Abdullah Al Rufaydah is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech and a lecturer at University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. His research focuses on prestressed concrete bridges, aiming to enhance structural performance and resilience. At this conference, he will present his latest findings on continuity diaphragms for simple-span bridges made continuous for live loads, contributing valuable insights to the field of structural and bridge engineering.
saabdu5@vt.edu

Andy Babish, PE obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering Technology from Bluefield State College and his MSCE from Virginia Tech. Andy has been with VDOT over 27 years with the last 16 years as the State Materials Engineer. He started as a geotechnical engineer designing deep foundations for bridges within VDOT before moving to Materials where he worked on soft ground improvement methods for major projects. Subsequently, he took roles in various District Materials offices before becoming the State Materials Engineer.
804-328-3102
andy.babish@vdot.virginia.gov

Chris Dean, PE is a Senior Bridge Engineer and Production Manager with HDR. He earned a BSCE and an MSCE from George Mason University in 2011 and 2012 respectively. He has 13 years of experience specializing in bridge design, finite-element modeling and rehabilitation for both design-bid-build and design-build projects and has been with HDR for 5 years. His key past assignments include the structural Engineer of Record for Segment 4a/4b of Hampton Roads Express Lanes Project, lead structural engineer for the design and analysis of a curved steel bridge in Suffolk, VA and landside bridge manager for the $3.4B Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel project between Hampton and Norfolk, VA.
757-222-1552
Christopher.Dean@hdrinc.com

William “Bill” Denison Jr., CCPf’, FACI currently serves as the Concrete Division Specialist and NRMCA Certified Concrete Professional for ECS MID-ATLANTIC, LLC, Chesapeake, Virginia and is an Adjunct Professor in Civil Engineering Technologies at Tidewater Community College, Virginia Beach, VA. since 1991. Mr. Denison is an Fellow ACI, and PTI Professional, and is an pioneer in Pervious concrete design and research, who authored technical papers in STP 1551 Pervious Concrete – ASTM International. He is involved with Professional society activities such as, ASCE -American Society of Civil Engineers, SAME – Society of American Military Engineers, Hampton Roads Green Building Council, and works with Higher Education STEM Educators and Students.  

Mr. Denison has more than 38 years’ experience with Advanced Concrete designs and research in areas of concrete technology mitigating ASR, Sulfate attack, and has extensive experience implementing modeling to demonstrate thermal calculations, thermal differentials, and maximum temperature rise prior to producing mock up concrete. He develops thermal concrete mix designs, thermal plans, modeling, performs thermal mix analysis, monitoring and graphing. He uses supplementary cementitious materials for Sustainability, which increases concrete designs for durability, longevity, low Shrinkage, and very low permeabilities. He has contributed to the quality of concrete in all related design areas from lightweight to heavy weight concrete mixtures with extensive service life cycle designs in the marine environment exceeding 300+ year service life that are Sustainable, Carbon Free, corrosion free, impermeable, and crack free with moderate cementitious factors. His designs for the 12,000 linear feet of Drilled Tunnels in the Hampton Roads municipality districts exceeding 100,000+ cubic yards to date are crack free, with VTM 112, Rapid Chloride Permeabilities averaging statistically during production less than 150 Coulombs and Bulk Resistivity exceeding 150 Ohm’s.

Mr. Denison is an member and currently serves on ACI Committee 207, Mass Concrete, ACI Faculty, ASTM Main Committees, A-1 Reinforcing Steel, C-1 Cement, C-9 Concrete and Aggregates, and C-12 Masonry and Grout. He is a member of the Virginia Chapter of ACI, and an ACI Faculty member. He also serves on the Virginia Ready Mix Concrete Association Technical Committee, VDOT Co-op Technical Committee, and the Civil Engineering Technologies Board of Advisors for Civil Engineering between Tidewater Community College and Old Dominion University.
757-605-3123
WDenison@ecslimited.com

Roger Faulkner, PE is Executive Director of the Southeast Cement Promotion Association, Inc. (SCPA). SCPA is a trade association of cement companies in the southeastern United States which promotes cement and concrete infrastructure solutions in the 9-state area of AL, GA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA and WV. He has 45 years of experience in the construction and engineering design industry and has been in his current role since 2011. He has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Capital University, a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (BSCE) Degree from The Ohio State University and is a Professional Engineer.
770-807-2868
rfaulkner@secement.org

T.R. Fluker, PE is a Principal with Schnabel Engineering and the past President of the Virginia Chapter of the American Concrete Institute.
804-482-2002
TFluker@schnabel-eng.com

Chris Foley, PE is a Vice President at WSP with over 15 years of experience in the design, construction and rehabilitation of bridges and tunnels. He is currently serving as the Engineering Manager for VDOT on the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel Expansion Project, where he is responsible for engineering oversight and review across all disciplines on this $3.9 billion project. In his previous role, he served as project manager for the VDOT statewide tunnels contract, and he has worked at all of the tunnels in the Commonwealth. Chris received a BS in Civil Engineering from UVA and he is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia.
434-882-2010
Chris.Foley@wsp.com

Erin Foley, PE is a Senior Structural Engineer and Section Manager with HDR Engineering, Inc. She is primarily responsible for leading structural design efforts for bridge projects as well as project management of multi-disciplinary projects. She has nearly 20 years of experience with 10 of those years with HDR. She received her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and her Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering with a Structures focus from The University of Texas at Austin.
757-222-1520
Erin.Foley@hdrinc.com

Cabell Garbee, II, PE is the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Manufactured Products Engineer. He manages the Department’s acceptance programs for metals, concrete, timber, plastics, and composite products used by the Department to include facility audits and approvals, product evaluations, inspections, and approvals. He is responsible for materials product tracking by use of RFID/barcode identification and participates in the Department’s specification development. He is the Chair of the AASHTO Product Evaluation Program Composite Concrete Reinforcement Committee, Chairman of the FRP Institute DOT Advisory Board, and is a Professional Engineer licensed in North Carolina and Virginia. A native of Lynchburg, Virginia, he has a BSCE from NC State University and is a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina.
919-329-4224
cgarbee@ncdot.gov

Mike Hall, PE is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with HDR Engineering, Inc. He is primarily responsible for site characterization and geotechnical design efforts for transportation projects. These projects typically involve the design and construction of bridges, retaining walls, embankments, pavements, sound barrier walls, and stormwater management and drainage structures. He has nearly 37 years of geotechnical experience, 24 years of which was in the Geotechnical Section of the Central Office Structure and Bridge Division of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). He received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and his Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of Idaho.
804-799-6869
mike.hall@hdrinc.com

Terrell Hughes, PE serves as the Director of Public Works for Henrico County, Virginia, where he oversees the county’s extensive road network, infrastructure maintenance, and capital improvement projects. With a strong background in civil engineering and transportation planning, he leads efforts to enhance roadway safety, stormwater management, and overall mobility for residents and businesses. Under his leadership, Henrico’s Public Works team continues to implement innovative solutions to preserve infrastructure, improve traffic flow, provide pedestrian access, and incorporate sustainability in the county’s transportation system. Terrell earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and has years of experience in both the public and private sectors, bringing a results-driven approach to infrastructure management.
804-501-4390
HUG121@henrico.gov

Chris Jones, PE holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Kentucky. With a professional license in Virginia and North Carolina, he brings extensive expertise to his role as a senior engineer at Schnabel. Over 15 years, he has worked with many DOT’s, specializing in transportation and design build. He is a member of the local ASCE and ACEC chapter and also a member of his local Rotary club.
804-649-7035
cbjones@schnabel-eng.com

Sean Li, PhD, PE is the Concrete Program Manager at VDOT’s Materials Division, a role he has held since 2022. In this position, he oversees the statewide concrete and related programs. Prior to joining VDOT, Sean served as the Assistant Division Chief of the Concrete Technology Division at the Maryland State Highway Administration’s Office of Materials Technology, where he managed quality assurance for concrete-related highway infrastructure projects. He also has 11 years of experience as a contract Research Engineer and Laboratory Manager at FHWA’s Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC).

Sean earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota, as well as both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from Tongji University in Shanghai. He is a registered Professional Engineer in both Virginia and Minnesota.
804-328-3130
Sean.Li@VDOT.Virginia.gov

Mark McGuire, PE is a 1994 graduate of Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and has been working on aviation development projects in Virginia since 1998. In that time, he has provided engineering design and construction management services at over 20 airports in Virginia. He has also worked on aviation development projects across the United States and internationally in Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Saudi Arabia. Since obtaining his professional engineering license in 2001, he has served as the Engineer of Record on multi-million-dollar, heavy civil aviation projects.

Mark takes an active role in the engineering community and recently served as the National Director for the American Council of Engineering Companies of Virginia. He is also a past president of the organization.
704-334-5348
mmcguire@wkdickson.com

Sheppard “Shep” Miller III was appointed Secretary of Transportation by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in January 2022. He is a native and lifelong resident of Norfolk, Virginia. He received a BA from Hampden-Sydney College and a MBA from The College of William & Mary. In 2017, Miller retired as Chairman upon his sale of KITCO Fiber Optics, a defense-contracting firm twice named as one of Virginia’s “Fantastic 50” fastest growing companies. As Secretary of Transportation, he is Chairman of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, a body to which he was first appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam in 2018.  

Miller is a member of the Board of Trustees of Washington College in Maryland and the Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the Norfolk Board of TowneBank and is a board member for Sail250 Virginia. His past community activities include service as Chairman or President of the Norfolk Economic Development Authority, the Norfolk Redevelopment & Housing Authority, the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee, the Better Business Bureau of Greater Hampton Roads, the Peninsula United Way Campaign, Hampton Roads Ventures, and the Norfolk Rotary Club.

Other past service includes service on the Board of Trustees of Hampden-Sydney College and the Executive Board of the Greater Norfolk Corporation.

 
Vijay Modi, PE has 34+ years of experience managing, designing and delivering a variety of new/repaired/rehabilitated structures including movable bridges, water crossings, retaining walls, and sign structures. He is HDR Engineering Inc.’s Mid-Atlantic Bridge Manager. In this role he leads a team of 40+ bridge engineers and manages various bridge contracts across the commonwealth of Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., including VDOT’s New and Rehabilitated On-Call Contract and their Movable Bridge On-Call Contract. These bridges have involved the design of simple and continuous bridges utilizing steel, reinforced concrete, prestressed beams, voided slabs, box beams, and cast-in-place post-tensioned boxes including fast track projects. He has Bachelor of Engineering from NIT Surat India and MS from Old Dominion University.
757-222-1561
Vijay.modi@hdrinc.com

 
Matt Munsick, is Vice President, ACEiT Industries / New Product Development, Andale Construction.
Matt has over 25 years of managing industrial, commercial, residential, environmental, and heavy highway civil construction projects including Design Build. Prior to joining Andale Construction, he was an independent Civil Construction Consultant to Contractor and Engineering Firms; Project Manager for McCarthy Improvement Company. Previously, he was with Lane Hauling and Excavating; Morgan Corp.; Pinkerton and Laws, Inc. His experience spans many different facets of construction. Munsick holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management from the University of South Carolina.
864-434-3550
matt@andaleconstruction.com

Celik Ozyildirim, PhD, PE is a Principal Research Scientist with the Virginia Transportation Research Council, a division of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). His research areas are concrete materials – including ingredients, properties, testing and specifications – and concrete reinforcement. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Virginia. He is active in the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). He is a Fellow of the ACI. He is past chairman of the TRB section on concrete. He was an instructor in civil engineering at the University of Virginia. He is a registered professional engineer in Virginia.
434-293-1977 
celik@VDOT.Virginia.gov

Robert Ridgell, PE Vice President for Wallace Montgomery Construction Services, will be presenting for Julia Simo, PE who could not be here due to family needs out of town. Julia Simo, PE, has over 13 years of experience in transportation design, structural engineering, project management, and program management. She joined Wallace Montgomery in 2020 as a Project Manager in the Highways Department, focusing on transportation projects in Virginia. Julia has played key roles in major projects, including serving as Deputy Design Manager for the Albemarle Bundle Project, Design Manager for the Route 29 and Hydraulic Road Improvements, and Deputy Design Manager for the I-464 Flyover Ramp Project. Before joining Wallace Montgomery, Julia worked at Virginia Department of Transportation, where she led initiatives like three dimension and four dimension Engineered Models. She is an experienced bridge engineer turned roadway engineer, implementing concrete solutions in innovative intersections and projects throughout the state. She is also actively involved with the WTS Central Virginia Chapter.
703-906-1783
rridgell@wallacemontgomery.com

Carin Roberts-Wollmann, PhD received her BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, and received her MS and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. Currently, she is a professor and Associate Department Head for Graduate Studies in the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. She specializes in reinforced and prestressed concrete, and primarily focuses her research on new materials and new construction procedures to enhance the economy, durability and constructability of concrete bridges and buildings.
540-231-6753
wollmann@vt.edu

Karl Schmid, PE is the Virginia/Maryland Area Principal Bridge Engineer with HDR. He earned a BSCE and an MSCE from Purdue University in 1989 and 1991 respectively. He has 33 years of experience specializing in bridge design, spending 29 years with CH2M Hill and Jacobs, and has currently been with HDR for 4.5 years.

His key past assignments include the GEC role for I-66 Outside the Beltway in Northern Virginia; CH2M’s Structure Design & DSDC Manager for the $1.3B Zoo Interchange in Wisconsin. Structure Design Manager for the $1.5B IH 94 N-S Corridor/Mitchell Interchange Project in Wisconsin. He is currently HDR’s Engineering Manager & Structures DSDC Lead for the $3.4B Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel project between Hampton and Norfolk, VA.
804-799-6898
Karl.Schmid@hdrinc.com

Brett Shankles, PE has been employed with Bryant Structures, Inc. since 2003 after graduating from Virginia Tech’s Civil Engineering program. He has served Bryant Structures, Inc. in positions such as Field Engineer, Project Manager, and Vice President. He was the Project Manager for the Rte. 189 over Blackwater River bridge project and worked as part of the Bryant and VDOT team to resolve many construction challenges. This $11 million project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.
757-566-0400
BShankles@BryantStructures.com

Mary Sharifi is a Research Scientist with the Virginia Transportation Research Council, a division of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). Her research areas are concrete materials and reinforcements as well as environmental issues for sustainability. She received her Master’s degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Virginia. She is the author of two papers in the field of renewable energy, and co- author of papers that were presented at recent TRB annual meetings in the field of high-performance concrete, pervious concrete, culvert repair, mass concrete, and workable and durable concretes for bridge repairs.
Mary.Sharifi@vdot.virginia.gov

Brenton Stone, PE is an Assistant Project Manager at Volkert, Inc. His current experience includes 9+ years with bridge safety inspections, which was preceded by 5 years each of concrete materials research and bridge design. He has a Master of Science in Civil Engineering (M.S.) degree from the University of Virginia, a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics (B.S.) degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College, and is a Professional Engineer licensed in multiple states.
brenton.stone@volkert.com

Nico Sutmoller is the Director of Sustainability and Resilience as well as the Global Lightweight Fill Specialist for Aerix Industries. He works in conjunction with the technical staff in providing his knowledge and experience with numerous geotechnical, civil and structural issues, including unacceptable soil settlement, lateral load reduction, slope stabilization and reducing loads over buried utility issues. Nico joined Aerix Industries as a Lightweight Fill Specialist with a special emphasis in geotechnical applications.

Since the 1990s, Nico has worked on a multitude of commercial and infrastructure lightweight fill projects throughout the United States and the Caribbean. He also has an extensive amount of geofoam experience in the ultralight weight fill markets and has written extensively on the use of lightweight fill materials as a solution. Throughout the country, Nico is a frequent guest speaker at various ASCE Chapters, Geotechnical conferences, USACE districts, numerous DOTs, P3 ventures, including various General Contractors, Engineering and Architectural firms. Nico also works with specialty contractors, sub-contractors and general contractors to install the Aerix technologies including the Aerix patented pervious cellular concrete technology.
303-903-4981
nsutmoller@aerixindustries.com

Chris Thrift serves as Collins Engineers Bridge Inspection Program Manager and is responsible for performing and managing all inspection and transportation work throughout the Southeast. Chris has over 27 years of continuous experience in the safety inspection of bridge and ancillary structures. He has performed over 2500 above and underwater bridge inspections and 10,000 ancillary inspections nationwide. His inspection experience includes performing routine, NSTM, underwater, initial, and emergency inspections. Chris is a SPRAT certified rope access technician, ASNT-compliant Level II NDT inspector, certified diver, and an NHI Certified Instructor. Additionally, Chris serves as Collins’ company-wide Rope Access Program Manager.
757-644-1304
cthrift@collinsengr.com

Dan Vipperman, PE, CE is a project manager with A.G. Peltz. He was recruited to A.G. Peltz in 2007 due to his construction and production experience with RCC on the Calvert City Metals and Alloys plant in Kentucky. As part of a value engineering effort, Dan helped design an RCC paving system that resulted in cost savings to a client in excess of $6 million. Since joining A.G. Peltz, Dan has been intimately involved with every aspect of RCC design, production, and construction. This includes significant experience with intermodal facilities including the KCS Railways in Kendleton, Texas; Victoria Salinas, Mexico; and Puerta D’Mexico, Mexico. Dan recently managed the ACPA award winning PCC paving project for Jack Edwards Airport in Gulf Shores, AL.
Education:
• B.S. Environmental Science, Virginia Polytechnic University, (1997)
• B.S. Civil Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic University, (2000)
• Minor, Chemistry, Virginia Polytechnic University, (1997)
• OSHA 40-Hour Health and Safety Training: (29 CFR 1910.120)
904-501-6161
dvipperman@agpeltz.com

Kendal Walus, PE works for the Virginia Transportation Research Council. He is responsible for the procurement of resiliency research projects undertaken in accordance with the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) 2022 Resilience Plan and helps coordinate the implementation of research recommendations into design practice.

Prior to his current position, he served for sixteen years as the State Structure and Bridge Engineer and for three years as an Assistant State Location and Design Engineer for VDOT.

He has worked in both the private and public sectors. He earned his B.S. and M.E. degrees in Civil Engineering from the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia, respectively, and an MBA degree from the Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a registered professional engineer in Virginia.
434-293-1956
Kendal.Walus@VDOT.Virginia.Gov