Otak engineers have been working on the East Lents Floodplain Restoration project since July of 2008. One goal of the project is to mitigate nuisance flooding by Johnson Creek onto SE Foster Road, which statistically would flood two out of three years. The first phase of the project was constructed during the summer of 2011 and was put to the test last week. According to a USGS stream gauge, the multiple-day storm produced a peak flow that equaled the 15th largest on record. Records date back to the 1930’s. The project passed the test by keeping Johnson Creek flood water off of Foster Road. Several businesses along Foster Road were saved the hassle and expense associated with post-flood cleanup they have come to expect.  According to an article in the East Portland News, business owners are ecstatic!

To read the full article, click here.

This is our third consecutive year where several Otak staff volunteered at the Oregon Food Bank (OFB)! This year we were responsible for packaging elbow macaroni. We had an assembly line of workers who had one or several of the following tasks:

1. moving pasta from a very large container to a more manageable smaller container

2. scooping approximately 2 pounds of pasta into a plastic bag

3. weighing the bag and supplementing additional pasta or removing pasta to ensure the 2-pound limit

4. placing a twisty around the bag

5. placing 11 bags of pasta into a box and sealing the box

6. moving the box to another station where it was weighed to ensure accuracy

At the end of our session we helped box 10,500 pounds of macaroni for distribution! It was a rewarding few hours of our time.

Otak attended the 2012 ACEC Awards for Engineering Excellence event on January 11, 2012 at Portland’s Multnomah Athletic Club. The event highlighted over 30 award applicants for projects completed between 2010 and 2011. Otak submitted an entry for the SW Burnham Street | Green Street located in downtown Tigard, Oregon. The project received an honor award, highlighting the street’s unique stormwater planters, LED lighting, and challenging utility relocation environment. Otak’s Amanda Owings and SW Burnham Street project manager Darrin Stairs accepted the award alongside City of Tigard project manager, Kim McMillan.

Otakians in UAE decked the office halls last month and celebrated the holidays and New Year with a lunchtime feast. They filled the table with food and filled the air with carols, but, like many holidays, the real action involved presents! They played a type of white elephant gift exchange where players can grab a present from under the tree or steal someone else’s gift. Director, Fares Kekhia, got in the holiday spirit and raffled off two cameras to lucky attendees. It was an exciting end to the year and hopefully the good times will continue in 2012!

Otak’s Vancouver office celebrated a holiday luncheon December 20, which was catered by a local restaurant, Beaches. They had a “crazy holiday sweater” contest that included three categories: the brightest, the tackiest and the most original. Grant Evenhus, Greg Mines and Marilou Davis were the chosen winners! We had a toast to the New Year and recognized everyone for their dedication and hard work. We look forward to a prosperous and happy New Year for our staff, clients and colleagues.

The Kirkland staff is very excited to have had the opportunity to participate in the Adopt-A-Family program. Together, they collected just under $400. It is an honor knowing that we had the chance to help make Christmas very special for a family.  Below is a picture of the gifts they will be given this holiday season. Each child will receive a pair of pants and three shirts, plus at least one of their requested toys.

Last week, our crafty Kirkland Otakians sold a beautiful variety of handmade goods at the Otak Holiday Shop. Unique Items for sale included handmade cards and gift tags, cinnamon bun candles, paper white narcissus, sugar scrubs, quilted coasters, delicious jams, hats, fishing rods, and cutting boards made from recycled pallets…staying green.

Thank you to everyone who dropped by and made it a HUGE success! Our vendors sold over $800 worth of items, of which we donated ten percent to our Youth Eastside Services Adopt-A-Family.

Budding plans are developing for next year’s Holiday Shop!

On December 8, 2011, the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM), Oregon-Columbia River Chapter,  presented its 24th annual Forecast Breakfast, which features the region’s commercial and residential real estate experts discussing the market outlook for the coming year.  This year’s breakfast was held at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland and was attended by more than 650 local real estate professionals. Otak CEO, Nawzad Othman, was invited to give the keynote address, which concluded the three-hour conference.  Nawzad’s presentation, “Time of Uncertainty, Age of Complexity: Observations of an Optimist,” covered a range of global and macro-economic factors that are affecting Oregon’s – and the nation’s — economy.

While the U.S. economy struggles with high unemployment, slow growth and a looming debt crisis at home and in Europe — our largest trading partner — many countries around the world continue to experience strong economic growth. China, India, Brazil and other countries in Asia and South America are achieving GDP growth rates as high as 9-10%. In addition, the “Arab Spring” uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa are accelerating the desire for democracy and free-market economic reforms in those regions.  
Nawzad remains optimistic that the United States can rebound from its current economic doldrums and maintain its role as a world economic engine, if we invest in:

• Energy – The U.S. needs a bold energy strategy for both traditional and renewable sources
• Infrastructure – We need to address more than $2 trillion in accumulated needs
• Education – The U.S. ranks only 17th globally for math and science education
• R&D/Innovation – This has been our hallmark and will be the engine of future growth.

Most important, we need private leadership and political will to achieve our goals. 
A copy of Nawzad’s inspiring keynote presentation, along with presentations from other regional real estate experts, is available on IREM Oregon’s website under the News section:
 http://iremoregon.org/irem/2011transcript

Gary Wolff, Senior Water Resources Engineer, gave a presentation on November 30, 2011 for EWRG’s monthly meeting at the Lucky Lab. He presented a case study of modeling the complex hydraulic system posed by Otak’s East Lents Floodplain Restoration project, which is currently under construction.

The presentation gave an overview of the project with an emphasis on the unique application of an unsteady-flow HEC-RAS model to capture the salient hydraulic characteristics of the reach, including the off-channel storage of flood waters north and south of the creek. It was very well attended, and sparked lots of good questions and discussion within the audience.

Otak recently hired Mark Castle, PE, as a civil engineer in our Vancouver, Washington office. Mark has more than 20 years of experience in the public and private sectors preparing plans and specifications for roadways, bridges, site development, water distribution, and sewerage projects. Prior to joining Otak, Mark was with the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services  in the Engineering Services Group. He was responsible for preparing AutoCAD base maps using the City’s GIS data and supplemental ground survey data, and for preparing improvement plans for sewer rehabilitation and stormwater retrofit projects under the direction of bureau engineers.