DuBois & King (D&K) announces the acquisition of David A. Mann Land Survey, a Keene, New Hampshire-based survey firm. The firm will continue providing professional services under the name of David A. Mann Land Survey, a division of DuBois & King. Licensed in New Hampshire and Vermont, David Mann, LLS, has 45 years of land surveying experience and has been providing survey services in both states for 25 years. Over his professional career, he has forged strong client relationships in southern New Hampshire and Vermont. David will augment survey services for D&K’s New Hampshire offices and projects and for the firm’s projects in southern Vermont. His experience as a licensed land surveyor brings increased depth to D&K’s survey and boundary work.
The acquisition of David A. Mann Survey brings three new full-time staff members to D&K. Along with David Mann, Toni Mann and Wesley Mann join D&K. Toni will continue to serve as an Administrative Assistant in the Keene office, and Wesley Mann will serve as Survey Party Chief working alongside David.
David’s professional career has included both owning and operating his own survey firm, as well as managing survey groups for consulting firms. David Mann will serve as D&K’s office manager for the Keene location and will be in responsible charge of operations and business development. David is active in multiple professional associations and has served as past president of the New Hampshire Land Surveyors Association.
Welcome, David, Toni, and Wesley! Contact David at dmann@dubois-king.com.
Since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, DuBois & King engineers have assisted numerous communities to not only repair storm damaged infrastructure, but to build resiliency into infrastructure to mitigate damage from future storm events.
The culvert diverts overflows from the Neshobe River and directs the flow beneath US Route 7.Photo on left: Energy dissipating baffles at overflow culvert outlet. Photo on right courtesy of Gourmet Provence: Storm surge flowing over outlet baffles.
Neshobe River Overflow Culvert. Brandon, Vermont had significant damage when TropicalStorm Irene caused flooding and overtopping of US Route 7, which runs through the town. A constricted section of the Neshobe River runs through the downtown including under the town offices and multiple other commercial buildings. Floodwaters damaged town offices, downtown infrastructure, roadways and US Route 7, as well as private and commercial properties. DuBois & King designed an overflow culvert to divert storm flows and prevent the Neshobe River from overtopping in the congested channel. The overflow culvert was designed to redirect up to the 500-year storm event under Route 7, and away from downtown businesses, properties, and town offices.
The Town of Brandon received a Hazard Mitigation grant of $2.55M from FEMA to fund the design and construction of the overflow culvert. Construction was completed in May and the investment has paid for itself in one storm event. On July 1, this year, heavy rains pounded the state causing numerous road closings, wash–outs, and state-wide flash flood warnings, but downtown Brandon was spared flood damage as the overflow culvert did its job.
Timing is everything: forty days after completing construction of the overflow culvert; it was tested with its first major storm event. Brandon merchants and Town officials marveled at the timing. One downtown merchant was quoted in the local paper, reflecting the sentiments of others, “I just know the business owners couldn’t be more grateful. I might have just closed, or sold the business, because I’m not sure I could have gone through a flood again.”
Gunners Brook Flood Mitigation.Gunners Brook runs through a congested, constricted section of Barre, Vermont and was the site of repeated flood damage caused by woody debris jamming. DuBois & King evaluated Gunners Brook in both the Town and City of Barre and made recommendations for a flood resilient channel design standard to be used to replace the existing channel walls, to provide debris collection at locations other than bridges, for the development of a debris management plan to guide public works staff, and for property buyouts/removal of selected structures adjacent to the channel.
In-stream debris shown in collection racks from July 1st storm event.
DuBois & King worked with the City to obtain a State of Vermont Ecosystem Restoration Grant to help fund the construction of a multifaceted flood mitigation project. The project includes urban floodplain restoration and hydraulic and structural design of two in-stream debris collection racks.
During storm events, woody debris jamming was a significant cause of recurrent flooding due to the artificially narrowed stream channel, which was built up with vertical granite block walls and choked by undersized stream crossing structures. Repeated flooding caused economic damage and contributed to erosion and water quality issues in the area. The new in-stream structures allow controlled collection of woody debris and limits migration of debris downstream where additional jamming could occur. It is believed these structures are a first-of-their-kind in the United States.
One structure serves as the primary collector upstream and the second structure is designed to collect additional debris in a controlled fashion within the urban area. The recent July 1, Vermont storm event tested the constructed in-stream debris collection racks and verified that the debris collection systems mitigate flooding by capturing debris upstream before it can collect in bends and bridge openings downstream contributing to out-of-bank flooding.
Steve Dumas, PE, LEED-AP, CPMP, DuBois & King’s Mechanical Engineering Department Manager, can now add Certified Commissioning Authority (CxA) behind his name. Steve is a mechanical engineer with 35 years of experience in design, project management, and construction administration services for projects ranging from conceptual design studies and facility evaluations, to complex multidisciplinary design packages for multimillion-dollar building projects. He holds a Commissioning Process Management Professional Certification (CPMP) through ASHRAE. The CPMP certification, an ANSI accredited certification program, demonstrates Steve’s capabilities to develop and manage the whole building commissioning process.
The CxA certification is ANSI-accredited and recognized by the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings program. The CxA designation recognizes building commissioning professionals who manage and implement commissioning processes in new and existing buildings. This certification builds on Steve’s experience with the overall commissioning process. Steve has been involved in all areas of the project development process: initial client needs definition, basis of design definition, design development, commissioning services, start-up, operational verification, and construction administration. Steve’s commissioning services begin in the Pre-Design phase Owner Project Requirements (OPR) development and extend through the Design, Construction, and Acceptance phases to post occupancy operational verification. The primary focus is on HVAC, controls systems, and energy efficiency, with non-HVAC systems such as emergency power, lighting controls, and fire alarm interface also covered.
Steve’s recent commissioning and retro-commissioning projects include the new Field Maintenance Building for the New Hampshire Army National Guard, a LEED building in Hooksett, NH, the new $40M, 90,000-sf NH Correctional Facility for Women in Concord, the new National Guard Readiness Center in Pembroke, NH, and the Littleton Readiness Center in Littleton, NH. Congratulations Steve!
Williamstown, Massachusetts. On April 21, the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) organized a tour of the Williams College Kellogg House as part of NESEA’s Building Energy Pro Tour Program. The Kellogg House is a 1794 building that received a deep energy retrofit and a newly constructed expansion to serve mixed uses at the College. The project was built to the stringent standards of the Living Building Challenge. The Living Building Challenge is a green building certification program and sustainable design framework that visualizes a built environment where living buildings give more than they take, creating a positive impact on the human and natural systems that interact with them.
DuBois & King electrical engineers provided power and lighting electrical design services for the renovation of the Kellogg House. The goal was for the building to attain net zero energy consumption. Lighting energy consumption was designed to be less than .3 watts per square foot while still achieving high-level lighting performance. Monitoring of ongoing energy consumption includes indoor-outdoor lighting, heating, cooling, ventilation, pumps for water supply and purification, plug loads, kitchen appliances, domestic hot water, wastewater treatment, and photovoltaic production.
The facility is operating the first licensed rainwater collection and treatment system in Massachusetts, and one of only a few non-chlorinated public water providers in the United States. Gray water is treated on site in a constructed wetland. The building is designed to produce 100% of its energy through photovoltaic arrays.
Significant damage occurred to the Brandon, Vermont downtown area when Tropical Storm Irene caused flooding and overtopping of US Route 7. The floodwaters damaged the town offices, Gazebo Park, portions of Briggs Lane and US Route 7, as well as private and commercial properties. DuBois & King engineers provided design of an overflow culvert to prevent future potential of the Neshobe River overtopping in the congested channel. The overflow culvert will reduce impacts from future high water events by redirecting up to the 500 year storm event away from the choke point that goes under Route 7, businesses, and the town offices. The Town of Brandon received a Hazard Mitigation grant of $2.55M from FEMA to fund the construction of the culvert crossing under US Route 7.
Detailed hydraulic and hydrologic analysis was performed to guide the development of the overflow structure. Designed to accept overflow from the Neshobe River, the new 278-ft, 6-ft-high, by 12-ft-wide three-sided concrete precast structure has a sloped tapered inlet, horizontal and vertical bends, and an integral retaining wall energy dissipater outlet baffle. Extensive, detailed design was required to fit the buried structure into the constrained site—with adjacent unstable buildings, existing utilities, and shallow ledge—to prevent impacts to abutting structures and property.
In addition to design services, D&K is providing full-time resident engineering services for the overflow culvert construction, which is scheduled for completion early this spring. The timing for completion of the overflow culvert is crucial, as planned reconstruction of US Route 7 through the downtown is scheduled to start in May.
