uh it was a wonderful experience. Maybe we'll talk a little bit more about that later.
unknownUh-huh.
SPEAKER_03Uh a very practical individual of very much experience in the industry. So it was both a theoretical uh study as well as a uh uh you know a strictly uh practical study. What was interesting was uh that uh I got assigned a project uh around the Midwest with a university car to take uh rail profile samples, which had been a long-term study on railware, both uh of vertical and uh longitudinal railware.
unknownUh-huh.
SPEAKER_03And we had test sites all over the Midwest, which I would uh travel to and take the rail measurements from time to time. Uh after that, I went into the rail industry, uh, back to the Norfolk uh in Western, Norfolk Southern. And in during my career, I also worked for the uh Burlington, Northern Santa Fe, where I was a vice president chief engineer. Uh I retired there and went to work for uh a couple other companies, uh including VP operations on the Chicago South Shore and South Bend. And then I joined uh Amtrak at the end of my career for a fairly long period of time uh heading up the uh state supported service group in Chicago. So that pretty well brings us up to date. I'm still active in quite a few boards and committees related to the rail industry. Uh so it's uh it's still in my blood.
SPEAKER_06And you're being quite humble because I believe in the AREMA world you were a past president. Can you talk just a little bit about your AREMA participation and how long you've been an active member?
SPEAKER_03Uh yes. Uh uh actually I owe Dr. Hay, Professor Hay, uh my membership in AREMA because he encouraged all of his real students to become members. And that's why I t uh attended my first uh annual convention during my tenure there at the university. And uh yes, I was president of the AREMA Predecessor Organization, AREA, and have been a com a member of Committee 16 for a great number of years, which is uh where this uh award originated.
SPEAKER_06And Committee 16 covers what exactly?
SPEAKER_03Operations and maintenance.
SPEAKER_06Operations and maintenance. Okay. Fantastic. Thank you, Michael. I appreciate it. And that is quite the storied career. Chris, now you got to follow that. Let's see what let's hear your background.
SPEAKER_05Well, um, first of all, one of these days, Mike, you and I have to exchange notes on uh draft lottery numbers. Yes. But anyway, um much like yourself, uh my father uh got me interested in railroads when I was very young. Uh same thing. We used to go down to the New Haven Railroad station and watch the New Haven Railroad uh locomotive change uh from electric to diesel. And um so I can I've been interested in railroad transportation as long as I can remember. Um but my education took me in a little bit of a different direction, which ended up bringing me back to rail, which is that I uh went to college to study biology and ecology and environmental science, completed my bachelor's uh at Goddard College and my master's and PhD at the State University of New York at Albany again in ecology. And then somewhat serendipitously, I uh was visiting the Association of American Railroads headquarters in Washington, D.C. And uh was visiting their library, and on a whim, I thought, well, I should see if they have any jobs open here. And guess what? They were looking for an environmental scientist, and thanks to my father's influence and my own avocational interest in rail transport, I knew something about the subject, and I knew something about environmental science, and so it was kind of a perfect melding of my two interests. So I applied for that job and and got it. And um it was not long after when I joined AREMA. In fact, it was Tom Smithberger, who was then executive director of AREMA, who uh signed me up along with my my boss Peter Conland, and uh immediately got involved in the AREMA Committee 13, the Environmental Engineering Committee, and uh worked at AAR managing their environmental and hazardous materials research program for 10 years, and uh had just tremendous opportunities to learn about really all aspects of rail. Uh, if you think about the two subjects of my work, environmental and hazardous materials, and uh those have touch almost every aspect of rail transportation and engineering. So it really was a great kind of second education for me to learn about rail transportation and engineering to work there in that position. Um in so that was in 1988 when I went to work there, and in 1998, my job at AR was moving to Pueblo, Colorado. But meanwhile, my predecessor here at the University of Illinois, uh Ernie Berenberg, uh, had retired, and so there was a kind of a three-way conversation between me, the Association of American Railroads and the University of Illinois about me coming here instead of moving to Pueblo. And so I came here in '98 to take the faculty position to kind of renew and rejuvenate the railroad engineering program here. And um I had already met Mike uh before that, but since then as an alumnus, uh Mike was very interested in the success of our program and has been helpful ever since. And of course, that about that time I started meeting people from Hanson Professional Services, including Matt and uh and um because my role here was not only to conduct research, but also to teach classes and develop a curriculum, and we've been successful in doing that, and we've placed a lot of our graduates with the Class One railroads, with and engineering firms, including uh Hansen Professional Services and many others, uh, also regulatory agencies and uh various other organizations that have have rail programs and rail operations. And uh at some point Mike uh Frankie approached me about serving as a judge in the Hanson or in the in the Hay Award, and so I've been very honored to uh play that role ever since then. And of course, we hold Professor Hay in very high esteem here, as Mike has already alluded to. He really was uh one of the mentors of railroad engineering education throughout the latter half of the 20th century, and uh we still use his textbook and still uh use some of even some of his class notes uh that we've adapted for current purposes.
SPEAKER_06Excellent. Thank you, and thank you for being on on the show. Matt. Mr. Matt Flesher from Fletcher from Hansen Professional Services. I have a feeling you are not gonna talk about draft numbers.
SPEAKER_04Uh that's correct. No, thankfully not. Uh but I I do have a lot in common with these gentlemen. Um my bachelor's was from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Um I have a family history of of railroads. Uh my father was third generation uh uh working out of Champaign for um CN and predecessor railroads. Uh but at the time I went into school I really had no interest in in railroading at all. I was interested in structures and and uh geotechnical work and that's where I got my degree. I went on to get a uh start working after my bachelor's, but got a master's from Bradley University and worked for a consulting firm for about five or six years. Uh Hansen had a position open and I jumped over at that time and took that position and was looking forward to doing structures. Little did I know it was gonna uh turn into bridges. We had uh some good connections with DNSF and jumped right in, started working on railroad bridges, um and uh had some great mentors here and have really enjoyed um working my way through all kinds of design challenges uh over the years and um leading our rail program now at this time. Um I joined Arima, I believe, in about 2003, and I joined Committee 15 Steel Structures. I think that was about 2010, and have served on that committee since that time uh and really found it very rewarding and uh a great way to learn something every day, every meeting, and uh meet a lot of amazing people.
SPEAKER_06Excellent. Thank you, Matt, for the introduction. Thank you all three for the introductions, and thanks you again for being on the show. I'm gonna just start with the most general and easiest question here is uh, you know, I heard a lot about Professor Hay. I've heard about the School of uh University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign as being one of the few uh institutes teaching railroading, if you will. Um, you know, I know a lot of people talk about coming out of school with almost no knowledge of railroading and learning almost everything they do know today uh on the job, if you will. And uh at the same time, I've heard a lot of uh folks that have been through the Hayes through the UIUC program and uh and have had a lot of success learning about railroading in undergrad. So what let's just start there. Who was Dr. Hay? I I'm gonna give this one to Mike. Who was Dr. Hay and uh why is why does he have such a footprint or fingerprint, I should say, on our R and R industry?
SPEAKER_03Well, Dr. Hay has a long, long history of uh activity in the rail industry as well as uh degrees in railway engineering. Uh he became an academic leader in engineering for more than a quarter century uh when he was at uh University of Illinois. And as World War II uh came around, uh he was called to service with the Military Railway Service. Uh and uh when the war uh moved uh moved to the uh Asian continent, uh he became uh chief engineer of the Korean railways. A lot of people don't know that. Uh after he uh after the war, he came back uh and studied further at uh at Yale University uh in transportation and economics, and then he had some additional jobs with uh various railroads. Finally came to the uh University of Illinois in 1947 uh as an assistant professor in railway engineering. And then he rose, of course, through the ranks to become a full professor. He finally retired in uh 1977 uh uh with the rank of a professor emeritus. Uh during the uh tenure at the University of Illinois uh he taught more than 700 students uh in railway engineering, uh and uh over 70 of those uh went into positions of uh uh uh major rank within the rail industry. They they became leaders in uh engineering, operations, mechanical, and so forth. Uh he was also a very active member of many professional organizations, uh including AREMA. And uh he was with the Roadmasters Association and some other organizations as well. So he was extremely well known uh throughout the industry, not only for uh with his students, but also with the professionals uh throughout the industry. Uh he was also part of the uh Illinois High Speed Rail Commission at one point in time. Uh uh here decades later, we're still uh trying to get some high speed rail in Illinois, but uh it is slowly uh uh increasing in speeds. Uh we're up to 110 miles per hour on one of the corridors. So that's uh basically his his history. Uh Chris, I I know that uh you've drafted up a history as well. Is there anything you want to add to that?
SPEAKER_05No, I think you covered it well. I mean, uh as I mentioned earlier, he was uh uh uh really an icon in the field, especially during an important time when virtually every other university in the United States was in the process of phasing out or eliminating uh their rail programs. Uh he was almost the last man standing in that regard, with just a few other exceptions. Um Arnold Kerr, of course, and um I'm forgetting other name, but anyway, um uh he really helped keep uh the candle alive uh of railroad engineering at universities, frankly, with the help of the Association of American Railroads, because it was in 1982 that they formed their affiliated lab program, which was again for the specific purpose uh was the brainchild of Dr. William Harris, who was vice president of research at the time at the AR. And he and uh Dr. Hay uh and and his successor Ernie Berenberg formed the affiliated lab program to keep railroad engineering education uh alive at the University of Illinois as well as two other universities at the time.
SPEAKER_06And so when did he did he pass?
SPEAKER_03Uh he passed, uh let's see, I have a note on that here. He passed in 1998. Uh I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_05Uh that's I believe that's correct, Mike.
SPEAKER_03Um 1998, May 26th.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, because it was the same year that I came here, and I regretted that I missed seeing him. We we we didn't quite overlap. Uh he had passed, I started in August.
SPEAKER_03Yes, he was in a home to uh toward the end of his life, and uh I used to visit him uh once or twice a year, and he would always uh he could hardly see at the end. He was uh almost almost blind. But when I walked into his room, he would say, Did you see the article in Railway Age magazine uh last month about so-and-so? And I began to wonder why uh how he could see that, because his vision was so bad. And he told me that one of the nurses read him the entire magazine, cover to cover, to keep him up to date, and his mind was still very sharp.
SPEAKER_05I hope one of the railroads hired her.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. So, Chris, it sounds like you are uh the torch has been passed, and uh I'd love to hear just uh a brief update of the status of his program being alive and well, it sounds like, uh, in at uh Rail Tech, I believe.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Yeah. Well, um we're very fortunate that uh I I I arrived here again in 1998, and um we were the only university at that time that was considering expanding our rail program, and I credit a number of people with the vision, uh, certainly my department head at the time here, the people at AAR, um Roy Allen and Scott Harvey, and some of the others there, uh, but here um uh Dave Daniel, who was the head, and Fred Lawrence, associate head, and Bill Show Walter, who was the dean, they were among the very few academics in the late 90s that saw that there was a future for railroad engineering at the University of Illinois should have a play a role in that. And so, again, as I said, I I came here with the with the responsibility to grow the program, and that started with increasing the number of courses we were offering, um, uh, which I set about to do, um uh and expanding our research program. As I mentioned, we were already an AAR affiliated laboratory, which uh was a really great uh source of support to keep our program, our railroad engineering program going during the 80s and 90s. Um then slowly uh from there we built upon that with support from Class One railroads. Uh, the Transportation Research Board Idea Program, uh, then later the railway supply industry, um, the Federal Railroad Administration, and uh we now have uh over the course of my now 20 plus years here, we've had research support from many dozens of organizations representing again both private and public sector organizations. Um so we've got a robust research program here in railway systems, railway infrastructure, and railway safety and risk. And uh the point of these research programs, besides advancing the state of the art and answering important questions to the railroad industry, is that these serve as a really important vehicle for educating our students, much like the story that Mike related earlier about uh measuring rail profiles in the state. This was obviously a helped us understand problems of railware, but it also helped with Mike's uh education. And you know, that's exactly what our role here is is to educate students through our teaching and through our research. And we've placed now hundreds of students in a variety of positions throughout the rail sector. We continue to enjoy support from uh many different organizations. And I should also mention, besides the research support, we've been uh very fortunate to have several major gifts and endowments, again, with the objective of supporting our program and our educational activities, and that includes gifts from the BNSF Railway, Canadian National, Union Pacific, Hanson Professional Services, and several others, and uh again ongoing support from the AAR for our research and educational programs as well, for which we're really grateful. And you know, the real beneficiaries of this, of course, are not only our students who are getting their education supported, but also uh the rail industry at large, which is benefiting again not only from the research results, but all these young young minds entering the profession as a result of their education and uh and exposure to the field here.
SPEAKER_06Excellent. Thank you. That's uh quite the program you have. And if people are on this podcast listening and in a student position, this might be something to look into if you would like to pursue a degree and or undergrad or graduate work in the rail industry. Um let's get to the hay award. That's the point of this podcast. Let's talk a little bit about it. I think everyone now has a good understanding of who Dr. Hay was, his importance in the industry. Uh let's talk, Mike. Let's just talk, and I'm sorry, Matt, I guarantee you I will get to you. But uh Mike, let's talk uh briefly about the genesis of the Hay Award. Where did it come from? Uh, how long has it been around? And and what, frankly, is the importance of it to Arima.
SPEAKER_03Well, the the Hay Award was something that uh we thought we should establish uh after Dr. Hay passed away in 1998. So in 1999, a number of us on Committee 16 uh said that we should have some kind of a recognition uh to uh uh not only recognize outstanding achievement in railway engineering, uh, but also to honor the memory and accomplishment of Dr. Hay, uh who was obviously uh a leader of many of the folks that uh uh were out in the industry. So in 1999 we established uh uh the award uh or the recognition, and we've had a solid number of entries every year since. Uh uh was a little bit down last year because of the COVID, uh I think because of the COVID uh situation. Uh but we have had uh outstanding uh uh uh projects that have been submitted. Uh uh the uh applications are open uh to uh state agencies, to uh railway organizations, to consultants, uh really to any uh group that is involved with uh uh you know promoting and uh creating a uh noteworthy project uh involving railway engineering. And we've really had some wonderful projects over the years.
SPEAKER_06And so I guess the importance of it, um I am gonna talk a little bit about this here, Matt. Uh you know, when Hansen saw the opportunity to work on a project and uh apply to win this, what what would you say is the quote unquote importance of of winning or receiving a Hay Award um for Hansen, for you, your staff, if you could kind of give me a an elevator speech on that.
SPEAKER_04Well, I think it's it's just you know, it's great feedback for a large team of people that came together to deliver a project. And and um when you're recognized by your peers and without throughout the industry, uh it's just really icing on the cake. And um it's I think it's opened some doors for us, um gives us an opportunity to to participate in a podcast like this, and uh it's something that you know uh we don't often engineers by nature don't often toot our horns very much, but uh recognition like this is something you take that uh opportunity to to do and and uh make sure you um pat yourself on the back a little bit.
SPEAKER_06I'd like everyone to understand very clearly, I did not uh compensate Matt in any way, shape, or form to state that uh a major piece of winning the Hay Award is the opportunity to be on this podcast. But I I very much appreciate that kind of feedback, Matt. So yes.
SPEAKER_03Well, let me add something to that, uh which I I should have mentioned earlier. There are three criteria that are basically used to judge uh the winner of the Hay Award. Uh one is innovation. Uh what kind of innovative uh applications or concepts are used? Uh another one is uh safety. Uh how does the project uh uh improve safety, enhance safety, uh, or contribute to overall safety. And then the third is service performance and reliability. What uh what does it do for the uh uh operation, if you will, of the railway? So I just wanted to add that in. I should have mentioned that earlier.
SPEAKER_06Oh no, that's outstanding. Thank you for that. And and that's actually uh the fantastic segue because I know Chris has a course he's teaching here shortly, and I want to make sure I get an opportunity to hear from him uh as a judge. Uh what you know, what would you say Chris is going to differentiate a pro one uh application from another? Is what gets you excited as a judge to see uh honoring Dr. Hayes' name in this annual recognition?
SPEAKER_05Well, I have to say, and I suspect my uh sentiments on this are shared by other judges as well. Sometimes it's very difficult. Uh we get some tremendous uh applications, and of course, as Mike laid out, there are a set of uh criteria that we're supposed to use. And um, I I always sit down and actually sometimes take several hours or even several days, or several hours over several days, kind of reading all of the materials and then going back and scoring them and then reading them again. And but um I try to be objective. I try to use the criteria that Mike outlined in terms of the um uh the various uh uh elements by which we're supposed to judge them. Um I would also say though that, and this is probably an important message to the potential um entries, is that um it needs to be very clear how you're addressing each of the criteria. Sometimes it's not clear, and I frankly there have been uh very nice pieces of work done that didn't score as highly because they didn't do as good a job at articulating exactly how they conformed or how they met, uh fulfilled the various criteria. Um and so that's something that is probably worth uh entries uh understanding or potential uh entries understanding is to you know spell out the safety and spell out the all the different things that they uh achieved.
SPEAKER_06Okay, and Matt, I'm gonna put you a little bit on the spot here. Uh let's talk a little bit about the project that won. Uh if you could give us just an overview of what the project was and what made you, and I'm sure this happened, wake up at two or three in the morning, pop out of bed, and go, I have got to apply for the Hay Award. That's this is this is the project. This is the one that's gonna win.
SPEAKER_04Well, our our project uh was for Norfolk Southern. Uh it happened to be an emergency replacement project. Uh the name of it was the Grand River Bridge. Uh it's near Brunswick, Missouri. And in early October 2019, uh they had to um cut the rails on that bridge. There was a flooding condition in the Grand River, and debris was built up very, very high onto the bridge and starting to push it over. And there was concern of losing the entire length of the bridge. Uh so the Norfolk Southern team chose to cut the rails, and within a few minutes, uh about 270 feet of the bridge just got pushed over and washed into the into the river. Um got a call within a day to ask if we could help NS work on the replacement structure and jump to it. And at that time, early on, um the of course the first question in a when you run a railroad and and you lose a track for any period of time is when are we going to get it back? And and all pressure is is on the Norfolk Southern and team and their consultants and contractors to to do that very thing. So uh originally I think they were estimating, you know, from early October they were hoping by Thanksgiving, you know, 56 days somewhere in there. Uh ultimately the team was able to get the track back open in 27. Uh a lot of work, 24 hours a day by many, many people. Uh safe work. Uh we we did not even have uh a first aid incident on the project, and credit to Massman Construction, who was the general contractor on the work uh for for their team and the safety record that they came through. But there were opportunities to to innovate a little bit. Uh the emergency basis kind of makes you think outside the box and what can we we have to deliver things quickly. We can't rely on 28 days to cure concrete and get strength. Um we we don't have the best access. You know, a lot of the work was done with a barge, so you gotta think outside the box on how you build it, how you get material there, and uh and you don't have time, frankly, to fabricate beams. So Norfolk Southern searched around their system and was able to find spans that uh they thought would would plug that hole uh in their in their bridge and got them to the site. So that's just a few of the things, but uh many more I'm sure we can get into.
SPEAKER_06Sure. Mike, I'd I'd love to hear from you. I know you probably were one of the judges or helped uh select this project. I guess uh obviously an emergency repair is fantastic. Are there other good examples of of projects in the past that you've seen win um such that uh it might you know get a listener going, you know, maybe maybe mine is something that I could apply for. What uh not just so no, in other words, not just uh uh a bridge washout.
SPEAKER_03Sure. We've had uh a large variety of uh different topics uh that have won. Uh I'm looking at my list here in front of me back uh in 1999. Uh the first award was given to the BNSF Railway for the Fair Blitz, uh which was a uh very, very concentrated effort to completely renew a railroad, uh not just a tie replacement or rail replacement, uh, but everything was renewed because of the introduction of new uh a large number of new coal trains on that territory. It wasn't uh it wasn't suitable uh uh in the condition it was in. Uh that's one example. We've had a number of uh wonderful station projects uh uh uh over the years. Uh uh Port Authority of New New York, New Jersey, uh uh the JFK International Airport train. Uh uh we've had uh uh clearance improvement projects, uh which I don't sound all that exciting on the surface, but uh when you get into it, it uh really is a uh challenge to increase tunnel heights and so forth. Uh we've had uh another commuter project. Uh we've had uh improvements for passenger service in various parts of the country, uh in Washington State and Northeast Corridor. Uh we've had a uh a project on Fort Worth, Texas called the Tower 55 multimodal improvement project, uh which involves a very, very congested uh high traffic area, uh, and improvements were made there. So I can m certainly mention more, but I think it gives you a a taste of uh or a flavor of of the great variety of topics that have won in the past. Yeah, it really does.
SPEAKER_04Go ahead, Matt, please. Uh I was just gonna add, uh it's not just projects in the U.S., right? Uh if I'm not mistaken, a few years ago we had a project from New Zealand was was awarded that. So it's literally worldwide. Pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we had a uh project from New Zealand on the I'm glad you mentioned that by the way, Walt, on the earthquake recovery. That uh New Zealand, New Zealand had massive destruction of the rail network and uh what they did to restore service.
SPEAKER_06Yes, I actually got to see that. That was a really interesting uh presentation. Uh yes, Chris.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so I'm I'm I'm I'm glad to hear Mike reciting this list of these uh previous award winners, and I want to comment on their what they've led to in terms of our educational uh work here at the University of Illinois. So, for example, one of the notable ones that I remember from the mid-2000s was Norfolk Southern's response to Katrina. And I remember hearing that presentation at ARIMA, and I said, my students have got to hear this, and so we invited um uh representatives from Norfolk Southern's engineering department to come and give a Hay seminar. One of the things we have at the University of Illinois is a is the Hay Railroad Engineering Seminar, and uh presentations from all sorts of uh engineers, professionals, um, academics, uh government personnel talking about various railroad projects. And so that was an example of how we brought the Hay Award home, you might say, to uh benefit our students. Uh the earlier one that Mike referenced about the Thayer sub, that's actually become part of our engineering education curriculum to help explain to students how the you know the blips or these these big uh major uh projects are undertaken by railroads. Um and uh really at you know at a marked distinction from the way the highway projects tend to work, which tends to you know drag out for months or years, uh railroads get things done, and that's one of the things I think that excites the juices, so to speak, of our young uh railroad engineering students. And so um these hay awards often embody that kind of thing, and so in that sense are really I think inspirational to getting young people involved in pursuing careers along these lines. It's a demonstration of the of the incredible uh initiative, inventiveness, and sort of uh get the job done spirit that's so typical, I think, of the rare engineering community. And um, again, it it it I think it really does help us uh attract students to the field.
SPEAKER_06Excellent. Excellent. Mike, uh I guess my last question here, uh yeah, I wouldn't even call it last question, but if if there's a listener on here who's considering applying or has worked on a project and thinks that he's got it what it takes to get the Hay Award, what would you what would you say to that person right now? Submit by May 20th. That's what I thought you'd say. Submit by May 20th, folks. So if you're listening this after May 20th, I apologize, but you have missed the deadline. Yeah, that year.
SPEAKER_03But I'd like to mention one one more thing. Uh there's really still a tie to the Hay family. Uh once in a while, not every year, but uh it has happened uh during several of our conventions uh Mary and or Bill Hay, who are his children, will show up and come up on the on the uh podium with us uh and be part of the presentation process. So it's still part of the family.
SPEAKER_06Yes, I actually have witnessed that in some of the AREMA uh conventions. Do you know if they'll make the Denver convention this year?
SPEAKER_03Well, Bill Hay is a retired physician. That's that's his son. He actually lives in Denver and probably will make it. And Mary Hay has uh written me she may try to make it. She is now back uh just south of Champaign.
SPEAKER_06Excellent. Okay. How about you, Matt? You're right there in the thick of things. If uh you're talking to your colleagues, uh, what would make you s uh try to get somebody excited about? You know, I mean, honestly, there's a lot of work, I guess is what I'm trying to say. There's a lot of work in putting together an application. I I was involved in one application that we put together many moons ago, and I remember it was a three-ring binder thick of details and plans and drawings and pictures and stories, and uh, you know, there's an expense, you know, to uh to a professional services firm to put something like that together. So what would you say to somebody about why to go through all that uh pain to to potentially apply?
SPEAKER_04Well, I I really think it's worth it. And honestly, the Grand River Bridge, our our winner in 2020 is a is a great example. It's not a a a large project. It's I think the construction was under $10 million. Uh you know, it's it's not like a New Zealand earthquake repair, right? But it's still it's a winner. Um I think uh compared to your three-ring binder, we had about nine pages of text and photos that we submitted. We hit on all those key elements, those three main categories. And and all of that prep time is really useful for you uh in the future, right? We're all in business, uh we're trying to win projects, and we like and and we're gonna use this information in other places. There's other opportunities to submit for awards, and we've sure done that with this project. Uh there's opportunities to go present, to give back to Arima and students, and and maybe go to universities and present there. Uh so while it is it might feel like a lot of work, um, it's all gonna pay off and and it's a good use of your time, and you just might win.
SPEAKER_06And it sounds like, you know, if I've heard anything throughout this podcast, is as I do wrap it up, uh, I'd like Mike to kind of have the final word here. But uh just to be associated with this name is it's a storied name in the industry, and to have worked on something that that does have the recognition from the esteemed judges that have been appointed and and and to uh to make the list, you know, right? To make that annual list that you're that Mike rattled off earlier was uh impressive. So Mike, I I would like you to close this one out. If anything else you'd like to say about Hay, the award, anything in general, frankly.
SPEAKER_03I encourage submissions uh every year and hope we get a nice set again this year, which I'm I'm sure we will. Uh it is a great tribute to Dr. Hay and all his uh impact on the real community that will go on for decades. And uh uh you know I think it also uh encourages firms uh uh to uh approach uh uh their various projects with the three elements that are involved with the Hay Award in mind. Uh so it's a it's good all the way around. It's a good uh training exercise, it's a good uh m memorialization of a major project, uh and it encourages uh for folks down the road from looking back, what was successful, how did they handle this particular uh uh incident or uh situation? And it it it's an educational process as well.
SPEAKER_06I agree with you, and it's uh a great memorialization of some really major projects uh and as we continue to see retirements uh in this industry and we see turnover of knowledge, uh I I know I like to see any and any opportunity, Grinkley, to have things written down and documented so that the next generation can see uh what was done or how a problem was faced, uh, not just in a textbook uh but also in a real life situation. I would like to thank all three of you for joining me today. I think this was a great podcast. I really enjoyed uh hearing about Dr. Hay and hearing about the award. I will be honest, I did not know nearly as much as I did, and that means I guarantee my listeners learned a lot today as well. So thanks to the three of you, and I really hope to see all three of you in Denver this fall. Hope to see you as well.
SPEAKER_05We'll be there with all our students.
SPEAKER_03Are you gonna have long hair or short hair?
SPEAKER_05Um, well, is it gonna be short hair?
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_06All right, you heard it here first. Dr. Chris Parkin will have short hair in the hall. Thank you very much, everybody.
SPEAKER_01Goodbye.
SPEAKER_03Bye.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for rolling with Arima on today's episode of Platform Chats. For further information about Arima, please visit arema.org or contact us at info at arema.org.
