Every year AR Engineering gets together with our team and their families for some warm weather fun. This year, we enjoyed a cookout with great food that included a delicious smoked brisket! There was something for everyone, including a variety of yard games and swimming in a brand-new beautiful pool. The cookout was great for many reasons, but the most important was an opportunity to continue building a strong team and that takes more than our daily interactions inside the office. We are thankful for everyone and the opportunity to get together with family for a nice summer evening.
Bronson Walk 2022
AR Engineering was again proud to be a Gold Sponsor for the 2022 Bronson Children Hospital Run and Walk to benefit the Children’s Hospital. We are grateful to partner with a remarkable community health care provider for this great cause, and we thank them and all health care providers for their service. We joined community members from across the area to walk and run for the cause in the rain.
ASCE NHCEL Award 2022
Our founder, Andrew Rossell, P.E., had the honor to represent The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Michigan Section to dedicate the Portage Lake Bridge as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The ceremony took place on June 17 at Houghton’s Bridgeview Park. The bridge was nominated by Dr. Tess Ahlborn, professor of civil, environmental, and geospatial engineering at MTU, and her former students Michael Prast and Emma Beachy. Notable guests included Hancock Mayor Paul LaBine; Michigan State Transportation Director Paul C. Ajegba; Houghton Clerk Ann Vollrath; MDOT Ishpeming Transportation Service Center Construction Engineer Alan Anderson; and ASCE society president Dennis Truax and Tom D'Arcy, one of the original design engineers of the bridge. Andrew served as President of the Michigan Section in 2022 and continues to serve as Past-President on the Michigan Section and as Director of the ASCE SW Michigan Branch.
MDOT has produced a video news release about the award ceremony, available on its YouTube channel.
An historic MDOT documentary on the lift bridge's original construction has recently been digitized and restored, also available online at MDOT's YouTube channel.
AR Engineering Participates in ASCE Round-Table at WMU
The American Society of Civil Engineers SW Michigan Branch hosted their yearly roundtable event at Western Michigan University. AR Engineering joined other companies from the area to speak to the civil and construction engineering students one-on-one about what we do and answer any questions they had. Thank you to all the students who dropped by, we hope to hear from you soon!
SW MiSTEM Growlers Education Day
AR Engineering had the opportunity to volunteer at the Southwest MiSTEM June event, held in collaboration with the Kalamazoo Growlers. This event provides students in Grades K-12 with a hands-on opportunity to explore STEM related fields. Several staff from AR Engineering worked with students, as they built sandcastles to demonstrate mechanically stabilized earth (MSE). Students enjoyed building their own non-MSE sandcastle and were then able to compare theirs to the strength of sandcastle’s built using MSE. Students were fascinated with how just a few sheets of flimsy material can make such a huge difference in strength and stability of the structure. This was a great opportunity for AR Engineering to give back to the community, while creating a fun STEM related learning environment for students. The students and exhibitors were invited to attend the Growler’s game immediately following the event.
