You’ve probably driven over this award winner. The Seventh Street Bridge recently was honored by the Precast Concrete Manufacturers Association with its Best of Precast Award in the bridge category.
The award was presented to Heldenfels Enterprises, the supplier of the bridge’s precast floor beams; Sundt Construction, the general contractor and supplier of the precast arches for the project; and the Texas Department of Transportation. The bridge was cited at the association’s 2016 Best of Precast Awards Ceremony and Banquet.
The bridge on West Seventh Street near downtown Wort Worth is the first of its kind in the world built with precast, post-tensioned arches and floor beams. Each arch measures 24 feet tall by about 160 feet long and weighs more than 640,000 pounds. The 12 concrete arches on the bridge were built offsite and installed in pairs along either side of the old bridge over the Clear Fork of the Trinity River.
HUITT-ZOLLARS PROMOTES
MCDERMOTT TO PRESIDENT
Huitt-Zollars Inc., a Dallas-based engineering and architecture firm, announced the appointment of Robert J. McDermott as president. Robert L. Zollars, co-founder of the firm and past president, will remain as chairman of the board.
McDermott had been executive vice president of the firm since 2001. He was responsible for company-wide operations, overseeing 19 offices in eight states and three international locations. He was a senior vice president and office manager of the Albuquerque office from 1997-2001, and prior to that was vice president of the firm from 1991-1997.
Throughout his career, McDermott has built a large portfolio, including serving as structural design leader and project manager for the DART Light Rail North Central Corridor twin-bored tunnels under North Central Expressway in Dallas. He has a wide variety of project experience for private and public clients in the energy, transportation, federal and institutional markets.
McDermott began his career in 1977 after graduating in civil engineering from the University of Connecticut. He holds a master’s degree in structural engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management.
His professional affiliations include the American Society of Civil Engineers, Texas Society of Professional Engineers, American Consulting Engineers Council and North Dallas Chamber of Commerce.
He embraces Huitt-Zollars’ corporate philosophy, “to constantly improve the quality of life in our world.” He serves on the board of Catholic Charities of Dallas, where he was board chairman from 2013-2016. He also volunteers at Methodist Dallas Hospital and the Dallas County Jail. – Robert Francis