Dvirka and Bartilucci Consulting Engineers Certified “BIG”

Dvirka and Bartilucci Consulting Engineers (D&B) has offered environmental assessment and remediation services to public and private sector clients for almost 30 years. D&B has been certified by the New York City (NYC) Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation, consistent with that extensive experience, as an environmental engineering consultant qualified to participate in the NYC Brownfield Incentive Grant Program (BIG).  The NYC BIG Program seeks to spur the cleanup and redevelopment of NYC Brownfields by offering grants to property owners and developers for brownfield activities throughout the development process, from the earliest stages of information gathering through environmental investigation and cleanup work. D&B has been qualified for the following activities: Pre-development, Environmental Investigation, Environmental Remediation, Asbestos Survey’s and Assessments and Technical Assistance.

For more information or a no-cost consultation regarding D&B’s capabilities in the area of Brownfields investigation, remediation and redevelopment, please contact Tom Fox, Vice President, Environmental Remediation and Multimedia Compliance Division, at 516-364-9890 or tfox@db-eng.com.

Architectural Capabilities at D&B

When most clients and the public hear about Dvirka and Bartilucci Consulting Engineers (D&B), they usually think of environmental engineering expertise.  The firm is highly diversified in all civil and environmental engineering fields and also for the past eight years has been performing state of the art architectural services.  Most of our architectural projects have been for the New York City School Construction Authority (SCA), where our firm enjoys great client satisfaction and is one of the preferred AE firms selected to perform tight schedule driven assignments.  As a result of this work, we have five full-time architects that have become school design and construction specialists with LEED capabilities.

But our architectural expertise is not limited to school work.  Our architects have a wealth of experience in all types of building design and their support infrastructure. 

One of these recently completed projects is a groundwater treatment building designed to house sophisticated equipment to remove contaminants from groundwater through ozone injection directly into the aquifer.  The work included complete services consisting of converting a vacant site to a fully functioning facility.  D&B’s work included complete architectural designs and surveying, permitting, soil erosion and sediment control, drainage, landscaping, paving and road construction, roofing systems, doors, windows, interior finishing, tile, exterior architecture treatment, plumbing, sophisticated HVAC systems, utilities, emergency generator, and electrical instrumentation and controls. 

The client requested that the structure be aesthetically pleasing and compatible with the surrounding community, which in general was mainly residential and commercial.  D&B selected a simple architectural style for the 3,600 square foot structure as shown in the photos.

Highlights of the facility include:

• Brick and block walls with a polystyrene panel system.
• Steel roof and deck with an asphalt membrane roofing system.
• Groundwater treatment areas with an operating personnel office and other personnel facilities.
• Aesthetic front entrance with overhead aluminum canopy and sunshade. 
• Rooftop heating and cooling unit with evaporator and condenser fans, induced draft blower, compressor, heat exchanger, filters and economizer with microprocessor controls.
• Landscaping.

As a result of D&B’s efforts, the facility is operating well, blends into the neighborhood and the structure is completely compatible with the needs of the groundwater treatment system, and also provides a pleasant and efficient working environment for the operators.

For more information on D&B’s architectural capabilities, contact Joseph Marturano at (516) 364-9890, Ext. 3008 or Andre Keel at (914) 467-5300, Ext. 14.      

D&B Achieves New Milestones in Construction Management Services

D&B is highly experienced and very competent in supplying Construction Management (CM) Services to satisfy the needs of our clients. An example of  large size CM expertise is evident in the work being performed for the NYCDEP, Bureau of Water Supply, in the Gilboa Dam Reconstruction Project. Gilboa Dam is part of New York City’s Catskill Water Supply System. It is the systems most northern point located within Schoharie County in the town of Gilboa. The dam became operational in 1927. It is a gravity and earth embankment dam and impounds the Schoharie Reservoir and retains over 18 billion gallons of drinking water. Gilboa Dam has experienced age-related spillway surface deterioration and the NYCDEP is reconstructing the spillway and downstream face of the dam, installing retractable crest gates to manage storm water and snow melt flows through an overflow notch in the dam, constructing a new low-level outlet as well as other general improvements to extend its service life and comply with current dam safety standards. Total construction costs may exceed $500 million.

D&B has been involved in performing CM services on five different construction contracts at Gilboa ranging from emergency CM services for installation of a debris boom across the reservoir to minimize the quantity of timber debris from reaching the crest of the dam, the installation of four-48 inch siphon tubes over the top of the dam to release water from the reservoir without cresting the dam, the construction of a 220 foot long notch within the dam to provide a means of releasing water without cresting the dam and the installation of 80 high capacity multi-strand rock anchors through the existing dam structure into the bedrock to stabilize the dam in place. Through the assistance of D&B’s CM support, all of these contracts were completed ahead of schedule and within budget.

The D&B project team is lead by Dennis Koehler, Senior Vice President, and Charles J. Wachsmuth, Vice President, CM Services.A large part of D&B’s business comes from Construction Management Services. Currently, D&B is performing these services in many projects that have construction costs totaling approximately one billion dollars.

If you would like to find out more about D&B’s CM capabilities, contact Henry Chlupsa at 516-364-9890, ext 3004. 

Innovative Oxygenation Process Enhances Gowanus Canal Ecosystem

The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn became operational in the late 1860’s. Because of age, system failures and the increasing costs of constant maintenance, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP), has taken steps to improve the infrastructure of the area by retaining D&B to design the needed improvements. NYCDEP is in the midst of a $140 million, 4 year construction project that will result in lower volumes of combined sewer overflows in the canal, less floatable debris and higher oxygen levels in the water.

One of the major construction areas involves closing the Gowanus Flushing Tunnel for 24 months to allow for renovations. The flushing tunnel brings higher quality water into the Gowanus Canal to avoid hypoxia.  Before this closure could be accomplished, an alternate way of supplying oxygenated water to the canal needed to be developed. The use of standard aeration techniques were considered but rejected because of the potential for odor problems, disturbance of contaminated sediment and canal obstruction caused by the aeration system. The D&B staff designed an innovative oxygen transfer system (OTS), which uses pure oxygen to provide the necessary oxygen delivery to the canal.

Water is drawn from the head of the canal and sent into a chamber where it is supersaturated with pure oxygen by means of a proprietary oxygen dissolution process. The oxygenated water is  then evenly distributed throughout the upper end of the canal through a 2,500 foot long submerged pipe which contains flow distribution nozzles. The pure oxygen is created on the site by the use of a pressure swing adsorption system, which separates nitrogen and oxygen from the air. The OTS has been operational for a month and measurements show the canal water having higher levels of oxygen than supplied by the flushing tunnel, during one of the warmest months in recent history. Visually, the canal’s appearance has noticeably improved.

Congratulations to the D&B team which includes Garrett Byrnes, Dennis Koehler, Roger Owens, Joe Baader and Michele Mastrangelo. If you want more information on this innovative aeration system or have a project where additional oxygenation is required, contact Bob Chlupsa at 516-364-9890, ext 3031. 

D&B Receives ASCE 2010 Ward House Award

The Croton-Harmon train station parking facility, which has existed for 50 years, provides over 2,000 parking spaces to commuters that travel daily into New York City and to Albany via mass transit with Metro-North Railroad or Amtrak.

Routine high tides, at times combined with winds and off-shore storms, have resulted in significant flooding. D&B’s goal was to restore and enhance the value of the Village’s parking complex, improve water quality, and facilitate the use of the region’s mass transit without the commuters continuing to face the risks of costly flooding damage to their vehicles.

The solution included raising a portion of the parking field to an elevation above the known flooding elevations. This also included the construction of a 1,500 linear feet gabion wall, the infill of over 20,000 tons of gravel fill and the installation of new catch basins and over 800 feet of storm drain piping.  The Village and the residents are thrilled with the outcome and the project has been featured in the local newspapers and on local television news.

D&B was honored as the recipient of this year’s American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Ward House Award for this project. Pictured is Rob DeGiorgio, Project Manager, displaying the ASCE Ward House Award.